The organizers of the January Uprising, which broke out in the Russian partition in 1863, tried to win the peasant masses over to the national cause. The Insurgent National Government had drawn conclusions from the people’s insignificant support for the November Uprising and from the tragic Galician Slaughter. In the absence of a regular army,… Continue reading The Golden Writ
On January 22, 1863, the Polish ‘Central National Committee’ proclaimed the outbreak of an uprising and issued a manifesto whereby it proclaimed itself the Interim National Government. The document appealed to all the inhabitants of the former Polish-Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita (Commonwealth), within its pre-partition borders, to fight against tsarist rule for liberty. The manifesto heralded the… Continue reading Manifesto of the Interim National Government
The establishment of the Kingdom of Poland, which covered most of the territory of the then split Duchy of Warsaw, by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and its integration into Russia was believed by the empires to solve the Polish question. Unfortunately, the tsar started to violate the Constitution. In November 1830, an uprising… Continue reading The oath of the members of the secret organisation managed by Szymon Konarski
In 1815 the Congress of Vienna, convened after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, decided to create a Kingdom of Poland. Through the person of the Tsar, it was joined in a personal union with Russia. The Tsar and King in a single person, Alexander I, guaranteed the new Kingdom its own constitution, along with a… Continue reading Parliamentary resolution re. dethronement of Nicholas I
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s victorious campaign against Prussia and Russia in 1806-1807 ended with the Treaties of Tilsit, which laid the foundations for the revival of the Polish state as a rump Duchy of Warsaw, ruled by Saxon king Fryderyk August (Frederick August I), grandson of the Polish king August III and a descendant of Jan… Continue reading Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw
Józef Pawlikowski, the author of the brochure entitled Can the Poles with their independence? (Czy Polacy mogą wybić się na niepodległość), came from an impoverished noble family from Vilnius. He was a lawyer, democrat, left-wing activist and one of the Polish Jacobins. Together with his party, he took part in preparations for the Kościuszko Uprising,… Continue reading Can the Poles win their independence? (excerpts)
