Author
Ludwik Górski 1818-1908

Born in Końskie (in the district of Sandomierz) on the 1st of May, 1818, into a family of a military man. He was educated in Kalisz and Warsaw, but did not take up university studies because he had to take care of the family after his father’s death. Therefore he became a self-taught man in the field of economy and agronomy, running his estate in an exemplary fashion. In his publications in the columns of Roczniki Gospodarstwa Krajowego he proclaimed the necessity of gradual affranchisement of peasants; of regulating the easement rights and intensification of rural economy. He was among the originators and founders of the Agricultural Society (1856) as the author of its statute and adviser of its chairman Count Andrzej Artur Zamoyski. Together with Count Zamoyski, he refused to support the reforms of Aleksander Wielopolski (who introduced them thanks to a permission of the tsarist authorities), which became the reason for the dissolution of the Society in 1861. As a member of the leadership of the Whites faction during the January Uprising, and afterwards of the Catholic Conservative party, Górski is recognized as one of the originators of the program of organic work” in the Congress Poland (which differed from the one proposed by the Warsaw positivists), as well as its most eminent executor. From 1862 he was active on the Land Credit Society, becoming its chairman in 1890. He was also the founder, donor, and trustee of numerous charity associations and houses of mercy, as well as the founder of the conservative “Słowo” daily. In recognition of his merits, Górski received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX and honorary doctorate of the Jagiellonian University. He died in Warsaw on the 11th of April, 1908. His major works include: Co nazywamy okupem pańszczyzny. Kilka uwag o dzierżawie wieczystej (1857); Uwagi nad obecnym stanem robotników wiejskich w Polsce (1860); Nasze błędy w gospodarstwie folwarcznym (1874), and Wybór pism (Warsaw, 1908).

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