Count Edvard Czapski’s book “Memoirs of a Siberian” was published in Polish in 1864, and was prepared by Maria Czapska based on the author’s manuscript, which was lost and only later found.
Descended from an old Pomeranian family of Huten-Čapskis, Edvard Čapskis managed the estates of Kalnaberžės, Vyžuonai and Vyžuonėliai, experienced the confiscation of the property of a condemned to death, part of a Siberian laborer, exile for life.
However, he was destined to see an unexpected light when the eight-year imprisonment in Siberia was left behind, allowing the convict to return first to Liepoja, and a year later to his homeland, to write and leave memoirs testifying to the difficult past for new generations.
The seven-part book, foreworded by Stanisław Vincenz, begins with “Childhood” and ends with “Siberia”. The authentic story of the author reflects the fate of the aristocracy of the Republic of the Two Nations, opposition to the regime of the Russian Empire, support for the uprising, repression following its suppression. In “Memoirs of a Siberian” the reader will find valuable reflections on the society of that time, politics, daily life of exiles, faith that saved the author from despair in the most difficult moments of his life.
The author’s biography can be called an example of the life and activities of an educated nobleman of the nineteenth century. Edvard Czapski studied at the Piori School in Warsaw, later in Berlin, graduated from Kharkiv University, and worked as a civil servant at the State Secretariat of the Kingdom of Poland in St. Petersburg.
Around 1847, he returned to his homeland, lived in his parents’ manor in Kalnaberžė, following his marriage he bought the Vyžuonai manor and settled there. When the uprising began, he was accused and sentenced to death following peasants hanged Lebedev, the tsar’s administrator, in Vyžuonas.
He was saved by the intercession of Queen Victoria of England, regarding whom E. Čapski’s cousin Emerik Čapski wrote: “The emperor rejected the intercession of the Prussian Duchess Izabela Sanguška from Ljubomirski, who was visiting London at the time; when she learned of the verdict, she immediately went to see Minister Palmerston, a telegram was sent to Queen Victoria in Windsor. The queen’s intercession yielded a result, a dispatch sent by Alexander II to Potapov, Muravyov’s assistant, was ordered to change the sentence.”
After returning from Siberia, Count E. Čapskis settled in his mother’s estate in Svayatyčai. He died in 1888, buried in the old Rasa cemetery in Vilnius.
#Testimonies #Memoirs #Siberian #Count #Edvard #Chapski #Culture
2024-07-10 03:14:43
