The Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie) is a territory in Europe that was in union with the Russian Empire from 1815 to 1915.



The part of Poland included in the Russian Empire did not have a single name. Until the 1860s, the name "Kingdom of Poland" was more commonly used in legislation, rarely "Poland". In the 1860s, these names began to be replaced by the phrases “provinces of the Kingdom of Poland” and “provinces of the Privislensky”. On March 5, 1870, by order of Alexander II, it was destined to call Russian Poland “provinces of the Kingdom of Poland”, however, in a number of articles of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, the name “Kingdom of Poland” was preserved. Since 1887, the phrases “provinces of the Privislinsky region”, “Privislinsky provinces” and “Privislinsky region” have become the most used, and in January 1897 Nicholas II gave an order by which the use of the names “Kingdom of Poland” and “province of the Kingdom of Poland” was limited cases of extreme necessity, although these names were never removed from the Code of Laws.
The Poles ironically called the Kingdom of Poland “Kongresówka” (Polish Kongresówka, from Królestwo Kongresowe).
The Kingdom of Poland occupied the central part of Poland: Warsaw, Lodz, Kalisz, Czestochowa, Lublin, Suwalki. The area is 127 thousand km².

Reign of Alexander I

Pursuing the retreating troops of Napoleon, the Russian army occupied almost the entire Grand Duchy of Warsaw at the end of February 1813. Krakow, Thorn, Czestochowa, Zamość and Modlin surrendered somewhat later. Thus, the state created by Napoleon actually found itself in the hands of Russia, but its fate still depended on the relationship of the powers. The state is going through hard times. Requisitions for the needs of the occupying army of 380,000 people exhausted him. Emperor Alexander I established a temporary supreme council to manage the affairs of the duchy, headed by Governor-General V. S. Lansky. The command of the army was entrusted to Field Marshal Barclay de Tolly. Polish affairs were concentrated in the hands of Count Arakcheev, which sufficiently determines the general nature of management.
Despite the promised amnesty and contrary to the wishes of the governor-general, citizens were arrested and deported only on the basis of a denunciation. At the beginning of 1814, Polish society was revived by the hope that its lot would improve. The emperor eased camping, reduced taxes, and allowed the formation of a corps from Polish soldiers under the command of General Dombrowski. The organization of the army was led by Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. Later, the emperor formed a civil committee that proposed replacing the Napoleonic code with a new Polish code, endowing the peasants with land, and improving finances.
Meanwhile, at the Congress of Vienna, which was reshaping the map of Europe in a new way, the duchy gave rise to feuds that almost turned into a new war. Alexander I wanted to annex to his empire the entire Duchy of Warsaw and even other lands that were once part of the Commonwealth. Austria saw this as a danger to itself. On January 3, 1815, a secret alliance was concluded between Austria, England and France to counteract Russia and Prussia, who had become closer to each other. The Russian emperor made a compromise: he abandoned Krakow in favor of Austria, and from Thorn and Poznan in favor of Prussia. Most of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was attached "for all eternity" to the Russian Empire under the name of the Kingdom of Poland (May 3, 1815), which received a constitutional device. The Polish constitution was promulgated on 20 June. At the same time, the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Poland were taken to the oath of allegiance to the Russian sovereign.
The constitution came into force in 1816. The emperor appointed General Zayonchek as viceroy, who was very helpful to the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. Count Novosiltsev became the Imperial Commissar.
In 1816, Warsaw University was established, higher schools were founded: military, polytechnical, forestry, mining, the Institute of Folk Teachers, the number of secondary and primary schools was increased. Two centers that were outside the Kingdom of Poland had a strong influence on intellectual life: the Vilna University and the Kremenets Lyceum. The greatest poet of Poland, Adam Mickiewicz, studied at Vilna University, and the historian Lelewel taught there. Enlightenment developed in spite of obstacles.

Minister of Education Stanisław Potocki, who ridiculed obscurantism in the allegorical novel Journey to Temnograd (Podróż do Ciemnogrodu in Polish), was forced to resign. Strict supervision was established over educational institutions, books and periodicals were subjected to severe censorship.
In 1817, the state peasants were freed from many medieval duties. In 1820, corvée began to be replaced by dues.
Between the emperor and the Kingdom of Poland created by him, there was at first complete harmony thanks to the liberal moods of the sovereign. With the intensification of reactionary currents, the aforementioned harmony was upset. In the country itself, some were ready to put up with what they had, while others dreamed of restoring the Polish state within its former boundaries. On March 5 (17), 1818, the emperor opened the Sejm in Warsaw with a significant speech:
“The former organization of the country enabled me to introduce the one I have granted you, setting in motion the liberal institutions. These latter have always been the subject of my concern, and I hope to spread, with God's help, their beneficent influence to all the countries that providence has given me to rule. »
The Sejm adopted all government bills except for the abolition of civil marriage, introduced in Poland by the Napoleonic Code. The emperor was satisfied, which he expressed in his concluding speech, arousing hope in the Poles for the realization of their patriotic dreams:
“Poles, I remain with my former intentions; they are familiar to you. »
The emperor hinted at his desire to extend the operation of the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland to the Russian-Lithuanian regions.

When, according to the constitution, the second Diet was convened in 1820, the emperor opened it again, but in his speech there were already warnings about the dangers of liberalism. Influenced by the opposition, the Sejm rejected the government bill on the grounds that it abolished the publicity of legal proceedings, abolished trial by jury, and violated the principle "no one will be arrested without a court decision."
The opposition angered Alexander, which he expressed in his closing speech, noting that the Poles themselves were hindering the restoration of their homeland. The emperor even wanted to cancel the constitution, but limited himself to threats. Contrary to the constitution, which established the convocation of diets every two years, the third diet was convened only in 1825. Previously, an additional article to the constitution was published, abolishing the publicity of the sessions of the Sejm, and the leader of the opposition, Vikenty Nemoyovsky, was arrested. To control the activities of the Sejm, special officials were appointed who were obliged to attend meetings. The projects proposed by the government were adopted by the Seimas. The emperor expressed his satisfaction.
Simultaneously with the legal opposition, there was also a secret, revolutionary one. A secret organization "National Patriotic Partnership" arose. In May 1822, the main leaders of the "Partnership" were arrested and subjected to severe punishments. Nevertheless, the "Partnership" continued its activities and even entered into relations with the Decembrists. The attempt of the latter to carry out a coup in Russia also revealed the activities of the Polish revolutionaries. According to the constitution, they were judged by the Sejm court, limited to mild punishments. Emperor Nicholas I expressed his displeasure at the verdict.

In economic and cultural terms, the Kingdom of Poland developed noticeably in 1815-1830. The exhaustion of forces disappeared thanks to a long peace and a number of remarkable figures - the finance ministers Matushevich and Prince Drutsky-Lubetsky and the well-known writer Staszic, who was in charge of industry. Progress was noted in all areas of economic life: in agriculture, industry and trade. The energetic Minister of Finance Lyubetsky put the finances in order with a series of measures, sometimes harsh, sometimes repressive. The deficit disappeared, the treasury accumulated a reserve of several tens of millions of zlotys, officials and the army began to receive their salaries on time. The country's population has grown to 4.5 million.
At the same time, members of secret societies spread democratic ideas. Voices were loudly heard in literature against serfdom, which harmed both the economy and public morality.

The reign of Nicholas I and the Polish uprising of 1830-31

In 1829, Nicholas I was solemnly crowned the Polish king in Warsaw and swore an oath of his obligation to fulfill the constitution, but left the petition filed to abolish the additional article to the constitution unanswered. The Sejm was convened only in 1830. The project to abolish civil marriage was again rejected almost unanimously, despite the clear will of the emperor. The opposition filed a number of petitions with the government: to ease the restrictions of censorship, to abolish the supplementary article, to release the leader of the opposition from arrest. This course of action of the Sejm greatly angered the sovereign.
Kingdom of Poland in 1831
In 1830-1831 there was an uprising that brought about profound changes. A significant number of politically active Poles were expelled from the Kingdom of Poland and settled in the provinces of the Russian Empire. Extensive power, along with the title of Prince of Warsaw and the post of governor, was handed over to Count Paskevich. To help him, a provisional government was established, consisting of four departments: justice, finance, internal affairs and police, education and confessions. The powers of the provisional government ended with the promulgation of the Organic Statute (February 26, 1832), which abolished the coronation of emperors by Polish kings, a special Polish army and the Sejm, and declared the Kingdom of Poland an organic part of the Russian Empire. The retained administrative council presented the sovereign with candidates for spiritual and civil positions. The Council of State drew up the budget and dealt with disputes that arose between administrative and judicial instances, and held officials accountable for malfeasance. Three commissions were established - to manage: 1) internal affairs and educational affairs; 2) court; 3) finance. Instead of the Sejm, it was planned to establish an assembly of provincial officials with an advisory vote. Legislative power belonged undividedly to the Emperor.

The organic statute was not enforced. The assembly of provincial officials, as well as the gentry and commune assemblies, remained only in the project. The State Council was abolished (1841). Voivodeships were transformed into provinces (1837). The Russian language was introduced into the office work of the administrative council and the office of the governor, with permission to use French for those who did not speak Russian. The confiscated estates were granted to the Russians; the highest government positions in the region were filled by Russians. In 1832, the Polish currency złoty was replaced by the Russian ruble, and the Russian imperial system of measures was introduced to replace the metric one. Also this year, the Alexander Citadel in Warsaw was laid. The emperor came to inspect these fortresses, but visited Warsaw only in 1835. He did not allow the deputation from the townsfolk to express loyal feelings, noting that he wanted to protect them from lies:
“I need deeds, not words. If you persist in your dreams of national isolation, of Polish independence and similar fantasies, you will bring upon yourself the greatest misfortune. I have made a citadel here. I tell you that at the slightest disturbance I will order to shoot at the city, I will turn Warsaw into ruins and, of course, I will not rebuild it. »

The Warsaw Scientific Society was abolished, its library and museums were transferred to St. Petersburg. The Warsaw and Vilna universities and the Kremenets lyceum were closed. Instead of the university, it was allowed to open additional courses in pedagogy and jurisprudence at the gymnasium (1840), but they were soon closed. Teaching in secondary schools was conducted in Russian. The government also paid attention to the education of female youth as future mothers, on whom the upbringing of future generations depends. For this purpose, the Alexandria Institute was established in Warsaw. Tuition fees in gymnasiums were increased and it was forbidden to accept children of non-noble or non-bureaucratic origin.

In 1833, the Warsaw Orthodox Bishopric was established, which in 1840 was transformed into an archbishopric. The Catholic clergy were subject to strict supervision: they were forbidden to convene local synods, organize jubilee festivities and found sobriety societies. In 1839, the property of the Polish Catholic Church was secularized, the local Greek Catholic Church, after a congress in Polotsk, dissolved itself and officially became subordinate to the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate. After the abolition of Warsaw University, a Roman Catholic Theological Academy was established in Warsaw, which was under the control of the commission of internal affairs, which generally monitored the activities of the Catholic clergy. The government wanted to subordinate the spiritual affairs of the Catholic population in the Kingdom of Poland to the St. Petersburg Roman Catholic Collegium, which was in charge of the spiritual affairs of Catholics in the rest of the empire, but due to the resistance of Rome, this was abandoned. The intellectual life of the country was in stagnation, sometimes broken only by revolutionary propaganda, the centers of which were concentrated among the Polish emigration, mainly in France.
In 1833, the French, German and Italian Carbonari decided to create revolutionary movements in their countries. Many Polish emigrants joined the Carbonari societies. It was decided to undertake a partisan raid into the Kingdom of Poland in order to raise an uprising here. The head of the raid was Józef Zalivski. The partisans penetrated with difficulty into the Kingdom of Poland in order to call the common people to an uprising, but the common people treated them indifferently. Pursued by the Cossacks, Zalivsky fled to Austria, where he was arrested and imprisoned for 20 years in a fortress. Other partisans fell into the hands of Russian soldiers. Some were hanged, others were shot or sent to hard labor. The failure of the Zalivski raid led Polish democrats to believe that revolutionary propaganda was needed.
The new "Society of the Polish People" tried to cover with its activities all the lands of the Commonwealth, sending envoys to Lithuania, Volhynia, Ukraine and the Kingdom of Poland. In May 1838, the chief emissary Konarsky was arrested near Vilna, which led to other arrests. Even several high school students were sent to hard labor. These harsh measures did not dampen the enthusiasm of the Polish revolutionaries. They were headed by the "Democratic Society", which professed not only democratic ideas, but also socialist ones. Under his influence, the priest Scehenny arranged a secret society among the peasants in the south of the Kingdom of Poland with the aim of founding a Polish peasant republic; betrayed by one of his own, he was arrested and sentenced to hang, but pardoned and exiled to hard labor. Many peasants - participants in the conspiracy had to follow him to Siberia (1844).
In 1846, the board decided that the country was already ready for an uprising. The movement that began in Galicia ended in the most deplorable way. Not only did the Ukrainian peasants not join the movement, but prompted by the Austrian officials, they carried out a terrible massacre among the Polish nobles. In the Kingdom of Poland, the nobleman Pantaleon Potocki with a small detachment captured the city of Sedlec (in February 1846), but was soon captured and hanged. The rebels were sent to Siberia.

Russia, Prussia and Austria took action against the Poles. With the consent of Russia and Prussia, Austria occupied the Free City of Krakow with its troops. In addition, the Russian and Austrian governments drew attention to the situation of the peasants who were under the rule of the Polish nobles. In June 1846, it was forbidden to arbitrarily remove peasants from the land, reduce their allotments, attach wastelands left after the peasant to estates. In November 1846, many of the duties that lay on the peasants were destroyed. At the same time, the government took measures aimed at closer integration of the Kingdom of Poland into the empire. In 1847, a new code of punishments was issued for him, which was an almost literal translation of the Russian Code of Punishments of 1845.
The revolution of 1848 greatly agitated the Poles: they raised uprisings in the Principality of Poznań and in Galicia. Mickiewicz formed the Polish Legion, which took part in the Italian revolutionary movement; Polish generals, officers and simple volunteers fought for the independence of Hungary. The secret society in the Kingdom of Poland abandoned its intentions after learning about the suppression of the revolution in Poznań. The conspiracy was uncovered (1850), the conspirators were subjected to corporal punishment and exile to hard labor. The government of Louis Napoleon expelled the leaders of the Polish Democratic Society from Paris. They were forced to retire to London, and their influence on Poland almost completely ceased.
The Crimean War revived the hopes of the patriots again. Calls for an uprising in Poland were unsuccessful. It was decided to form Polish legions in the theater of operations to fight against Russia. This plan was also promoted by the conservative Polish emigration, headed by Prince Adam Czartoryski. By the way, Mickiewicz went to Constantinople. The troubles of the Polish patriots ended in almost nothing. The Polish writer Mikhail Tchaikovsky, who converted to Mohammedanism (Sadyk Pasha), recruited, however, a detachment of the so-called Sultan's Cossacks, but it consisted of Armenians, Bulgarians, Gypsies and Turks, and besides, he did not take part in hostilities, because the war ended . A handful of Poles acted in the Caucasus against the Russian troops, helping the Circassians. Meanwhile, Emperor Nicholas I died, and about a year later, the governor of the Kingdom of Poland, Prince Paskevich.

The reign of Alexander II and subsequent reigns

In May 1856 Emperor Alexander II arrived in Warsaw and was greeted with great enthusiasm. In a speech delivered to the deputation of the inhabitants, the sovereign warned the Poles against dreams:
“Away with fantasies, gentlemen! (Point de reveries, messieurs!) Everything my father did is well done. My reign will be a further continuation of his reign. »
Soon, however, the former harsh regime was somewhat eased. The emperor allowed some of Mickiewicz's writings to be printed. Censorship stopped the persecution of the works of Slovak, Krasinski and Lelewel. Many political prisoners were released. Some emigrants have returned. In June 1857, it was allowed to open the Medico-Surgical Academy in Warsaw, and in November - to establish the Agricultural Society, which became important centers of intellectual life.
The political mood of the Poles was strongly influenced by the unification of Italy and the liberal reforms in Austria. Young people who read Herzen and Bakunin believed that Russia was on the eve of a revolution. Both moderates and radicals hoped for the help of Napoleon III, who wanted to see the idea of ​​nationality as the guiding international principle. The radicals began to organize manifestations on every glorious occasion from Polish history.
A grand demonstration took place on November 29, 1860, on the anniversary of the November Uprising of 1830. On February 27, 1861, the troops fired into the crowd and killed 5 people. The governor, Prince Gorchakov, agreed to satisfy the complaints, promised to remove the chief of police Trepov, and allowed the establishment of a committee to govern Warsaw.
Kingdom of Poland in 1861
The government agreed to a series of reforms in the spirit of autonomy. By decree of March 26, 1861, the State Council was restored, provincial, district and city councils were formed, it was decided to open higher educational institutions and transform secondary schools. Marquis Alexander Velepolsky, appointed assistant to the governor, annoyed the gentry by closing the Agricultural Society, which caused a grandiose demonstration (April 8, 1861), which resulted in about 200 dead. The revolutionary mood grew, and Wielopolsky began to energetically implement reforms: he abolished serfdom, replaced corvee with quitrent, equalized Jews in rights, increased the number of schools, improved the teaching system, and established a university in Warsaw.
On May 30, 1861, the governor, Prince Gorchakov, died; his successors did not sympathize with the activities of the marquis. On the anniversary of the death of Tadeusz Kosciuszko (November 15), the churches were filled with prayers, singing patriotic hymns. Governor-General Gerstenzweig promulgated the state of siege and moved troops into the temples. Blood spilled. The clergy considered this sacrilege and closed the churches.
Velopolsky resigned. The sovereign accepted her, ordering him to remain a member of the State Council. The emperor appointed his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, as viceroy, giving him Velepopolsky as an assistant in civil affairs, and Baron Ramsay in military affairs. The Kingdom of Poland was granted full autonomy.
The radicals, or "Reds", however, did not stop their activities, and moved from demonstrations to terror. Attempts were made on the life of the Grand Duke. The moderates, or "whites", did not sympathize with the "reds", but they also disagreed with Velopolsky. He wanted to restore the constitution of 1815, while the "moderates" were thinking about uniting all the lands of the Commonwealth into one whole with a constitutional device. White set out to write an address to the highest name, but Velopolsky opposed. The leader of the Whites, Zamoyski, was ordered to emigrate. This finally repulsed the "whites" from Velopolsky. A revolutionary explosion was approaching, which Velopolsky decided to warn with a recruiting set. The calculation was bad.
The uprising broke out in January 1863, which lasted until the late autumn of 1864 and ended with the execution of the most active participants and the mass expulsions of the rebels. In March 1863, Count Berg was appointed commander-in-chief, who, after the departure of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich on September 8, 1863, and the resignation of Velepolsky, became governor. The management of the police was entrusted to the former chief of police, General Trepov. At the beginning of January 1864, a committee for the affairs of the Kingdom of Poland was established in St. Petersburg, chaired by the sovereign himself.
By decree of February 19 (March 2), 1864, Polish peasants received ownership of the arable land they cultivated. The landowners received compensation from the treasury with the so-called liquidation papers according to the assessment of the alienated lands. At the same time, an all-estate commune was established.
The management of the affairs of the Catholic clergy is provided by the commission of internal affairs, the director of which is Prince Cherkassky. All church property was confiscated and almost all monasteries were closed. According to the charter of 1865, the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Poland was divided into seven dioceses - Plock, Lublin, Sandomierz, Kielce, Augustow, Kuyavsko-Kalisz and Podlasie; in 1867 the Podlasie diocese was merged with Lublin. The clergy began to receive salaries from the treasury. Since 1871 it has been subordinate to the Department of Foreign Confessions of the Ministry of the Interior. In 1875, the union in the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and a new (Kholmskaya) Orthodox diocese was founded.
Kingdom of Poland in 1896
At the same time, changes were made in the civil administration. In 1866, a charter was issued on provincial and district administration: ten provinces (instead of five) and 84 counties. In 1867 the Council of State was abolished, and in 1868 the administrative council and government commissions (confessions and education, finance and internal affairs) were abolished. The cases were transferred to the corresponding all-imperial institutions in St. Petersburg. In the spirit of the complete merger of the Kingdom of Poland with the Russian Empire, transformations were also made in the field of education. In 1872, the all-imperial statute on gymnasiums of 1871 was extended to the Kingdom of Poland. An all-imperial judicial organization was also introduced, with an important exception: the region did not receive a jury trial. Since 1871, the publication of the Diary of the Laws of Ts. Polsky was suspended, because the general imperial rules for promulgating legislative decrees began to apply to the country. Mandatory use of the Russian language has been introduced in administration, legal proceedings and teaching. Attempts are being made to translate the Polish language into Cyrillic. After the death of Count Berg in 1874, Count Kotzebue received the post of chief of the region and commander-in-chief of the Warsaw military district, with the title of governor-general; then the region was ruled by Generals Albedinsky (1880-83), Gurko (1883-94), Count Shuvalov (1894-96), Prince Imeretinsky (1896-1900) and M. I. Chertkov (1900-05).

End of the Kingdom of Poland

In 1912, the Kholmsk province was separated from the provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, where a significant number of Ukrainians lived.
On August 14, 1914, Nicholas II promised, after winning the war, to unite the Kingdom of Poland with the Polish lands, which would be taken from Germany and Austria-Hungary, into an autonomous state within the Russian Empire.
The war created a situation in which Poles, Russian subjects, fought against Poles who served in the Austro-Hungarian and German armies. The pro-Russian National Democratic Party of Poland, headed by Roman Dmowski, considered Germany the main enemy of Poland, its supporters considered it necessary to unite all Polish lands under Russian control with obtaining the status of autonomy within the Russian Empire. The anti-Russian supporters of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) believed that the path to Poland's independence lay through the defeat of Russia in the war. A few years before the outbreak of World War I, PPS leader Józef Piłsudski began military training for Polish youth in Austro-Hungarian Galicia. After the outbreak of the war, he formed the Polish legions as part of the Austro-Hungarian army.
During the offensive of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies in the spring and summer of 1915, the Kingdom of Poland was under German-Austrian occupation and, being divided between the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, ceased to exist.

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, on the wave of the growth of national consciousness, political movements gain strength, which 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%.

Interestingly, 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.

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 diary entries 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): “At breakfast I got drunk on pancakes so much that I really wanted to sleep afterwards.” 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 were no people 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 1905.

It seems that the rapidly developing Russian society should have pushed the authorities to make 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) Deliver 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 question, 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

POLAND. HISTORY since 1772
Partitions of Poland. First section. In the midst of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, Prussia, Russia and Austria carried out the first partition of Poland. It was produced in 1772 and ratified by the Sejm under pressure from the occupiers in 1773. Poland ceded to Austria part of Pomerania and Kuyavia (excluding Gdansk and Torun) to Prussia; Galicia, Western Podolia and part of Lesser Poland; eastern Belarus and all lands north of the Western Dvina and east of the Dnieper went to Russia. The victors established a new constitution for Poland, which retained the "liberum veto" and elective monarchy, and created a State Council of 36 elected members of the Sejm. The division of the country awakened a social movement for reform and national revival. In 1773, the Jesuit Order was dissolved and a commission for public education was created, the purpose of which was to reorganize the system of schools and colleges. The four-year Sejm (1788-1792), headed by enlightened patriots Stanislav Malakhovsky, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kollontai, adopted a new constitution on May 3, 1791. Under this constitution, Poland became a hereditary monarchy with a ministerial system of executive power and a parliament elected every two years. The principle of "liberum veto" and other pernicious practices were abolished; cities received administrative and judicial autonomy, as well as representation in parliament; peasants, over whom the power of the gentry was maintained, were considered as an estate under state protection; measures were taken to prepare for the abolition of serfdom and the organization of a regular army. The normal work of the parliament and the reforms became possible only because Russia was involved in a protracted war with Sweden, and Turkey supported Poland. However, the magnates opposed the constitution and formed the Targowice Confederation, at the call of which the troops of Russia and Prussia entered Poland.

Second and third sections. January 23, 1793 Prussia and Russia carried out the second partition of Poland. Prussia captured Gdansk, Torun, Greater Poland and Mazovia, and Russia captured most of Lithuania and Belarus, almost all of Volhynia and Podolia. The Poles fought but were defeated, the reforms of the Four Years Sejm were reversed, and the rest of Poland became a puppet state. In 1794, Tadeusz Kosciuszko led a massive popular uprising, which ended in defeat. The third partition of Poland, in which Austria participated, took place on October 24, 1795; after that, Poland as an independent state disappeared from the map of Europe.
foreign rule. Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Although the Polish state ceased to exist, the Poles did not give up hope for the restoration of their independence. Each new generation fought, either by joining the opponents of the powers that divided Poland, or by raising uprisings. As soon as Napoleon I began his military campaigns against monarchical Europe, Polish legions were formed in France. Having defeated Prussia, Napoleon created in 1807 from the territories captured by Prussia during the second and third partitions, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815). Two years later, territories that became part of Austria after the third partition were added to it. Miniature Poland, politically dependent on France, had a territory of 160 thousand square meters. km and 4350 thousand inhabitants. The creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was considered by the Poles as the beginning of their complete liberation.
Territory that was part of Russia. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna (1815) approved the divisions of Poland with the following changes: Krakow was declared a free city-republic under the auspices of the three powers that divided Poland (1815-1848); the western part of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was transferred to Prussia and became known as the Grand Duchy of Poznan (1815-1846); its other part was declared a monarchy (the so-called Kingdom of Poland) and annexed to the Russian Empire. In November 1830, the Poles raised an uprising against Russia, but were defeated. Emperor Nicholas I canceled the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland and began repressions. In 1846 and 1848 the Poles tried to organize uprisings, but failed. In 1863, a second uprising broke out against Russia, and after two years of partisan warfare, the Poles were again defeated. With the development of capitalism in Russia, the Russification of Polish society also intensified. The situation improved somewhat after the 1905 revolution in Russia. Polish deputies sat in all four Russian Dumas (1905-1917), seeking the autonomy of Poland.
Territories controlled by Prussia. On the territory under the rule of Prussia, an intensive Germanization of the former Polish regions was carried out, the farms of Polish peasants were expropriated, and Polish schools were closed. Russia helped Prussia put down the Poznan uprising of 1848. In 1863 both powers concluded the Alvensleben Convention on Mutual Assistance in the Fight against the Polish National Movement. Despite all the efforts of the authorities, at the end of the 19th century. The Poles of Prussia still represented a strong, organized national community.
Polish lands within Austria. On the Austrian Polish lands, the situation was somewhat better. After the Krakow uprising of 1846, the regime was liberalized, and Galicia received local administrative control; schools, institutions and courts used Polish; Jagiellonian (in Krakow) and Lviv universities became all-Polish cultural centers; by the beginning of the 20th century. Polish political parties emerged (National Democratic, Polish Socialist and Peasant). In all three parts of divided Poland, Polish society actively opposed assimilation. The preservation of the Polish language and Polish culture became the main task of the struggle waged by the intelligentsia, primarily poets and writers, as well as the clergy of the Catholic Church.
World War I. New opportunities for achieving independence. The First World War divided the powers that liquidated Poland: Russia was at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. This situation opened up fateful opportunities for the Poles, but also created new difficulties. First, the Poles had to fight in opposing armies; secondly, Poland became the scene of battles between the warring powers; thirdly, disagreements between Polish political groups escalated. Conservative national democrats led by Roman Dmovsky (1864-1939) considered Germany the main enemy and desired the victory of the Entente. Their goal was to unite all Polish lands under Russian control and obtain the status of autonomy. The radical elements, led by the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), on the contrary, considered the defeat of Russia as the most important condition for achieving Poland's independence. They believed that the Poles should create their own armed forces. A few years before the outbreak of World War I, Jozef Piłsudski (1867-1935), the radical leader of this group, began military training for Polish youth in Galicia. During the war, he formed the Polish legions and fought on the side of Austria-Hungary.
Polish question. August 14, 1914 Nicholas I in an official declaration promised after the war to unite the three parts of Poland into an autonomous state within the Russian Empire. However, in the fall of 1915, most of Russian Poland was occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary, and on November 5, 1916, the monarchs of the two powers announced a manifesto on the creation of an independent Kingdom of Poland in the Russian part of Poland. On March 30, 1917, after the February Revolution in Russia, the Provisional Government of Prince Lvov recognized Poland's right to self-determination. July 22, 1917 Pilsudski, who fought on the side of the Central Powers, was interned, and his legions were disbanded for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the emperors of Austria-Hungary and Germany. In France, with the support of the powers of the Entente, in August 1917 the Polish National Committee (PNC) was created, headed by Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski; the Polish army was also formed with the commander-in-chief Józef Haller. On January 8, 1918, US President Wilson demanded the creation of an independent Polish state with access to the Baltic Sea. In June 1918 Poland was officially recognized as a country fighting on the side of the Entente. On October 6, during the period of the collapse and collapse of the Central Powers, the Regency Council of Poland announced the creation of an independent Polish state, and on November 14 Piłsudski transferred full power in the country. By this time, Germany had already capitulated, Austria-Hungary had collapsed, and a civil war was going on in Russia.
State formation. The new country faced great difficulties. Cities and villages lay in ruins; there were no connections in the economy, which for a long time developed within the framework of three different states; Poland had neither its own currency nor government institutions; finally, its borders were not defined and agreed with the neighbors. Nevertheless, state building and economic recovery proceeded at a rapid pace. After a transitional period, when the socialist cabinet was in power, on January 17, 1919, Paderewski was appointed prime minister, and Dmowski was appointed head of the Polish delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference. On January 26, 1919, elections were held to the Sejm, the new composition of which approved Piłsudski as head of state.
Question about borders. The western and northern borders of the country were determined at the Versailles Conference, according to which part of the Pomerania and access to the Baltic Sea were transferred to Poland; Danzig (Gdansk) received the status of a "free city". At a conference of ambassadors on July 28, 1920, the southern border was agreed upon. The city of Cieszyn and its suburb Cesky Teszyn were divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Violent disputes between Poland and Lithuania over Vilna (Vilnius), an ethnically Polish but historically Lithuanian city, ended with its occupation by the Poles on October 9, 1920; accession to Poland was approved on February 10, 1922 by a democratically elected regional assembly.
April 21, 1920 Pilsudski made an alliance with the Ukrainian leader Petliura and launched an offensive to liberate Ukraine from the Bolsheviks. On May 7, the Poles took Kyiv, but on June 8, pressed by the Red Army, they began to retreat. At the end of July, the Bolsheviks were on the outskirts of Warsaw. However, the Poles managed to defend the capital and repel the enemy; this ended the war. The treaty of Riga that followed (March 18, 1921) was a territorial compromise for both sides and was officially recognized by the conference of ambassadors on March 15, 1923.
Internal position. One of the first post-war events in the country was the adoption of a new constitution on March 17, 1921. It established a republican system in Poland, established a bicameral (Sejm and Senate) parliament, proclaimed freedom of speech and organizations, equality of citizens before the law. However, the internal situation of the new state was difficult. Poland was in a state of political, social and economic instability. The Sejm was politically fragmented due to the multitude of parties and political groups represented in it. The ever-changing government coalitions were characterized by instability, and the executive branch as a whole was weak. There were tensions with national minorities, which made up a third of the population. The Locarno Treaties of 1925 did not guarantee the security of Poland's western borders, and the Dawes Plan contributed to the restoration of the German military-industrial potential. Under these conditions, on May 12, 1926, Pilsudski carried out a military coup and established a "sanation" regime in the country; Until his death on May 12, 1935, he directly or indirectly controlled all power in the country. The Communist Party was banned, and political trials with long prison sentences became commonplace. As German Nazism intensified, restrictions were introduced on the basis of anti-Semitism. On April 22, 1935, a new constitution was adopted, which significantly expanded the power of the president, limiting the rights of political parties and the powers of parliament. The new constitution was not approved by the opposition political parties, and the struggle between them and the Piłsudski regime continued until the outbreak of World War II.
Foreign policy. The leaders of the new Polish Republic tried to secure their state by pursuing a policy of non-alignment. Poland did not join the Little Entente, which included Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. On January 25, 1932, a non-aggression pact was signed with the USSR.
After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933, Poland failed to establish allied relations with France, while Great Britain and France concluded a "pact of consent and cooperation" with Germany and Italy. After that, on January 26, 1934, Poland and Germany signed a non-aggression pact for a period of 10 years, and soon the duration of a similar agreement with the USSR was extended. In March 1936, after the military occupation of the Rhineland by Germany, Poland again unsuccessfully tried to conclude an agreement with France and Belgium on Poland's support for them in the event of a war with Germany. In October 1938, simultaneously with the annexation of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, Poland occupied the Czechoslovak part of the Teszyn region. In March 1939, Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia and put forward territorial claims to Poland. On March 31, Great Britain, and on April 13, France guaranteed the territorial integrity of Poland; in the summer of 1939, Franco-Anglo-Soviet negotiations began in Moscow aimed at curbing German expansion. The Soviet Union in these negotiations demanded the right to occupy the eastern part of Poland and at the same time entered into secret negotiations with the Nazis. On August 23, 1939, a German-Soviet non-aggression pact was concluded, the secret protocols of which provided for the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR. Having ensured Soviet neutrality, Hitler untied his hands. On September 1, 1939, World War II began with an attack on Poland.
government in exile. The Poles, who, contrary to promises, did not receive military assistance from France and Great Britain (both of them declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939), could not hold back the unexpected invasion of powerful motorized German armies. The situation became hopeless after the Soviet troops attacked Poland from the east on 17 September. The Polish government and the remnants of the armed forces crossed the border into Romania, where they were interned. The Polish government in exile was headed by General Władysław Sikorski. In France, new Polish army, naval and air forces were formed with a total strength of 80 thousand people. The Poles fought on the side of France until its defeat in June 1940; then the Polish government moved to the UK, where it reorganized the army, which later fought in Norway, North Africa and Western Europe. In the Battle of England in 1940, Polish pilots destroyed more than 15% of all downed German aircraft. In total, more than 300 thousand Poles served abroad, in the armed forces of the allies.
German occupation. The German occupation of Poland was particularly brutal. Hitler included part of Poland in the Third Reich, and transformed the rest of the occupied territories into a general government. All industrial and agricultural production in Poland was subordinated to the military needs of Germany. Polish higher educational institutions were closed, and the intelligentsia was persecuted. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to work or imprisoned in concentration camps. Polish Jews were subjected to particular cruelty, who were first concentrated in several large ghettos. When in 1942 the leaders of the Reich took the "final solution" of the Jewish question, Polish Jews were deported to death camps. The largest and most infamous Nazi death camp in Poland was the camp near the city of Auschwitz, where more than 4 million people died.
The Polish people offered both civil disobedience and military resistance to the Nazi occupiers. The Polish Home Army became the strongest resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Europe. When the deportation of Warsaw Jews to death camps began in April 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto (350,000 Jews) revolted. After a month of hopeless struggle, without any outside help, the uprising was crushed. The Germans destroyed the ghetto, and the surviving Jewish population was deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.
Polish-Soviet agreement of July 30, 1941. After the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the Polish government in exile, under British pressure, concluded an agreement with the Soviet Union. Under this treaty, diplomatic relations between Poland and the USSR were restored; the Soviet-German pact regarding the partition of Poland was annulled; all prisoners of war and deported Poles were to be released; The Soviet Union provided its territory for the formation of the Polish army. However, the Soviet government did not comply with the terms of the agreement. It refused to recognize the pre-war Polish-Soviet border and released only a part of the Poles who were in Soviet camps.
On April 26, 1943, the Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with the Polish government in exile, protesting against the latter's appeal to the International Red Cross with a request to investigate the brutal murder of 10,000 Polish officers interned in 1939 in Katyn. Subsequently, the Soviet authorities formed the core of the future Polish communist government and army in the Soviet Union. In November-December 1943, at a conference of three powers in Tehran (Iran), an agreement was reached between the Soviet leader I.V. Stalin, American President F. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill that the eastern border of Poland should pass along the line Curzon (it approximately corresponded to the border drawn in accordance with the 1939 treaty between the German and Soviet governments).
Lublin government. In January 1944, the Red Army crossed the border of Poland, pursuing the retreating German troops, and on July 22, the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKNO) was created in Lublin with the support of the USSR. On August 1, 1944, the underground armed forces of the Home Army in Warsaw, under the leadership of General Tadeusz Komorowski, began an uprising against the Germans. The Red Army, which was at that moment on the outskirts of Warsaw on the opposite bank of the Vistula, suspended its offensive. After 62 days of desperate fighting, the uprising was crushed, and Warsaw was almost completely destroyed. On January 5, 1945, the PKNO in Lublin was reorganized into the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland.
At the Yalta Conference (February 4-11, 1945), Churchill and Roosevelt officially recognized the inclusion of the eastern part of Poland into the USSR, agreeing with Stalin that Poland would receive compensation from the German territories in the west. In addition, the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition agreed that non-communists would be included in the Lublin government, and then free elections would be held in Poland. Stanisław Mikołajczyk, who resigned as prime minister of the government in exile, and other members of his cabinet joined the Lublin government. On July 5, 1945, after the victory over Germany, it was recognized by Great Britain and the USA as the Provisional Government of National Unity of Poland. The government in exile, which at that time was headed by the leader of the Polish Socialist Party, Tomasz Artsyszewski, was dissolved. In August 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, an agreement was reached that the southern part of East Prussia and the territory of Germany east of the Oder and Neisse rivers were transferred under Polish control. The Soviet Union also provided Poland with 15% of the 10 billion dollars in reparations that defeated Germany had to pay.

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 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.

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Based on materials from vehillographia

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