Polish Revolution and Reaction 1840-1851

Russia, Prussia, and Austria had divided Poland among them in three successive partitions (1772, 1793, 1795).

These territorial divisions were altered in 1807, when the emperor Napoleon of France created the duchy of Warsaw out of the central provinces of Prussian Poland.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna awarded the former Duchy of Warsaw, minus Poznania (which went to Prussia) and Krakow (made a free city), to Tsar Alexander under the name of the Kingdom of Poland.

The tsar now controlled about two-thirds of the old Commonwealth: both the area commonly called Congress Kingdom, or Congress Poland, and the former Commonwealth (Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian) provinces that had been annexed during the partitions.

However, the main result of the partitions—i.e., the elimination of the sovereign state of Poland—remained in effect.

Russian victory in the Polish rebellion of 1830 was followed by severe reprisals, confiscations, arrests, and deportations.

Several thousand Poles, including the political and intellectual elite, emigrated, whereas in partitioned Poland, émigré emissaries inspire conspiratorial activities.

Read on to see the results of these republican plots.

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