The article takes a closer look at the history of Krzemieniec since the time of Bolesław Śmiały and the relationship of this settlement and town with Polish culture. The activity of Tadeusz Czacki, who created and organised the Krzemieniec Lyceum in Krzemieniec, is extensively mentioned. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1860, T:2, pp. 375-377., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Krzemieniec

Our old Wallachian stronghold dates back to those primeval Slavic times, of which today, apart from a few graves and castles and a few deaf tales, nothing remains. The very location of the castle on the conical edge of the mountain, not even splashed with water, not fortified with anything but a slope to help it defend itself, proves that people settled there when wars were fought and fought, not an attempt to use fighting machines and war was already turned into an art and craft. According to everyone, the first castle construction dates back to very distant times, perhaps to the 9th or 10th century, but it underwent so many improvements and alterations until the 16th century that only a little rubble remains of this original garland of walls.

In the 11th century, Krzemieniec was inhabited by the Mokosiejs Deniski, who voluntarily surrendered it to Bolesław Śmiały (the Brave), and their family continued to nestle near this great-grandfather castle even later, as at the beginning of the 16th century they secured the preservation of the ancient tombs of their great-grandparents located within these walls. The chronicle of Krzemieniec is silent from 1064, i.e. from its surrender to Bolesław, until 1226, when a battle took place at the foot of the mountain, which it again mentions, between Prince Andrew of Hungary and Prince Vidyal of Halych.

A dozen or so years later, the castle miraculously survived the flood of Batukhan's Tartars, which swamped the whole of Volhynia in 1241, and in 1255 the castle was once again unmolested by the besieging savages. The Tartars seldom conquered what they did not seize at the time, as they lacked the means to take the castles and the time needed for the siege; the fear they spread was their bravest weapon. Later, in 1259, when Volhynia and Russia fell under the Tartar yoke, the unconquered castle of Krzemieniec was disarmed.

From these years of Tartar invasions, the local town and region has two forgotten martyrs, the Rule of St. Francis, Blessed Gerard and Marquild, who were murdered in the town in 1242 (1). Along with other Ruthenian lands, Krzemieniec came under Lithuanian rule at the beginning of the 13th century, later annexed to the Crown by Casimir the Great in battles with Lubart and once again taken back by him. After the reunification of the two countries, the castle was held by Dmitry Korybut and Svidrigillo, who was later imprisoned and escaped to Volozha.

The castle and the land went to the Crown, but Lithuania claimed it until the Union of Lublin. During the reign of Sigismund I, Krzemieniec was given first to Janusz of the Lithuanian dukes, the king's son from Katryna Slężanka, and then to Queen Bona. At that time, the castle, which was somewhat dilapidated, started to be renovated. A well was dug, houses for guards were built, and a tower was to be erected at the entrance. It seems that the queen had to finish the work begun by her aldermen during the reign of Prince Janusz, as the memory of her is as vivid here as any other. Tartars, martyrs and kings were forgotten, but Bona's name stubbornly stuck to the walls and mountains. Admittedly, the privileges she conferred on the inhabitants may also have contributed to this.

She built the parish church, in which her portrait hung until the last days, and the hospital for the poor near it. Thus the little good she did here makes her incomparably more famous today than all the bad things the country complained about. And Queen Bona lives in Krzemieniec, where she may never have set foot, with only a fleeting but kindly thought. Generally speaking, Crown castles, with the exception of a few very important ones, began to deteriorate considerably later on; the same happened to Krzemieniec, whose official surveys show that it was barely standing as it had been in the times of Sigismund I, and was gradually falling into ruin. The art of warfare and the needs of war were changing, and here the ancient weapons, armour, cannons and cannoneers were still in place.

However, the town did not lack privileges, issued and revoked under later kings, which did not contribute to the growth of towns at all. Thus, in the middle of the 17th century the castle was attacked and plundered by Cossacks, who finally destroyed it. In later times it vegetated with the remnants of its former life, maintaining itself as the capital of the land and office, as a small centre of trade. Over the next hundred years or so, we have nothing to say about it, with only churches, monasteries and a Jesuit college slowly rising. In 1782, while travelling in Volhynia and Ukraine, J. H. Müntz, a colonel of engineers in the Polish service and a household member of Duke Stanisław Poniatowski, who collected many drawings and notes on his way there, also wrote a few words about Krzemieniec, where he was staying on 1 September.

The view drawn in his diary depicts the castle on Mount Bona and a picturesque ravine on the arrival from Lachowice, where Miintz, due to a bad road, fell down. He writes of the town as a small settlement, scattered at the foot of a 400 to 500 foot high mountain, and relates the castle to the 13th century. He also mentions the magnificent post-Jesuit edifice and the ores found in the area, from which he concluded that lead, silver and iron could be mined here. Krzemieniec was in such a state of oblivion and desolation at the beginning of the 19th century, when a spark of life was poured into it by a man whom Providence gave to this corner of the country to revive it from its numbness.

This man, hitherto insufficiently appreciated, incomprehensible yet praised, was Tadeusz Czacki, whose young years, upbringing and relevant offices seemed to have pushed him into a different sphere, into the world of court and refined idleness, while his character and mind were drawn into the realm of action and sacrifice. Czacki, whose works testify to his immeasurable diligence and talents as a writer, is one of the beautiful transitional types, at the extremity of two centuries standing and linking them. He is a man who is consumed by a desire to be useful to his country, to act, to work, to awaken, to support, to foster life. He sacrifices everything to this desire: peace and quiet, the love of the people to whom he has to expose himself, his domestic happiness, his fortune, even his fame, because he comes a hundred times along the way to be known, slandered, accused....

But nothing discourages him, Czacki goes his way with a smile, sure, plotted, he does not look at the disadvantages, does not care about the pain and pursues his goal with the indifference of a soldier who, obedient to the idea and feeling, does not demand any reward above the fulfilment of duty and honesty. In the early years of the 19th century, Czacki, appointed inspector of Volhynian schools, began to tour them, finding them in a most deplorable state: teaching without a system, establishments without any connection to one another, young people dissolved, and a barbaric ignorance. This tour must have pointed out to him the immeasurable need for higher exemplary schools in Volhynia, which could serve as a standard, a guide and a mother for others.

Together with Kołłątaj, the two of them began to work on the gymnasium in Krzemieniec, where there were already departmental academic schools. But Czacki had to create everything here: funds, accommodation, plans for the teaching, people to teach them, and he succeeded in this immeasurable task, despite the screams, accusations and resistance of those who judged him to be an enemy of the country, a plunderer of the nobility's funds. How much work, patience, fortitude, self-denial, humility and strength were needed at the same time to bring to fruition an institution which needed money, co-operation, sympathy! This was the only thing Czacki could do, and he did it not in vain.

We have said it elsewhere and we must repeat it here once again:

"It must be admitted that this little bit of nobility, disinterestedness, outpouring for the general public, revulsion from all injustice and filth, which shines upon us today, comes from there, from Krzemieniec; - it is a reflection of Czacki's nobility, of the nobility of the people with whom he surrounded himself. It is easy to criticise this boisterous but inarticulate, aimless and often impractical generation, but when we lose (which will soon happen) these remains of sincerity and honesty, we will only learn what we had and what we disregarded." (Pam. Drzewiecki).

From the departmental schools Czacki immediately set up a gymnasium, with haste, with that feverishness of work that was proper to him, which he also knew how to pour into others. The walls had to be taken down, cleaned, put to a new use, and immediate thought had to be given to works and collections, the library, the study rooms; but one thing and another was happily accomplished, and the acquisition of the king's books and numismatics immediately enriched Krzemieniec with one of the most valuable collections in the country. On 1 October 1805 Czacki officially opened his gymnasium, and could indeed call it his own, for without him Volhynia would never have had such an institution.

When we consider that the Novgorod alderman died in 1813, and that the entire period of his activity for Volhynian schools closes in the ten years from 1803 to 1813, when we compare what he did with the time he was given, the country he worked in, the obstacles he had to overcome, and then look at the fruits of his labour, we must marvel and bow our heads before this great man. Today is not the time to judge the man and the work - but it is time to respect them. After the death of the great man, Krzemieniec lived the life he gave it, which is best described in the memoirs and letters of the noble head of Drzewiecki; it is in these that the final details of this picture should be sought.