Hugo Kołłątaj was born on 1 April 1750 in Dederkały Wielkie (now in Western Ukraine) in Volhynia into a family of Polish nobility.

[13] The reform proved so controversial that his political enemies plotted successfully to have him temporarily removed from Kraków in 1781, on grounds of corruption and immorality.

[1][6] He became prominent in the reform movement, heading an informal group that was on the radical wing of the Patriotic Party, and labelled by their political enemies as "Kołłątaj's Forge".

[1][6][10][12] As leader of the Patriotic Party during the Great Sejm, he set out its programme in his Several Anonymous Letters to Stanisław Małachowski (1788–1789) and in his essay, The Political Law of the Polish Nation (1790).

[1][12] Among the goals he pursued were the strengthening of the king's constitutional position, a larger national army, abolition of the liberum veto, the introduction of universal taxation, and the emancipation of both townspeople and the peasantry.

[12] However, in 1792, when the Confederates' won, Kołłątaj emigrated to Leipzig and Dresden, where in 1793 he wrote, with Ignacy Potocki, an essay entitled, On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish May 3 Constitution.

[1][6] In 1807, after the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw, he was initially involved in its government,[10] but was soon excluded from it through the intrigues of political opponents, and soon afterwards, was interned and imprisoned by the Russian authorities until 1808.

[15] Steeped in the natural sciences, geology and mineralogy in particular, he went on to write A Critical Analysis of Historical Principles regarding the Origins of Humankind, published posthumously in 1842.

[10] Despite his lonely death, Kołłątaj became an influence on many subsequent reformers and is now recognized as one of the key figures of the Enlightenment in Poland, and "one of the greatest minds of his epoch".

Several learned institutions in Poland are named in Hugo Kołłątaj's honour, including the Agricultural University of Cracow of which he was co-founder and patron.