On 1 September, in the presence of Schaedow and Schinkel, a monument was erected in the Market Square at the outlet of Górna Street (80 Sierpnia Street). It weighed 600 hundredweight (30 tonnes) and stood 12.24 metres tall. On the southern side, a dedication from Frederick William III was written in golden letters: "IHM WIDMETE DIESS EINFACHDENKMAL. FRIEDRICH WILHELM DER DRITTE" (To him I dedicate this simple monument. Frederick William III). On the southern side of the column was the inscription: Bis hieher fuehrte Fuerst Kutuzow von Smoleńsk die siegreichen Fortschritte der russischen Heerschaaren, als Tod seinem ruhmvollen Leben ein Ziel setzte. Er war der Befreier seines Vaterlandes. Er war es, der den Weg bahnte zur Befreier der Volker" (Up to this point, Prince Kutuzov of Smolensk led the victorious advance of the Russian armies, until death brought his glorious life to an end. He was the liberator of his fatherland. He was the one who paved the way for the liberation of peoples. May the sacred memory of the hero be blessed). A list of decorations was placed on the western wall of the column, with his dates of birth and death below. All the inscriptions on the monument were written in two languages, German and Russian, and placed on opposite sides. As I mentioned, the pedestal originally stood in the Market Square, where it attracted the attention of Count Fryderyk Skarbek, a professor at the University of Warsaw and participant in the November Uprising, as he travelled through Bolesławiec. He wrote: "In this last small town, traces of the war can still be seen very clearly—not so much in the impoverishment of the inhabitants as in the monuments erected after the war and the cannonballs embedded in the walls of many houses. The greatest present ornament of the Market Square is the obelisk erected in 1893 in memory of Prince Kutuzov. By decision of the town authorities, it was moved to the place where it still stands today. This was done for political reasons, not—as an attempt was made to explain it—because of traffic difficulties in the Market Square. The monument symbolised Russian-Prussian friendship, but in 1890, after Bismarck's death, Russia reoriented its policy, and in 1892 concluded a military convention with France in St Petersburg directed against Germany. The following year, the monument was moved. Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Prince of Smolensk, is known above all as the commander-in-chief at Austerlitz and Napoleon's victor. I believe that many people are unaware of the negative role Kutuzov played in Polish history. In 1764–1767, he was in Poland together with Russian troops controlling the Polish state. In 1768, he took part in suppressing the Bar Confederation and most likely in the 1792 war and the pacification of the Kościuszko Uprising. He became a favourite of General Suvorov, known, among other things, for the massacre in Warsaw's Praga district. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1791, he was responsible for the Polish lands east of the Bug River. In the first years of the 19th century, he served as governor-general in Wilno. During the Napoleonic Wars, Kutuzov was an enemy of Polish statehood.
Postscript
I was surprised to read an article by Mr Longin Łukawski in Słowo Polskie on 6 January 1994 concerning the Kutuzov monument. The author wants to promote Bolesławiec using Kutuzov's figure, while he sees an obstacle to this promotion in the "awareness of a significant part of Bolesławiec's intellectual elite". I believe that the historical traces left by Kutuzov should not be destroyed; however, the idea of advertising a Polish town with the help of a tsarist field marshal is a complete misunderstanding. The arguments could be multiplied. As for "awareness", I believe it is in considerably better shape than the author's historical awareness. Medice cura te ipsum.