The disappearance of Poland as a state

The drafted constitution of 1791 was called upon to implement the following transformations on the territory of the Commonwealth:

• establishment of centralized power;
• curbing gentry anarchy;
• elimination of the pernicious principle of "liberum veto";
• mitigation of the social inequality of serfs.

However, the Polish magnates could not come to terms with the abolition of liberties in accordance with constitutional norms. The only way out of this situation for them was intervention by Russia. The formation of a confederation under the leadership of Marshal Pototsky, the search for help in St. Petersburg served as a pretext for the introduction of troops into Polish territory by Empress Catherine II. There was a second division of the Commonwealth between Russia and Prussia (whose troops were on Polish territory).

The main prerequisites for the disappearance of Poland as an independent state from the map of Europe:

• the abolition of the reforms of the Four-Year Diet, including the constitution of 1791;
• turning the rest of Poland into a puppet state;
• the defeat of the mass popular uprising of 1794 under the leadership of Tadeusz Kosciuszko;
• the third partition of Poland in 1795 with the participation of Austria.

1807 was marked by the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw by Napoleon, which included the Prussian and Austrian lands of Poland. In 1809, the Poles Krakow, Lublin, Radom and Sandomierz, who fought on the side of Napoleon, joined it. The fact that Poland was part of Russia until 1917 brought the Polish people both great disappointments and new opportunities.

The period of "Alexander's freedoms"

After the defeat in the war with Russia, the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw, created by Napoleon, became Russian property. Since 1815, the reign of Alexander I began, who got a poor country, devastated by military operations, without a single industry, with neglected trade, with devastated cities and villages, where the people suffered from unbearable taxes and extortions. Taking this country under guardianship, Alexander made it prosperous.

1. All branches of industry have resumed.
2. Cities were rebuilt, new villages appeared.
3. The drainage of swamps contributed to the emergence of fertile lands.
4. The construction of new roads made it possible to cross the country in various directions.
5. The emergence of new factories brought Polish cloth and other goods to Russia.
6. The Polish debt was secured, the credit was restored.
7. The establishment of a national Polish bank with capital received from the Russian sovereign contributed to the development of all branches of industry.
8. An excellent army was created with a sufficient arsenal of weapons
9. Education was picking up a fairly rapid pace of development, as evidenced by: the establishment of Warsaw University, the opening of departments of higher sciences, sending the best Polish students to study in Paris, London, Berlin at the expense of the Russian government, the opening of gymnasiums, military schools, boarding houses for educating girls in regional Polish cities.
10. The introduction of laws in Poland ensured order, inviolability of property and personal security.
11. The population doubled during the first ten years of being part of Russia.
12. The adoption of the Constituent Charter provided the Poles with a special form of government. In Poland, the Senate and the Sejm were created, which were the chambers of the representative assembly. The adoption of each new law was carried out after approval by a majority of votes in both chambers.
13. Municipal government was introduced in Polish cities.
14. A certain freedom was given to printing.

The time of the "Nikolaev reaction"

The main essence of the policy of Nicholas I in the Kingdom of Poland was increased Russification and forced conversion to Orthodoxy. The Polish people did not accept these directions, responding with mass protests, creating secret societies to organize uprisings against the government.

The emperor's response was the following actions: the abolition of the constitution that Alexander bestowed on Poland, the abolition of the Polish Sejm and the approval of his proxies for leadership positions.

Polish uprisings

The Polish people dreamed of an independent state. The main organizer of the protests was the students, which were later joined by soldiers, workers, part of the nobility and landowners. The main demands of the protesters were: the implementation of agrarian reforms, the implementation of the democratization of society and the independence of Poland.

Uprisings broke out in different cities (Warsaw - 1830, Poznan - 1846).

The Russian government takes certain decisions, primarily on imposing restrictions on the use of the Polish language, on the movement of males.

To eliminate unrest in the country in 1861, martial law was introduced. A recruiting recruitment is announced, where unreliable youth are sent.

However, the ascension to the Russian throne of a new ruler - Nicholas II revived in the souls of the Polish people a certain hope for liberalism in Russia's policy towards the Kingdom of Poland.

In 1897, the National Democratic Party of Poland was created - the main fighter for the independence of the country. Over time, it will take a place in the Russian State Duma as the Polish Kolo faction, thereby designating itself as the leading political force in the struggle for a free, autonomous Poland.

Benefits of Belonging to an Empire

As part of the Russian Empire, Poland had certain advantages:

• Opportunity for advancement in public service.
• Supervision of the banking sector by Polish aristocrats.
• Get more government subsidies.
• Increasing the literacy rate among the Polish population thanks to government financial support.
• Receiving dividends from participation in rail transportation between Russia and Germany.
• The growth of banks in the major cities of the Kingdom of Poland.

The year 1917, significant for Russia, was the end of the history of "Russian Poland". He gave the Poles the opportunity to establish their own statehood, and the country to get freedom. However, the expectations of the Russian emperor about the reality of the union with Russia did not come true.

The next division of the Polish lands took place during the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. Despite the declared autonomy of the Polish lands as part of Prussia, Austria and Russia, in reality this autonomy was realized only in the Russian Empire. At the initiative of the liberal-minded Emperor Alexander I, a Kingdom of Poland, which received its own constitution and lasted until 1915.

According to the constitution, Poland could independently elect the Sejm, the government, and also have its own army. However, over time, the initial provisions of the constitution began to be limited.

This led to the creation of a legal opposition in the Sejm and the emergence of secret political societies.

The uprising that broke out in Warsaw in 1830 and was brutally suppressed by Nicholas I led to the abolition of the constitution of 1815.

After the death of Emperor Nicholas I, the liberation movement gained new strength. Despite its division into two warring camps (“whites” - aristocrats and “reds” - social democrats), the main demand is the same: to restore the constitution of 1815. The tense situation leads to the introduction of martial law in 1861. The liberal-minded governor of Poland, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, is unable to cope with the situation. To stabilize the situation, it was decided to conduct a recruitment in 1863, sending "unreliable" youth to the soldiers according to pre-compiled lists. This served as a signal for the beginning of the “January Uprising”, suppressed by the tsarist troops, which resulted in the introduction of a military regime of government in the Kingdom of Poland. Another result of the uprising was the implementation of a peasant reform in order to deprive the rebellious gentry of social support: the Decree on the Organization of the Peasants of the Kingdom of Poland, adopted in 1864, eliminated the remnants of serfdom and widely endowed Polish peasants with land. At the same time, the tsarist government began to pursue a policy aimed at eliminating Polish autonomy and closer integration of Poland into the Russian Empire.

When Nicholas II ascended the Russian throne, there was new hope for a more liberal Russian stance towards Poland. However, despite the refusal to further Russify the Poles, no real shift took place in the attitude of the tsarist government towards them.

The creation in 1897 of the National Democratic Party of Poland (it was organized on the basis of the "People's League") led to a new round of the rise of national self-consciousness. The party, which set itself the strategic goal of restoring the independence of Poland, made every effort to fight the Russification laws and sought, above all, to restore Polish autonomy. Over time, it established itself as the leading political force of the Kingdom of Poland, and also took an active part in the Russian State Duma, forming the Polish Kolo faction there.

The revolution of 1905-1907 did not bypass Poland, which was swept by a wave of revolutionary uprisings. During this period, the formation of the Polish Socialist Party falls, which organized a number of strikes and strikes. The leader of the party was Jozef Pilsudski, who, at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, visited Japan, where he tried to obtain funding for an all-Polish uprising and the organization of the Polish army, which would take part in the war on the side of Japan. Despite the opposition of the National Democrats, Piłsudski achieved some success, and in subsequent years, the Fighting Organization of the Socialist Party was created with Japanese money. Its militants in the period from 1904 to 1908 committed dozens of terrorist acts and attacks on various Russian organizations and institutions.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SYMBOLS OF RUSSIA

Poland within the Russian Empire

Banners of Polish units in the Russian army

In 1772, the first partition of Poland took place between Austria, Prussia and Russia. May 3, 1791, the so-called. The four-year Sejm (1788-1792) adopted the Constitution of the Commonwealth.

In 1793 - the second section, ratified by the Grodno Seim, the last Seim of the Commonwealth; Byelorussia and Right-Bank Ukraine went to Russia, Gdansk and Torun to Prussia. The election of Polish kings was abolished.

In 1795, after the third partition, the Polish state ceased to exist. Western Ukraine (without Lvov) and Western Belarus, Lithuania, Courland went to Russia, Warsaw - to Prussia, Krakow, Lublin - to Austria.

After the Congress of Vienna, Poland was again divided. Russia received the Kingdom of Poland with Warsaw, Prussia received the Grand Duchy of Poznan, and Krakow became a separate republic. The Republic of Krakow ("the free, independent and strictly neutral city of Krakow with its surroundings") was annexed by Austria in 1846.

In 1815, Poland received the Constitutional Charter. On February 26, 1832, the Organic Statute was approved. The Russian Emperor was crowned Tsar of Poland.

At the end of 1815, with the adoption of the Constitutional Charter of the Kingdom of Poland, Polish flags were also approved:

• Naval standard of the Tsar of Poland (that is, the Russian emperor);

Yellow cloth depicting a black double-headed eagle under three crowns, holding four nautical charts in its paws and beaks. On the chest of the eagle is a crowned ermine mantle with a small coat of arms of Poland - a silver crowned eagle on a scarlet field.

• Palace Standard of the Tsar of Poland;

White cloth depicting a black double-headed eagle under three crowns, holding a scepter and orb in its paws.

On the chest of the eagle is a crowned ermine mantle with a small coat of arms of Poland - a silver crowned eagle on a scarlet field.

• Flag of the military courts of the Kingdom of Poland.

A white flag with a blue St. Andrew's cross and a red canton, which depicts the coat of arms of Poland - a silver crowned eagle on a scarlet field.

In Polish flag studies literature, the last flag is referred to as "the flag of the Polish Black Sea trading companies of the 18th century." However, this statement raises very big doubts.

Most likely in this case we are dealing with falsification. The fact is that the Andreevsky flag with an eagle was used by Polish emigrants as a national one. Due to the very complicated relations between Russia and Poland, it was extremely unpleasant for Polish nationalists to realize that the national flag of the Poles was, in fact, the occupying Russian flag. As a result, the myth of "Polish trading companies" was born.

Other official flags of Poland from the time of her stay in the Russian Empire are not known.

section map

Based on materials from vehillographia

Poland in the Russian Empire: a missed chance?

Russia lost Poland, annexed by Alexander I, not because of the German occupation of this territory during the First World War, but because of the lack of a strategy in resolving the Polish issue

Set of geographical cards of the Russian Empire. Petersburg. 1856

The successes of the Russian authorities in restoring order after the suppression of the uprising in Poland in 1863-1864 sent the Polish question to the far periphery of European diplomacy. And not only diplomacy. In the bureaucratic circles of St. Petersburg, it seems, they were only happy to turn the ever-bleeding “Polish wound” into something stable, secondary and not too disturbing. Like, Poland has faded into the background, and thank God!

We know what this led to: during the First World War, Russia irretrievably lost this territory. And the reason is not just the German occupation. Russia lost Poland much earlier. First of all, due to the lack of thoughtful solutions to the notorious "Polish question".

Without a strategy in my head

It is important to note that both in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the strategy of Russia's imperial behavior in relation to Polish subjects was never clearly formulated, while tactical variability was forced to be reduced to the so-called "role of the individual in history." In other words, the policy towards the Poles depended entirely on the personality of this or that official who was assigned to oversee this difficult region.

To this day, beloved by many Poles, and a little earlier a priority for Soviet historiography, the point of view about the unprecedented and, moreover, the atrocities of the “damned tsarist regime” in Poland, carried out according to a single program, passed off as a conscious and long-term policy of the empire, is clearly far-fetched. As well as the opinion about the increased Russification of Poland. The well-known Polish historian Leszek Zashtovt recently stated that the processes of Russification in the lands of Congress Poland (as it began to be called after the Congress of Vienna and inclusion in the Russian Empire) were shallow and did not differ in intensity.

Coin of the Kingdom of Poland with a portrait of Alexander

However, with the obvious absence of a tough strategy for suppressing everything Polish, there were no well-thought-out plans for building a “soft power” policy capable of integrating Poles into Russian society and accustoming them to imperial values. Throughout the 19th century, a positive image of the Russian presence in Poland was formed and is still preserved in the historical memory of the Poles only in relation to the long-term president of Warsaw, Socrates Starynkevich.

Meanwhile, Sokrat Ivanovich did not discover any Americas: once he began his service in Warsaw under Ivan Paskevich and then only continued the policy of the field marshal, which in the 1830s-1850s assumed attention to the development of urban economy. However, the conqueror of the rebellious Warsaw in 1831 did not wait for a grateful memory from the Poles, while General Starynkevich, the reformer of the Warsaw housing and communal services system, was more fortunate. True, at the level of imperial strategy, he could not change anything.

Hunting more than bondage

In theory, the autocrat of all Russia himself could show interest in Polish affairs and change their course. Unfortunately for the Polish population of the Romanov Empire, the last monarch on the Russian throne in history was absolutely indifferent to him.

This indifference is very clearly seen in the diaries of Nicholas II, stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation, a large-scale publication of which was published quite recently, in 2011 and 2014. Against the background of descriptions of the smallest details of life and a careful listing of hunting trophies, including numerous crows, in the extensive text of the tsar's personal notes, we not only do not find reflections on the Polish question, but practically do not find any mention of the Poles themselves!

Visit of Nicholas II to the Polish city of Kholm (now Chelm)

Polish geographical names often come across: the emperor liked to visit the Privislinsky region, almost every year he hunted with pleasure there on the lands belonging to the royal family, and sometimes stayed in these places for a long time, as, for example, in 1901, when his rest lasted from 10 September to November 4th.

Nicholas II had the most enthusiastic reviews about his hunting successes, and sometimes he even suffered from Polish hospitality (record dated September 25, 1901): “I ate pancakes at breakfast so much that I really wanted to sleep later.” The last reigning Romanov noticed the local society very selectively: only the Poles from the world of music were occasionally honored with mentions in the diary - the singers Jan and Eduard Reshke, "the violinist and cellist Adamovsky." In his diary entries for 1894–1904, which made up a huge volume, the emperor spoke about the existence of the Polish nobility only once, but even describing the “deputations from the city and the peasants” that he received in Skierniewice on October 21, 1901, he does not say at all about that these deputations are composed of his Polish subjects.

Polish peasants

Personally, of all the Poles, the crowned author paid attention only to his constant hunting companion, Count Alexander Velopolsky (1861-1914), while, however, the tsar has three spellings of this Polish surname at once: Velepolsky, Wieliopolsky and Veliopolsky.

"Call for a common political life"

There was no one who wanted to change something in Polish politics, neither among the members of the numerous royal family, nor among the reformers close to the throne, and neither before nor after the fateful year of 1905.

It seems that the rapidly developing Russian society should have pushed the authorities to take decisions in this area, but here, too, no significant initiatives can be traced. The well-known historian and secretary of the Central Committee of the Kadet Party in 1905-1908, Alexander Kornilov, was perhaps the most competent specialist on the Polish question among the liberals: in his younger years he served as a commissar for peasant affairs in the Kingdom of Poland, and in 1915 he published a short book " Russian Policy in Poland from the Time of Partitions to the Beginning of the 20th Century.

The most curious thing is that there are no traces of any serious discussions on the Polish question in Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century in Kornilov's work. Changes in the position of the empire with the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, the historian connects with the legacy of the reformers of the Kingdom of Poland half a century (!) ago, who rallied around one of the main developers of peasant reforms, Nikolai Milyutin. According to Kornilov, it turns out that Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Younger at the beginning of the First World War was forced to use the ideological heritage of the people of the 1860s, because since then no one has offered anything new to the Poles and has not even particularly tried to do this ...

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kornilov (1862–1925) – Russian historian, author of the book “Russian Politics in Poland from the Time of Partitions to the Beginning of the 20th Century”

We should pay close attention to Kornilov's arguments: thoughts about Poland, expressed during the uprising of 1863, as it turned out, did not lose their promise even 50 years later!

For example, the well-known Slavist Alexander Fyodorovich Hilferding presented two urgent recipes in The Day newspaper: “1) To bring independence to the Polish peasantry; 2) to make every effort in Poland to disseminate serious scientific education. The independence of the peasantry will eliminate the Polish question, because it will eliminate the predominance of the nobility, which supports it; science will eliminate mystical-religious separatism and historical falsity from Polish society.” The first task, as we know, was already realized by the Russian Empire in the peasant reform of the Kingdom of Poland in 1864; I didn't think too much about the second one. As a result, the problem of education, postponed until later primarily due to lack of finances, remained very relevant for Poland at the beginning of the 20th century.

Is this not an example of wasted time?!

The most far-sighted theoretician on this issue for Cadet Kornilov in 1915 remained ... Mikhail Katkov. In the texts of a well-known conservative publicist, the historian caught very logical remarks. In an editorial in Moskovskie Vedomosti dated April 9, 1863, Katkov exclaimed: “The Russian people would not want the prospects for further development to be taken away or constrained from the Polish region by pacifying the uprising. Not to suppress the Polish people, but to call them to a new political life common with Russia - that is what lies in the interests of Russia, Poland itself and the whole of Europe.

"Creating real interest"

In the spring of 1863, Katkov also noted: “The Polish question can be resolved satisfactorily only through the complete union of Poland with Russia in state terms. Russia can give Poland more or less close views of such a government that will fully satisfy all the legitimate demands of her population and beyond which the types of European powers that it is now desirable to deal with the fate of Poland cannot extend. The Polish region can have its own local self-government, be provided for in all its civil and religious interests, preserve its language and its customs. But as administratively decentralized as possible, Poland should be a strong part of Russia politically. As for political representation, in conjunction with Russia, Poland can have it only in the spirit and sense that have been developed by the history of Russia, and not according to some artificial type, equally alien to both Polish and Russian history.

It is difficult to say how attentively Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov read Katkov, but even at the beginning of 1914, when the Polish direction already smelled of fried food, he wrote in a note to Nicholas II that the solution to the Polish question “consists in creating a real interest that would bind the Poles with Russian statehood.

Sazonov, quite in the spirit of Katkov, advised the tsar "in the name of great power interests" to satisfy "the reasonable desires of Polish society in the field of self-government, language, school and church." The head of Russian diplomacy, of course, could not read the diaries of the emperor, and therefore he lamented after the revolution in his memoirs that it was not possible to advance in matters of Polish politics due to the fact that it was difficult for the “bureaucratic state” to “break with the long-rooted practices opinions and habits...

New generation of Poles

Against the backdrop of half a century of delay in resolving the Polish issue, it is worth noting that the Russian Empire did not realize here the chances that appeared as if by themselves. The fact is that by the beginning of the 20th century, Polish educated society, a significant proportion of which were representatives of the gentry, had changed significantly compared to the situation in 1863. In the 1900s, a generation of Poles entered into life, whose good or even excellent knowledge of the Russian language could be combined with the preservation of “Polishness” and the Catholic faith, and these values ​​were not in conflict with each other.

Such a “new man” from the Polish gentry was extremely adapted to the conditions of the Russian Empire and could count on success in life rather in St. Petersburg than in Warsaw or Vilna.

Let us recall, for example, Tomasz Parchevsky (1880–1932), a gentry from the Mogilev province. After graduating from the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, in 1911 he first encountered the fact that, as a Catholic, he was not taken to serve in aviation, and then he was very surprised when he was assigned as a teacher at the Kronstadt gymnasium. “The position was, as for a Pole, a little unusual, namely: I became a teacher of the Russian language,” he wrote in his memoirs. - A Pole, a Catholic and ... a teacher of the Russian language! In fact, everything turned out to be quite simple: it was in 1911 that non-Russians were allowed to teach the Russian language inside Russia. True, there were almost no non-Russian specialists. Throughout the district [educational. – Yu.B.] there were two or three with me.”

Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935)

Admitting that he chose Slavic studies at the university “quite by accident”, Parchevsky noted: “I had exceptional natural gifts for this subject, because I comprehended the Russian language perfectly, speaking it much better than ordinary Russians, even my fellow teachers. Colleagues at first did not have the slightest doubt that I was a Muscovite. Only when they asked me if there was a mistake in my diploma - a column on religion, I answered that no, that I was a Catholic and a Pole. I still remember the dumbfoundedness of my colleagues, especially the priest-teacher. And although they put up with it, they shook their heads for a long time: “Well, well! And as he says! And where does a Pole speak Russian like that? In addition to that, with the most beautiful Petersburg accent! ”

Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877–1926)

It is precisely such a “new man” from the gentry, who recognizes himself as a Pole and professes Catholicism, but is apolitical or ready to support not Polish, but all-Russian parties (Parchevsky in 1917 sympathized with the Trudoviks and Kerensky, for which he was appointed governor of Kronstadt by the Provisional Government), in fact in fact, the Russian Empire needed it at the beginning of the 20th century.

THE POLISH LEARNED SOCIETY HAVE PRODUCED NOT ONLY PEOPLE LIKE JOZEF PILSUDSKI AND FELIKS DZERZHINSKI. However, the Poles, who absorbed the values ​​of Russian civilization and were loyal to Russia, were never demanded by it.

The Polish educated society produced not only people like Jozef Pilsudski and Felix Dzerzhinsky. However, the Poles, who absorbed the values ​​of Russian civilization and were loyal to Russia, were never in demand by it. The empire of the Romanovs could not really see this "new man". The historic opportunity was not realized. The “Alexander Days, a wonderful beginning”, which provided Russia with the legitimate possession of the former lands of the Commonwealth, did not continue due to the lack of a conscious strategy regarding the Polish issue.

Yuriy BORYSYONOK, Candidate of Historical Sciences

In the summer of 1915, as a result of the Great Retreat of the Russian troops, they left the territory of the Kingdom of Poland (or the Privislinsky region, as it was semi-officially called - parts of the Polish lands, together with Warsaw, given a hundred years earlier by the Congress of Vienna to the Russian Emperor Alexander I), which actually ended the hundred-year stay these lands under the rule of the Russian Empire. And 100 years ago, at the beginning of November 1916, the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary, whose troops occupied these lands after the withdrawal of Russian troops from there, considered it good to proclaim an independent Kingdom of Poland on them. What was the following document published then:

"Proclamation of the Two Emperors" (Germany and Austria-Hungary) Proclamation of the German Governor-General of Warsaw on behalf of the Allied German and Austro-Hungarian Emperors on the Restoration of the Independent Kingdom of Poland of November 4, 1916 (published in Warsaw on November 5)

“Inhabitants of the Warsaw General Government!

He was led. German emperor and his led. emperor of Austria and apostle. The king of Hungary, in firm confidence in the final victory of their weapons and guided by the desire to lead the Polish regions, wrested by their brave troops at the cost of heavy sacrifices from Russian rule, towards a happy future, agreed to form from these regions an independent state with a hereditary monarchy and a constitutional system. A more precise definition of the boundaries of the Polish kingdom will be made in the future. The new kingdom, in its connection with the two allied powers, will find the guarantees it needs for the free development of its forces. In her own army, the glorious traditions of the Polish troops of the past and the memory of the brave Polish comrades-in-arms in the great modern war will continue to live. Its organization, training and command will be established by mutual agreement.

The Allied Monarchs strongly hope that the wishes of the state and national development of the Kingdom of Poland will henceforth be realized with due regard to general political relations in Europe and the well-being and security of their own lands and peoples.

The great powers, which are the western neighbors of the Kingdom of Poland, will be happy to see how a state free, happy and rejoicing in its national life arises and flourishes on their eastern border.

The reaction of the Russian government:

“The German and Austro-Hungarian governments, taking advantage of the temporary occupation of part of Russian territory by their troops, proclaimed the separation of the Polish regions from the Russian Empire and the formation of an independent state from them. At the same time, our enemies have the obvious goal of producing recruits in Russian Poland to replenish their armies.

The imperial government sees in this act of Germany and Austria-Hungary a new gross violation by our enemies of the fundamental principles of international law, which prohibit compelling the population of regions temporarily occupied by military force to raise arms against their own fatherland. It recognizes the said act as invalid.

On the merits of the Polish question, Russia has twice said its word since the beginning of the war. Its intentions include the formation of an integral Poland from all Polish lands, with the right to freely organize its national, cultural and economic life on the basis of autonomy, under the sovereign scepter of Russian sovereigns and while maintaining a single statehood, after the end of the war.

This decision of our august sovereign remains adamant.”

... and the Provisional Government of Prince Lvov:

The old state order of Russia, the source of your and our enslavement and separation, has now been overthrown forever. Liberated Russia, in the person of its provisional government, fully invested with power, hastens to address you with fraternal greetings and calls you to a new life of freedom.

The old government gave you hypocritical promises that it could, but did not want to fulfill. The Middle Powers took advantage of her mistakes to occupy and devastate your region. Solely for the purpose of fighting Russia and her allies, they gave you illusory state rights, and not for the entire Polish people, but only for one part of Poland temporarily occupied by enemies. At this price they wanted to buy the blood of a people who had never fought to maintain despotism. Even now the Polish army will not go to fight for the cause of the oppression of freedom, for the division of their homeland under the command of an age-old enemy.

Pole brothers! The hour of great decisions is coming for you too. Free Russia calls you to the ranks of fighters for the freedom of peoples. Having thrown off the yoke, the Russian people also recognize the full right of the fraternal Polish people to determine their own destiny by their own will. True to the agreements with the allies, true to their common plan for combating militant Germanism, the provisional government considers the creation of an independent Polish state, formed from all the lands inhabited by the majority of the Polish people, a reliable guarantee of lasting peace in a future renewed Europe. United with Russia by a free military alliance, the Polish state will be a firm bulwark against the pressure of the middle powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) on the Slavs.

The liberated and united Polish people themselves will determine their state system by expressing their will through a constituent assembly convened in the capital of Poland and elected by universal suffrage. Russia believes that the peoples connected with Poland for centuries of common life will receive, in this case, a firm guarantee of their civil and national existence.

The Russian Constituent Assembly will finally seal the fraternal alliance and give its consent to those changes in the state territory of Russia that are necessary for the formation of an independent Poland from all its now scattered parts.

Accept, brother Poles, the fraternal hand that free Russia extends to you. Faithful keepers of the great traditions of the past, rise now towards a new day in your history, the day of the resurrection of Poland. May the union of your feelings and hearts anticipate the future union of our states, and may the old call of the glorious heralds of your liberation sound with renewed and irresistible force: forward to the fight, shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand, for our and your freedom!

P.S. It is noteworthy, however, that in Poland they celebrate their independence day not on November 5, when the act of two emperors on the restoration of the independent Polish kingdom was proclaimed, but on November 11, the day Germany recognized its defeat in the First World War (on this day the conclusion of this war 1st Compiègne truce). A day later, the governing body of this very kingdom - the Regency Council - transferred power to Józef Pilsudski, who was then oriented towards the victorious Entente.

The Grand Duchy of Finland enjoyed unprecedented autonomy. Russians went there to work and aspired to permanent residence. Finnish language and culture flourished.

Accession

In 1807, Napoleon defeated the coalition of Prussia and Russia, or rather, defeated the Russian army led by the German Bennigsen. Peace negotiations began, during which Bonaparte met with Alexander I in Tilsit (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad region).

Napoleon sought to make Russia an ally, and unequivocally promised her both Finland and the Balkans. It was not possible to agree on a close alliance, but one of the main demands on Russia was to promote the naval blockade of England. To do this, if necessary, a war with Sweden was implied, which provided the British with their ports.

In February 1808, the Russian army, led by Ostsee Busgevden, entered Finland. The hostilities continued for a whole year under the awkward leadership of Russian generals of German origin. Tired of the war, the parties made peace on terms that seemed obvious from the very beginning (it is not for nothing that the war is called Finnish in Swedish historiography) - Russia acquired Finland.

Grand Duchy of Finland: creation

Finland became part of the Russian Empire with the preservation of all possible rights and freedoms that existed before. Alexander I personally declared this: both at the very beginning of the war, and then at the Diet in Borgo (the Swedish name of the city of Porvoo, where the film “For Matches” was filmed) even before the formal end of the war with Sweden.

Thus, the main Swedish code of laws, the General Code of the Kingdom of Sweden, has been preserved in Finland. The Government Council, independent of the St. Petersburg bureaucracy, later the Imperial Finnish Senate, which held meetings in Swedish, became the legislative body of power and the supreme judicial body of Finland.

The main legislative body was formally the Sejm, but it began to operate actively only from the middle of the 19th century. Governor-generals were extremely nominal until the end of the 19th century. Alexander I ruled the principality personally through a special committee, later transformed into a secretariat of state, headed by the Finns. The capital was moved in 1812 from Turku (formerly Swedish Abo) to Helsingfors (Helsinki).

A simple Finnish peasant

The peasants in Finland, even before joining Russia, lived, in the words of Prince Vyazemsky, "very fairly", better than the Russians, and even sold bread to Sweden. Due to the fact that the Grand Duchy of Finland did not pay anything to the treasury of the Russian Empire, the well-being of the people there, of course, improved significantly. Peasant walkers from nearby provinces went there in a large stream: both Russians and Finns. Many aspired to go to Finland for permanent residence. Peddlers were not well liked in Finland, the village policeman could detain them for no reason. There are eyewitness accounts that when the pedlars decided to run away, the policeman shouted: "Kill the damned Russians, nothing will happen to you!" The men also went to Finland to work: in factories, mines, deforestation, often hired for agricultural work. As the researcher of the Russian North Bubnovsky wrote, "The real breadbasket of Karelia and its gold mine is Finland."

Old Finland and new Finland

This episode in the history of the Grand Duchy of Finland shows how different was the structure of the annexed territory and the Russian lands bordering it. In 1811, Alexander I annexed the so-called Old Finland - the Finnish province - the lands conquered from Sweden in previous wars - to the new principality. But there were legal issues. There was no serfdom in Swedish legislation, the peasants were tenants with broad rights to the land, and imperial orders had already reigned in the Finnish province - the lands belonged to Russian landowners.

The inclusion of old Finland in the principality because of this was accompanied by conflicts, and so sharp that the Seimas even proposed in 1822 to abandon the idea. However, the laws of the principality were nevertheless introduced on the territory of the province. Peasants did not want to become free tenants in Finland. Riots broke out in a number of volosts. Only by 1837 those peasants who did not sign the lease were evicted from the former lands.

Fennomania

In 1826 Finnish was taught at the University of Helsingfors. In the same years, Finnish literature flourished. Several reactionary years after the European revolutions of 1848, the Finnish language was de jure banned, but the ban had little effect, and in 1860 it was lifted. As the cultural revival of the Finns grows, the national liberation movement is growing - for the creation of their own state.

Unlimited autonomy

There are a lot of examples that confirm this definition: an autonomous legal system and its own legislative assembly - the Sejm (which met once every five years, and since 1885 - once every three years, while receiving the right to legislative initiative), as well as separate army legislation - they did not take recruits there, but the Finns had their own army.

Historians and jurists identify a number of other signs of Finland's sovereignty: separate citizenship, which the rest of the inhabitants of the empire could not obtain; restriction of Russian property rights - real estate in the principality was extremely difficult to buy; separate religion (Orthodox could not teach history); own mail, customs, bank and financial system. At that time, such autonomy rights of the annexed territory were unprecedented.

Finns in the service of the emperor

As for the opportunities for the Finns in Russia, by the time of joining the Russian army, the Finnish regiment was operating, which in 1811 became the Imperial Life Guards Guards Regiment, very well deserved. It consisted, of course, of representatives of the so-called "Old Finland", but the new Finns could also build a career in the Empire. Suffice it to recall Mannerheim, who for the sake of military education learned Russian and made a brilliant career. There were many such Finnish soldiers. In the personnel of the Finnish regiment there were so many officers and non-commissioned officers that the latter were put into operation like soldiers.

Limitation of autonomy and Russification: an unsuccessful attempt

This period is associated with the work of the Finnish Governor-General Nikolai Bobrikov. He submitted a note to Nicholas II on how to change the order in too "sovereign" autonomy. The tsar issued a manifesto in which he reminded the Finns that, in fact, they were part of the Russian Empire, and that they had retained internal laws “corresponding to the country’s everyday conditions” does not mean that they should not live according to general laws. Bobrikov began the reforms with the introduction of general military service in Finland - so that the Finns served outside the country, like all subjects, the Seimas opposed. Then the emperor decided the issue on his own, once again recalling that Finland was subordinate to the governor-general, who pursued the policy of the empire there. The Seimas called this state of affairs unconstitutional. Then the “Basic Provisions on the Drafting of Laws” for the Grand Duchy of Finland were published, according to which the Seimas and other structures of the principality had only an advisory role in lawmaking. In 1900, the Russian language was introduced into office work, and public meetings were placed under the control of the Governor General. As a result, in 1904 Bobrikov was killed by the son of the Finnish senator Eigen Shauman. Thus ended the attempt to "take over" the territory.

The Grand Duchy of Finland at the beginning of the 20th century

Taking the opportunity, the Seimas radically modernized the Finnish legal system - the four-estate system was replaced by a unicameral parliament. The electoral law passed in 1906 established universal suffrage and gave women the right to vote for the first time in Europe. Despite such democratization, the subjects of the empire and the Orthodox were struck in Finland in their rights.

Stolypin tried to correct this arbitrariness by issuing a law declaring once again that the Seimas had only an advisory vote on all issues, including internal ones. However, this law remained on paper. In 1913, laws were passed that made it possible to take money from the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Finland for defense needs, as well as on the equality of Russian citizens in Finland.

A hundred years after the conquest of Finland, all subjects of the empire were finally equated in rights on the territory of the principality, but this was the policy of the "center" that practically ended - then the war and revolution. On December 6, 1917, Finland declared independence.

How Poles lived in the Russian Empire

Poland was part of the Russian Empire from 1815 to 1917. It was a turbulent and difficult period for the Polish people - a time of new opportunities and great disappointments.

Relations between Russia and Poland have always been difficult. First of all, this is a consequence of the neighborhood of the two states, which for many centuries gave rise to territorial disputes. It is quite natural that during major wars, Russia has always been drawn into the revision of the Polish-Russian borders. This radically influenced the social, cultural and economic conditions in the surrounding areas, as well as the way of life of the Poles.

"Prison of Nations"

The "national question" of the Russian Empire caused different, sometimes polar opinions. Thus, Soviet historical science called the empire nothing more than a “prison of peoples,” while Western historians considered it a colonial power.

But in the Russian publicist Ivan Solonevich, we find the opposite statement: “Not a single people in Russia was subjected to such treatment as Ireland was subjected to in the times of Cromwell and the times of Gladstone. With very few exceptions, all the nationalities of the country were perfectly equal before the law.”

Russia has always been a multi-ethnic state: its expansion gradually led to the fact that the already heterogeneous composition of Russian society began to be diluted with representatives of different peoples. This also applied to the imperial elite, which was noticeably replenished with immigrants from European countries who came to Russia "to catch happiness and ranks."

For example, an analysis of the lists of the "Razryad" of the late 17th century shows that in the boyar corps there were 24.3% of persons of Polish and Lithuanian origin. However, the vast majority of "Russian foreigners" lost their national identity, dissolving in Russian society.

"Kingdom of Poland"

Having joined Russia following the results of the Patriotic War of 1812, the “Kingdom of Poland” (since 1887 - “Privislinsky Territory”) had a twofold position. On the one hand, after the division of the Commonwealth, although it was a completely new geopolitical entity, it still retained ethno-cultural and religious links with its predecessor.

And on the other hand, national self-consciousness grew here and the sprouts of statehood made their way, which could not but affect the relationship between the Poles and the central government.
After joining the Russian Empire, the "Kingdom of Poland" undoubtedly expected changes. There were changes, but they were not always perceived unambiguously. During the entry of Poland into Russia, five emperors were replaced, and each had his own view of the westernmost Russian province.

If Alexander I was known as a "polonophile", then Nicholas I built a much more sober and tough policy towards Poland. However, you will not refuse him the desire, in the words of the emperor himself, "to be as good a Pole as a good Russian."

On the whole, Russian historiography positively evaluates the results of Poland's centenary entry into the empire. Perhaps it was Russia's balanced policy towards its western neighbor that helped create a unique situation in which Poland, not being an independent territory, for a hundred years retained its state and national identity.

Hopes and disappointments

One of the first measures introduced by the Russian government was the abolition of the "Napoleon Code" and its replacement by the Polish Code, which, among other measures, provided peasants with land and improved the financial situation of the poor. The Polish Sejm passed the new bill, but refused to ban civil marriage, which grants freedom.

This clearly marked the orientation of the Poles to Western values. There was someone to take an example from. So in the Grand Duchy of Finland, serfdom was already abolished by the time the Kingdom of Poland became part of Russia. Enlightened and liberal Europe was closer to Poland than "peasant" Russia.

After the “Alexandrov freedoms”, the time of the “Nikolaev reaction” came. In the Polish province, almost all office work is translated into Russian, or into French for those who did not speak Russian. The confiscated estates are complained to by persons of Russian origin, and all the highest positions are replaced by Russians.

Nicholas I, who visited Warsaw in 1835, feels a protest brewing in Polish society, and therefore forbids the deputation to express loyal feelings, "in order to protect them from lies."
The tone of the emperor's speech strikes with its uncompromisingness: “I need deeds, not words. If you persist in your dreams of national isolation, of the independence of Poland and similar fantasies, you will bring upon yourself the greatest misfortune ... I tell you that at the slightest disturbance I will order to shoot at the city, turn Warsaw into ruins and, of course, I'll fix it."

Polish riot

Sooner or later, empires are replaced by national-type states. This problem also affected the Polish province, in which, in the wake of the growth of national consciousness, political movements gain strength and have no equal among other provinces of Russia.

The idea of ​​national isolation, up to the restoration of the Commonwealth within its former boundaries, embraced ever wider sections of the masses. The dispersal force of the protest was the students, who were supported by workers, soldiers, as well as various strata of Polish society. Later, part of the landlords and nobles joined the liberation movement.

The main points of the demands made by the rebels are agrarian reforms, the democratization of society and, ultimately, the independence of Poland.
But for the Russian state it was a dangerous challenge. The Russian government responded sharply and harshly to the Polish uprisings of 1830-1831 and 1863-1864. The suppression of the riots turned out to be bloody, but there was no excessive harshness that Soviet historians wrote about. The rebels preferred to be sent to remote Russian provinces.

The uprisings forced the government to take a number of countermeasures. In 1832, the Polish Sejm was liquidated and the Polish army was disbanded. In 1864, restrictions were placed on the use of the Polish language and the movement of the male population. To a lesser extent, the results of the uprisings affected the local bureaucracy, although there were children of high-ranking officials among the revolutionaries. The period after 1864 was marked by an increase in "Russophobia" in Polish society.

From dissatisfaction to benefits

Poland, despite the restrictions and infringement of freedoms, received certain benefits from belonging to the empire. So, under the reign of Alexander II and Alexander III, Poles began to be more often appointed to leadership positions. In some counties their number reached 80%. The Poles had the opportunity to advance in the civil service by no means less than the Russians.

Even more privileges were given to Polish aristocrats, who automatically received high ranks. Many of them oversaw the banking sector. Profitable places in St. Petersburg and Moscow were available for the Polish nobility, and they also had the opportunity to open their own business.
It should be noted that, in general, the Polish province had more privileges than other regions of the empire. So, in 1907, at a meeting of the State Duma of the 3rd convocation, it was announced that in various Russian provinces taxation reaches 1.26%, and in the largest industrial centers of Poland - Warsaw and Lodz, it does not exceed 1.04%.

It is interesting that the Privislinsky Krai received 1 ruble 14 kopecks back in the form of subsidies for each ruble given to the state treasury. For comparison, the Middle Black Earth Territory received only 74 kopecks.
The government spent a lot in the Polish province on education - from 51 to 57 kopecks per person, and, for example, in Central Russia this amount did not exceed 10 kopecks. Thanks to this policy, from 1861 to 1897 the number of literate people in Poland increased 4 times, reaching 35%, although in the rest of Russia this figure fluctuated around 19%.

At the end of the 19th century, Russia embarked on the path of industrialization, backed by solid Western investment. Polish officials also received dividends from this, participating in railway transportation between Russia and Germany. As a result - the emergence of a huge number of banks in major Polish cities.

The year 1917, tragic for Russia, ended the history of “Russian Poland”, giving the Poles the opportunity to establish their own statehood. What Nicholas II promised has come true. Poland gained freedom, but the union with Russia so desired by the emperor did not work out.