January Rising
The Doll does not discuss the January Rising directly, but from the hints and allusions the reader may gather that it had a considerable impact on the characters’ lives. Its dire consequences were suffered by everyone, as indicated in a remark about Wokulski, a former January insurgent, from a member of the public: He and the rest of ‘em sowed the harvest we’re still reaping to this day.
The fact that a character took part in the January Rising has to be guessed from clues such as somebody’s disappearance and his unexpected letter from Irkutsk two years later, from not seeing a person for 15 years (counting from 1863, the year the Rising broke out), or from claims that somebody has shown his patriotism by more than words. A similar restraint is used in reference to the period of preparation for the Rising: In those days everyone was crazy with ideas, and he didn’t want to be behind the rest of ‘em. There is some mention of meetings and church services that preceded the start of the revolt. Obviously, the course of the Rising and the names of the insurgents are veiled in silence, and the vague blanket term political events is the closest the author comes to making a direct reference.
A historical outline will provide more details. After the defeat in the Crimean War (1853–1856), the Russian state started to experience resistance from within, and the weakened Tsarist system had to start making concessions such as granting amnesty, broadening civil liberties (including the relaxation of censorhip), and the 1861 abolishment of serfdom and the enfranchisement of peasants. In the Polish territories, Aleksander Wielopolski (the head of Congress Poland’s Civil Administration under Russia from 1862) tried to gradually replace Russian administration officials with Poles, and founded the Main School in Warsaw (Szkoła Główna Warszawska, today’s University of Warsaw) for better education opportunities. However, the reform programme was incomplete as Wielopolski did not want to fall into disfavour with the gentry by enfranchising peasants and just substituted rents for serfdom. He hoped that keeping the peace will be rewarded by Russian occupiers with greater autonomy and the reinstatement of the 1815 Constitution.
Wielopolski’s political ideas met with opposition and criticism. For a considerable part of Polish population, the “thaw” following the Russian defeat was the invitation for large-scale demonstrations of their patriotic and religious feelings, especially ceremonial church services held for the souls of Polish icons or on anniversaries of important historical events (such as the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May 1791). The authorities responded in a disorganised and inconsistent way, sometimes ignoring the demonstrations, at other times using force to disperse them. There were fatalities, and their funerals were occasions for even more protest marches. A demonstration that ended in particularly heavy bloodshed took place in front of the Royal Castle on 11 April 1861. In these circumstances, Wielopolski’s policy was seen as verging on treason, and his opponents began preparations for an armed upheaval. In order to prevent it, Wielopolski decided to start conscripting Poles for service in the Russian army not by the usual random draw but as per lists of those suspected of plotting against the authorities. This trick did not work since most targets hid in the woods. Then, the Central National Committee of the “Red” faction declared itself to be the Polish National Government and, on 22 January 1863, issued a Manifesto calling the Polish, Lithuanian, and Russian nations to take up arms. At the same time, the Polish National Government decreed that peasants are not only to be enfranchised but also given areas of national land, and the gentry will receive compensation from the national treasury; however, these provisions were never enforced.
The Rising spread over the territories of Congress Poland, Lithuania, and (partly) Belarus. It lasted till the summer of 1864, but individual squads continued to fight till autumn, and some of them took military action as late as the spring of 1865. Operations were limited to guerrilla warfare: squads of insurgents, rarely more than several dozen in number, usually came together for one operation, then dispersed again. They were practically out of control of the military leaders (so-called Dictators), Ludwik Mierosławski and Marian Langiewicz. Since Russians had gathered their army into large garrisons at the very beginning of the Rising, they were not at all threatened by attacks of such small insurrectionist groups while they kept conducting deadly pacification operations. It was only in the autumn of 1863 that the third Polish leader, Romuald Traugutt, tried forming larger military divisions under unified command, but this plan failed as well. In February 1864, Russian authorities announced the enfranchisement of Polish peasants and, even more importantly, managed to implement the promise in the course of just a few weeks. This single action removed all the motivation that remained for peasants to take part in the revolt.
The January Rising lasted longer than any other Polish national insurrection, but it was doomed to failure. Even though the government of Napoleon III encouraged Poles to continue fighting, their declarations of help were just empty promises. The insurgents were few in number. There were six thousand of them at the breakout of the Rising, with the figure rising to approximately 25 thousand in the summer of 1863; the total number of Poles fighting throughout the duration of the Rising was only about 50 thousand. Polish freedom fighters also had no weapons to speak of, as they used mostly hunting and historic arms.
The collapse of the Rising not only resulted in the direct repressive measures of sentencing its participants to death, hard labour, exile, and confiscation of property, but it also served as a pretext for eliminating the rest of the Polish autonomy. In the years 1864–1876, the so-called Foundation Committee carried out a Russification of the administrative, educational and justiciary institutions. Governates replaced provinces as territorial units; municipal and rural councils were abolished. The period saw the introduction of Russian educational programmes. The number of Polish teachers was reduced, and certain subjects could be taught exclusively by Russians. Russian became the official language, with Polish not allowed in public institutions, schools and courts of law; streets, places and localities needed to be marked in both Polish and Russian. Poles could not seek employment in administration unless they converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The press and all publications were heavily censored. The situation of the Polish community improved only during the Revolution of 1905.
→ Aesopian language; → Russia; → Russians in Warsaw; → Poles in Siberia;
