– country of famous people

Created by 5th class of primary school, from primary school “Nazareth” in Kalisz

1 Adam Asnyk

Adam Asnyk (1838-1897), was a Polish poet and dramatist.

He was born in September 11, 1838 in Kalisz to a noble family, he was educated for an heir of his family's estate.

As such he received education at the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Marymont and then the Medical Surgeon School in Warsaw. He continued his studies abroad in Breslau, Paris and Heidelberg . In 1862 he returned to Congress Poland and took part in the against Russia. Because of that he had to flee the country and settled in Heidelberg, where in 1866 he received a doctorate of philosophy. Soon afterwards he returned to Poland and settled in the Austrian-held part of the country, initially in Lwów and then in Kraków.

In 1875 he married Zofia Kaczorowska and around that time started his career as a journalist. An editor of a Kraków - based Reforma daily, in 1884 he was also chosen to the city council of Kraków. Five years later he was elected to the Galician parliament. Around that time he became one of the most prominent men of culture in partitioned Poland. Among his initiatives was the creation of the Society of Popular Schools and bringing the ashes of to Poland. He was also among the first members of the Tatra Society. He died August 2, 1897 in Kraków and was buried at the Skałka church.

2 Maksymilian Kolbe

Maximilian Kolbe (8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941), also known as Maksymilian or Massimiliano Maria Kolbe and “Apostle of Consecration to Mary,” born as Rajmund Kolbe, was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz ( situation in occupied, by Germans army, Poland).

He was canonized by the Catholic Church as Saint Maximilian Kolbe on 10 October 1982 by Pope John Paul II, and declared a martyr of charity. He is the patron saint of drugs addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, prisoners, amateur radio and the pro-life movement. Pope John Paul II declared him “The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century.”

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He was born in January 1894 in Zduńska Wola. He was the second son of Julius Kolbe and Maria Dąbrowska.

In 1907 Maksymilian and his elder brother Francis decided to join the Conventual Franciscans. They illegally crossed the border between Russia and Austria-Hungary and joined the Conventual Franciscan junior seminary in Lwów.

On 17 February 1941 he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison.

In July 1941 a man from Kolbe's barracks vanished, prompting commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Friztsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 man from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13, in order to deter further escape attempts. One of selected man, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

Father Kolbe was beatified as a confessor by Pope Paul VI in 1971 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 10 October in the presence of Franciszek Gajowniczek. Upon canonization, the Pope declared St. Maksymilian Kolbe not a confessor, but a martyr.

3 Mikołaj Kopernik

Nicolaus Copernicus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543 was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published in 1543 just before his death, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the scientific revolution. His heliocentric model, with the Sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting Earth at rest in the center of the universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history of science that is often referred to as the Copernican Revolution.

Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Among his many responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation — yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world.

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Mikołaj Kopernik in 1497 was named a canon at Frombork Cathedral.

During 1516–21, Copernicus resided at Olsztyn Castle as economic administrator of Warmia, including Olsztyn and Pieniężno. While there, he wrote a manuscript, Locationes mansorum desertorum (Locations of Deserted Fiefs).

When Olsztyn was besieged by the Teutonic Knights during the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521), Copernicus was in charge of the defenses of Olsztyn and Warmia by the Royal Polish forces. He also participated in the peace negotiations.

Copernicus died in Frombork on 24 May 1543. Legend has it that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was placed in his hands on the very day that he died, allowing him to take farewell of his life's work.

4 Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz; (December 24, 1798 – November 26, 1855) was a Polish-Lithuanian Romantic poet. He was one of Poland's Three Bards, along with Zygmunt Krasiński and Juliusz Słowacki. Mickiewicz is also considered the greatest Slavic poet, alongside Alexander Pushkin, and a leading author of the Romantic school.

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Adam Mickiewicz was born at his uncle's estate in Zaosie, near Nowogródek in the (now in Belarus). His father Mikołaj Mickiewicz was a member of the nobility of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Mickiewicz enrolled at the Imperial University of Vilna. His personality and later works were greatly influenced by his four years of living and studying in Vilnius.

In 1823 he was arrested, investigated for his political activities (membership in the Philomaths) and in 1824 banished to central Russia.

In 1825 he visited the Crimea, which inspired a collection of sonnets (Sonety Krymskie—The Crimean Sonnets).

In 1829, after a five-year exile in Russia, the poet obtained permission to travel abroad. He had secretly made up his mind never to return to Russia, or to his own native land so long as it remained under Russian imperial rule.

In 1840 Mickiewicz was appointed to the newly-founded chair of Slavic languages and literatures at the Collège de France. He was, however, destined to hold it for little more than three years, his last lecture being given on May 28, 1844. His mind had become increasingly possessed by religious mysticism.

In 1849 Mickiewicz founded a French newspaper, La Tribune des Peuples (The Peoples' Tribune), but survived for only a year. The restoration of the French Empire seemed to kindle his hopes afresh; his last composition is said to have been a Latin ode in honour of Napoleon III.

In 1855 Mickiewicz's wife Celina died. On the outbreak of the Crimean War, he left his under-age children in Paris and went to Istanbul, Turkey, where he arrived 22 September 1855, to organize Polish forces to be used in the war against Russia.

He died on 26 November in his apartment on the Yenişehir street in Istanbul. The house where he lived in is now a museum.

After being temporarily buried in a crypt under his apartment in Istanbul, his remains were transported to France and buried at Montmorency. In 1900 they were disinterred, moved to a politically still- unreborn Poland, and entombed in the crypts of Kraków's Wawel Cathedral, which is shared with many of those who are considered important to Poland's political and/or cultural history.

5 Czesław Miłosz

Czesław Miłosz (June 30, 1911 – August 14, 2004) was a Polish poet, prose writer and translator. From 1961 to 1998 he was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is widely considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

Miłosz memorialized his Lithuanian childhood in a 1981 novel, The Issa Valley, and in the 1959 memoir Native Realm. After graduating from Sigismund Augustus Gymnasium in Vilnius, he studied law at Stefan Batory University and in 1931 he traveled to Paris. His first volume of was published in 1934. After receiving his law degree that year, he again spent a year in Paris on a fellowship. Upon returning, he worked as a commentator at Radio Wilno, but was dismissed for his leftist views. Miłosz wrote all his poetry, fiction and essays in Polish and translated the Old Testament Psalms into Polish.

Miłosz spent World War II in Warsaw, under Nazi Germany's " Government," where, among other things, he attended underground lectures by Polish philosopher and historian of philosophy and aesthetics, Władysław Tatarkiewicz. He did not participate in the Warsaw Uprising due to residing outside Warsaw proper.

After World War II, Miłosz served as cultural attaché of the communist People's Republic of Poland in Paris. In 1951 he defected and obtained political asylum in France. In 1953 he received the Prix Littéraire Européen

In 1960 Miłosz emigrated to the United States, and in 1970 he became a U.S. citizen. In 1961 he began a professorship in in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1978 he received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He retired that same year, but continued teaching at Berkeley.

In 1980 Miłosz received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Since his works had been banned in Poland by the communist government, this was the first time that many became aware of him. Miłosz is honored at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial to the Holocaust, as one of the "Righteous among the Nations."

Miłosz's books and poems have been translated into English by many hands, including Jane Zielonko (The Captive Mind), Miłosz himself, his Berkeley students (in translation seminars conducted by him), and his friends and Berkeley colleagues, Peter Dale Scott, Robert Pinsky and Robert Hass.

Miłosz died in 2004 at his Kraków home, aged 93. His first wife, Janina, had predeceased him in 1986. His second wife, Carol Thigpen, a U.S.-born historian, died in 2002. He is survived by two sons, Anthony and John Peter.

Miłosz's body was entombed at Kraków's historic Skałka Church, one of the last to be commemorated there.

6 Jerzy Owsiak

Jerzy Owsiak (born October 6, 1953 in Gdańsk, Poland).

He is a Polish social campaigner, journalist, co-founder of The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, which 'played' for the first time in January 1993 in Bydgoszcz, when it collected money for children's cardiosurgery in the largest children's hospital in Poland.

The huge public response led to the establishment of the event as a regular fixture in Poland's charity fund-raising calendar, which has been held every year since 1993.

The money collected always goes for the treatment of sick children, but each year it is for a different type of disease. The money collected in January 2002 was allocated for the treatment of children with congenital disorders.

Jerzy Owsiak is also an organizer of youth events, such as an annual rock festival, Przystanek Woodstock (Woodstock Station).

He is an author of O.TV (Owsiak.TV) - new Polish television.

7 Józef Piłsudski

Józef Klemens Piłsudski, December 5, 1867 – May 12, 1935. Was Chief of State (1918–22), "First " (from 1920) and (1926–35) the authoritarian leader of the . From mid-World War I he was a influence in Poland's politics, and an important figure on the European political scene. He is considered largely responsible for Poland regaining independence in 1918, after a hundred twenty-three years of partitions. Piłsudski was unable to incorporate much of his Lithuanian homeland to the newly resurrected Polish State.

Early in his political career, Piłsudski became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party. Concluding, however, that Poland's independence would have to be won by force of arms, he created the Polish Legions. In 1914 he anticipated the outbreak of a European war, the Russian Empire's defeat by the Central Powers, and the Central Powers' defeat by the western powers. When World War I broke out, he and his Legions fought alongside the Austria-Hungarian and German Empires to ensure Russia's defeat. In 1917, with Russia faring badly in the war, he withdrew his support from the Central Powers.

From November 1918, when Poland regained independence, until 1922, Piłsudski was Poland's Chief of State. In 1919–21 he commanded Poland's forces in the Polish-Soviet War. In 1923, with the Polish government dominated by his opponents, particularly the National Democrats, he withdrew from active politics. Three years later he returned to power in the May 1926 coup d'état, becoming de facto dictator of Poland. From then until his death in 1935, he concerned himself primarily with military and foreign affairs.

For at least thirty years until his death, Piłsudski pursued, with varying degrees of intensity, two complementary strategies, intended to enhance Poland's security: "Prometheism," which aimed at breaking up, successively, Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union into their constituent nations; and the creation of an Intermarum federation, comprising Poland and several of her neighbors. Though a number of his political acts remain controversial, Piłsudski's memory is held in high esteem by his compatriots.

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Józef Piłsudski was born on December 5, 1867, at his family's manor in the village of Zalavas.

Józef, when he attended the Russian gymnasium at Vilna (now Vilnius), was not an especially diligent student.

On November 11, 1918, in Warsaw, Piłsudski was appointed Commander in Chief of Polish forces by the Regency Council and was entrusted with creating a national government for the newly independent country. On that very day (which would become Poland's Independence Day), he proclaimed an independent Polish state.

In March 1920, Piłsudski was made "First Marshal of Poland."

Armies, under his command, launched a successful offensive against the Russian forces in Ukraine. On May 7, 1920, with remarkably little fighting, they captured Kiev.

8 Maria Skłodowska – Curie

She is the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences. She was the wife of Pierre Curie, and the mother of Irene Joliot-Curie and Ève Curie.

Marie Skłodowska Curie (November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934) was a physicist and chemist of Polish upbringing and, subsequently, French citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes, receiving one in physics and later, one in chemistry. She was the first woman to serve as professor at the University of Paris.

She was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw (then Vistula Country, Russian Empire; now Poland) and lived there until she was twenty-four years old. In 1891 she followed her elder sister, Bronisława, to study in Paris, where she obtained her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw. Her husband, Pierre Curie, was a Nobel co-laureate of hers, being awarded a Nobel prize in physics at the same time. Her daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, and son-in- law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, also received Nobel prizes.

Her achievements include the creation of a theory of radioactivity (a term she coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms (cancers), using radioactive isotopes.

While an actively loyal French citizen, she never lost her sense of Polish identity. She named the first new chemical element that she discovered (1898) polonium for her native country, and in 1932 she founded a Radium Institute (now the Maria Skłodowska–Curie Institute of Oncology) in her home town, Warsaw, which was headed by her sister, Bronisława, who was a physician.

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In 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel the Nobel Prize in Physics, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

Skłodowska–Curie and her husband were unable to go to Stockholm to receive the prize in person, but they shared its financial proceeds with needy acquaintances, including students.

On receiving the Nobel Prize, Marie and Pierre Curie suddenly became very famous. The Sorbonne gave Pierre a professorship and permitted him to establish his own laboratory, in which Skłodowska–Curie became the director of research.

Skłodowska–Curie was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes. She is one of only two people who have been awarded a Nobel Prize in two different fields, the other being Linus Pauling (for Chemistry and for Peace).

9 Fryderyk Szopen

Frédéric François Chopin; 1 March 1810– 17 October 1849; was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music.

Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a French-expatriate father and Polish mother and was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. On 2 November 1830, at the age of twenty, he left Warsaw for Austria, intending to go on to Italy. The outbreak of the Polish seven days later, and its subsequent suppression by Russia, led to Chopin's becoming one of many expatriates of the Polish .

In Paris, Chopin made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. Though an ardent Polish patriot, in France he used the French versions of his names and eventually, to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents, became a French citizen. After some ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish women, from 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French authoress George Sand. Always in frail health, he died in Paris in 1849, aged thirty-nine, of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Chopin's compositions were written primarily for the piano as solo instrument. Though they are technically demanding, the emphasis in his style is on nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented musical forms such as the instrumental ballade and was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude.

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As a child, Chopin showed an intelligence that was said to absorb everything and make use of everything for its development. He early showed remarkable abilities in observation and sketching, a keen wit and sense of humor, and an uncommon talent for mimicry.

In the autumn of 1826, Chopin began a three-year course of studies with the Polish composer Józef Elsner at the Warsaw Conservatory, which was affiliated with the University of Warsaw.

During the summers at Nohant, particularly in the years 1839 through 1843, Chopin found quiet but productive days during which he composed many works. They included his great Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53, the "Heroic", one of his most famous pieces.

Chopin was buried, in accordance with his wishes, at Père Lachaise Cemetery. At the graveside, the Funeral March from his Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 was played, in Napoléon Henri Reber's instrumentation.

Chopin composed: 58 mazurkas, 27 études, 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes, 20 waltzes, 17 polonaises, 5 rondos, 4 ballades, 4 impromptus, 4 scherzos, 4 sets of variations, 3 piano sonatas, 3 écossaises, 2 concertos for piano and orchestra.

10 Lech Wałęsa

President of the Republic of Poland. 1st elected President of the Third Republic. In office 22 December 1990 – 22 December 1995.

1st Chairman of Solidarity. In office 1980 – 12 December 1990.

Political party – Solidarity Spouse(s) - Danuta Wałęsa Profession - Electrician Religion - Roman Catholic

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Lech Wałęsa; born 29 September 1943, is a Polish politician and a former trade union and human rights activist. He co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as from 1990 to 1995.

Wałęsa was born in Popowo, Poland, on 29 September 1943, to a carpenter and his wife. He attended primary and vocational school, before entering Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk as an electrical technician in 1970. In 1969 he married Danuta Gołoś, and the couple now have eight children.

He was a member of the illegal strike committee in Gdańsk Shipyard in 1970 (Polish 1970 protests).

In 1976, Wałęsa lost his job in Gdańsk Shipyard.

In June 1978, he joined the illegal underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast .

On 14 August 1980, after the beginning of an occupational strike in the Lenin Shipyard of Gdańsk, Wałęsa became the leader of this strike. The strike was spontaneously followed by similar strikes, first in Gdańsk, and then across Poland.

In September that year, the Communist government signed an agreement with the Strike Coordination Committee to allow legal organization, but not actual free trade unions. The Strike Coordination Committee legalized itself into National Coordination Committee of Solidarność (Solidarity) Free Trade Union, and Wałęsa was chosen as a chairman of this Committee.

Wałęsa kept this position until 13 December 1981, when he was arrested. General declared a state of martial law on 13 December. Wałęsa was incarcerated for 11 months in eastern Poland in several villages (Chylice, Otwock and Arłamów near the Soviet border) until 14 November 1982.

In 1983, he applied to come back to Gdańsk Shipyard as a simple electrician. The same year, he was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was unable to receive the prize himself, fearing that the government would not let him back in. His wife, Danuta Wałęsa, received the prize in his place.

On 9 December 1990, Wałęsa won the presidential election to become president of Poland for the next five years.

11 Jan Paweł II

Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005. Served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer. He was the only Polish Pope, and was the first non-Italian Pope since Dutch Pope Adrian VI in the 1520s.

John Paul II has been widely acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century. It is widely agreed that he was instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe as well as significantly improving the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. Though criticised for his opposition to contraception and the ordination of women, as well as his support for the Second Vatican Council and its reform of the Liturgy, he has also been praised for his firm, orthodox Catholic stances in these areas.

He was one of the most-traveled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. He was fluent in many languages: Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Croatian, Ancient Greek and Latin as well as his native Polish. He was also known to speak some Asian languages like Tagalog and Papuan. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he beatified 1,340 people and canonised 483 Saints, more than the combined tally of his predecessors during the last five centuries.

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As pope, one of John Paul II's most important roles was to teach people about Christianity. He wrote 14 papal encyclicals.

Pope John Paul II traveled extensively and came into contact with believers from many divergent faiths. He constantly attempted to find common ground, both doctrinal and dogmatic. At the World Day of Prayer for Peace, held in Assisi on 27 October 1986, more than 120 representatives of different religions and Christian denominations spent a day together with fasting and praying.

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