POLISH NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN PODILLIA IN 1863–1864

Abstract

The January Polish uprising of 1863–1864 was the vivid example of the national liberation struggle against Russian tsarism which spread far beyond the ethnic Polish borders, in particular to the territory of the Podillia province in the right-bank Ukraine (official name – the South-Western region of Russia). Poles adhered great-power ideas and tried to restore the Commonwealth (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) on the borders before the first partition  of 1772. The plans of the organizers of the uprising had a negative response among the Ukrainian population of the Right-Bank Ukraine. From the beginning the rebel camp split, that led to the formation of two currents – “red” and “white”. Their views on the struggle were fundamentally different: if the first wanted a complete state independence of Poland, then the second considered, as a version, autonomy within the Russian Empire. As for the agrarian question and the future fate of the Ukrainian lands of the former Commonwealth and their status, there was also no unity among the organizers of the uprising, since the “white” occupied a more moderate position.

Тhe Polish rebels in the Right-Bank Ukraine, in particular in Podillia, had the most powerful support from the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. They were ecclesiastical and ideological mentors in Polish society, actively professed the idea of restoring the power of the Catholic Polish state and its independence. The Roman Catholic clergy was patriotically minded and openly called the local population to join the armed action in their sermons at the churches. Having authority among the parishioners, it explained the Polish struggle as “God’s will”. Part of the clergy joined the insurgent units, and sometimes even headed them. A small, but at the same time the second largest in number, the share of Roman Catholic believers (12,44%) in Podillia province, realized the solidarity with the national liberation struggle against the Russian Empire as it’s “spiritual dew”. In particular, in the early 1860s, this process was the results, not only in the insurgents groups, but also in hiding rebels, wearing mourning clothes, distributing “golden сharters” among peasants and others.

The organizers of the uprising saw Ukrainian as the potential allies and tried to attract them to their side with promising proclamations. The Ukrainian peasantry formed the absolute majority of the population in Podillia. Part of the peasants sympathized with the uprising and even supported him. However, the majority of the Ukrainian peasantry of the Podillia province treated the January Polish uprising of 1863–1864. One of the leaders of the uprising on the Right Bank, E. Ruzhitsky von over the Russian garrison in Polonne (Khmelnytsky region) on May 12 (April 30) in 1863, but could not implement their plans for the continuation of the campaign.

The January uprising of 1863–1864 did not have a wide resonance in the Podillia province. The population of the region, the intellectuals and peasants, as well as the Right-Bank Ukraine as a whole, perceived the armed struggle of the Poles as an alien affair. In turn, representatives of the intelligentsia – “Khlopomany”, openly declared the requirement to reject nobility and great-power tendencies, in order to bring Ukrainian peasants to their ranks. The change of the age-old Polish traditions was not easy process. Despite the wide underground network, there were a lot of obstacles in the way of distribution of armed action in the province. The most important problems were unfavorable locality for guerrilla action, which manifested in lack of forests and the incomplete development of the uprising’s plan. The hopes of the organizers of the uprising for engagement foreign countries, in particular J. Garibaldi, did not succeed. In order to attract with the support of the population of the Podillіa province, Polish patriots needed to conduct a long-term dialogue with Ukrainians. It should lead to reconcile two neighboring peoples. In the past Ukrainian-Polish relations were overwhelmed by misunderstandings and conflicts, which was reflected on the dynamics of the spread of the Polish uprising on Right-Bank Ukraine.

Keywords: Polish uprising, Podillia, Polish gentry, Russian tsarism, landowners, Poles, Podilsky governor.