Portal:Poland/Selected biography/32
Ignacy Potocki (1750–1809) was a writer and politician who held several high-ranking court and government posts, including that of the marshal of the Permanent Council (cabinet) from 1778 to 1782 and grand marshal of Lithuania from 1791 to 1794. He also worked as an educational activist in the Commission of National Education and the Society for Elementary Textbooks. A major figure in Polish politics of his time, Potocki led the reformist Patriotic Party at the Great Sejm of 1788–1792. He advocated a pro-Prussian orientation and helped conclude an alliance with Prussia in 1790. In the same year, King Stanislaus Augustus and Potocki, until then in anti-royal opposition, began drifting closer together, working on a draft document that would eventually become the Constitution of 3 May 1791. (Full article...)