Julian Pilecki, Witold’s father – a forest inspector in Olonets, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

After having graduated from the Forest Institute in St. Petersburg, Julian Pilecki could start working in his profession only in the distant region of Karelia. Under the Russian rule, Poles were often sent to distant regions of the Russian Empire in the authorities’ attempt to disperse politically conscious representatives of intelligentsia devoted to the idea of Polish independence.