Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

January Uprising 1863

JANUARY UPRISING 1863 r.

160 years ago, Poles, who had been under the boot of the Russian Tsar for 68 years, took up arms. They fought for more than a year, but suffered defeats. But they set an example not only for contemporary Poles, but for revolutionaries and national liberation fighters from all over the world.

The "Kingdom of Poland," established at the Congress of Vienna on the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied by Russia, was a typical satellite state that Russia's ruling classes love to have. After the November Uprising of 1830-1831, the tsar reduced its already meager autonomy. Poles were subject to compulsory conscription into the Russian army.

From the early 1860s, the Russian partition was in an uproar. The most important demonstration took place in Warsaw on February 27, 1861, when the Russian army killed five people. On October 14, martial law was imposed in the Kingdom.

Prior to the uprising, two political groups formed - the "Whites" and the "Reds. "Whites" postulated negotiations with the partitioners, cooperation with France and Great Britain, and ruled out armed struggle. The "Reds," on the other hand, wanted an uprising involving the peasants, who were to be enfranchised without compensation, and hoped for cooperation with Russian and European revolutionaries.

On October 17, 1861, the "Reds" founded the Municipal Committee, which in June 1862 became the Central National Committee.

On October 6, 1862, a branka, or forced conscription into the tsarist army, was ordered. It took place on the night of January 14-15, 1863 in the capital. This poured out the bitterness of the Polish nation. The date of the uprising was set for January 22.

On the same day, the CNC transformed itself into the Provisional National Government, which decided to enfranchise the peasants. They were given ownership of their farms, rents were abrogated, landowners were promised indemnity from the state treasury, landless peasants to the insurgents were promised a minimum of 3-morg imposition, and peasant servitude rights were accepted in principle.

"The land, which the agricultural people have hitherto held on the rights of rent or serfdom, becomes from this moment its unconditional property, perpetual inheritance. The aggrieved owners will be compensated from the general funds of the State. And all the bailiffs and laborers, joining the ranks of the defenders of the country, or in the event of an honorable death on the field of glory, their families will receive from the National property a share of the land defended from enemies." - the manifesto wrote.

The National Government also addressed Russian sisters and brothers in it:

"And now we say to you Muscovite Nation: our traditional motto is freedom and brotherhood of peoples, for this we forgive you even the murder of our Fatherland, even the blood of Prague and Oshmiany, the rape of the streets of Warsaw and the torture of the dungeons of the Citadel. We forgive You because You too are wretched and murdered, sad and tormented, the corpses of Your children swing on the gallows of the tsars, Your prophets languish in the snows of Siberia."

No country in the world sided with the Poles. In an audience on January 28, Pope Pius IX condemned the outbreak of the uprising. On February 8, the Russian-Prussian Alvensleben Convention was signed in St. Petersburg, stipulating that the armies of both countries would assist each other (at the other's request) in suppressing the Polish uprising.

In contrast to their governments, the peoples of Europe supported the insurgents, both in word and deed. From Italy came to Poland the Garibaldists, organized by the son of the Italian national hero Menotti. Not a few foreigners died in the name of internationalism: Francesco Nullo, Joseph Chabriolle, Pavel Ganier d'Aubin, Esterhazy, Stanislao Bechi, Edward Nyáry, Louis Caroli, Matvi Bezkishkin, Émile Faucheux, Stefano Elia Marchetti, Léon Young de Blankenheim.