Dabrowski, Jaroslaw

Born Nov. 13, 1836, in Zhitomir; died May 23, 1871, in Paris. Polish revolutionary and military figure in the Paris Commune of 1871.

Dąbrowski joined the tsarist army in 1855 and studied at the Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg from 1852 to 1861. Together with Z. Sierakowski, he headed a revolutionary officers’ circle in Petersburg, which played an important role in preparing the Polish Uprising of 1863-64. Sent to serve in the Polish Kingdom, Dąbrowski became a member of the leading rebel center and headed the left-wing of the rebel organization (the party of the “reds”). He was also one of the leaders of the military revolutionary organization called Committee of Russian Officers in Poland. He drew up a plan for the uprising that called for joint operations by Polish and Russian revolutionaries. Arrested on Aug. 2, (14), 1862, and confined in the Warsaw Citadel, he nevertheless managed to aid the Polish Uprising of 1863-64 by drawing up a new strategic plan of action. Sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, he escaped from a transit prison in Moscow in December 1864 and, helped by Russian revolutionaries, made his way to France. There he became a leader of the Polish democratic emigration. Dąbrowski participated in the Paris Commune, first as commander of important sectors of the front and later as commander in chief of all the armed forces. The talent and personal bravery of Dąbrowski, a general in the Commune, made him one of its most popular leaders. He died in a battle with the Versailles government forces.