Szymon Marcin Kossakowski ( lt, Simonas Martynas Kosakovskis; 1741 in

Šilai, Jonava Šilai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2011 Lithuania census, the village has a population of 347 people. Administrative centre of Šilai Eldership. Famous villagers *Simo ...

– 1794) was a Polish–Lithuanian nobleman (

szlachcic The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in t ...

), and one of the leaders of the

Targowica Confederation The Targowica Confederation ( pl, konfederacja targowicka, , lt, Targovicos konfederacija) was a confederation established by Polish and Lithuanian magnates on 27 April 1792, in Saint Petersburg, with the backing of the Russian Empress Catheri ...

. In 1793, he became the last Grand Hetman of Lithuania.

Biography

He participated in the Radom Confederation and the

Bar Confederation The Bar Confederation ( pl, Konfederacja barska; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles ( szlachta) formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia (now part of Ukraine) in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polis ...

. A supporter of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

during the

Kościuszko Uprising The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794 and the Second Polish War, was an uprising against the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Pr ...

and earlier, he was deemed a

traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. In the aftermath of the Vilnius Uprising he tried to escape by boat, but was captured and

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

in the

town hall square of Vilnius Vilnius Town Hall ( lt, Vilniaus rotušė) is a historical town hall in the square of the same name in the Old Town of Vilnius, Lithuania. Palace The town hall in Vilnius was mentioned for the first time in 1432. Initially it was a Gothic styl ...

with the inscription of ''He who swings will not drown'' and was buried in the cellars of the church in Jonava.

References

1741 births 1794 deaths People from Jonava District Municipality People from Trakai Voivodeship Szymon Field Hetmans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Great Hetmans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Polish generals in other armies Bar confederates Targowica confederates People executed for treason against Poland Russian people of the Polish–Russian War of 1792 Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) People executed by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Executed Polish people Executed Lithuanian people People executed by Poland by hanging 19th-century executions {{Lithuania-hist-stub