Ignacy Wyssogota Zakrzewski

Who was Ignacy Wyssogota Zakrzewski?

Ignacy Wyssogota Zakrzewski was a notable Polish nobleman and politician during the last years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, shortly before the Partitions of Poland.

Ignacy was deputy of Poznań for the Great Sejm and one of the co-authors of the reforms of treasury passed by the Sejm during the Constitution of May 3rd. In 1791 he co-founded the Society of Friends of the Constitution and was among the most notable supporters of the reforms passed by that act, along with Hugo Kołłątaj and Ignacy Potocki. In 1792 he became the president of Warsaw, but was overthrown by the confederation of Targowica. After the outbreak of the Kościuszko's Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising of 1794 he again held that post. Simultaneously, he held a number of important government posts during the war with Russia, among them he headed the Provisional Temporary Council and the Supreme National Council. After that part of Poland, along with Warsaw, was finally annexed in the effect of the Third Partition, he was arrested by the Russians and imprisoned in St. Petersburg. Liberated in 1796, he returned to Poland and spent the remainder of his life in a small manor in Żelechów. He died February 15, 1802.