Feliks Kołyszko

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Feliks Kołyszko, also known as Śmiałyński (Polish-Lithuanian: Feliksas Kolyška), was born on 30 May 1837 in Vilnius and died on 19 February 1889 in Menton, France. He was a participant in the 1863 January Uprising against Russian rule and the older brother of Bolesław Kołyszko, a prominent uprising leader. He came from a minor noble family, the son of Wincenty Adolf Kołyszko and Apolina Bańkowska (or possibly a woman from the Jursza family).

At 14, Feliks was arrested and sent to a Russian army disciplinary battalion, where he stayed until 1861. In 1862 he was arrested again for wearing a national costume and for possessing illegal patriotic leaflets. During the January Uprising, he commanded a rebel unit in the Trakai and Kalvarija counties, working in the area between Jieznas and Butrimonys. On May 12, 1863, his unit of 36 soldiers fought a Russian guard at Žilinai. On August 7, about 185 rebels under his leadership were attacked by 300 hussars and cossacks near Stračiūnai. He is remembered in a folk song from Vėžionys.

Feliks later emigrated to France, where he worked for the Nord railway and lived in Pontoise. He married Antonina Katarzyna Eudoksja Wróblewska on 17 April 1870 in Paris, and after her death, he married Maria de Gozdawa Gostkowska on 6 July 1879. He was buried in the Trabuquet cemetery in Menton.