kosciuszko had a choice to make. do i join with polaski and help drive out the russians and go against the king and the prince who paid for my studies? either way he would be killing poles so he decided not to take sides and instead he took advantage of a scholarship to go to france and study art and on the side, he studied military engineering. because he couldn't go to the military school in paris 'cause he wasn't a french citizen. he audited those classes and learned about all the theories from others who created these incredible military strategies. and while he was there, he did these paintings. this is one of them. and here's another palace that he designed that was meant for the prince. but in paris kosciuszko also became obsessed with a new philosophy, an economic philosophy called phyocacy and those who own the land are the richest but why are they are the richest. they are the richest because the serfs work the land and he did a laissez-faire hands off the serfs. kosciuszko absolutely fell in love with this

and then the money that kosciuszko was given by the czar in london, he never touched that money because he felt that was blood money. in the end he wrote a will giving some of it to a friend and one of zeltner's daughters and he also had money in paris and switzerland and he said that money save and use and give it to peasants in switzerland who are going to carry me to my grave. .. >> yes, he was buried by the catholic church. in fact, he had his heart taken out along with his entrails and buried in switzerland, with the instructions that when poland was once again free, it be sent to poland and meet up with the rest of his body. and it wasn't until after world war i that his heart was actually sent back to poland and buried together with the rest of his remains. that's it. thank you very much. [applause] alex storozynski is executive editor and president of the kosciuszko foundation. >> i'm here because i am a d.c. born boy. back home from brooklyn for the first real stop on the invention of air, world tour. so it's great and it is great to start here in such a fantastic bookstore. po