Prywatna wielka własność ziemska na Litwie. Dobra retowskie Marii z Potulickich Ogińskiej w okresie I wojny światowej

Abstract

The source article presents problems related to the functioning of Maria Ogińska’s private estate in Rietavas, Lithuania, during the First World War. A handwritten report of Kazimierz Rzeszowski, the estate’s manager, found in the National Archives in Krakow, enabled the creation of this article. The estates were located in the territory of the Russian Partition. From 1915, they were under German occupation. For several years, the plenipotentiary took formal and informal measures to secure the Duchess’s assets. As a result of his personal intervention, a palace in Pojeziory, owned by Zygmunt Nagurski, was saved from being burned down. After the end of the war and the establishment of the Lithuanian state, the Rietavas estates were nationalized. The unique manuscript provides information about the fate of the cultural property gathered in the palace in Rietavas. It is a proof of the destruction and dispersion of cultural heritage valuable for Lithuanians and Poles, related to the large private landed property of Ogiński’s princes.