Tadeusz Rejtan

Tadeusz Reytan was a nobleman from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was a member of the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Nowogródek Voivodeship. Reytan is remembered for a dramatic gesture he made in September 1773, as a deputy of the Partition Sejm. There, Reytan tried to prevent the legalization of the first partition of Poland, a scene that has been immortalized in the painting Rejtan by Jan Matejko. He has been the subject of many other art works, and is a symbol of patriotism in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. Despite his efforts, the partition of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was legalized soon afterwards.