Feliks Kołyszko | |
Birth Date: | 1837 |
Death Date: | 19 February 1889 |
Death Place: | Menton, France |
Feliks Kołyszko alias Śmiałyński (; 30 May 1837 in Vilnius – 19 February 1889 in Menton) was a Polish-Lithuanian participant of the 1863 January Uprising. Feliks (Feliksas) was the older brother of Bolesław Kołyszko (Lithuanian: Boleslovas Kolyška) a notable leader of the January Uprising that was aimed at the restoration of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Kołyszko was born in Vilnius into a petty noble family as a son of Wincenty Adolf Kołyszko and his wife Apolina Bańkowska or, according to other sources a woman from the Jursza family. In 1851, at the age of fourteen and while a student of the Vilnius Gymnasium, he was arrested and sent to an Imperial Russian Army disciplinary battalion. He remained in it until 1861. In 1862 he was arrested for wearing a national costume and possession of illegal patriotic leaflets.
During the January Uprising of 1863, he commanded a rebel unit in the counties of Trakai and Kalvarija. During spring, Feliks Kołyszko operated in the area between Jieznas and Butrimonys together with other rebels. On May 12, he and his unit, totaling 36 soldiers, fought with an Imperial Russian guard company at Žilinai. On August 7, Kołyszko and his group of about 185 rebels were attacked by 300 hussars and cossacks near .
Kołyszko and his unit were remembered in a folk song of :
Ar tai pora, ar tai lyška, žalnierius rokavo Atamanas Kolyška | Be it raining, Be it pouring, Arranges the soldiers Hetman Kołyszko |