Kościuszko honoured at West Point
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
30.04.2017 12:33
A two-day event in tribute to Tadeusz Kościuszko, a military commander and a national hero in both Poland and the United States, has been held at West Point Military Academy.
Tadeusz Kościuszko. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Organized by the American Association of the Friends of Kościuszko at West Point for the 14th time, it coincided with the bicentenary of Kościuszko’s death, which is included in the 2017 UNESCO list of anniversaries.
A seminar devoted to Kościuszko presented him in the broad historical context of the 123-year-long partition of Poland, the Polish nation’s struggle for independence as well as the American War of Independence.
Saturday’s wreath-laying ceremony at the Kościuszko Memorial at West Point brought together some 350 people, including Rector of West Point Academy, Polish and Lithuanian representatives at the United Nations, war veterans and representatives of Polish communities.
In 1794, after the Second Partition of Poland between Tsarist Russia, Prussia and Austria, Kościuszko led an insurrection against Russia.
During the American War of Independence, he served as a colonel in the Continental Army. He designed and oversaw the construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West Point. Thomas Jefferson called him “the purest son of liberty I have ever known.”
He died in Switzerland in 1817. A year later, his remains were brought to Poland and placed in a crypt at Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, a pantheon of Polish kings and national heroes. (mk/pk)