Michał Plater-Zyberk

Biography

His parents were Kazimierz Konstanty Plater and Izabela Borch, daughter of Jan Andrzej Borch, Great Crown Chancellor. In 1803, he married Izabela Helena Syberg zu Wischling, Zyberk coat of arms, daughter of Jan Tadeusz Syberg zu Wischling, the last male representative of the Syberg family. In order to save his wife's family name, he adopted her surname and coat of arms, for which he received a special consent from Emperor Alexander I. Thus, he started a new line – Plater-Syberg, soon polonized to Plater-Zyberk.

In his youth, he took part in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) and traveled with his parents. After getting married, he settled in the Schlossberg estate. He was a lover of science. In 1805 he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial University of Vilnius, in January 15, 1806 he was elected as school inspector for the governorates of Vitebsk and Mogilev. He belonged to the Typographic Society in Vilnius and the Courland Society for the Study of Literature and Art, which he co-founded. He was a member of several masonic lodges: Szkoła Sokratesa (lit. 'School of Socrates'), Zum Guten Hirten (lit. 'To the Good Shepherd'), and the Doskonała Jedność (lit. 'Perfect Unity').

In 1816, he took the office of the civilian vice-governor of Vilnius. For the next few years, he actually ran the governorate, while Governor Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki stayed in Warsaw most of the time as a member of the commission for settling the financial accounts between Kingdom of Poland and Russian Empire. The idea of abolishing serfdom became popular among the nobility of Vilna Governorate, influenced by the acts abolishing serfdom in Courland and Estonia in 1816 and 1817. The reform became the subject of debate at the governorate assembly in Vilnius on December 30, 1817. Although Plater-Zyberk was in favor of the reform, he ordered the assembly to close its session, and the next day notified the Governor-General Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov of the incidents, and then the Emperor himself, proposing that the reform be taken up by the imperial court. The imperial court rejected the idea of reform and ordered to reprimand Plater-Zyberk and the marshal of the nobility, Teodor Ropp.