Emilia Plater Net Worth

Background and career

Emilia Plater (Lithuanian: Emilija Pliaterytė; 13 November 1806 – 23 December 1831) was a Polish-Lithuanian noblewoman and participant in the November Uprising of 1830–1831 against the Russian Empire. Born in Vilnius and raised in Polish Livonia, she joined the uprising in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania in March 1831. She became one of the best-known female participants in the insurrection and was granted the rank of captain by General Dezydery Chłapowski, although the extent of her actual military command remains uncertain.

Plater participated in the insurgent campaign in Lithuania and refused to follow the withdrawing Polish forces into Prussia in July 1831. Instead, she attempted to reach the insurgent army in Congress Poland, but fell ill during the journey. She died in December 1831 at the age of 25 and was buried in Kapčiamiestis, in present-day Lithuania.

Her military exploits, some of which were embellished in later accounts, made her an enduring symbol of the struggle for Polish independence. Immortalised in Adam Mickiewicz's 1832 poem The Death of a Colonel, she became celebrated as the "Polish Joan of Arc" and has also been commemorated in Lithuania and Belarus.