Poland's radical factions have never formed a…

Poland's radical factions have never formed a united front on any issue besides the general goal of independence.

Their programs insist that the Poles liberate themselves by their own efforts and link independence with republicanism and the emancipation of the peasants.

Handicapped by internal division, limited resources, heavy surveillance, and persecution of revolutionary cells in Poland, the Polish national movement suffers numerous losses.

The movement sustains a major setback in the 1846 revolt organized in Austrian Poland by the Polish Democratic Society, the leading radical nationalist group.

The uprising ends in a bloody fiasco when the peasantry takes up arms against the gentry rebel leadership, which is regarded as potentially a worse oppressor than the Austrians.

By incurring harsh military repression from Austria, the failed revolt leaves the Polish nationalists in poor position to participate in the wave of national revolution that crosses Europe in 1848 and 1849.

The stubborn idealism of this uprising's leaders had emphasized individual liberty and separate national identity rather than establishment of a unified republic—a significant change of political philosophy from earlier movements.