Jakub Surovec (in the middle, jumping), accepted into Jánošík's group – as part of the test, he cuts down the top of one tree with one hand and shoots off the top of another with the other; legendary scene, painting on glass
Jakub Surovec, more commonly known in Poland as Jakub Surowiec (born in 1715 in Tisovec, died on 11 October 1740 in Brezno) was a Slovakoutlaw, one of the most famous in the country.[1][2][3][4] Along with his group, he engaged in banditry across significant areas of the Central and Inner Western Carpathians. Challenging the feudal system, he gained considerable recognition among the impoverished population. After capturing Surovec, Austrian authorities sentenced him to death. Tales of him made their way into fiction; he is portrayed in a significant number of Polish and Slovak works of art depicting outlaw themes. He is often mistakenly believed to be associated with Juraj Jánošík.
Jakub Surovec was born in Tisovec as the son of a poor shepherd named Ondrej.[2][5] Already in childhood, he stood out for his developed sense of justice and sensitivity to social inequalities.[6] In his youth, he worked as a shepherd in Tisovec, near Muráň and in Horehronie. He had reddish hair and dark mustache. He was twice caught stealing sheep, resulting in a punishment of two hundred lashes the first time and a year's imprisonment in Rimavská Sobota the second time.[2]
In 1739, he met Martin, known as "Poliak" due to his Podhale origin, a bandit leader who allowed him to join his group. Thanks to his strength and courage, he distinguished himself enough that when the bandits gathered again the following spring, he became the leader, and Martin Poliak settled for the role of deputy.[6] The formed group consisted of eleven (sometimes erroneously reported as nine[7] or ten)[2] members. In addition to Surovec and Poliak, they were: Pavol Gajdoš, also known as Poliak, Tomaš Greguš from Kubachy in Spiš, who previously worked as a shepherd on Čierny vrch, Juraj Klanica from Krásna Hôrka (today a district of Tvrdošín), Juraj Lukáč from Dúbrava, Ján Oravec, Matej Pijak-Hajduch from Chlebnice, Ondrej Ponický from Poniky, Juraj Turčan, and Michał Tylka, who, like Martin Poliak, came from Dzianisz.[2][8]
The group assembled in full around 24 June 1740, in a hut near Valaská, from where, between late June and early July, they set off on a banditry journey, following Poliak's advice and heading towards Orava, the Tatras, and Podhale. They robbed, among other places, the church in Valaská, a dyeing workshop in Slanica[pl], a customs office in Mýtna, as well as numerous travelers on the roads and shepherds.[8] They turned back south after a raid near Nowy Targ (depending on the source, it could have been an attack on a nobleman's manor, a wealthy peasant's farm, a tavern, or even looting the town itself, which would have been Surovec's greatest achievement, but it is known that the loot obtained was relatively small).[4][5][6][8] The group's range of activity was exceptionally wide: from Horehronie (the forests between Brezno and Tisovec served as the main base) through Gemer and Novohrad[pl] to Liptov, Orava, and the Tatras, all the way to Nowy Targ.[5][6]
Another representation of a scene analogous to the one above – this motif in Podhale art is known as the "reception of Surovec"
The members of the group mostly came from the poorest layers of society, which is why the fact that Surovec undertook to provide his subordinates with free clothing played a significant role in recruiting them. They all wore bark shoes, which they preserved with lard for greater durability.[a] Their weaponry consisted of muskets, hand cannons, pistols, and shepherd's axes, purchased or acquired in battle depending on the specific case. They also treated wounds with puppy fat. The goods obtained were partly used for current needs (food, ammunition, alcohol, clothing, gaining the support of the population), and partly placed in mountain hideouts known to them.[2][8] Strict discipline and the repeated swearing of the bandit oath played a crucial role in Surovec's organization of bandit life: I swear to the eternal God, the Holy Trinity, and all God's saints that I will never betray, lie to, abandon my companions in good or bad fortune.[b] Matej Pijak-Hajduch testified that he had to renew the oath seven times a year.[2] Surovec focused on attacks on the nobility and wealthy merchants, trying to maintain friendly relations with the rural population, which made it much easier for the group to disperse and escape pursuit; sometimes he is attributed the intention of inciting an anti-feudal uprising.[2][5]
From August 1740 onwards, the Austrian administration organized a large-scale hunt against Surovec's group.[8] Late in the evening on September 16, during a brawl at a tavern in Pohronská Polhora, the bandit and only one of his companions (Greguš) were surprised by six members of the citizen guard. Both were captured after a fierce fight in which Surovec suffered serious gunshot wounds and blows from an axe.[2] After torture, both bandits were sentenced to death. Surovec's execution took place near Brezno, on a hill called Viselnice, by breaking wheel from above on October 11[2][3] (some sources mention beheading[1] and other dates, such as September 20,[1] November 10 or 11).[7] Shortly thereafter, most of the remaining group members were also captured and sentenced.[5]
Reception
Monument to Jakub Surovec at Zbojská pass
Reception of Jakub Surovec serves as an example of "moderately approving" attitude of the population towards banditry.[1] There is a tradition that after the execution (and shortly before her coronation as Queen of Hungary), Maria Theresa visited the parents of the deceased to offer condolences and listen to stories about him.[5] Legend made him a companion of Juraj Jánošík, which is impossible for chronological reasons (Surovec was born two years after the execution of the most famous Carpathian bandit).[6] However, the description of his acceptance into Jánošík's band became a popular motif in Gorals' folk tales, penetrating into regional reverse glass painting as well. Out of 459 glass paintings preserved in the collections of the Tatra Museum, only thirteen have secular themes, but nine of them repeat the motif called "the reception of Surowiec".[9] Already in 1862, Kazimierz Łapczyński[pl] described how a Goral from Szlachtowa presented him with such a painting along with a story.[10]
Bohuslav Tablic published a poem in Czech in 1809 titled Jakub Surowec Loupežnjk Orawský – it was a translation from an anonymous Slovak manuscript (the manuscript has survived; its creation is dated between the fifth and eighth decades of the 18th century)[8] and one of the earliest known examples of banditry themes in literature.[11] This poem, consisting of 348 lines, takes the form of an elegiac self-portrait, with the lyrical subject being imprisoned Surovec. It frequently uses a motif of a bandit betrayed by his lover, which is often employed but contradicts the facts.[4][8] Jakub Surovec is also mentioned by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, albeit superficially and not in accordance with the current state of historical knowledge.[c][12] However, there is also a folk song criticizing him for gluttony,[d][1] and the word surowiec began to be used in a common sense of "thief, bandit, rascal".[10]
↑ Only Surovec bought shoes from a cobbler in Valaska, but soon gifted them to an innkeeper in Tisovec because he had acquired blisters. Also preserved is the information that to him, in turn, an unknown girl from the now defunct lumberjack settlement of Kamov near Černé Hron gave him a shirt, shawl and bib of her own making.
↑ Slovak: Prisahám večnému Bohu, svatej trojici i všetkým božím svatym že nikdy svojich tovarišov nezjavim, neoklamem, nezanecham v šťasti a nešťasti...
↑ The worst, as they tell, was the death of Jakób Surovec, who owned his own handmade rifle with two barrels and one trigger in the middle (something akin to Konewka's blunderbuss from "Pan Tadeusz"), as he was impaled on a stake.
↑ Surowiec, Surowiec, did you sheep devour? Lambs seven hundred, no longer in the bower.
Related Research Articles
Zakopane is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship. As of 2017 its population was 27,266. Zakopane is a centre of Goral culture and is often referred to as "the winter capital of Poland". It is a popular destination for mountaineering, skiing, and tourism.
Nowy Targ is a town in southern Poland, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is located in the Orava-Nowy Targ Basin at the foot of the Gorce Mountains, at the confluence of the Czarny Dunajec and the Biały Dunajec. It is the seat of the Nowy Targ County and the rural Gmina Nowy Targ, as well as the Tatra Euroregion.
Juraj Jánošík was a Slovak highwayman. Jánošík has been the main character of many Slovak novels, poems, and films. According to the legend, he robbed nobles and gave the loot to the poor, a deed often attributed to the famous Robin Hood. The legend is known in neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic as well as Slovakia. The actual robber had little to do with the modern legend, whose content partly reflects the ubiquitous folk myths of a hero taking from the rich and giving to the poor. However, the legend was also shaped in important ways by the activists and writers in the 19th century when Jánošík became the key highwayman character in stories that spread in the north counties of the Kingdom of Hungary and among the local Gorals inhabitants of the Podhale region north of the Tatras. The image of Jánošík as a symbol of resistance to oppression was reinforced when poems about him became part of the Slovak and Czech middle and high school literature curriculum, and then again with the numerous films that propagated his modern legend in the 20th century. During the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising, one of the partisan groups bore his name.
Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer was a Polish Goral poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and writer. He was a member of the Young Poland movement.
Tisovec is a town in central Slovakia. Its population is around 4,000.
The Gorals, also anglicized as the Highlanders and historically also as Vlachs, are an ethnographic group primarily found in their traditional area of southern Poland, northern Slovakia, and in the region of Cieszyn Silesia in the Czech Republic, where they are known as the Silesian Gorals. There is also a significant Goral diaspora in the area of Bukovina in western Ukraine and in northern Romania, as well as in Chicago, the seat of the Polish Highlanders Alliance of North America.
The shepherd's axe is a long thin light axe of Eurasian origin used in past centuries by shepherds in the Carpathian Mountains and in other territories which comprise today Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Hungary. The features of a shepherd's axe combine a tool with a walking stick, that could be used as a light weapon. It has symbolic historical and cultural connotations and is still used as a prop in many traditional dances, for example the odzemek.
Kráľova hoľa is the highest mountain of the eastern part of the Low Tatras in central Slovakia. Four rivers rise at its foot: Čierny Váh, Hnilec, Hornád, and Hron. The summit, easily accessible by hiking trails from Telgárt as well as by a paved road from Šumiac, offers a panoramic view of Spiš, the Tatras, Liptov, and the Upper Hron Valley. Largely deforested by exploitative timber harvesting in the early 19th century, its timberline was restored to its natural elevation of about 1,650 m (5,413 ft.) through the efforts of Ludwig Greiner in the second half of that century.
Pohorelá is a village and municipality in the Brezno District, of the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. It is located in the foothills of the Low Tatras range of the Carpathian Mountains, on the right bank of the upper Hron River. The village is located 33 km east of Brezno, 49 km southwest of Poprad, and 37 km north of Tisovec on First Class Road 66. Pohorelá is the third largest village of the Horehronie region. The Roman Catholic Pohorela church, built in 1762, is a dominant feature of the village. The village was known as Garamkohó for a time in the early 20th century.
Hybe is a village and municipality in the Liptovský Mikuláš District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.
The cinema of Slovakia encompasses a range of themes and styles typical of European cinema. Yet there are a certain number of recurring themes that are visible in the majority of the important works. These include rural settings, folk traditions, and carnival. Even in the field of experimental film-making, there is frequently a celebration of nature and tradition, as for example in Dušan Hanák's Pictures of the Old World. The same applies to blockbusters like Juraj Jakubisko's A Thousand-Year Old Bee. The percentage of comedies, adventures, musicals, sci-fi films and similar genres has been low by comparison to dramas and historical films that used to include a notable subset of social commentaries on events from the decade or two preceding the film. One of them, Ján Kadár's and Elmar Klos' The Shop on Main Street, gave Slovak filmmaking its first Oscar. Children's films were a perennial genre from the 1960s through the 1980s produced mainly as low-budget films by Slovak Television Bratislava. The themes of recent films have been mostly contemporary.
Jánošík is a Slovak black-and-white silent film from 1921. It relates the popular legend of the highwayman Juraj Jánošík. It shows the filmmakers' experience with early American movies in camera work, in the use of parallel narratives, and in sequences inspired by Westerns. Jánošík placed Slovak filmmaking as the 10th national cinema in the world to produce a full-length feature movie.
Muránska planina National Park is one of the youngest national parks in Slovakia. The core area measures 21,318 ha and the protective belt 21,698 ha. It includes 14 smaller protected territories. The headquarters are located in Revúca.
The Slovak invasion of Poland occurred during Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939. The recently created Slovak Republic joined the attack, and Field Army Bernolák contributed over 50,000 soldiers in three divisions. Since most of the Polish forces were engaged with the German armies, which were more to the north of the southern border, the Slovak invasion met only weak resistance and suffered minimal losses.
The Polish Highlanders Alliance of America was founded in 1929 in Chicago as an organization that unites all other Góral organizations in the United States. Most of Chicago's Góral community is concentrated on Chicago's Southwest Side along Archer Avenue where the headquarters, also known as the "Highlander Home" is located.
Podczerwone is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czarny Dunajec, within Nowy Targ County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It lies approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi) southwest of Nowy Targ and 74 km (46 mi) south of the regional capital Kraków.
Pyzówka is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Nowy Targ, within Nowy Targ County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately 9 kilometres (6 mi) north-west of Nowy Targ and 59 km (37 mi) south of the regional capital Kraków.
Romanticised outlaws are stock characters found in a number of fictional settings.
Klemens "Klimek" Bachleda was a pioneering Polish mountain guide and mountain rescuer in Austria-Hungary. He died during an unsuccessful mountain rescue attempt in the High Tatras.
Antoni Kocyan was a Polish-Hungarian naturalist, specimen collector, and forester. He was a collector of birds and small mammals particularly from the Tatra mountains. A Silurian fossil coral Avicenia kocyani is named in his honour.
1 2 Mity i rzeczywistość zbójnictwa na pograniczu polsko-słowackim w historii, literaturze i kulturze. Nowy Targ. 2007. pp.113, 441–443.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
