Jan Kiliński Monument (Pomnik Jana Kilińskiego)

Monument dedicated to the leader of Warsaw’s Kościuszko Uprising (1794) and conspirator against Russia, one of three foreign occupiers of Poland at the time. Jan Kiliński repaired shoes for a living.
During World War II, in revenge for the removal of German text from Koperniks' statue, Kiliński was ‘arrested’ – his statue was torn down from its site on plac Krasińskich. The Underground learned where the Germans had hidden the statue - in the basement of the National Museum. Soon after, on the walls of the Museum appeared a message: ‘People of Warsaw, here I am! Jan Kiliński’. Mikołaj Kopernik also reacted to the removal of the statue: all over the city, the following handwritten messages were visible: ‘In revenge for the destruction of Kiliński’s monument, I insist that winter last an extra six weeks, Mikołaj Kopernik, astronomer’. The winter of 1942 was indeed long and frigid.