KOLLONTAJ, HUGO (1750-1812), Polish politician and writer, was born in 1750 at Niecislawice in Sandomir, and edu cated at Pinczow, Cracow and Rome, where he devoted him self enthusiastically to the study of the fine arts, especially of architecture and painting. At Rome too he obtained a canonry attached to Cracow cathedral, and on his return to Poland in 1775 attacked the question of educational reform, and despite the obstruction of the clergy, carried through his reform of its uni versity, of which he was rector 1782-85. In 1786 Kollontaj was appointed referendarius of Lithuania, and during the Four Years' Diet (1788-92) took a very active part in passing the constitution of May 3, 1791, and became vice-chancellor in June. On the triumph of the reactionaries he adhered to the new order, but probably less from ambition than from the desire to save some thing from the wreck of the constitution. He then emigrated to Dresden. On the outbreak of Kosciuszko's insurrection he re turned to Poland, and became member of the national govern ment and minister of finance. But his radicalism had now become of a disruptive quality; he quarrelled with and thwarted Kos ciuszko for his refusal to adopt Jacobinic methods, and was him self regarded by the conservatives as "a second Robespierre," and suspected of complicity in the outrages of June 17 and 18, when the Warsaw mob massacred the political prisoners. On the
collapse of the insurrection Kollontaj emigrated to Austria, where from 1795 to 1802 he was detained as a prisoner. Released through the mediation of Prince Adam Czartoryski, he returned to Poland discredited, and died at Warsaw Feb. 28, 1812.
See Ignacz Badeni, Necrology of Hugo Kollontaj (Pol.) (Cracow, 1819) ; Henryk Schmitt, Review of the Life and Works of Kollontaj (Pol.) (Lemberg, 186o) ; Wojciek Grochowski, "Life of Kollontaj" (Pol.) in Tygod Illus. (Warsaw, 186i).