Poland
Poland (Pol. Polska), Kingdoms of, the name of that part of ancient Poland which in 1815 was reconstituted and placed under the sovereignty of Russia. It forms the westernmost portion of the Russian empire, and is situated between lat. 50° 4' and 55° 6' N"., and Ion. 17° 38' and 24° 15' E.; area, 49,158 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 6,225,618. After the unsuccessful insurrection of 1863 Poland lost its independent administration and all its peculiar institutions, and in 1874 its incorporation with Russia was fully completed. It is bounded N. E. and E. by the Russian provinces of Lithuania (the governments of Kovno, Wilna, and Grodno) 'and Volhynia, S. by Austrian Galicia, and W. and N. W. by the Prussian provinces of Silesia, Posen, and West and East Prussia. All these surrounding provinces, as well as numerous others, were formerly parts of independent Poland, of which the nominal kingdom, or the Vistula country as the Russians call it, is thus but a fragment. This country consists of a quadrangular territory, from the N. E. corner of which a long and narrow tract, bounded by Lithuania and East Prussia, stretches northward. The average length as well as breadth of the quadrangle is about 200 m.
By far the greater part of the country is a plain, sinking gently toward the Baltic; only the southern regions are hilly or slightly mountainous, being traversed by the northernmost offshoots of the Carpathians. The Vistula, which flows from that range to the Baltic, enters Poland a little below Cracow, running N. E. along the southern or Galician frontier as far as the mouth of the San, sweeps in a northerly and then northwesterly direction through the middle of the kingdom, and leaves it a little above the Prussian fortress of Thorn. On the right it receives the Wieprz, which rises in the S. E. corner of the country, and the Bug, which rises in Galicia and flows along the E. frontier; on the left the Nida, the Pi-lica, which rises in the S. W. corner, and the Bzura. The Narew, which rises in Grodno, is a N. affluent of the Bug, which it joins near its mouth. The Niemen, which has its source in Minsk, having traversed Lithuania, reaches Poland near the town of Grodno, and flows alongthe Lithuanian frontier toward the Baltic. The Warta, the source of which is near that of the Pilica, and its affluent the Prosna, which partly separates Poland from Silesia and Posen, are tributaries of the Oder. Most of these rivers are navigable, and form channels for the exportation of produce through the Prussian towns of Dantzic, Stettin, and Tilsit, to the Baltic. There are lakes in the northern part near the Prussian boundary, but none of large size.
The climate is healthy but severe, the summer being very hot and the winter very long and exceedingly cold. In the former season, especially when the S. E. winds blow from the steppes of Russia, the thermometer sometimes rises above 90o F., and in the latter it descends to 15° below zero. The rivers are sometimes ice-bound and the fields covered with snow for four or five months continuously. The soil is mostly a fertile sandy loam; but there are numerous unproductive tracts covered with sand, heath, or swamps. Rich pastures and vast forests abound. The region between the upper Bug and the Vistula is the most fertile, that between the Vistula and the Pilica the most varied and picturesque. The principal products are wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, and flax; various leguminous plants; apples, excellent cherries, and other fruit. The forest trees include the pine, fir, birch, oak, ash, hazel, and lime; the chief minerals are silver, iron, copper, lead, and zinc. Bees, poultry, sheep, and horses are extensively reared. Of wild animals the most common are the deer, fox, marten, polecat, weasel, and wolf. Among the singing birds are the skylark and the nightingale.
The principal fish is the pike. - The bulk of the population consists of Poles (about 4,000,000). The Jews number upward of 800,000, the Ruthenians and Russians about 700,000, and the Lithuanians and Germans about 300,000 each. The Roman Catholic church, to which nearly all the Poles and many Ruthenians, Lithuanians, and Germans belong, had in 186.7 one archbishop, seven bishops, and a population of 4,326,473. The convents, which were formerly very numerous, have been mostly suppressed. The number of Protestants was reported as 331,233, most of whom are German Lutherans. The United Greek church had then a bishop at Chelm and a population of 229,250, all Ruthenians. The Orthodox Greek church numbered only 29,932, with an archbishop at Warsaw. In the spring of 1875, however, the bulk of the United Greek population declared its return to the Orthodox church. There were 4,552 Raskolniks, 606 Mohammedans, and 472 pagans. - The main resources of the country are agriculture and mining. Commerce and the trades are to a great extent in the hands of the Jews, and manufactures in those of the Germans. Woollen cloth, cotton goods, flannel, merinoes, shawls, hosiery, leather, paper, glass, beet-root sugar, beer, spirits, iron and zinc, musical instruments, clocks and watches, and carriages are among the principal manufactures, some of which are exported to the various provinces of Russia. Grain, seeds, oil, honey, wool, metals, and timber are exported to the Baltic ports.
A strictly guarded customs line protects home manufactures against foreign competition. Railroad lines connect the capital, Warsaw, with St. Petersburg, Moscow, Cracow, Berlin, and Dantzic. The principal manufacturing town is Lodz. The last division of the country is into 10 governments, named after their capitals, viz.: Kalisz, Kielce, Lom-za, Lublin, Piotrkow, Plock, Radom, Siedlce, Suwalki, and Warsaw. - The Poles form one of the principal branches of the Slavic family of nations. Their ancestors are believed by the best historians to have occupied the same regions during or soon after the time of the great migration of nations. A few centuries later they appear under the name of Polans between the Oder and Vistula, of Lenczycans E. of the Warta, of Masovians between the Vistula and the Narew, and of Kujavians, Kassubs, and Pomeranians on or near the lower Vistula. The Polans, probably so named as inhabitants of the plain (Pol. pole, field, plain), formed the most conspicuous group, and eventually gave their name to the whole nation.
Their leader or prince Lech is the first among the heroes of legendary Polish history, figuring as the founder of Gnesen; but as Lach is still used for Pole among the Russians, the name of the fabulous brother of Czech and Rus probably belonged to the people. Equally fabulous are, among others, Krakus, the founder of Cracow, and the tyrant Popiel. The election of Piast, a pious and benevolent peasant of Kruszwica, as king, is also regarded as mythical, his son Zie-mowit being considered the first historical ruler of Poland (860). Little, however, is known of him, or of his successors before Miecislas I. (962-992), who having married Dombrowka, a Bohemian princess, was induced by her to convert his people to Christianity. He divided his dominions among his sons, but Boleslas, the eldest of them, sur-named the Brave or the Great, made himself master of the whole inheritance, extending it by conquests beyond the Oder, the Carpathians, and the Dniester. He was acknowledged as an independent monarch by the emperor Otho III., but he afterward carried on long wars against Otho's successor Henry II. Dissensions between the successors of Vladimir, grand duke of Kiev, called him to Russia, and he entered that capital in triumph.
He was no less successful in peace, promoting commerce, a strict administration of justice, and the spread of the new religion, and strengthening the internal defences of the country. This was still in a comparatively rude condition. Most of the inhabitants were agriculturists bound to do military service; those who were able to equip a horse were regarded as nobles; prisoners of war were held as serfs; and the government was entirely autocratic. Boleslas was fond of splendor, sports, and military displays, and shortly before his death (1025) had himself crowned as king by his bishops. The reign of his son Miecislas II. was short. His widow Rixa, a granddaughter of the emperor Otho II., governed badly for some time in the name of her son Casimir, and anarchy and invasion ensued, but Casimir finally gained the surname of " the Restorer." His son Boleslas II., the Bold (1058-'81), triumphed over the Bohemians, decided by his intervention the disputes about the Hungarian throne, and on a similar expedition to Russia occupied Kiev. On his return from Russia he committed acts of tyranny, and slew St. Stanislas, bishop of Cracow, who had reprimanded him. This roused the people against him, and he died in exile.
His brother Ladislas (Wladyslaw) Herman (1081-1102), a weak-minded and sluggish prince, resigned the regal title, being satisfied with that of duke. His son Boleslas III. (1102-'39) warred with success against the Prussians, conquered Pomerania, converting its inhabitants to Christianity, and defended Silesia against the emperor Henry V., but was worsted by the Hungarians, Bohemians, and Russians. By his will he divided his dominions among his four eldest sons; but after long dissensions the crown devolved upon the fifth brother, Casimir II., the Just (1177). He was successful both in peace and war. An assembly of bishops convoked at Lenczyca in 1180 established the rights of the peasants and the clergy. A senate was formed consisting chiefly of bishops, palatines, and castellans, or governors of the fortified castles. Thus the monarchy became limited by the introduction of a kind of oligarchy, which by subsequent changes was developed into an aristocracy. The interests of the lower classes were after the death of Casimir soon disregarded; domains and single estates were granted as presents or rewards to favorites or public officers, with the right of jurisdiction over the peasantry; the obligations of the latter were gradually extended, while the higher nobles were exempted from all public burdens.
Of Casimir's two sons, Lesco received the provinces of Cracow, Sandomir, and Pomerania, and Conrad Masovia, Kujavia, Sieradz, and Lenczyca. Lesco was murdered by Sventopelk, a native governor of Pomerania, and that province was lost. Conrad, too, was unable to cope with his heathen Prussian neighbors. He called to his assistance the Teutonic knights, who were not satisfied with the conversion of the half savage people, but made conquest and power their principal object, carried their arms into Lithuania, and soon became terrible enemies of Poland. Under his son Boleslas V. (1227-'79), "an unjust judge, peace-loving knight, and careless ruler," Poland was almost annihilated by the great invasion of the Mongols. The decay of the country was general. The heirs of Conrad subdivided his possessions. Various western districts were pledged for loans or ceded to neighboring German princes, and the Bohemians occupied portions of Silesia. German settlers denationalized parts of their adopted land. German warriors and adventurers flocked to the shores of the Baltic, where the Teutonic knights allied themselves with the knights sword-bearers of Livonia for common crusading wars on the confines of Poland. The Jews, too, who in the time of the crusades were driven by persecution from Germany, retained in Poland the language which they had adopted on the banks of the Rhine and Danube. Tartars, Ruthenians, and Lithuanians made occasional incursions.
Ladislas the Short, a grandson of Conrad, succeeded in restoring order and the unity of the larger part of the country (Silesia subjecting itself to the Bohemian kings); made Cracow its permanent capital, where he was solemnly crowned in 1319; reformed judicial abuses; abolished numerous illegally acquired privileges; convened an assembly of senators, chancellors, and other nobles for legislative purposes at Chenciny in 1331, which is regarded as the first Polish diet (sejm); and in alliance with the powerful prince of Lithuania, Gedimin, carried on a vigorous war against the Teutonic knights. He urged its continuance in his last advice; but peace was the foremost desire of his son Casimir III., the Great (1333-'70), who made Poland powerful and flourishing. Humane and enlightened above his age, though profligate, he earned the title of " king of the peasants," protected the Jews, had a double code of laws promulgated by the diet of Wislica in 1347, and founded the university of Cracow. But he also took care to strengthen and extend his power. He built cities and fortresses, and after the death without issue of Boleslas of Maso-via, who reigned over Halicz (Galicia), annexed his vast possessions to the Polish crown. His death closed the long reign of the Piast dynasty.
Casimir's nephew, Louis the Great of Hungary, possessed the title of Polish king, legally conferred by the diet, but hardly deserved it, his policy remaining exclusively Hungarian. His younger daughter Hedvig, a girl distinguished by beauty as well as piety, was acknowledged after his death (1382), and, following the advice of the Polish statesmen, gave her hand to Jagellon or Jagiello, grand duke of Lithuania. This pagan prince was baptized as Ladislas (II.), and promised to convert his people, in which he was assisted by the zeal of Hedvig, and to unite his possessions with Poland. These comprised Lithuania proper, Samogitia (N. of the Niemen), Polesia (on both sides of the Pripetz), Volhynia, Podolia, and Ukraine, and in extent exceeded the territories of Poland, though surpassed by it in population, wealth, and culture. The promised union of the two powerful states was executed gradually and with difficulty. Jagellon (1386-1434) warred successfully against the Teutonic knights, routing them at Grunwald in 1410. After his death, however, his elder son Ladislas III. was acknowledged only in Poland, the Lithuanians preferring to be ruled separately under the younger, Casimir. Both were still under guardianship.
Ladislas was subsequently elected king of Hungary, and in a second expedition against the Turks fell in the bloody battle of Varna in 1444. His brother Casimir IV. reigned over both Lithuania and Poland (1444-'92). After several campaigns against the Teutonic knights, he compelled them, in the peace of Thorn (1466), to surrender the territories of Dantzic, Culm, and Ermeland to Poland, keeping the eastern part of Prussia as vassals of that crown. Under him the diets were organized by the introduction of regular representation. Refinement and luxury spread over the country, but the peasantry were more and more oppressed. Three sons of Casimir reigned after him: John Albert, Alexander, and Sigismund I. The last of them was the happiest king of his age (1506-'48). He was beloved by the people and obeyed by the nobility. Poland enjoyed peace, prosperity, and order, while the rest of Europe was distracted by wars. In a war with Muscovy, however, Smolensk was lost. A large part of the Teutonic order having adopted the tenets of Luther, their last grand master Albert of Brandenburg, Sigismund's nephew, was established, as vassal of the latter, duke of eastern Prussia at Ko-nigsberg in 1525, the western part of that country, with Dantzic, remaining in the immediate possession of Poland, under the name of Royal Prussia. A peace with the Turks secured the suzerainty of Poland over Moldavia. His son, Sigismund II. Augustus, proved a worthy successor of his father as soon as he was delivered from the pernicious influence of his mother Bona, an Italian princess, who finally withdrew with her rich treasures to her native country.
The reform of the republic, as the state was called, now became one of the principal objects of the diets, another being the final union of Lithuania with the crown. To achieve both, the king and the nobles were indefatigable in their endeavors. The Lithuanian lords, however, who gloried in princely titles and enjoyed great feudal privileges, were slow in submitting to the Polish equality of nobles. The union was finally proclaimed by the diet of Lublin in 1569. Ostrogski, Czartoryski, and other powerful Lithuanians signed it. Lithuania ceased to be a hereditary possession of the house of Jagellon, but was to form a common republic with Poland, under the rule of an elective king, with a common diet and senate. The two component parts, however, the grand principality and the crown, maintained their separate titles, armies, finances, and statutes. Podlachia, Volhynia, and Ukraine were transferred from the former to the latter. Livonia, conquered by Sigismund Augustus from the knights sword-bearers, and defended against Ivan the Terrible of Muscovy, remained a common duchy. "Warsaw in Masovia was chosen to be the regular seat of the diet. The power, prosperity, and opulence of the state approached their height.
Toleration and hospitality attracted foreigners of all sects, Lutherans, Oalvinists, and Socinians, while western Europe was the scene of internecine religious strifes. The population of Poland was doubled under the two Sigismunds. With Sigismund Augustus ended the male line of Jagellon (1572). During the interregnum which now followed, the cardinal rights of the nation were established, each elective head being required to enter into a regular covenant with it and to take the oath of fidelity to the pacta conventa. He was bound to convoke the diet every two years, to have a permanent council consisting of senators and deputies, to respect the rights of the dissidents, not to declare war or to send ambassadors abroad without the consent of the estates, and not to marry without that of the senate. An infraction of the compact was to absolve the people from allegiance. A diet of convocation, assembled by the archbishop of Gnesen as primate, preceded the diet of election, which was held on the field of Wola before Warsaw, every nobleman having an individual and equal elective vote.
The first choice fell upon the most unworthy candidate, .the profligate Henry of Valois, duke of Anjou, brother of Charles IX. of France. A splendid embassy escorted the duke from Paris, and a splendid coronation took place at Cracow, in 1574; but the effeminate prince and the hardy nation were soon heartily disgusted with each other; and after a few months, having received the news of the death of Charles, he secretly ran off to France to succeed him as Henry III. The emperor Maximilian II. appeared as candidate; but John Zamojski proposed to give the crown to Anna Jagellon, a sister of Sigismund Augustus, choosing for her husband Stephen Bathori, prince of Transylvania, and his advice prevailed (1575). This Tran-sylvanian was probably the ablest monarch Poland ever had. A zealous Catholic himself, he was animated by a spirit of toleration toward others, and as a patron of science and friend of education founded numerous institutions, among others the university of Wilna, which he intrusted to the Jesuits. He reformed the judiciary, strengthened the military forces of the country, organized the Cossacks of the lower Dnieper as guardians of the S. E. frontier, and in a war against Russia humiliated Ivan and conquered Polotzk. His principal adviser and right arm was Zamojski, who united the dignities of chancellor, castellan of Cracow, and hetman or commander-in-chief. Stephen's reign closed the period of Poland's greatest power and prosperity.
The reign of Sigismund Vasa (1587-1632), whose Catholic zeal cost him his hereditary Swedish crown, was distinguished by the achievements of the great commanders Zamojski, Chodkiewicz, and Zolkiewski, in wars with the Swedes, Russians, and Turks, but by no favorable results. In the wars with Charles IX. and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden Livonia was lost, the Polish fleet on the Baltic destroyed, and a part of Prussia given up by a truce in 1629. In internal affairs Sigismund was not more successful; the Greeks and other dissidents complained, conspired, or rebelled, the regular army extorted its arrears by mutiny, and the royal dignity was more than once humiliated. His son, Ladislas IV. (1632-48), was successful abroad, but had to submit to further limitations of the regal authority. The dominant class, the turbulent warrior brotherhood, now exercised its sway in every direction, tyrannically guiding the king, prohibiting superior titles, entirely excluding the non-nobles from all legislative influence, and more and more burdening and degrading the peasantry.
Similar oppression, as well as religious persecution, was now begun against the Cossacks, which at the time of Ladislas's death resulted in a dreadful rising under Chmielnicki, who, after a desolating war, finally subjected the rebellious warriors to the czar of Moscow. This war and defection was only one of the calamities which befell the brother and successor of Ladislas, the religious and brave but fickle John (II.) Casimir (1648-'68). The chief sources of misfortune were legislative anarchy, culminating in the liberum veto, or the right of a single deputy to prevent or annul the action of the diet, internal dissensions, and the readiness of neighboring powers to profit by them, which made John Casimir prophetically predict in the diet the future dismemberment of the country by Brandenburg, Austria, and Russia. In his own reign, simultaneously assaulted by the Russians and Cossacks, Charles Gustavus of Sweden and his ally the great elector of Bran- -denburg, and George Rakoczy of Transylvania, Poland was on the brink of ruin; Warsaw, Cracow, Wilna, and Lemberg all fell into the hands of enemies; the king was deserted, and fled to Silesia. But a confederation for defence was formed by the Potockis and other patriots; heroic efforts were made, John Casimir returned, the king of Denmark proved a useful ally, and Czarniecki was victorious against all enemies.
Peace was conquered, but at great sacrifices. Ducal Prussia was definitely ceded to Brandenburg, almost all Livonia to Sweden, and Smolensk, Severia, Tcherni-gov, and Ukraine E. of the Dnieper to Russia. ' Poland was half a desert. John Casimir, despairing of the future, resigned. Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki was elected his successor, and almost compelled to accept the crown. The hetman (commander-in-chief) John Sobi-eski, who had routed the Moslems at Kho-tin (1673), was elected on his death. Wars with the Turks filled his reign. In 1683 he delivered Vienna and filled Christendom with the fame of Polish arms, but obtained no benefit for his own country. Equally fruitless were his later undertakings, and he died little beloved by his people in 1696. His sons found no support at the election; the diet was divided, and two foreigners, the prince of Oonti and the elector of Saxony, Augustus (II.), were elected by the opposing factions. The elector arrived before Conti, and prevailed. His alliance with Peter the Great of Russia and Frederick IV. of Denmark, against the young Charles XII. of Sweden, proved a source of calamities to himself and the country. The Saxons fought Augustus's battles, and the Poles, who had not been consulted about the war, were little inclined to aid him.
Charles after the battle of Narva easily overran Lithuania and Poland, and occupied Warsaw and Cracow; but he preferred giving away the crown of Poland to taking it himself, and had his friend, the youthful Stanislas Leszczynski, substituted for the voluptuous Saxon (1705). But scarcely had he lost the battle of Poltava (1709) when Augustus returned, and with the help of the Russians recovered the regal crown. Stanislas joined his protector in Turkey. The following period of peace was one of public and private corruption. The nobility was infected by the effeminacy of the court, and abandoned the defence of constitutional rights; religious fanaticism legalized the long exercised exclusion of the dissidents from office; and,Russian interference became permanent. A Russian army helped a faction of the nobles to establish the son of Augustus as his successor in 1733, instead of the reelected Leszczynski. Louis XV. of France, who had married the daughter of Stanislas, commenced a war of Polish succession on the Rhine, at the termination of which the latter received Lorraine, but Augustus III. remained on the throne of Poland. During the seven years' war Russian armies crossed and recrossed the country without opposition. Constitutional anarchy made legislation almost impossible.
But already the more enlightened of the nation began to think of vital reforms. To transform the republic of the nobles into a regular constitutional kingdom became the scheme of the Czartoryskis and their friends. In order to conquer the opposition of Radziwill, the Potockis, and other adherents of the old republican constitution, they secretly sought the aid of Catharine II. of Russia, who readily but treacherously granted it. After the death of Augustus III. in 1763, Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski, a favorite of the empress and nephew of the Czartoryskis, was illegally placed upon the throne by a confederation of the reformers, aided by Russian bayonets. The regal prerogative was somewhat enlarged. But Poniatowski was feeble to fickleness, and allowed himself to be used as a tool by the designing empress. Her ambassador Repnin, who had an army at his disposal, became the real ruler. He encouraged the dissidents and enemies of reform, who formed numerous small confederations, united them into one at Radom, and by force of arms compelled them to accept the guarantee of the unlimited republican liberty by Russia. The patriots, however, took up arms.
The confederation of Bar took the lead (1768), its soul being the Pulaskis, especially Casimir, and Krasinski, bishop of Kamenetz. The struggle against the Russians, the Porte too declaring war against them, was carried on long and fiercely in various parts of the country, but only by a part of the nobles. Meanwhile Catharine concerted a division of Poland with Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa. The Prussians and Austrians entered Poland in 1772; the confederates, already greatly weakened, dispersed, and .the dismemberment of the country began. A diet was convoked in 1773 to sanction the deed; but few of the members appeared, and these remained silent. Russia took the palatinates of Polotzk, Vitebsk, and Mstislav, and some adjoining parts; Prussia, the Polish province of that name, with the exception of the towns of Thorn and Dantzic, and a part of Great Poland on the Netze; Austria, Red Russia and some adjoining districts, uniting them under the names of Galicia and Lodomeria. The old constitution with all its abuses was fastened upon the remaining territories of Poland, under the guarantee of Russia. To save and strengthen the country by reforms now became a general., tendency.
A new constitution, framed by the double diet of 1788-'92, promulgated May 3, 1791, and most solemnly adopted by the king and the people, abolished the liberum veto, gave political rights to the cities and civil rights to the peasantry, and made the throne hereditary, offering the succession to the elector of Saxony. Frederick William II. of Prussia encouraged the reformers, and offered his aid against Russia. But the aid of Catharine II. was invoked by the defenders of the old constitution, who, under the lead of Felix Potocki, Francis Xavier Branicki, and Severin Rzewuski, in 1792 formed the confederation of Targovitza against the new order of things. The Russians entered Poland; the Polish army, commanded by Joseph Poniatowski, the nephew of the king, retreated to the Bug; the arrival of the king in person was waited for in vain; Prussia proved traitorous, and Kosciuszko's splendid fight at Dubienka (July 17) was useless. After long wavering, the king virtually ended the struggle by going over to the confederation; the Russians occupied the capital, and a diet convened by the victors at Grodno in 1793 was compelled at the point of the bayonet to sanction a new division of the country.
The ostensible defender of the old " republican liberty," Catharine, with her own hand drew a line on a map across Lithuania and Volhy-nia, taking all the land E. of it; the late ally of Poland, Frederick William, secured himself against "Polish Jacobinism" by taking the remainder of Great Poland and the towns of Thorn and Dantzic. The despair of the nation broke out in a great insurrection in 1794, for which Madalinski gave the signal. Kosciuszko was called from abroad to lead it as dictator, and, appearing at Cracow, hastily armed the people of the vicinity, partly with pikes and scythes, and routed the Kussians at Raclawice (April 4). Warsaw and Lithuania rose; a supreme council was formed; the king was ignored. But the means of the exhausted country were scanty; arms and unanimity were wanting, and the Russians were soon joined by Prussian and Austrian armies. Kosciuszko was defeated at Szczekociny and Za-jonczek at Chelm. Warsaw, besieged by Frederick William in person, was saved by a rising in the rear of the Prussians; but Kosciuszko was overwhelmed by Suvaroff and Fersen at Maciejowice (Oct. 10), and taken prisoner.
The storming and massacre of Praga and the capitulation of Warsaw (Nov. 8) followed; the Polish troops were disbanded; most of the commanders were dragged into captivity; and Poniatowski resigned his crown at Grodno in 1795. The third division annihilated the existence of Poland, effacing even its name. Russia took all the provinces E. of the Niemen and Bug; Austria those between the latter river, the Pilica, and the Vistula; Prussia all the remainder, with the capital. But the surviving patriots immediately commenced making new endeavors for the restoration of their country. Oginski and others invoked the help of France, Turkey, and Sweden, and Dombrowski succeeded in forming in Italy Polish legions for the army of Napoleon, which, after ten years' service abroad, victoriously reentered their native land. By the treaty of Tilsit (1807) Napoleon transformed the greater part of the Prussian share, of Poland into a duchy of Warsaw, which received a tolerably liberal constitution, and a ruler in the person of the king (formerly elector) of Saxony, Frederick Augustus. This little Polish state made immense exertions in behalf of its French ally and protector on many theatres of war, but especially in the great Russian campaign of 1812, which promised the restoration of the whole of Poland. This hope soon vanished, and the duchy itself was destroyed in 1813, after a gallant resistance.
The territorial limits of divided Poland were now rearranged by the congress of Vienna, which, while creating a shadow of Polish independence in the miniature republic of Cracow, naturally gave the lion's share to Alexander of Russia. The czar formed his new acquisitions, extending from the Niemen and Bug to the Prosna, into the so-called kingdom of Poland, to which he gave a constitutional form of government, a separate responsible ministry, and a national army of 50,000 men. Of this separated and privileged part of his vast Polish possessions the czar was the king, and his brother Constantine, its military governor and generalissimo, the virtual viceroy, Gen. Zajonczek being the nominal one. But the harmony between the foreign rulers and the people could be but superficial, and it was but of brief duration. Mutual distrust prevailed from the beginning; the opposition to the government gained strength from diet to diet; violations of the constitution and attempts at conspiracy grew frequent; Constantine tortured the army by excessive drilling, and alienated its best officers by insults; and after the accession of Nicholas (1825) an open rupture became imminent.
Nevertheless the outbreak at Warsaw, precipitated by a small band of youthful democratic conspirators under Peter Wysocki, which drove Constantine and his Russians in the night of Nov. 29-30, 1830, from that capital, took both the emperor and the nation by surprise. The whole people immediately declared in favor of the revolution, but the aristocrats took the lead with the intention of moderating its course. To this party belonged Prince Adam Czartoryski, president of the provisional government; the old poet Niem-cewicz; Chlopicki, for a short time dictator; his successors in the chief command of the army, Radziwill, Skrzynecki, Dembinski, and Mala-chowski; and the generals Dwernicki, Chrza-nowski, Bern, Uminski, Rybinski, and Prond-zynski. The agitations of Lelewel, Mochnacki, and other democrats, had no other result but an increase of difficulties. Much precious time was wasted in attempted negotiations, the army increased slowly, and a powerful Russian army under Diebitsch was allowed to cross the Bug without resistance.
The independence of Poland and the exclusion of the house of Romanoff having been declared (Jan. 25, 1831), a series of bloody battles was fought near Warsaw, especially at Dobre, Wawer, and Gro-ch6w, in February and March, and on the middle Narew and Bug and at Ostrolenka in May, in which the Polish commanders displayed great courage but little generalship. Dwernicki, sent to revolutionize Volhynia, had been compelled to retire into Galicia, and there to surrender to the Austrians; another corps, sent under Gielgud and Chlapowski to the assistance of the Samogitian and Lithuanian insurgents, shared the same fate on Prussian territory in July, Dembinski alone saving his detachment by an admirable retreat; the main army remained inactive around the capital, allowing the new Russian commander-in-chief Paskevitch to cross the lower Vistula on the Prussian frontier, and to advance toward Warsaw on the left bank of that river. The people growing impatient, Skrzynecki was deposed, presumed traitors were massacred in a night of horrors (Aug. 15), and Krukowiecki succeeded Czartoryski as president of the government.
Ramorino having been sent to the southeast with a part of the Polish army, Paskevitch finally attacked the fortified capital, and after a murderous struggle, during which Krukowiecki negotiated, a capitulation virtually ended the war (Sept. 8). The main army under Rybinski laid down its arms on Prussian territory, Ramorino in Galicia, a corps under Ro-zycki at Cracow, and Zamosc and Modlin surrendered. Depopulated at once by the sword and by the cholera, the country lay bleeding and exhausted at the feet of the czar, and mercy was neither expected nor exercised. Numberless patriots were sent to Siberia, the private soldiers compelled to serve in the Russian army, the estates of refugees confiscated, the constitution and the laws of the country abrogated, the university of Warsaw and other principal schools abolished, rigorous censorship of the press and a terrible police system introduced, and a citadel at "Warsaw and other new fortifications erected. This system was continued throughout the reign of Nicholas, though at times moderated by the milder disposition of the governor, Paskevitch. A similar though less rigorous policy was pursued in all other Polish provinces, the republic of Cracow alone preserving its national character.
In the mean while the Polish emigrants, residing mostly in France, though split into violently opposing factions, were unremitting in endeavors for the restoration of their country. The more ardent or adventurous took part in various revolutionary movements in western Europe, and fomented conspiracies in Poland. The most extensive of the latter led to simultaneous outbreaks in Russian Poland, Galicia, Cracow, and Posen in February and March, 1846. All of them ended disastrously. The leaders in Poland were hanged, those in Posen, Mie-roslawski and others, imprisoned, and the patriotic nobles of Galicia butchered by the peasants; the republic of Cracow, where alone the insurrection was for a short time successful, was abolished and annexed to Galicia. Mieroslawski and his associates, being saved from death by the revolution of Berlin in March, 1848, fought soon after, with hastily collected Polish bands, bravely but unsuccessfully, against overwhelming Prussian forces in Posen; Bern, Dembinski, and Joseph Wy-socki commanded Hungarian armies and Polish volunteers against Austrians and Russians in 1848-'9; Czajkowski and others fought against the latter in the eastern war of 1853 -'6; but all these efforts directly or indirectly to benefit Poland from abroad remained fruitless.
Considerable ameliorations took place in the Russian Polish provinces after the accession of Alexander II. (1855), numerous refugees returned, and new reforms were hoped for, when increasing agitation and popular demonstrations at Warsaw in February and April, 1861, induced the new governor, Gortchakoff, to employ the military force, and many lives were sacrificed. Similar collisions took place in other parts of the country. Simultaneously a Polish diet was convened at Lemberg (April 15), Austria having been compelled by its reverses in Italy (1859) to inaugurate a liberal policy. (See Austria, and Galicia.) In the kingdom of Poland the moderate lead assumed by the agronomical society, under Count Zamojski, came to a speedy end. Several generals succeeded Gortchakoff, among them Lu-ders, and force was rigorously employed. A great national gathering on the Bug was prevented by bayonets, and demonstrations in the churches of "Warsaw led to wholesale imprisonments and transportations to Siberia (October, 1861). Lenient views, however, still prevailed in the councils of Alexander II., and in June his brother Constantine was appointed viceroy of Poland, and the marquis "Wielopol-ski, a Pole of liberal Panslavic tendencies, attached to him as chief of the civil administration.
Reforms in favor of the peasantry and the Jews were initiated. But the national spirit could no longer be satisfied with moderate grants. A wild revolutionary enthusiasm had taken hold of a portion of the youth. Attempts at assassination were made against Luders, Constantine, and "Wielopolski. Secret committees organized a baneful terrorism. To crush this revolutionary movement by one blow, the government determined upon a conscription on a grand scale, of which, according to secret instructions, the mass of the patriotic youth were to be the victims. It was partially executed in the middle of January, 1863, by surprise in the night time. This precipitated an insurrection. Thousands of young men fled to the forests, and the secret central committee at "Warsaw on Jan. 22 called the nation to arms, and proclaimed a series of democratic reforms. The nobility and clergy eagerly joined in the movement, but the peasantry, though enfranchised by the revolutionary decrees and made exclusive proprietors of the soil which they held, showed little patriotic zeal. Poland and Lithuania were flooded with Russian troops, and the insurgents were unable to organize armies. A furious guerilla warfare was waged in all parts of Russian Poland, and Posen and Galicia sent aid in men, arms, and money.
The attempts of Mieroslawski and Langiewicz, in February and March, to establish a military dictatorship, were baffled by reverses, and the "Warsaw central committee henceforward secretly directed the operations, organizing a net of sub-committees, which collected taxes, enforced obedience, and punished traitors to the cause, often by assafsination, under the very eyes of the Russian authorities. But the insurgent forces remained scattered, no town of importance was occupied, and the friendly powers, France, Austria, and England, though protesting in diplomatic notes against the failure of Russia to fulfil its promises of 1815, stopped short of active interference, while Prussia proved hostile. "Wielopolski retired in July, and Constantine was succeeded in August by Gen. Berg, whose military rigor was surpassed only by that of Gen. Muravieff in Wilna. In Lithuania the insurrection was crushed in autumn, and in Poland in the following winter and spring, the secret Polish government, consisting of bold and reckless persons of little note, disappearing early in 1864. Tens of thousands had perished, and equally numerous were the victims of transportation to Siberia, execution, incarceration, and confiscation. The peasantry, however, were left to enjoy the fruits of enfranchisement.
Lithuania, Volhy-nia, and Podolia were violently Russianized, the separate features of the administration in the kingdom of Poland systematically abolished, this country being divided into ten new governments (1867), and placed under the administrative senate at St. Petersburg (1868), the university of Warsaw and the other schools Russianized (1869), and the Russian calendar (O. S.) introduced (1870). - Among the principal works on the history of Poland are, in Polish, those of Naruszewicz, Niemcewicz, Bandtke, Lelewel, and Szajnocha; and in other languages, those of Oginski, Rulhiere, Salvandy, Brzozowski, Roepell, Mieroslawski, L. Chodzko, and Oaro.