Part 31

KORIN, OGATA (c. 1657-1716), Japanese painter and lacquerer, was born at Koto, the son of a wealthy merchant who had a taste for the arts and is said to have given his son some elementary instruction therein. Korin also studied under Soken Yamamoto, Kano, Tsunenobu and Gukei Sumiyoshi; and he was greatly influenced by his predecessors Koyetsu and Sotatsu. On arriving at maturity, however, he broke away from all tradition, and developed a very original and quite distinctive style of his own, both in painting and in the decoration of lacquer. The characteristic of this is a bold impressionism, which is expressed in few and simple highly idealized forms, with an absolute disregard either of realism or of the usual conventions. In lacquer Korin's use of white metals arid of mother-of-pearl is notable; but herein he followed Koyetsu. Korin died on the 2nd of June 1716, at the age of fifty-nine. His chief pupils were Kagei Tatebashi and Shiko Watanable; but the present knowledge and appreciation of his work are largely due to the efforts of Hoitsu Sakai, who brought about a revival of Korin's style.

See A. Morrison, _The Painters of Japan_ (1902); S. Tajima, _Masterpieces selected from the Korin School_ (1903); S. Hoitsu, _The 100 Designs by Korin_ (1815) and _More Designs by Korin_ (1826). (E. F. S.)

KORKUS, an aboriginal tribe of India, dwelling on the Satpura hills in the Central Provinces. They are of interest as being the westernmost representatives of the Munda family of speech. They are rapidly becoming hinduized, as may be gathered from the figures of the census of 1901, which show 140,000 Korkus by race, but only 88,000 speakers of the Korku language.

KÖRMÖCZBÁNYA (German, _Kremnitz_), an old mining town, in the county of Bars, in Hungary, 158 m. N. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900), 4299. It is situated in a deep valley in the Hungarian Ore Mountains region. Among its principal buildings are the castle, several Roman Catholic (from the 13th and 14th centuries) and Lutheran churches, a Franciscan monastery (founded 1634), the town-hall, and the mint where the celebrated Kremnitz gold ducats were formerly struck. The bulk of the inhabitants find employment in connexion with the gold and silver mines. By means of a tunnel 9 m. in length, constructed in 1851-1852, the water is drained off from the mines into the river Gran. According to tradition, Körmöczbánya was founded in the 8th century by Saxons. The place is mentioned in documents in 1317, and became a royal free town in 1328, being therefore one of the oldest free towns in Hungary.

KÖRNER, KARL THEODOR (1791-1813), German poet and patriot, often called the German "Tyrtaeus," was born at Dresden on the 23rd of September 1791. His father, Christian Gottfried Körner (1756-1831), a distinguished Saxon jurist, was Schiller's most intimate friend. He was educated at the Kreuzschule in Dresden and entered at the age of seventeen the mining academy at Freiburg in Saxony, where he remained two years. Here he occupied himself less with science than with verse, a collection of which appeared under the title _Knospen_ in 1810. In this year he went to the university of Leipzig, in order to study law; but he became involved in a serious conflict with the police and was obliged to continue his studies in Berlin. In August 1811 Körner went to Vienna, where he devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits; he became engaged to the actress Antonie Adamberger, and, after the success of several plays produced in 1812, he was appointed poet to the Hofburgtheater. When the German nation rose against the French yoke, in 1813, Körner gave up all his prospects at Vienna and joined Lützow's famous corps of volunteers at Breslau. On his march to Leipzig he passed through Dresden, where he issued his spirited _Aufruf an die Sachsen_, in which he called upon his countrymen to rise against their oppressors. He became lieutenant towards the end of April, and took part in a skirmish at Kitzen near Leipzig on the 7th of June, when he was severely wounded. After being nursed by friends at Leipzig and Carlsbad, he rejoined his corps and fell in an engagement outside a wood near Gadebusch in Mecklenburg on the 26th of August 1813. He was buried by his comrades under an oak close to the village of Wöbbelin, where there is a monument to him.

The abiding interest in Körner is patriotic and political rather than literary. His fame as a poet rests upon his patriotic lyrics, which were published by his father under the title _Leier und Schwert_ in 1814. These songs, which fired the poet's comrades to deeds of heroism in 1813, bear eloquent testimony to the intensity of the national feeling against Napoleon, but judged as literature they contain more bombast than poetry. Among the best known are "Lützow's wilde verwegene Jagd," "Gebet während der Schlacht" (set to music by Weber) and "Das Schwertlied." This last was written immediately before his death, and the last stanza added on the fatal morning. As a dramatist Körner was remarkably prolific, but his comedies hardly touch the level of Kotzebue's and his tragedies, of which the best is _Zriny_ (1814), are rhetorical imitations of Schiller's.

His works have passed through many editions. Among the more recent are: _Sämtliche Werke_ (Stuttgart, 1890), edited by Adolf Stern; by H. Zimmer (2 vols., Leipzig, 1893) and by E. Goetze (Berlin, 1900). The most valuable contributions to our knowledge of the poet have been furnished by E. Peschel, the founder and director of the Körner Museum in Dresden, in _Theodor Körners Tagebuch und Kriegslieder, aus dem Jahre 1813_ (Freiburg, 1893) and, in conjunction with E. Wildenow, _Theodor Körner und die Seinen_ (Leipzig, 1898).

KORNEUBURG, a town of Austria, in Lower Austria, 9 m. N.W. of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900), 8298. It is situated on the left bank of the Danube, opposite Klosterneuburg. It is a steamship station and an important emporium of the salt and corn trade. The industry comprises the manufacture of coarse textiles, pasteboard, &c. Its charter as a town dates from 1298, and it was a much frequented market in the preceding century. At the beginning of the 15th century it was surrounded by walls, and in 1450 a fortress was erected. It was frequently involved in the conflict between the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus and the emperor Frederick William III., and also during the Thirty Years' War.

KOROCHA, a town of central Russia, in the government of Kursk, 75 m. S.S.E. of the city of Kursk, on the Korocha river. Pop. (1897), 14,405. Its inhabitants live by gardening, exporting large quantities of dried cherries, by making candles and leather, and by trade; the merchants purchase cattle, grain and salt in the south and send them to Moscow. Founded in 1638, Korocha was formerly a small fort intended to check the Tatar invasions.

KORSÖR, a seaport of Denmark, in the _amt_ (county) of the island of Zealand, 69 m. by rail W.S.W. of Copenhagen, on the east shore of the Great Belt. Pop. (1901), 6054. The harbour, which is formed by a bay of the Baltic, has a depth throughout of 20 ft. It is the point of departure and arrival of the steam ferry to Nyborg on Fünen, lying on the Hamburg, Schleswig, Fredericia and Copenhagen route. There is also regular communication by water with Kiel. The chief exports are fish, cereals, bacon; imports, petroleum and coal. A market town since the 14th century, Korsör has ruins of an old fortified castle, on the south side of the channel, dating from the 14th and 17th centuries.

KORTCHA (Slavonic, _Goritza_ or _Koritza_), a city of Albania, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Iannina, in a wide plain watered by the Devol and Dunavitza rivers, and surrounded by mountains on every side except the north, where Lake Malik constitutes the boundary. Pop. (1905), about 10,000, including Greeks, Albanians and Slavs. Kortcha is the see of an Orthodox Greek metropolitan, whose large cathedral is richly decorated in the interior with paintings and statues. The Kortcha school for girls, conducted by American missionaries, is the only educational establishment in which the Turkish government permits the use of Albanian as the language of instruction. The local trade is chiefly agricultural.

KORYAKS, a Mongoloid people of north-eastern Siberia, inhabiting the coast-lands of the Bering Sea to the south of the Anadyr basin and the country to the immediate north of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the southernmost limit of their range being Tigilsk. They are akin to the Chukchis, whom they closely resemble in physique and in manner of life. Thus they are divided into the settled fishing tribes and the nomad reindeer breeders and hunters. The former are described as being more morally and physically degraded even than the Chukchis, and hopelessly poor. The Koryaks of the interior, on the other hand, still own enormous reindeer herds, to which they are so attached that they refuse to part with an animal to a stranger at any price. They are in disposition brave, intelligent and self-reliant, and recognize no master. They have ever tenaciously resisted Russian aggression, and in their fights with the Cossacks have proved themselves recklessly brave. When outnumbered they would kill their women and children, set fire to their homes, and die fighting. Families usually gather in groups of sixes or sevens, forming miniature states, in which the nominal chief has no predominating authority, but all are equal. The Koryaks are polygamous, earning their wives by working for their fathers-in-law. The women and children are treated well, and Koryak courtesy and hospitality are proverbial. The chief wedding ceremony is a forcible abduction of the bride. They kill the aged and infirm, in the belief that thus to save them from protracted sufferings is the highest proof of affection. The victims choose their mode of death, and young Koryaks practise the art of giving the fatal blow quickly and mercifully. Infanticide was formerly common, and one of twins was always sacrificed. They burn their dead. The prevailing religion is Shamanism; sacrifices are made to evil spirits, the heads of the victims being placed on stones facing east.

See G. Kennan, _Tent Life in Siberia_ (1871); "Über die Koriaken u. ihnen nähe verwandten Tchouktchen," in _Bul. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg_, xii. 99.

KOSCIUSCO, the highest mountain in Australia, in the range of the Australian Alps, towards the south-eastern extremity of New South Wales. Its height is 7328 ft. An adjacent peak to the south, Mueller's Peak, long considered the highest in the continent, is 7268 ft. high. A meteorological station was established on Kosciusco in 1897.

KOSCIUSZKO, TADEUSZ ANDRZEJ BONAWENTURA (1746-1817), Polish soldier and statesman, the son of Ludwik Kosciuszko, sword-bearer of the palatinate of Brzesc, and Tekla Ratomska, was born in the village of Mereczowszczyno. After being educated at home he entered the corps of cadets at Warsaw, where his unusual ability and energy attracted the notice of Prince Adam Casimir Czartoryski, by whose influence in 1769 he was sent abroad at the expense of the state to complete his military education. In Germany, Italy and France he studied diligently, completing his course at Brest, where he learnt fortification and naval tactics, returning to Poland in 1774 with the rank of captain of artillery. While engaged in teaching the daughters of the Grand Hetman, Sosnowski of Sosnowica, drawing and mathematics, he fell in love with the youngest of them, Ludwika, and not venturing to hope for the consent of her father, the lovers resolved to fly and be married privately. Before they could accomplish their design, however, the wooer was attacked by Sosnowski's retainers, but defended himself valiantly till, covered with wounds, he was ejected from the house. This was in 1776. Equally unfortunate was Kosciuszko's wooing of Tekla Zurowska in 1791, the father of the lady in this case also refusing his consent.

In the interval between these amorous episodes Kosciuszko won his spurs in the New World. In 1776 he entered the army of the United States as a volunteer, and brilliantly distinguished himself, especially during the operations about New York and at Yorktown. Washington promoted Kosciuszko to the rank of a colonel of artillery and made him his adjutant. His humanity and charm of manner made him moreover one the most popular of the American officers. In 1783 Kosciuszko was rewarded for his services and his devotion to the cause of American independence with the thanks of Congress, the privilege of American citizenship, a considerable annual pension with landed estates, and the rank of brigadier-general, which he retained in the Polish service.

In the war following upon the proclamation of the constitution of the 3rd of May 1791 and the formation of the reactionary Confederation of Targowica (see POLAND: _History_), Kosciuszko took a leading part. As the commander of a division under Prince Joseph Poniatowski he distinguished himself at the battle of Zielence in 1792, and at Dubienka (July 18) with 4000 men and 10 guns defended the line of the Bug for five days against the Russians with 18,000 men and 60 guns, subsequently retiring upon Warsaw unmolested. When the king acceded to the Targowicians, Kosciuszko with many other Polish generals threw up his commission and retired to Leipzig, which speedily became the centre of the Polish emigration. In January 1793, provided with letters of introduction from the French agent Perandier, Kosciuszko went on a political mission to Paris to induce the revolutionary government to espouse the cause of Poland. In return for assistance he promised to make the future government of Poland as close a copy of the French government as possible; but the Jacobins, already intent on detaching Prussia from the anti-French coalition, had no serious intention of fighting Poland's battles. The fact that Kosciuszko's visit synchronized with the execution of Louis XVI. subsequently gave the enemies of Poland a plausible pretext for accusing her of Jacobinism, and thus prejudicing Europe against her. On his return to Leipzig Kosciuszko was invited by the Polish insurgents to take the command of the national armies, with dictatorial power. He hesitated at first, well aware that a rising in the circumstances was premature. "I will have nothing to do with Cossack raiding," he replied; "if war we have, it must be a regular war." He also insisted that the war must be conducted on the model of the American War of Independence, and settled down in the neighbourhood of Cracow to await events. When, however, he heard that the insurrection had already broken out, and that the Russian armies were concentrating to crush it, Kosciuszko hesitated no longer, but hastened to Cracow, which he reached on the 23rd of March 1794. On the following day his arms were consecrated according to ancient custom at the church of the Capucins, by way of giving the insurrection a religious sanction incompatible with Jacobinism. The same day, amidst a vast concourse of people in the market-place, Kosciuszko took an oath of fidelity to the Polish nation; swore to wage war against the enemies of his country; but protested at the same time that he would fight only for the independence and territorial integrity of Poland.

The insurrection had from the first a purely popular character. We find none of the great historic names of Poland in the lists of the original confederates. For the most part the confederates of Kosciuszko were small squires, traders, peasants and men of low degree generally. Yet the comparatively few gentlemen who joined the movement sacrificed everything to it. Thus, to take but a single instance, Karol Prozor sold the whole of his ancestral estates and thus contributed 1,000,000 thalers to the cause. From the 24th of March to the 1st of April Kosciuszko remained at Cracow organizing his forces. On the 3rd of April at Raclawice, with 4000 regulars, and 2000 peasants armed only with scythes and pikes, and next to no artillery, he defeated the Russians, who had 5000 veterans and 30 guns. This victory had an immense moral effect, and brought into the Polish camp crowds of waverers to what had at first seemed a desperate cause. For the next two months Kosciuszko remained on the defensive near Sandomir. He durst not risk another engagement with the only army which Poland so far possessed, and he had neither money, officers nor artillery. The country, harried incessantly during the last two years, was in a pitiable condition. There was nothing to feed the troops in the very provinces they occupied, and provisions had to be imported from Galicia. Money could only be obtained by such desperate expedients as the melting of the plate of the churches and monasteries, which was brought in to Kosciuszko's camp at Pinczow and subsequently coined at Warsaw, minus the royal effigy, with the inscription: "Freedom, Integrity and Independence of the Republic, 1794." Moreover, Poland was unprepared. Most of the regular troops were incorporated in the Russian army, from which it was very difficult to break away, and until these soldiers came in Kosciuszko had principally to depend on the valour of his scythemen. But in the month of April the whole situation improved. On the 17th of that month the 2000 Polish troops in Warsaw expelled the Russian garrison after days of street fighting, chiefly through the ability of General Mokronowski, and a provisional government was formed. Five days later Jakob Jasinski drove the Russians from Wilna.

By this time Kosciuszko's forces had risen to 14,000, of whom 10,000 were regulars, and he was thus able to resume the offensive. He had carefully avoided doing anything to provoke Austria or Prussia. The former was described in his manifestoes as a potential friend; the latter he never alluded to as an enemy. "Remember," he wrote, "that the only war we have upon our hands is war to the death against the Muscovite tyranny." Nevertheless Austria remained suspicious and obstructive; and the Prussians, while professing neutrality, very speedily effected a junction with the Russian forces. This Kosciuszko, misled by the treacherous assurances of Frederick William's ministers, never anticipated, when on the 4th of June he marched against General Denisov. He encountered the enemy on the 5th of June at Szczekociny, and then discovered that his 14,000 men had to do not merely with a Russian division but with the combined forces of Russia and Prussia, numbering 25,000 men. Nevertheless, the Poles acquitted themselves manfully, and at dusk retreated in perfect order upon Warsaw unpursued. Yet their losses had been terrible, and of the six Polish generals present three, whose loss proved to be irreparable, were slain, and two of the others were seriously wounded. A week later another Polish division was defeated at Kholm; Cracow was taken by the Prussians on the 22nd of June; and the mob at Warsaw broke upon the gaols and murdered the political prisoners in cold blood. Kosciuszko summarily punished the ringleaders of the massacres and had 10,000 of the rank and file drafted into his camp, which measures had a quieting effect. But now dissensions broke out among the members of the Polish government, and it required all the tact of Kosciuszko to restore order amidst this chaos of suspicions and recriminations. At this very time too he had need of all his ability and resource to meet the external foes of Poland. On the 9th of July Warsaw was invested by Frederick William of Prussia with an army of 25,000 men and 179 guns, and the Russian general Fersen with 16,000 men and 74 guns, while a third force of 11,000 occupied the right bank of the Vistula. Kosciuszko for the defence of the city and its outlying fortifications could dispose of 35,000 men, of whom 10,000 were regulars. But the position, defended by 200 inferior guns, was a strong one, and the valour of the Poles and the engineering skill of Kosciuszko, who was now in his element, frustrated all the efforts of the enemy. Two unsuccessful assaults were made upon the Polish positions on the 26th of August and the 1st of September, and on the 6th the Prussians, alarmed by the progress of the Polish arms in Great Poland, where Jan Henryk Dabrowski captured the Prussian fortress of Bydogoszcz and compelled General Schwerin with his 20,000 men to retire upon Kalisz, raised the siege. Elsewhere, indeed, after a brief triumph the Poles were everywhere worsted, and Suvarov, after driving them before him out of Lithuania was advancing by forced marches upon Warsaw. Even now, however, the situation was not desperate, for the Polish forces were still numerically superior to the Russian. But the Polish generals proved unequal to carrying out the plans of the dictator; they allowed themselves to be beaten in detail, and could not prevent the junction of Suvarov and Fersen. Kosciuszko himself, relying on the support of Poninski's division 4 m. away, attacked Fersen at Maciejowice on the 10th of October. But Poninski never appeared, and after a bloody encounter the Polish army of 7000 was almost annihilated by the 16,000 Russians; and Kosciuszko, seriously wounded and insensible, was made a prisoner on the field of battle. The long credited story that he cried "Finis Poloniae!" as he fell is a fiction.

Kosciuszko was conveyed to Russia, where he remained till the accession of Paul in 1796. On his return on the 19th of December 1796 he paid a second visit to America, and lived at Philadelphia till May 1798, when he went to Paris, where the First Consul earnestly invited his co-operation against the Allies. But he refused to draw his sword unless Napoleon undertook to give the restoration of Poland a leading place in his plans; and to this, as he no doubt foresaw, Bonaparte would not consent. Again and again he received offers of high commands in the French army, but he kept aloof from public life in his house at Berville, near Paris, where the emperor Alexander visited him in 1814. At the Congress of Vienna his importunities on behalf of Poland finally wearied Alexander, who preferred to follow the counsels of Czartoryski; and Kosciuszko retired to Solothurn, where he lived with his friend Zeltner. Shortly before his death, on the 2nd of April 1817, he emancipated his serfs, insisting only on the maintenance of schools on the liberated estates. His remains were carried to Cracow and buried in the cathedral; while the people, reviving an ancient custom, raised a huge mound to his memory near the city.

Kosciuszko was essentially a democrat, but a democrat of the school of Jefferson and Lafayette. He maintained that the republic could only be regenerated on the basis of absolute liberty and equality before the law; but in this respect he was far in advance of his age, and the aristocratic prejudices of his countrymen compelled him to resort to half measures. He wrote _Manoeuvres of Horse Artillery_ (New York, 1808) and a description of the campaign of 1792 (in vol. xvi. of E. Raczynski's _Sketch of the Poles and Poland_ (Posen, 1843).

See Jozef Zajaczek, _History of the Revolution of_ 1794 (Pol.) (Lemberg, 1881); Leonard Jakob Borejko Chodzko, _Biographie du général Kosciuszko_ (Fontainebleau, 1837); Karol Falkenstein, _Thaddäus Kosciuszko_ (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1834; French ed., Paris, 1839); Antoni Choloniewski, _Tadeusz Kosciuszko_ (Pol.) (Lemberg, 1902); Franciszek Rychlicki, _T. Kosciuszko and the Partition of Poland_ (Pol.) (Cracow, 1875). (R. N. B.)