Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ([taˈdɛuʂ kɔɕˈt​͡ɕuʂkɔ] ( listen); February 12, 1746 – October 15, 1817) was Polish-Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States, and Belarus. He led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia as Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Force (Najwyższy Naczelnik Siły Zbrojnej Narodowej).

Before commanding the 1794 Uprising, he fought in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. In 1783, in recognition of his dedicated service, he was brevetted by the Continental Congress to the rank of brigadier general in a mass promotion given to all officers who had served during the war and became a naturalized citizen of the United States.^{[citation needed]} The United States also gave him a land grant.

On a visit to America in 1798, Kościuszko collected his back pay and entrusted it to his friend Thomas Jefferson in his will, directing him to spend the American money on freeing and educating black slaves, including Jefferson's. Kościuszko died in 1817, but Jefferson never carried out the terms of his will, nor did a friend to whom he transferred the executorship. In 1852 Chief Justice Roger Taney of the U.S. Supreme Court transferred the money, by then worth more than $50,000, to Kościuszko's heirs in Poland, ruling that his American will had been invalid.

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.

Stanisław Żółkiewski (1547 – 1620) was a nobleman of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, magnate and military commander who took part in many campaigns both in the Commonwealth and on its southern and eastern border. He held a number of notable posts in the administration of the Commonwealth, including the castellan of L'viv (from 1590), voivod of the Kiev Voivodeship and Great Chancellor of the Crown (from 1618). Following 1588 he was also a Field Crown Hetman, in 1613 promoted to Grand Hetman of the Crown. During his lifetime he won major military victories against Muscovy, the Ottoman Empire and the Tatars. He was the first Christian European invader of Russia to seize Moscow, a distinction shared only with Napoleon.

Żółkiewski attended schools in Lwów (now L'viv, Ukraine], was well read and spoke foreign languages. He was secretary to King Stefan Batory. In 1588 he commanded the right flank of Commonwealth forces in the battle of Byczyna, where he also received a knee wound, laming him for life. Between 1594 and 1596 he defeated the Cossack uprisng of Severyn Nalivaiko. In 1607 he defeated the Zebrzydowski's Rebellion in the battle of Guzów. In 1610 he achieved yet another significant victory in the battle of Klushino against the Tsardom of Russia. As an effect of his successful campaign, Żółkiewski seized Moscow and took the tsar Vasiliy Shuyskiy captive during the Dymitriads. He supported the election of Władysław IV Vasa for tsar and the idea of a liberal personal union between the Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia.