The Polish national movement has given priority…

The Polish national movement has given priority to the immediate restoration of independence for several decades,  a drive that has found expression in a series of armed rebellions.

The insurgencies arise mainly in the Russian zone of partition to the east, about three-quarters of which had formerly been Polish territory.

After the Congress of Vienna, St. Petersburg had organized its Polish lands as the Congress Kingdom of Poland, granting it a quite liberal constitution, its own army, and limited autonomy within the tsarist empire.

In the 1820s, however, Russian rule had grown more arbitrary, and secret societies have been formed by intellectuals in several cities to plot an overthrow.

In November 1830, Polish troops in Warsaw rise in revolt.

When the government of Congress Poland proclaims solidarity with the insurrectionists shortly thereafter, a new Polish-Russian war begins.

The rebels' requests for aid from France are ignored, and their reluctance to abolish serfdom costs them the support of the peasantry.

By September 1831, the Russians have subdued Polish resistance and forced six thousand resistance fighters into exile in France, beginning a time of harsh repression of intellectual and religious activity throughout Poland.

At the same time, Congress Poland loses its constitution and its army.

After the failure of the November Revolt, clandestine conspiratorial activity continues on Polish territory.

An exiled Polish political and intellectual elite establishes a base of operations in Paris.

A conservative group headed by Adam Czartoryski (leader of the November Revolt) relies on foreign diplomatic support to restore Poland's status as established by the Congress of Vienna, which Russia has routinely violated beginning in 1819.

Otherwise, this group is satisfied with a return to monarchy and traditional social structures.