November Uprising (1830-1831): Poland Rises Against Russia

The November Uprising was the Polish revolt of 1830–1831 against Russian rule over the Kingdom of Poland. It began on the night of 29 November 1830 with an attack by young officer cadets in Warsaw, grew into a ten-month war against the Russian Empire, and ended in defeat, harsh reprisals and the departure of much of Poland’s political and cultural elite in the Great Emigration.

Background: Congress Poland

After the Partitions of Poland erased the Polish state in 1795, the Congress of Vienna created a small Kingdom of Poland in 1815, joined to Russia because the tsar was also its king. Known as Congress Poland, it had its own constitution, parliament (Sejm), army and administration, and at first it was among the more liberal states in Europe.

Relations soured under Tsar Alexander I and worsened after Nicholas I came to the throne in 1825. Censorship tightened, opposition deputies were harassed, and the tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, commanded the Polish army with notorious brutality. Many Poles also hoped to recover the eastern lands lost in the partitions.

Outbreak in Warsaw

Secret patriotic societies had formed among students and junior officers. In 1830 the July Revolution in France and the Belgian revolt raised fears that Nicholas would send the Polish army west to suppress them. A conspiracy led by Second Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki of the infantry cadet school decided to act.

On the evening of 29 November 1830 cadets attacked the Belweder Palace to seize Konstantin, who escaped. Other insurgents, joined by Warsaw’s townspeople, captured the Arsenal and distributed weapons. Several senior Polish generals who refused to join were killed in the confusion. Konstantin withdrew with his Russian troops, leaving Warsaw in Polish hands.

From revolt to war

Moderate leaders such as Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski took control of the government, and General Józef Chłopicki briefly held dictatorial powers while trying to negotiate. Nicholas demanded unconditional surrender. On 25 January 1831 the Sejm declared Nicholas dethroned as King of Poland, which made war unavoidable.

In February 1831 a Russian army under Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch, numbering well over 100,000 men, invaded. The Polish army, roughly 40,000 strong at the outset and later expanded to perhaps 70,000 to 80,000, fought the invaders to a standstill at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska on 25 February. The insurrection spread to Lithuania and Volhynia, where the young noblewoman Emilia Plater became a celebrated insurgent officer.

Defeat

On 26 May 1831 the Poles were defeated at Ostrołęka. A cholera epidemic swept both armies, killing Diebitsch and Grand Duke Konstantin in June. Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich took command and moved on Warsaw, while political quarrels and riots divided the capital.

Russian forces stormed Warsaw’s western defences on 6–7 September, and the city capitulated on 8 September 1831. Remaining Polish units crossed into Prussia and Austria, and the last fortresses, Modlin and Zamość, surrendered in October 1831.

Europe looks on

The Polish government appealed to Britain and France for help, but neither was willing to risk war with Russia. Louis-Philippe’s new regime in France was still seeking acceptance by the other powers, and Britain was absorbed by the Reform crisis at home. Austria and Prussia, which also ruled former Polish lands, feared that the revolt might spread to their own territories and helped Russia by sealing their borders.

Public opinion was another matter. Liberals in France, Britain and the German states followed the war with enthusiasm. In Germany a wave of sympathy known as “Polenbegeisterung” produced poems and songs, and towns welcomed Polish soldiers as they passed through on their way into exile. Polish flags were carried at the Hambach Festival of 1832, a great gathering of German liberals and nationalists.

The uprising also had an indirect effect in the west. By tying down large Russian forces through 1831, it made any Russian intervention against the revolutions in France and Belgium impossible, a point Polish exiles often stressed in later years.

Consequences and the Great Emigration

Nicholas I replaced the constitution with the Organic Statute of 1832, abolished the Sejm and the separate Polish army, and closed the universities of Warsaw and Vilnius. Estates were confiscated, thousands were sent to Siberia or into the Russian army, and a large citadel was built in Warsaw to overawe the city.

Between about 6,000 and 10,000 Poles went into exile, most to France. This Great Emigration included the poets Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki, the historian Joachim Lelewel and Czartoryski, whose Hôtel Lambert in Paris became a centre of Polish diplomacy. Exiles kept the Polish cause alive across Europe and played a part in the January Uprising of 1863.

Timeline

• 1815: The Congress of Vienna creates the Kingdom of Poland under the Russian tsar.
• 1830, 29 November: Cadets attack the Belweder Palace and insurgents seize the Warsaw Arsenal.
• 1831, 25 January: The Sejm dethrones Nicholas I as King of Poland.
• 1831, February: A Russian army under Diebitsch invades the kingdom.
• 1831, 25 February: The Battle of Olszynka Grochowska ends without a decisive result.
• 1831, 26 May: Polish defeat at the Battle of Ostrołęka.
• 1831, 8 September: Warsaw capitulates after the Russian assault.
• 1831, October: The fortresses of Modlin and Zamość surrender, ending the uprising.

Why it matters

The November Uprising ended Congress Poland’s autonomy and began decades of tighter Russian control. It also shaped Polish national identity through the Romantic literature and politics of the Great Emigration, and won the Polish cause widespread sympathy among liberals across Europe and North America.