Here he is, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, one of my favorite heroes and one with a long and interesting life, one whom our American students need to know better. This dramatic statue greets us on the left as we climb the hill to the Wawel. Kosciuszko had studied military science in France, and thoroughly absorbed Enlightenment liberalism there. He then served 7 years in the American revolutionary army, returned to Europe and fought the Russians in Poland. In 1794 here in Krakow on the Market Square he swore an oath to free the peasants who would fight with him against the Russians. The Polish text reads: "On this spot Tadeusz Kosciuszko took an oath to the Polish nation." He had some battle victories, but of course the uprising was defeated in the end; Kosciuszko was imprisoned in Russia, and finally released. He lived out the rest of his life in Switzerland, suspicious of Napoleon, but never losing hope in Poland's rebirth. We cross the Market Square practically each day with the students, but today I gave them a little lecture about this spot, a daily reminder of Kosciuszko's faithfulness to freedom.
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