Walery Karłowicz Mroczkowski was a Polish insurgent in the 1863 January uprising. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Prussian authorities. Upon release in 1865, he was sent into exile and travelled to Italy, Switzerland, London and finally settled in France. While in Florence he met Mikhail Bakunin and became an anarchist and a member of the latter's close circle. He is also known as a portrait photographer in France, working under the pseudonym, "Ostroga" or "Valerien Ostroga".
Early life
Nothing is known, at present, of Mroczkowski's family background or childhood. As the earliest written record, the diary of his uprising colleague Szymon Kotylla published in 1907, indicates that he was a student at the Medical Academy in Warsaw, he would have had access to funds for his interrupted studies and for travel to Italy for military training. As a convinced patriot he went to Cuneo in Italy to attend the Polish militarycadet school, commanded by Ludwik Mierosławski in preparation for a future uprising. On his return to Poland in 1862 the NationalCentral Committee despatched him to the Augustów Governorate, under cover of being a journalist with the nom-de-guerre "Wincenty Kamiński", to help organize military units. He was a Biebrza district commissar, local Plenipotentiary for the Rada Narodowa and was responsible for the purchase of armaments. The following year he took part in a series of skirmishes and in May 1863 he distinguished himself at the head of a relief party in the battle of Kazlų Rūda. By November 1863 he was in Eastern Prussia where he was arrested and imprisoned in Posen-West Prussia. In 1865 he was released and forced into exile.
Encounter with Anarchism
As an activist prior to his exile Mroczkowski was regarded as a democrat and an apostle of the Emancipation of serfs. On a trip to Florence in 1865 he met Mikhail Bakunin who befriended him and suggested he accompany him on a trip to Naples. There he was introduced to princess Zoë Sumarokov,. She was the estranged wife of Prince Alexei Obolensky with whom she had six children, and was living with them among revolutionaries escaped from Russia. She would become Mroczkowski's lover and later his wife and have two children with him. While staying on Ischia with Bakunin in 1866, Mroczkowski together with his now partner, Zoë, produced a French translation of the Revolutionary Catechism, Bakunin's founding text for the secret "international revolutionary society" they were planning. Bakunin's Pet name for Mroczkowski was the affectionate diminutive, "Mrouk". In Polish "mruk" means the "grunter" or the "silent one".
A Swiss interlude
In 1867, they decided to settle in Switzerland. Initially they stayed in Vevey, then in Geneva. There they met the French geographer and theorist, Élisée Reclus, whose daughter would later become the companion of the Mroczkowskis' son, Felix. In 1868 having become members of the First Internationale and then of the central committee of the League of Peace and Freedom, after the schism in the aftermath of the Berne Convention, Mroczkowski and Bakunin formed a group to oppose the ideology of Karl Marx. Mroczkowski was also involved in drawing up plans for the refurbishment of the villa, La Baronata perched above Lake Maggiore, a retirement retreat built for Carlo Cafiero, who initially "gave" it to Bakunin, but on discovering that his fortune was leaching away, was able to get it back.
London episode
In 1869 they left Switzerland and travelled as a couple to London and for about two years moved there in revolutionary circles that included people such as Karl Marx and Walery Wroblewski
A new career in photography
Since Prince Obolensky had forcibly abducted his children from his wife, Zoë, in 1869, her income dropped considerably. Having left Switzerland and now London, Mroczkowki and Zoë took up residence in Menton. There in 1871 Mroczkowski opened a photographic studio as "Walerian M.Ostroga", specialising in portraits. Eventually, he split his time working in Trouville-sur-Mer during the Summer and Menton in Winter. Living in two places enabled him to justify extensive travel and disguise his anarchist activities. Work as a photographer helped him keep his family – his Common-law marriage to Zoë and their two children, Félix and Léonie. They were finally married after the death of Prince Alexei Vasilievitch, Zoe's husband, and were able to buy a villa, "les mouettes", that became "villa Ostroga". Walery Mroczkowski/Valerien Ostroga died on 1 October 1889 in Paris and was buried in the Vieux-Château cemetery in Menton. His children and descendants adopted the surname "Ostroga", being easier to write and pronounce in French.
