Samuel Kmicic

The man behind the name

Samuel Kmicic came from a modest noble family in the Orsha district. By 1655 he was a lieutenant in the Lithuanian army. He helped form the military confederation at Virbalis on 23 August, which withdrew obedience from Hetman Janusz Radziwiłł. This is the first major difference from Andrzej Kmicic in the novel: Samuel opposed the hetman rather than being bound to him by a dramatic oath at Kėdainiai.¹

He led soldiers' envoys to John Casimir, who on 8 September 1655 promised the army Radziwiłł's confiscated estates. On his return Kmicic began seizing and plundering them. The Polish Biographical Dictionary does not conceal this part of his career. He joined the Tyszowce Confederation on 28 December.¹

Soldier, officer and mutineer

On 4 April 1656 he distinguished himself against Charles X Gustav's army as it broke through the Lithuanian forces near the meeting of the San and Vistula. In 1657 he fought under Paweł Jan Sapieha against Sweden and Rákóczi. He styled himself standard-bearer of Orsha from January 1658, although the formal grant came on 17 April. He subsequently led raids on the eastern front; a Muscovite offensive destroyed his advanced detachment early in 1659.¹

In 1660 Kmicic took the Sapieha division into mutiny over unpaid wages and was elected “general colonel” of the confederated soldiers. He dissolved this confederation in May. During the June campaign at Polonka he led the vanguard. After the battle his men pursued the enemy and took Mir Castle, in present-day Belarus. He later fought on the eastern frontier, worked in local noble politics and acquired considerable property through grants and war booty. He became Grand Guard of Lithuania on 3 February 1676 and died before 13 April 1692.¹

History, novel and film

Historian Tadeusz Wasilewski calls Samuel a model for Andrzej Kmicic. They share a surname and the office of standard-bearer of Orsha, but the real soldier's career was more turbulent and morally mixed. Samuel's biography contains no defence of Jasna Góra, exploding siege gun or assumed name Babinicz. It contains real confederations, pay disputes, campaigns and property lawsuits.¹²

In Jerzy Hoffman's film, Daniel Olbrychski plays Andrzej Kmicic. The film follows the fictional character, not Samuel. Comparing their lives shows what Sienkiewicz drew from history and what he invented.³