Background
She was the eldest daughter of Katarzyna Raczyńska, popular in Wielkopolska and Józef Radoliński (d 1781), with sisters: Katarzyna (b1762) and Antonina (b1770).
She was the eldest daughter of Katarzyna Raczyńska, popular in Wielkopolska and Józef Radoliński (d 1781), with sisters: Katarzyna (b1762) and Antonina (b1770).
Events which she lived through include the Bar Confederation, which caused local upheaval, the work of the Great Sejm, Kościuszko Uprising, and the Napoleonic Wars. They had two children: Anna (called Nina) (b1789) and Józef (b 1791). While living on a widow"s pension in Warsaw after the formation of the Congress Kingdom, her mocking jokes about Grand Duke Constantine, the viceroy, reached his ears, and she received from him a threatening letter through his adjutant.
She remained calm, saying only "Voilà une lettre qui passera à postérité" (This is a letter which will pass on to history), at which said adjutant left, having taken back the later which was to be the source of more amusement for her in the coming weeks.
She wrote in French; the memoirs were only published in a Polish translation in 1975 by Edward Raczyński, a kinsman who had been the Polish President in exile. In the meantime, it was widely unknown by historians, though mentioned in the pre-war Polish Biographical Dictionary with an entry by Adam Mieczysław Skałkowski, who knew only the year of her death.
However, he did defend her against them, though Wirydianna credited this less to the love he held for her, than to the family custom of fighting. Personally she was witty, called the "Voltaire in skirts", and spoke of her fellow citizens as "always brave and always beaten", believing that if they had banded together, they could have defended themselves from foreign aggression and prevented the partitions (this views is not shared by most modern historians.