Adam Asnyk

Who was Adam Asnyk?

Adam Asnyk, was a Polish poet and dramatist of the Positivist era. Born in Kalisz to a noble szlachta family, he was educated to become 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 January Uprising as a freedom fighter against the country's occupation by Russian troops. Because of that he had to flee the Tsarstvo 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.