Poland Banknotes 500 Zloty banknote 1982 Tadeusz Kosciuszko
National Bank of Poland - Narodowy Bank Polski
Polish People's Republic - Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa
Obverse: Portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko, the Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Force in the 1794 Uprising.
Reverse: Flag of Polish peasant soldiers in Kraków with the words "They feed and defend", Kościuszko Uprising.
The Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Commonwealth of Poland and the Prussian partition in 1794. It was a failed attempt to liberate Poland and Belarus and Lithuania from Russian influence after the Second Partition of Poland (1793) and the creation of the Targowica Confederation.
Watermark: White Eagle - Coat of arms of Poland.
signatures:
President of the National Bank of Poland - Stanislaw Majewski
Chief Treasurer of the National Bank of Poland - George Lasocki
Issue Date: June 1, 1982
Dimension: 138 x 63 mm
Printer: PWPW - Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych S.A. (Polish Security Printing Works, Warsaw, Poland)
Author: Andrzej Heidrich (b. November 6, 1928) - Rite plate by Barbara Kowalska
In Circulation: from June 1, 1982 to 31 December 1996.
Poland banknotes - Poland paper money
1974-1993
100000 Zloty 200000 Zloty 500000 Zloty 1000000 Zloty 2000000 Zloty
Tadeusz Kościuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kościuszko; February 4 or 12, 1746 – October 15, 1817) was a Polish military engineer and a military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Belarus, and the United States. He fought in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising.
Kościuszko was born in February 1746 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in a village that is now in Belarus; his exact birthdate is unknown. At the age of 20, he graduated from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, Poland, but after the outbreak of a civil war involving the Bar Confederation in 1768, Kościuszko moved to France in 1769 to pursue further studies. He returned to Poland in 1774, two years after its First Partition, and took a position as tutor in Józef Sylwester Sosnowski's household. After Kościuszko attempted to elope with his employer's daughter and was severely beaten by the father's retainers, he returned to France. In 1776, Kościuszko moved to North America, where he took part in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. An accomplished military architect, he designed and oversaw the construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West Point, New York. In 1783, in recognition of his services, the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general.
Returning to Poland in 1784, Kościuszko was commissioned a major general in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 1789. Two years after the Polish–Russian War of 1792 had resulted in the Second Partition of Poland, he organized an uprising against Russia in March 1794, serving as its Naczelnik (Chief). Russian forces captured him at the Battle of Maciejowice in October 1794. The defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising that November led to the Third Partition in 1795, which ended Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's independent existence for 123 years. In 1796, following the death of Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, Kościuszko was pardoned by her successor Tsar Paul I and emigrated to the United States. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson, with whom he shared ideals of human rights, Kościuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves. He eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. The execution of his will later proved difficult and the funds were never used for the purpose he had intended.