Poles in Liepājā

Jan Heydatel (1800–1871), was a civil engineer and Major General. He was a son of Maria née Korbacka and Józef Heydatel, a French emigrant, doctor, founder of one of the first schools for midwives at the Polish land. Jan Heydatel finished secondary school in Białystok (1819), and then he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Vilnius University (1824) and the Institute of Communication Engineers in St. Petersburg (1829). He was a member of the secret Filaret Association and a friend of Adam Mickiewicz. He designed and rebuilt the Royal Canal (now the Dnieper-Bug Canal); he worked on the expansion of many ports, including Astrakhan, Riga, Windau (now Ventspils in Latvia) and Pernau (now Pärnu in Estonia). He designed the expansion of the port of Liepājā, and then, in the years 1861–1868, he was in charge of the construction works, as a result of which Liepājā became one of the main ports in the Baltic Sea.

Juliusz Rechniewski (1824–1887), was a lawyer, writer and social activist. He and his family settled in Liepājā in 1872. He was elected town councillor three times (1878–1886) and was a member of the town’s management board, in which he served as deputy mayor. His eulogies stated that his work and knowledge of the law had been extremely valuable to the town. The dramatic experiences connected with the arrest of his son Tadeusz as an activist of the First Proletariat, and the subsequent trial and 14 years’ hard labour sentence contributed to Juliusz Rechniewski’s premature death in 1887. He was buried in the old Catholic cemetery, but the grave has not been preserved.

Jan Mac-Donald (1850–1906), was a civil engineer, Lieutenant General, chief engineer of the construction of the fortress and war port in Liepājā. He was the son of Aeneas George and Pelagia née Soczołowska, and he was a grandson of a Scottish emigrant, mechanical engineer John Mac-Donald, who had come to Poland at the beginning of the 19th century. He read mathematics at the University of Warsaw and graduated from the Nicholas Engineering Academy in St. Petersburg. From 1887 he was in charge of the design and construction of the fortress and war port in Liepājā. He was associated with Liepājā for almost 20 years. He actively participated in the social life of the town and was elected town councillor in 1902. He also served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Red Cross in Liepājā and president of the Liepājā branch of the Russian Imperial Technical Society. He died in Warsaw.

Emil Młynarski (1870–1935), was a conductor, violinist and composer, co-founder and director of the Warsaw Philharmonic (1901–1905), director of the Warsaw Conservatoire, and in the years 1919–1929 director of the Warsaw Opera House. Młynarski’s family were associated with Liepājā for a certain period of time. Due to his frequent appearances in Liepājā (between 1882 and 1893 he performed there at least 15 times), the press described the young virtuoso as “Liepaja’s child”, emphasizing the artist’s ties with this town.

Stanisław Grabowski (1901–1957), was a painter, graphic artist and ceramicist. He was born in Liepājā, where his father Witold Grabowski was a customs officer, social activist and city councillor. The family tradition preserved the memory of Stanisław’s great-grandmother, opera singer Konstancja Gładkowska, and her friendship with Frédéric Chopin. Stanisław Grabowski attended the School of Commerce in Liepājā, where his first drawing teacher was Kajetan Szklerys. In 1914 Grabowski’s family moved to Rybinsk on the Volga River, where he got drawing lessons from Mikhail Shcheglov. In 1918 he moved to Warsaw and studied painting at the School of Fine Arts. In 1926 he went to Paris, where he was taught by Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant at Académie Moderne. Stanisław Grabowski’s main artistic interest was landscape, but he also painted still lifes and interior scenes. He exhibited his works in Paris galleries, and had exhibitions in London and New York. Grabowski’s works can be found, among others, in the National Museum in Warsaw and the Museum of Art in Łódź.

Bolesława Zdanowska (1908–1982), was a photographer and educator. She was born in Liepājā, and was a daughter of Janina and Bolesław Tałłat-Kiełpsz. She first learned the profession at her parents’ photographic studio, which operated in Liepājā between 1909 and 1926, and then she studied under Jan Bułhak in Vilnius. From 1934 she and her husband Edmund Zdanowski ran a well-known and respected photographic studio in Vilnius. After the war they founded one of the first photography schools in Poland – currently the School of Fine Arts in Gdynia-Orłowo.

Stanisław Hejmowski (1900–1969), was a lawyer. He was born in Liepājā, and his father, Konstanty, was a lawyer, social activist and city councillor. He finished secondary school in Liepājā, and after 1918 he settled in Poland. He was the counsel for the defense in the show trials following the June 1956 workers’ protests in Poznań, and in the trials of several members of the anti-communist underground movement. He was persecuted by the authorities of communist Poland and disbarred. In 2006, on the 50th anniversary of the June 1956 protests, one of the streets in Poznań was named after him.