Born March 4th, 1745 to Polish nobility, Pułaski was educated in Warsaw and then served as page to a vassal of the Polish King in the Duchy of Courland. The Duchy (in present day Latvia) was occupied by Russia and the nobility expelled in 1763. As Russia forced the Polish parliament to pass resolutions of complicity weakening the power of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1767-68, Pułaski joined his father Józef and other nobles in founding the ‘Bar Confederation’ – a military association opposing the capitulating home government, dedicated to defending the Commonwealth from Russian aggression. Quickly becoming one of the Confederation’s best commanders, Pułaski was eventually besieged in Berdyczów (northern Ukraine today) and after a valiant two-week defense he was captured by the Russians, but foolishly set free after falsely pledging not to return to the cause. Despite the arrest and death of his father, Pułaski continued to fight the Russians for four more years in what is commonly regarded as the First Polish Uprising. In 1769, he incited another revolt against the Russians near Vilnius, and successfully defended the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa in 1770. The heroic legacy of the Bar Confederation was soon to change, however, when a mysterious Pułaski-endorsed kidnapping of the King resulted in the intervention of Austria and Prussia and the partitioning of Poland in 1773. The Confederation was condemned and disbanded and Pułaski fled the country with a bounty on his head.