{{Short description|Polish general (1751–1805)}} {{Infobox noble | name= | image= Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki.jpg | image_size = | caption= Portrait by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder, 1790 | noble family=Potocki | CoA=Piława | father=Franciszek Salezy Potocki | mother=Anna Elżbieta Potocka | spouse-type=consort | spouse=Gertruda Komorowska<br/>Józefina Amalia Mniszech<br/>Zofia Clavone | issue=with Józefina Amalia Mniszech<br/>Pelagia Róża Potocka<br/>Szczęsny Jerzy Potocki<br/>Witoria Potocka<br/>Ludwika Potocka<br/>Róża Potocka<br/>Konstancja Potocka<br/>{{ill|Stanisław Potocki (1782–1831)|pl|lt=Stanisław Potocki}}<br/>Oktawia Potocka<br/>Jarosław Potocki<br/>Włodzimierz Potocki<br/>Idalia Potocka<br/>with Zofia Clavone<br/>Konstanty Potocki<br/>Mikołaj Potocki<!--link goes to a different man of the same name--><br/>Helena Potocka<br/>Aleksander Potocki<br/>Mieczysław Potocki<br/>Zofia Potocka<br/>Olga Potocka<br/>Bolesław Potocki | birth_date=1751 | birth_place=Krystynopol | death_date=14 March 1805 | death_place=Tulczyn }}
{{Moresources|date=February 2024}}
'''Count Stanisław Szczęsny Feliks Potocki''' ({{IPA|pl|staˈɲiswaf ˈʂt͡ʂɛ̃snɨ pɔˈtɔt͡ski}}; 1751–1805), of the Piława coat of arms, known as '''Szczęsny Potocki'''<ref>E. Rostworowski, Potocki Stanisław Szczęsny (Feliks) herbu Pilawa, [in:] Polski Słownik Biograficzny, t. XXVIII, Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków–Gdańsk–Łódź 1984–1985, p. 183.</ref> was a member of the Polish szlachta and a military commander of the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and then Poland. Knight of the Order of the White Eagle, awarded in August 1775.
He was named Great Chorąży of the Crown in 1774–1780, voivode of Ruthenian Voivodeship in 1782–1791, Great Lieutenant General of the Crown since 1784, General of Artillery of the Crown in 1789–1792, ''starost bełski, hrubieszowski, sokalski, hajsyński, zwinogrodzki'', Marshal of the Targowica Confederation in 1792. He plotted with others against the state, was convicted of treason and sentenced to death in his absence. He died in ignominy.
== Biography == {{Moresources | section|date=February 2024}} ===Early life=== He was the son of Franciszek Salezy Potocki, Voivode and Governor of Polish Kyiv, of the Tulczyn line of the family. He entered the public service, and owing to the influence of his relations became grand standard-bearer of the Crown at the age of twenty-two. After the death of Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski in 1782, King Stanisław II Augustus appointed him the Voivode of Ruthenia. In 1784, he purchased the rank of a colonel from bankrupted Voivode of Kyiv, Stempkowski and soon became a lieutenant-general in the Royal Army.
===A "Great" nobleman=== [[File:Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki by Jan Chrzciciel Lampi the Elder.PNG|thumb|right|200px|Portrait of Potocki by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder]] He was a great magnate, grandly ruling in his vast estates in the eastern parts of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, known as the ''Kresy''. His annual income was over 3 million zloties.<ref name=Bauer68-69/>
Elected deputy for Bracław at the famous Four-Year Sejm, he began that career of treachery which was to terminate in the ruin of his country. Yet his previous career had awakened many hopes in him. His popularity culminated in 1784 when he presented an infantry regiment of 400 men as a free gift to the Commonwealth. But he identified the public welfare with the welfare of individual magnates, his aims in seeking reforms was to transform the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a magnate oligarchy.<ref name=Bauer68-69>{{cite book|author=Krzysztof Bauer|title=Uchwalenie i obrona Konstytucji 3 Maja|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLNGAAAAIAAJ|accessdate=2 January 2012|year=1991|publisher=Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne|isbn=978-83-02-04615-5|pages=68–69}}</ref>
===Family=== The father of numerous children, one of his daughters, Olga, married Lev Naryshkin.
===Time of the Partitions=== His scheme was to divide Poland into an oligarchy of autonomous grandees exercising supreme power in rotation (in fact a perpetual interregnum).<ref name=Bauer68-69/> In 1788 he persuaded two other magnates, Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and Severin Rzewuski to join the anti-royalist conspiracy. The election of Stanisław Małachowski and Kazimierz Lew Sapieha as marshals of the Four Years Sejm still further alienated him from the Liberals. After strenuously but vainly opposing every project of reform, he slipped off to Vienna whence he continued an active propaganda against the new proposals.
===Protest against the Constitution=== He opposed the Constitution of 3 May of 1791, and was one of the leaders of the Hetman Party. After attempting fruitlessly to persuade the Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor to take up arms against the reformers, he proceeded with his co-conspirators to St. Petersburg in March 1792 and, with the connivance of the Empress Catherine II of Russia formed the Targowica Confederation allegedly for the maintenance of the ancient and lax institutions of Poland (14 May 1792), of which he had been marshal, or rather the dictator.
He continued directing the conspiracy from his castle at Tulczyn. When the May Constitution was overthrown and the Prussians were already in occupation of Greater Poland, Potocki (March 1793) went on a diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg. There finding himself duped and set aside, he again went to Vienna until 1797, when he retired to Tulczyn and devoted himself to the improvement of his estates and large wealth for the remainder of his life.
He had been sentenced to death ''in absentia'' by the Supreme Criminal Court during the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. On 17 November 1797 he was made a general of the Russian infantry, but was dismissed on 30 October 1798. He was buried with the ignominy of a "traitor" general.
== Quote ==
After the signing of the Targowica Confederation: "Each true Pole, not blinded by the Prussian and royalist cabal, is convinced, that our Fatherland can only be saved by Russia, otherwise our nation will be enslaved". <!--"Każdy prawdziwy Polak, którego nie uwiodła kabała pruska i królewska, jest przekonany, że zbawienie ojczyzny może przyjść tylko ze strony Rosji, inaczej naród zostanie zniewolony" (z korespondencji Szczęsnego Potockiego, source and several others: http://www.rodman.most.org.pl/J.T.Babel14.htm-->
After Stanisław August Poniatowski's abdication and the destruction of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: "About past Poland and Poles [I don't want to talk anymore]. Gone is this country, and this name, as many others have perished in the world's history. I am now a Russian forever." <!-- o przeszłej Polsce i Polakach. Znikło już to państwo, i to imię, jak znikło tyle innych w dziejach świata. Ja już jestem Rosjaninem na zawsze, same source as before-->
==See also== * Arboretum Sofiyivka
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Potocki, Stanislaw Felix | volume= 22 |last= Bain |first= Robert Nisbet |author-link= Robert Nisbet Bain| pages = 208–209 }} * {{in lang|ru}} [http://www.rulex.ru/xPol/index.htm Article in the Russian Biographical Dictionary]
{| style="clear:both; background-color: white; border-style: solid; border-color:blue; border-width:2px; vertical-align:top; text-align:center; border-collapse: collapse;width:100%;margin-top:3px;" cellpadding="4" cellspacing"0" |- | width="25%" | Predecessor<br/>August Aleksander Czartoryski | width="10%" | 50px | width="20%" | '''Ruthenian Voivode'''<br/>1782–1788 | width="10%" | 50px | width="25%" | Successor<br/>Jan Kicki |}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Potocki, Stanislaw Szczesny}} Category:1751 births Category:1805 deaths Category:People from Sheptytskyi
Category:People from Ruthenian Voivodeship Category:Voivodes of the Ruthenian Voivodeship Category:Generals of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Category:Polish generals in the Imperial Russian Army Category:People sentenced to death in absentia Category:Diplomats of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislaw Szczesny Category:Targowica confederates Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)