Paweł Potocki

Paweł Potocki was a Polish nobleman and writer. He was born into the prominent Potocki family through his father, Stefan Potocki. From 1638 to 1642, he studied at the Kraków Academy and the University of Padua. By 1643, he was a royal court secretary. In the mid-1650s, Paweł was captured by Russian troops and held captive in Russia for more than a decade. During his captivity, he allegedly swore allegiance to the tsar, married a Russian noblewoman, and learned material for his later work on Russian society. Stefan, Paweł's father, had previously also spent some years in foreign captivity at the prison in Istanbul.