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Count Adam Gurowski (September 10, 1805, in Russocice near Kalisz, Poland – May 4, 1866, in Washington, D.C.) was a Polish-born writer who emigrated to the United States in 1849.
Life and career
Gurowski was a son of Count Władysław Gurowski, an ardent admirer of Tadeusz Kościuszko. Having been expelled in 1818 and again in 1819 from the gymnasia of Warsaw and Kalisz for revolutionary demonstrations, young Gurowski continued his studies at various German universities. He studied under Hegel at Berlin University and obtained a degree from Heidelberg University.
Returning to Warsaw in 1825, he became identified with those opposed to Russian influence, and was in consequence several times imprisoned. He was active in organizing the November uprising of 1830, in which he afterward took part. On its suppression, Gurowski lost the greater part of his estates and escaped to France, where he lived for several years. While there he became associated with the Saint-Simonians, and adopted many of the views of Charles Fourier. He helped found the Polish Democratic Society (TDP) in Paris. The remainder of his estates had in the meantime been confiscated and he had been condemned to death.
Gurowski experienced a total change of heart on the question of Polish nationalism and abjectly pleaded with Tsarist authorities for a pardon. Norman Davies writes: "...he somehow saw Russian autocracy as an ideal instrument for social and cultural modernization. He savagely denounced the conceited, uncaring individualism of the Polish nobles, and gave practical proof of his sincerity by denouncing his disaffected neighbours to the Tsarist police. He even submitted a memorandum on educational reform, which proposed that the Polish language - 'a degenerate dialect of Russian' - should be replaced in Polish schools by Old Church Slavonic".
