Michał Wołodyjowski
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Michał Wołodyjowski (or Jerzy Michał Wołodyjowski, also Michał Jerzy Wołodyjowski) is best known as a fictional character created by Henryk Sienkiewicz in his series of three novels: With Fire and Sword, The Deluge and Fire in the Steppe. The novels are set in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 17th century. Wołodyjowski, called the "small knight", is one of the best fencers ever known, a true master of szabla (a type of Polish saber). Along with his friends Jan Skrzetuski and Onufry Zagłoba, he fights to save his country from foreign invaders.
The novels have also been made into films: With Fire and Sword, The Deluge and Colonel Wolodyjowski. The Wołodyjowski character is based on a historical figure. Jerzy Michał Wołodyjowski died in Kamieniec Podolski in 1672, fighting against the Ottoman Empire, according to anonymous Pisma do wieku i spraw Jana Sobieskiego, gathered by F. Kulczycki, Kraków 1881.
