Andrzej Kmicic

In the novel

Kmicic enters the novel as early as the introduction, in the will of Herakliusz Billewicz. The old colonel bequeaths him the village of Lubicz and destines his granddaughter Aleksandra to be his wife, with one reservation:

Czego sobie najmocniej życzę i wnuczkę moją Aleksandrę do posłuszeństwa tu wypisanej woli obowiązuję, chybaby pan chorąży orszański (czego Bóg nie daj) szpetnymi uczynkami sławę swą splamił i bezecnym był ogłoszony.

Henryk Sienkiewicz, The Deluge (Potop)¹

(Our translation: "This I most earnestly desire, and I bind my granddaughter Aleksandra to obedience to the will here written down, unless the Standard-bearer of Orsha (which God forbid) should stain his good name with foul deeds and be declared infamous.")

The action begins in January 1655, when Kmicic arrives at Wodokty to meet his betrothed². Before long he burns the gentry hamlet of Wołmontowicze³, abducts Oleńka and is badly wounded in a duel with Michał Wołodyjowski⁴. At Kėdainiai he swears on a crucifix that he will not abandon Hetman Janusz Radziwiłł, even before Radziwiłł announces the agreement with the Swedes⁵. He stays with the magnate, and Oleńka calls him a traitor⁵. Later he abducts Prince Bogusław Radziwiłł⁶, who shoots him in the face and escapes⁷. He then renounces his service to the hetman by letter, and warns the colonels in a message already signed with the assumed name Babinicz, taken from the small town of Babinicze near Orsha⁸.

As Babinicz he warns the Pauline monks of the Swedish attack on Jasna Góra⁹, and during the siege he blows up the besiegers' great culverin¹⁰. He reveals his real name only to King John Casimir:

Jam jest Andrzej Kmicic, chorąży orszański…

Henryk Sienkiewicz, The Deluge (Potop)¹¹

(Our translation: "I am Andrzej Kmicic, Standard-bearer of Orsha…")

Historical basis

According to the PSB, Samuel Kmicic's life took a different course from that of the novel's hero. In 1655, as a lieutenant of the Lithuanian army, he was one of the founders of the military confederation formed on 23 August at Wierzbołów (Virbalis), which renounced obedience to Hetman Janusz Radziwiłł¹². He then seized Radziwiłł's estates, joined the Tyszowce Confederation on 28 December 1655, and on 4 April 1656 distinguished himself in fighting Charles Gustav's army in the fork of the San and the Vistula¹². He signed himself Standard-bearer of Orsha (chorąży orszański, an honorary district office), like Andrzej in the novel, from 20 January 1658; he received the privilege for this office on 17 April 1658¹². In 1660 he led the Sapieha division into mutiny and was chosen „pułkownikiem generalnym” ("general colonel") of the confederated army¹². He received the post of Grand Guard of Lithuania on 3 February 1676; he died before 13 April 1692¹².

The character's status is therefore "inspired by a historical figure": the surname and the office of Standard-bearer of Orsha are grounded in Samuel Kmicic's biography, but the plot of the novel is Sienkiewicz's work.

In the film

In Jerzy Hoffman's film Andrzej Kmicic was played by Daniel Olbrychski¹³. According to the National Film Archive's description, his casting at first met with opposition from the public, who remembered him as Azja in Pan Wołodyjowski (1969)¹⁴.