Walenty Stefański

Who was Walenty Stefański?

Walenty Stefański was a Polish bookseller, publisher, political activist and co-founder of the Polish League. He supported autonomy for Greater Poland during the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 against Kingdom of Prussia, and was a member of the Polish National Committee.

Son of a fisherman, Stefański came from a lower-class family and was mostly self-educated. He taught himself French and Latin and learned German while working as an apprentice to a German owned printer. As a teenager he took part in the November Uprising in Congress Poland against Russian rule.