Almost without weapons and military facilities, without a clear warrant of support from the outside, in the mediate of winter Poles challenged the 100 thousandth Russian army stationed in the Polish Kingdom. On January 22, 1863, the longest independency uprising began. And although it was a disaster, it showed, among others, Polish ability to organize an underground state.
Arthur Grottger, Battle, graphic from Polonia cycle, 1863.
It was expected to look completely different. Compromising defeat in the Crimean war in the 1950s exposed the weaknesses of the Czarsky self-employed. Liberals and supporters of reforms came to the vote in Russia, and in universities and in the military they remembered the Decabrists and their slogans of overthrowing the Tsar and democratization of the state. This ferment rapidly reached the Kingdom of Poland and aroused Polish hopes for change. The atmosphere of waiting for the situation to be improved was especially overcome by the young generation, which did not experience the trauma of the November uprising defeat, and was raised in the cult of its heroes. The wave of patriotic manifestations and services virtually flooded Warsaw. On its streets were long-lost banners with the Eagle and the Pursuit, and the demonstrators carrying them sang forbidden songs from Mazurek Dąbrowski At the head. The Czarska administration responded to this the old way: Cossacks with hooks and sabers drove patriotic crowds, and the gendarmes escorted the detainees to the Warsaw Citadel. There were besides fatalities, which were immediately surrounded by the cult of martyrs in Polish homes. This time, however, under the influence of liberal advisers, Tsar Alexander II decided to show kindness to the wayward Poles and loosen the police collar in the Kingdom. He announced that he would reconstruct wide administrative autonomy in the Kingdom and give control of it to Polish hands. As a consequence of this decision, in May 1862, the chieftain of the civilian government received margrave Alexander Wielopolski, and his controller, or politician of the Kingdom of Poland, was the Tsar brother with a liberal opinion – Grand Duke Konstanty Mikołajewicz.
Failed Red Hopes
These decisions only confirmed Polish conspirators in the rightness of their actions. The National Central Committee, which led and coordinated conspiracy activities, consisted of supporters of extremist social reforms and armed struggles. The Reds – as they were called – had contacts with revolutionaries throughout Europe, but most importantly, they established close cooperation with Russian conspirators. Many Russian officers 1 Army that was stationed in the Kingdom was ready to stand on the side of Poles and lead their soldiers to fight against the Tsar. It was planned to jointly master the Warsaw Citadel and the Fortress of Modlin, whose weapons magazines would let the Polish army to be armed and regular war activities to begin.
If this plan had succeeded, it would undoubtedly have a chance to succeed. But Polish and Russian conspirators underestimated the Tsarist police. They made the same mistake as the Decabrets, singing besides loud with wine and open windows about the death of the Tsar. A wave of arrests began among officers, and the revolutionous troops were immediately sent to the Caucasus. In their place, blindly devoted defender formations were sent to the Tsar. It was the first blow, aimed at the hopes of the insurgents. The second 1 aimed at them almost immediately margrave of Wielopolski announcing conscription to the army among patriotic youth – the celebrated brand. Although this time the full action proved to be missed, due to the fact that the majority of threatened conspirators were warned in time and fled Warsaw to close forests. In their endurance they were favored by an highly mild aura for January – winter was akin to today’s – and the aid of locals. The escapees spontaneously began organizing the partisan. This, and concerns about further actions of the Polish and Tsaric police, decided that the National Central Committee decided to start the uprising immediately, alternatively than in the spring of 1863 as originally planned.
On January 22, 1863, the Committee changed into the Provisional National Government and threw at the Russian garrisons about 7 1000 poorly armed and trained insurgents at night. Despite the Russians' surprise, it seemed that small was achieved. No major locality was permanently seized, no large arms stores were captured, and no Russian troops were dragged to their side, as was inactive expected.
It was besides disappointing to see the effect of the decree on the misdemeanor of peasants, which the Provisional National Government announced along with an order to fight. Despite the hopes associated with this, the village did not decision into insurgent ranks, waiting for developments. The order of the large Duke of Constanty, who ordered the army to leave the smaller garrisons, to concentrate in larger cities and to reorganize the troops before the country was pacified, contributed to the fact that the uprising did not cease immediately a fewer days after the explosion. In fact, it gave the insurgents time to calm down and think about what to do next. Then the Reds began counting on their revolutionary allies in the West. They announced that they had begun a common revolution, which is an extension of the People's Spring. And they were not disappointed in Garibaldi, Kossut, Hercena, Marx and Bakunina. These theorists and practitioners of revolutionary movements in Europe powerfully supported Polish insurgents, and their supporters rushed into Polish ranks. The insurgent troops included French, Italian, Russian and Hungarians. In the West, arms shipments were besides organized, purchased by agents of the National Government for a long time, and so needed by insurgents from the almost completely disarmed by the Tsaric Kingdom displays. It must be admitted that initially besides 2 monarchs of Austria and Prussia enjoyed the problem of the Tsar of Russia. For this reason, volunteers were looked through their fingers to emergence illegally crossing the border with the Kingdom, although arms shipments were requisitioned without pardon. besides another governments in Europe more or little openly began expressing their sympathy for Poles. The French emperor – Napoleon III Bonaparte, who had already given hope to repeat the communicative with the Duchy of Warsaw.
Disappointing Whites
This global ferment around the uprising, and especially the signals coming from Paris, as well as the gestures of sympathy from London (only Washington grateful to the Russian support in the war with the Confederate powerfully supported the Tsar in the war against “Polish rebels”) convinced more conservative factions in the Kingdom of Poland to make sense of the armed struggle. Their members were called for white distinction. And it was the whites, thanks to the coup that took power in the National Government, and as a consequence control of the uprising. The period of military dictators has begun – Mierosławski, Langiewicz and at the end of Trauguttt. The Russian Army became active in a oppressive guerrilla war. 3 more, led by increasingly experienced guerrilla commanders, appeared in the place of 1 liquidated partisan branch. However, the anticipated intervention of the West did not follow. The hopes of Poles were completely shattered erstwhile Napoleon III sank in Mexico in a bloody war with Indian president Juarezem. Worse still, the hostility towards the uprising besides began to be shown by the Prussians and Austrians. So far Bismarck has pursued a two-faced policy. On the 1 hand, he concluded with Russia a military convention officially directed against the uprising, while on the another he initiated confidential talks with Poles, until yet he offered them a union. But erstwhile the typical of the National Government in Paris, Prince Władysław Czartoryski answered briefly and decisively: “To Prussia? Never!”, Bismarck got furious and immediately closed the boundaries for insurgent troops organized in Poznań. In Sukurs to the Prussian Chancellor Austria went, announcing the state of siege throughout Galicia on 29 February 1864. Weapons and ammunition were banned, assemblies were organized, aiding fugitives from behind the Russian cordon. Foreigners had to get residence permits, and many residents in Krakow were expelled. It was a nail in the coffin of the uprising, for quite a few aid and volunteers It went to him this way. erstwhile again, lonely Poles had to succumb to the crushing superiority of the Tsar army.
The defeat was complete and weighed the trauma among Poles for many years. However, it remains to be explained, this ‘but’ for the title. For even the fiercest opponents of January insurrection, as well as many Russian commanders acting against Poles in 1863–1864, emphasize 1 unprecedented phenomenon – organisation of an underground state. “The authorities of the seals” – the National Government, whose decrees were recognized after the seal with the Eagle and the Pogoń – had to surrender absolutely in the Kingdom territory, including Russian officials. Paul Jasienica recalled in “Two Roads” an anecdote of a Russian officer possessing land assets in the Kingdom. During the uprising, his beloved steed was stolen from the stable. He looked for him unsuccessfully all over the neighborhood. Finally, he decided to compose a request to the National Government. A fewer days later, he found a horse tied to the barrier of his court. The phenomenon of the National Government emphasized and made its model besides Józef Piłsudski in the fight for independency of the Republic, and the Polish Underground State from the years of planet War II was his clear heir. However, this large disappointment and failure of 1863 resulted in affirmative results in the future.
Bibliography
Mr Jasienica, “Two Roads”, Warsaw 1960;
S. Kieniewicz, “January Uprising”, Warsaw 1983;
S. Rembek, “Ballada with a despised hanging”, Warsaw 1971;
