School years of Martin Poczobut Odlanicki in Grodno: people and events of 1738-1745
The purpose of the research is to identify the factors that can influence the choice of life of the outstanding figure of Enlightenment, astronomer, teacher, poet and organizer of science and higher education of the last quarter of 18th - early 19th centuries Martin Poczobut Odlanicki. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the introduction into scientific circulation of new, obtained as a result of archival searches, information about events and people involved in his education at the Grodno Jesuit Collegium and who had the opportunity to influence his fate. The introduction indicates the importance of studying the key moments of the biography of Martin Poczobut Odlanicki and draws attention to the unexplored initial period of his life. The main part presents the main milestones in the history of the Grodno Collegium and characterizes the teaching of natural science in the Jesuit Collegiums of the described period. An explanation is given for the discrepancy in the training period of Martin Poczobut Odlanicki, the practices of spiritual and moral education at the collegium are described, and the names of the confessors are given, with whom he interacted in the collegium. The personalities of the rectors of the Grodno Collegium and the main problems that the collegium faced during their cadence are characterized. A separate emphasis is placed on the involvement of the collegium in the events connected with the holding in 1744 of the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Then there is information about Grodno countrymen of the same age of Martin Poczobut Odlanicki who played a significant role in his adult life. The conclusion notes the factors that influenced the decision of Martin Poczobut Odlanicki to join the Jesuits Order, as well as the need for a new understanding of the quality of the Grodno intellectual environment in the 40s of the 18th century, and also the role that the Grodno Jesuit Collegium played in ensuring this quality. Since such understanding serves the historical reconstruction of social institutions that set the sociocultural specificity of the GDL lands and served to the maturing of the Belarusian statehood.