The message of 1 of the politicians of the Law and Justice organization years ago that past is besides serious to be left to historians is being verified. And this golden thought has been developed to giant sizes, and at the minute this doctrine reaches the limits of absurdity.
This is peculiarly actual of the authoritative speeches of crucial people in the country, who, on the occasion of crucial anniversaries, usually give extraordinary androns of complete deficiency of cognition and work for the word. It is widely known that these speeches are frequently written by anonymous assistants, employees of the president's office, prime minister or minister. The effects are "shocked". Level of occurrences e.g. Mateusz Morawieckiwho is expected to have a historical education – is embarrassing, embarrassing and embarrassing. The question is – does he invent these absurd theories himself or repeats himself without knowing individual else? It does not matter, due to the fact that it is him and another leaders of the ruling organization (and the opposition organization as well) and the president who give this word the seal of the Polish state, and these are statements of the character of an authoritative position.
It was widely known that the 160th anniversary of the outbreak of January would be utilized for the purposes of the current policy, especially in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. But even those who expected it most likely didn't foretell what lies and falsities would happen on specified an occasion. Let us follow this example of president Andrzej Duda's speech before the Gate of failure of the Warsaw Citadel, where on 23 January the ceremony of laying wreaths and flowers took place.. The president of Lithuania and the Ukrainian Ambassador were besides present. The selection of the main guests could already be a signal of the direction of the President's "historical" narrative. And so he was in reality.
Let's start with the President's first constatus“Here, on the slopes of this citadel, the last leader of the January uprising Romuald Traugutt and representatives of the National Government was murdered. Many January insurgents were murdered here. At the time and after the uprising, more than 40,000 people – patriots – were imprisoned and tortured here, especially in Pavilion X, where there were kasamats and a Russian court. This is simply a traumatic place, a symbol of suffering, but at the same time a symbol of the integrity of Poles.”
Indeed, the Warsaw Citadel, and above all the X Pavilion, were in Polish consciousness the place of Polish martyrdom. However, in the President's speech, and not only in his speech, the image of this place is frequently sharpened, giving him an ominous mark of the “catalyst” and the place of mass executions, which aims to trigger anti-Russian Resentimists. The president stated that the Citadel "many January insurgents were murdered." What does “many” mean? Their number is well known and could be given. Well, among the insurgents and conspirators captured by the Tsaric authorities, which can be counted at about 10 1000 between 1863 and 1865, life ended on gallows about 30. The others (a fewer thousand) were sent to Siberia, but a large part was just released.
W The X Caiamate Pavilions as alive was gone, there was only 1 prison detention center. The name of the casamate can be defined as the premises in the Citadel, where any of the prisoners not located in the X Pavilion were kept, but they were not precisely the same. With respect to the passage of the speech saying that the imprisoned patriots here “were tormented” – this is not true. Despite the fact that during the 80 years of operation of this investigation, prisoners of enquiry – frequently utilized force against the interviewees, these were occasional cases, in addition, contrary to the rules of procedure which prohibited it. The vast amount of memoirs from this period does not confirm the president's thesis and another home historians.
The behaviour of the crew of the X Pavilion and the troops during the uprising was different, but they are barely barbarous. There is no comparison at all with what will take place in prisons and camps of the 20th century, Stalin and Nazi. It is no coincidence that even the most common socialist activists here, including PPS, considered the X Pavilion to be the lightest prison in the Empire, and himself Józef Piłsudski He called the X Pavilion "a hotel, vile indeed, but nevertheless". This is not about whitening this period and place, but about proportions and truth. The utmost martyrdom of the X Pavilion is an abuse and is frequently simply due to the deficiency of knowledge, but is besides a targeted procedure for the current "historical policy".
And the next passage of the president’s speech: “The uprising lasted more than 2 years, involving more than 200,000 people, participating in an active fight. 20,000 insurgents died. Hundreds of thousands later suffered the destiny of Siberia, the destiny of the wanderers, were deprived of wealth, the chances of a decent life, the chances of gaining education, were persecuted, crushed. In particular, Poland's destiny – 123 years of partitions – was hard after this rallies, after the January uprising. In how many Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian families are inactive mentioned before these 150–160 years ago, lost property, lost land, received by the carat, plundered for punishment, participation in the uprising".
He added: “Thank you all for being! We are here together – representatives of nations who then fought to throw down Russian shackles, to throw down the Tsaric oppression, to freedom, to return their own independent state. Yes, our common Republic, which we have lost through the interference of the invaders."
In these 2 passages (i.e. the fact that the number of people sent to Siberia is around 20,000 alternatively of "hundreds of thousands") we have the biggest false speech of the President. It refers to the phrase: “We are here together – representatives of nations who then fought to throw down Russian shackles, to throw down Tsar’s oppression, to freedom, to return their own independent state”, and which is the consequence of this false explanation of the sentence: “How many Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian families are inactive mentioned before those 150–160 years ago, lost property, lost land, received by the Tarat, plundered for punishment, for participating in the uprising.”
An effort to present the uprising as a common origin of Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian nations is simply a simple historical lie. For a simple reason – in the mid-19th century there were no Lithuanians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians in today's sense – there were simply no these nations at the time. Yes, it was a peasant population – smut, Belarusian and Russian – but it was an component without national awareness. Only a fewer Ukrainian intelligence born, the uprising did not support it, and the Russian peasants (Ukrainians) were massively sided with Russia! The same situation was in the present Belarus. The uprising was only the work of the Polish nobility and Catholic clergy.
Yes, the slogan was "for your freedom and for ours," but it was more about volunteers from Hungary, Italy or France, who joined the insurgent troops of the “red” camp due to the fact that these volunteers were primarily revolutionaries of Mazzini and Garibaldi. So the president is completely wrong, all the more so, that despite his narration the Russians – revolutionaries than mythical Lithuanians and Ukrainians – took part in the uprising. For example, among those hanged behind the walls of the Citadel were the trumpeter of the Petersburg Grenadier Regiment Ivan Puzyrczuk and Mitrofan Podhaluzin, Junker of the Cossack Regiment (together, about 300 Russians from the Tsar army fought in the uprising). But that doesn't precisely fit the current narrative.
In order not to be profane, it is adequate to quote the pacific Ukrainian historian Bogdan Huda, which in a fresh book entitled “From Lublin Union to the Warsaw Agreement. 3 essays on Polish-Ukrainian history”, Warsaw 2022), writes clearly that at most 100 Russian peasants were on the side of the uprising, while over 300 000 have been supported by the “rural guards” organised by the Russian authorities. The author writes: "The chances for success (even theoretical) insurgents had none, due to the fact that - apart from government troops - more than 50 armed with axes, scythees and forks of guards encouraged to talk anti-Polish by military and police command and the administration of the Russian South-West Country". And quotes the opinion Aleksandr Kistiakiwski, prof. of the University of Kiev: “The unusual shortsightedness of Poles in South-Russian Region (sic!). Many centuries they oppressed the people, and now they thought that in this they would find support for their cause. They raised up an uprising among their enemy people. Who and what were they hoping for? More shortsightedness and greater political blindness are hard to find in historyIt’s okay. ”
The estates in this area were lost by these Polish nobles and landowners who went to the uprising, but there were fewer of them, it is crucial that it was about 1 percent of Poles surviving behind Bug. Other possessions did not lose, but, in fear of the Russian peasantry – they called for help... Russian troops. And they led order, protecting Polish property from pogrom. As a result, there has not been a fresh (Ukrainian) Russian robbery like the 1 from Galicia. This is the fact of the common, “for freedom and yours and ours”, the fight of the Polish and Ukrainian nations in 1863.. This conflict exists only in the imagination of president Andrzej Duda. Just like these mythical Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian assets confiscated by the Tsarist authorities. That's the kind of property that wasn't just there. On the lands east of Bug, the land property was exclusively Polish and Russian, with a immense advantage of Polish ownership, reaching to Kiev. Despite the repressions that have only affected the active party, Polish property survived in the east in good condition until 1917. The paradox is that there is an end erstwhile Russia fell.
In this context, the President's words can be hailed by the police: "I said "not only us, Poles." due to the fact that present we besides host our neighbours, brothers from Ukraine, who are fighting at the minute – again with the Russian storm. How dramatic this communicative is. And how powerfully the will to defend its freedom is engrossed in our nations."
The 1863 uprising was an effort to recreate the First Republic within the limits of 1772, an effort to reverse history, an effort separated from the realities of the mid-19th century. A live consequence gained only in the native Polish territories, that is in the Kingdom of Poland and in part in Vilnius and Polesia. In this fight against Russia we were supported by a fewer Russian revolutionaries symbolized by Alexander Hercen and Nicholas BakuninAnd volunteers from the West. On the another hand, the mass of the population on the trainings behind Bug, the Belarusian and Ukrainian (Russian) people stood on the side of Russia.
Among the prisoners of Siberia, alongside Poles, there is simply a large group of Russians who sympathized with the uprising and were arrested in Moscow or Petersburg. He and the Poles later found themselves in Siberia. Before 1989, on January 22, on the anniversary of the outbreak, a wreath at the failure Gate was made by the Ambassador... of the USSR, due to the fact that at the time the uprising was considered to have been "a joint fight between Polish and Russian nations and the Carat”. Despite the propaganda interpretation, it was an explanation much closer to the fact than the 1 presented in president Andrzej Duda's speech.
Jan Engelgard
