Polish - About Poland - History - Loss of independence

Loss of independence was a catastrophe, but it did not break the Polish and did not deprive them of the will to fight. They associated their hopes with the conflict between the revolutionary France and Austria and Prussia. Hoping for support from the French Jan Henryk Dąbrowski turned to general Napoleon Bonaparte who was at war with Austria in Italy and asked him to form Polish divisions in France. In January 1797 Polish Legions were created, at first they fought by the side of Napoleon, after the truce between France and Austria (Campo Formio, 1797) they remained in Italy as a support corps of the Cisalpin Republic, and after further arrangements with Austria (Lunéville, 1801) they actually no longer existed. Some of the legionnaires walked away with general K. Kniaziewicz, and the rest was formed into half-brigades, two of them remained in the service of the Kingdom of Tuscia, the third one became a part of the French army and in 1801 was send to San Domingo (Haiti) to suppress the rebellion of local people. In spite of sour experiences, the Polish still associated their hopes for independence with Napoleon, especially when in 1806 he defeated Prussia, entered Polish lands and liberated Warsaw. The compromised treaty between France and Russia in Tylża (1807) established a substitute to the Polish country – the Duchy of Warsaw (104 thousand km2, 2,6 million inhabitants) which consisted of lands from the 2nd and 3rd dismemberment of the Prussian annexation. On the strength of the Napoleonic constitution from July 22nd 1807 the Duchy was connected by a personal union with Saxony, the nobility attained their privileged position in the country. In 1808 owing to the Napoleonic code all citizens gained equaled rights. Simultaneously, the code cancelled the peasant serfdom and their ascription to the lands, which were considered property of the masters. Political rights were dependent on ownership estates, which became a chance for the growing bourgeoisie and intelligence. In 1809 after a successful campaign against Austria and the victory of Józef Poniatowski in Raszyn, the area of the Duchy was broaden with the lands under Austrian annexation. In 1812 the Duchy issued 80 thousand soldiers for Napoleon’s wars with Russia, it has been smashed and decimated by the Russian campaign, and Polish lands have been once again seized while the pursuit of Russians after Napoleon. Despite of this the Polish remained faithful to the French emperor. In the battle of Lipsko, duke Józef Poniatowski died while commanding the Polish forces.

The Vienna Congress in which Europe was being re-ordered after Napoleon’s failure (1815), once again divided Polish lands. Prussia received the Pomerania of Gdańsk with Warmia and the departments of Bydgoszcz and Poznań i.e. so called Great Principality of Poznań and upper Silesia (9% of the previous area of Poland); Austria received Galicia, Cieszyn Silesia and the Tarnopol District (11%). Russia regained the lands taken in the three annexations and a part of Masovia with Warsaw (80%). On the strength of the constitution conferred by tsar Alexander I, the Russian annexation was called the Kingdom of Poland and was joined by personal union with Russia, every tsar was automatically king of Poland. The Kingdom had a separate parliament constituted of 2 houses, separate government, treasure, army (commanded by duke Constantine, brother of the tsar), polish education system, basic citizen freedoms and official polish language. Because the tsar did not respect the constitution and the governor – general Józef Zajączek executed the will of duke Constantine and the chief of secret police – Nowosilcow, the legal opposition in parliament has been suppressed and then the members of the secret Union of National Freemasonry and Patriotic Fellowship have been arrested. The members demanded the unification of all Polish lands and complying with the constitution. During the trial of the Fellowship’s leaders in December 1828, in the school for officer cadets in Warsaw a conspired union of lower rank soldiers and young intelligence was formed. They were led by second lieutenant Piotr Wysocki. When a revolution broke out in France and Belgium – a decision about a rebellion has been accepted. The rebellion broke out in the night of 29/30th of November 1830. After capturing Arsenal, a handful of conspirators attacked the Belvedere, the headquarters of Constantine, who managed to flee, however. Soon the Russian garrison left Warsaw and on December 5th 1830 general Józef Chłopicki was appointed as the dictator of the rebellion. Chłopicki as well as the Kingdom’s officials were ready to reconcile with the tsar in exchange for certain concessions (complying with the constitution, prohibition of authorizing Russian military in the Kingdom, incorporating Lithuania, Podole and Wołyń). The stubborn position of tsar Mikolaj I evoked patriotic moods, on January 25th 1830 the parliament dethroned the Romanovs in the Kingdom of Poland. This caused a war with Russia which lasted until September 1831, despite preponderance of the opponent. Failure of the rebellion meant repressions upon its participants, this forced 9 million people to emigrate. The tsar suspended the constitution, eliminated the parliament, the government and the army of the Kingdom, introducing state of emergency and bringing in 100 thousand soldiers of the Russian Army.

Failure of the November rebellion did not discourage the Polish to fight for their independence. A rebellion with wide participation of peasants was planned not only in the country but also on the emigration, in France, especially among the members of the Polish Democratic Fellowship. But the attempts to evoke a rebellion in Cracow in 1846 did not succeed and the peasants turned against the polish nobility instead of the occupants.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Russian failure in the Crimea War and the so called Polish thaw, brought certain restrictions to the freedom of life in the Kingdom of Poland: an amnesty was announced, a censorship was introduced, establishing higher education schools and environmental organizations was allowed. At the beginning of the 60ties two political camps have formed: “white camp” which gathered rich nobility and bourgeoisie, and the “red camp” with petty nobility, intelligence and students. The white camp wanted to increase the autonomy of the Kingdom through agreements with the tsar, the red camp wanted independence won by force of arms. In January 1863 the longest and the most tragic rebellion broke out in which 20 thousand rebels were killed in battle, 10 thousand were send to the mines of Ural and 40 thousand to Siberia. In order to inhibit the peasants from participating in the rebellion, the emperor conducted an enfranchisement, granting them the harnessed lands in exchange for a eternal land tax. The enfranchisement contributed to the changes in social relations: peasants who could not afford their own land, moved to the cities joining the industrial workers.

After the failure of the rebellion the Polish searched for new means of action and fund them in the ideas of positivism – building from the foundations (education in villages, rights for women) and organic work: every social class aspired to civilization development of the country, increase the social welfare, avoid conflicts.

Lack of owns statehood, lack of social legislation with the rapid development of capitalist economy, civilization retardation, and the slow but dangerous “ fusion” with the occupants – focused the Polish around the idea of socialism and a national and people’s movement. The Proletariat was the first socialistic party, established in 1882 by Ludwig Wawrzyński. In the future Poland – said Wawrzyński – a political system based on equality and common ownership of production sources will set in; at this moment the working class should fight for social legislation and democratic freedom. Arrests broke the Proletariat but its program soon was adopted by the 2nd Proletariat and the Union of Polish Working Class. In 1892, in Paris a unified party– The Polish Socialist Party (PPS), which joined social and independence goals, was formed, as the socialistic movement has been broken and the first programs omitted the matter of independence. Józef Piłsudski was the most prominent leader of PPS in the country. Soon, because the national slogans posed danger to the program, some of the members left PSP with Julian Marchlewski and Róża Luksemburg who formed the Socialistic Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (1893).

SDKP (from 1900, after joining of Lithuanian members – SDKP&L) in 1918 joined with the radical left wing of PPS – and created the Communistic Party of the Working Poland (KPRP).

To fight against Germanisation and Russification, and to educate in Polish language, especially in the village, were the goals of the young focused in the Union of Polish Youth formed by Zygmunt Balicki in 1887. On the basis of this organization in 1893, Roman Dmowski created the National League in Warsaw, which was transformed into the National Democratic party (Endecja – from the initials N and D) four years later. They spread slogans of organic work which would strengthen the nation, deepen the consciousness and national unity. In consequence this postponed the fight for independence and led to reaching an agreement with the occupants.

Owing to the autonomy of Galicia, development of the people’s movement was possible. Its members taught the peasants new forms of economy and how to fight for citizen and political rights. The first peasant party – People’s Party was formed in 1895 (from 1903 the Polish People’s Party - PSL). In 1913 it divided into PSL-Piast and PSL – Right Wing. In the Russian annexation the People’s Party (PSL Freedom) strongly marked the necessity of fighting for independence.

Significant changes in the actions and programs of the parties occurred after the revolution 1905-1907. In the Kingdom of Poland it occurred as a national and social movement. The matter of Poland’s independence was a cause of the split and differences. It was most clear in PSP, which as PSP – Revolutionary Fraction (from 1906) led by J. Piłsudski became an independence movement and moved its activity to Galicia. Further changes in the programs and tactics of the parties generated a conflict between the occupants and begun the I World War.

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Poll

Loss of independence