STEFAN BOBROWSKI
(1840 – 1863)
The patron of the Complex of Vocational Schools in Rawicz

Brief information about Stefan Bobrowski was placed in one of the newest PWN Multimedia Encyclopedias (2001). Here we read:

Stefan Bobrowski (1840 – 63), a radical activist of the “red”, since 1860 a member of Trojnicki Union, co-organizer of the Provincial Committee on Ruś; since 1862 in Paris, where he won the Committee of the Polish Emigration over to the uprising being prepared; since January 1863 in Warsaw, a member of the Central National Committee, governor of the city of Warsaw, actual leader of the January uprising in its beginnings, opposed the dictatorship of M. Langiewicz, was killed in a duel provoked by the "white".

Slightly different information is given in “Great Illustrated Common Encyclopedia of the Gutenberg Publishing Office”, published in the interwar period (around 1930s):

Stefan Bobrowski, a Polish uprising activist, (1840 – 1863), while studying at the University of Kiev he entered Polish conspiratorial organizations, he acted in Warsaw, in 1862 he became a member of the Central National Committee, after the outbreak of the uprising he entered the National Government. As the governor of the city of Warsaw he showed the fearless courage, tremendous energy and organizational gift; he reorganized the uprising police, levied tax on the population, created a commissariat which supplied the insurgents with clothes, weapons and military gear. After announcing the dictatorship of Langiewicz he went to Cracow to create the open insurrectionary government with Langiewicz’s approval. When Langiewicz was arrested, Bobrowski issued a proclamation in which, having signed as the extraordinary commissioner of the National Government, he announced taking the power back. On April 12th he was killed in a political duel with Count Adam Grabowski. His death was considered an irreparable loss for the uprising matter.

CALENDAR:

• 1863, April 12^th- Stefan Bobrowski was killed in a duel in Łaszczyński Forest.
• 1963 – The first local celebration of the anniversary of Bobrowski’s death.
• 1969 – Unveiling of Bobrowski Stone in Łaszczyński Forest.
• 1974 – The first CVS students’ patron’s rally; then further annual rallies in various forms.
• 1975 – Granting the Complex of Vocational Schools the name of S. Bobrowski.
• 1976 – Granting a local street the name of S. Bobrowski.