Jerzy Soroka

STRASZEWICZ JOSEPH, LES POLONAIS ET LES POLONAISES DE LA REVOLUTION DU 29 NOVEMBRE 1830, OU PORTRAITS DES PERSONNES QUI ONT FIGURE DANS LA DERNIERE GUERRE DE L’INDEPENDANCE POLONAISE, PARIS CHEZ L’EDITEUR, 1832–1836.

Lithograph after Józef Szymon Kurowski.

Jerzy Soroka (ca. 1750–1831), a nobleman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was a groom of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski in his youth, an officer in the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and from 1787 to 1790 the Czartoryskis’ procurator in Lithuania. He later farmed estates in the Ashmyany district, became interested in horses and hunting, and enjoyed the privileges and the respect of the nobility of the area. In 1818, he became involved in a movement to put up a monument to Tadeusz Kościuszko in Vilnius, and raised money for the purpose, which was later used to immortalise Kościuszko in Krakow. Soroka took an active part in political and social life, and was acquainted with the Russian Decembrists, so that when the 1830–1831 uprising broke out he joined the liberation movement, despite his mature age, and took the helm of the rebel administrative government in the Ashmyany district. He was afterwards arrested and incarcerated, and died in the autumn of 1831 in a Vilnius prison. He was buried in a shared grave in the prison courtyard.
A portrait of Soroka was drawn by the Polish artist Józef Szymon Kurowski (1809–1851), who was based in Paris in the mid 19th century. The lithograph was made in the workshop of François Le Villain. It was printed in a publication compiled by Joseph Straszewicz (1801–1838), a Lithuanian nobleman, former student at Vilnius University, rebel, and historian of emigration, entitled Les polonais et les polonaises de la révolution du 29 novembre 1830, ou portraits des personnes qui ont figuré dans la dernière guerre de l’indépendance polonaise (Polish Men and Women in the Revolution of 29 November 1830, Paris, 1832–1836).

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė

STRASZEWICZ JOSEPH, LES POLONAIS ET LES POLONAISES DE LA REVOLUTION DU 29 NOVEMBRE 1830, OU PORTRAITS DES PERSONNES QUI ONT FIGURE DANS LA DERNIERE GUERRE DE L’INDEPENDANCE POLONAISE, PARIS CHEZ L’EDITEUR, 1832–1836.

Lithograph after Józef Szymon Kurowski.

Jerzy Soroka (ca. 1750–1831), a nobleman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was a groom of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski in his youth, an officer in the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and from 1787 to 1790 the Czartoryskis’ procurator in Lithuania. He later farmed estates in the Ashmyany district, became interested in horses and hunting, and enjoyed the privileges and the respect of the nobility of the area. In 1818, he became involved in a movement to put up a monument to Tadeusz Kościuszko in Vilnius, and raised money for the purpose, which was later used to immortalise Kościuszko in Krakow. Soroka took an active part in political and social life, and was acquainted with the Russian Decembrists, so that when the 1830–1831 uprising broke out he joined the liberation movement, despite his mature age, and took the helm of the rebel administrative government in the Ashmyany district. He was afterwards arrested and incarcerated, and died in the autumn of 1831 in a Vilnius prison. He was buried in a shared grave in the prison courtyard.
A portrait of Soroka was drawn by the Polish artist Józef Szymon Kurowski (1809–1851), who was based in Paris in the mid 19th century. The lithograph was made in the workshop of François Le Villain. It was printed in a publication compiled by Joseph Straszewicz (1801–1838), a Lithuanian nobleman, former student at Vilnius University, rebel, and historian of emigration, entitled Les polonais et les polonaises de la révolution du 29 novembre 1830, ou portraits des personnes qui ont figuré dans la dernière guerre de l’indépendance polonaise (Polish Men and Women in the Revolution of 29 November 1830, Paris, 1832–1836).

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė