Today is time for another long thread on Polish and Russian history. This is a story about the contrast between three cultures: Russian, Polish and also German. It is taken from a book by the excellent Polish historian, former professor of the Polish Academy of Science,

the late Janusz Tazbir. The story concerns the widow of a famous Polish general, Józef Sowiński, his widow, the couples non-existent sons and tsar Nicholas I. It sounds like it’s taken from a satirical film (and a film with a similar story was made) but it is completely true.

But as an introduction we need some Polish history. So today’s long thread will be only an introduction to an even longer thread on Mrs Sowińska and her amazing struggle with Russian political culture.

Poland was partitioned and ceased to exist as a state in 1795. But this was just the time that nationalism began to emerge in Europe and it drove many Poles to strive to restore their state.

The natural ally was France, at war with all the partitioning powers so Poles flocked to the armies of the French Republic. They fond themselves fighting in Italy under General Bonaparte, who was genuinely impressed by their quality as soldiers

(Napoleon considered his aide de camp, who died tragically in Egypt, Józef Sułkowski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Sulkowski as the only officer he ever met who was similar to himself).
After defeating Prussia in 1807, Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw, out of the lands seized

by Prussia in the Partitions. After defeating Austria in 1809, he added a part of the territory taken by Austria. For Napoleon the Duchy was essentially a means of getting soldiers, but although not independent, the Duchy had a cultural autonomy and was efficiently governed -

as always efficiency being Napoleon’s primary concern. And for the Poles there was still somewhat vague about the possible full restoration of their state. When Napoleon attacked Russia in 1812, he officially called the war “the Second War of Polish Liberation”.

In actual, fact, he had not decided whether to restore Poland or not, as he put it clearly - it depended on the war’s outcome. The Polish army, of 100,000 troops, that went all the way to Moscow, fought very well and it remained loyal even after things went badly.

Polish troops fought in defense of Paris, some accompanied Napoleon in exile on Elba, some fought at Waterloo. But even before Napoleon’s defeat Tsar Alexander tried to convince Poish troops to return home, by promising to “restore Poland” himself. Many did.

However, after Napoleon’s defeat the always hesitating tsar seemed to change his mind and wanted to unite the Duchy with the former lands that Russia had taken during the partitions and unite everything with Russia as a separate province.

Prussia also wanted the Duchy to be eliminated, even if it meant that Russia would take the greater of the former Commonwealth but Austria and especially England were strongly opposed. The result was the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland.

The Kingdom had only a part of the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw, in particular it lost the ancient capital Kraków, which became a “free city”. (This deprived the new state of any university - the three ancient universities of Kraków, Lwów (Lviv) and Wilno (Vilnius)

were now all outside the state. As a recompense the tsar promised to create a new university in Warsaw).

The Kingdom was joined with Russia only be a personal union, with Tsar Alexander becoming King of Poland. Moreover, it was given a remarkably liberal constitution,

which guaranteed freedom of speech and expression, and gave a lot of power to the Parliament, whose proceedings where supposed to be open and free. It was amazing that Alexander agreed to this, but this was all part of his unusually conflicted personality, which was constantly

driven by two contrary emotions - on the one hand the desire to impress the West with his “liberalism” and on the other hand, inability to bear the natural consequences of this very same liberalism.
The new state also had a separate army.

It was essentially the very same army that fought for Napoleon. It was an excellent army, well trained and equipped, officered by some of the best officers in Europe - man for man it was one of the best in Europe. The command over the army was given to the tsar’s brother,

Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. This was an unfortunate choice. The Grand Duke was the second son of the murdered tsar Paul and was chosen to be Alexander’s successor, should he die childless. However, unlike Alexander, Konstantin was not involved in his father’s

murder by members of the Imperial Guard. In fact, the murder scarred him for life - he hated the guards and even seemed to hate Russia. He absolutely refused any idea of becoming tsar “they will strangle me like they did my father” he was heard saying.

So he abdicated and Alexander appointed his youngest brother Nicholas successor. But nobody outside a small circle was informed about the abdication, and in 1825, after Alexander’s death, the confusion that resulted was used by the Decembrist in their famous revolt

(the pretext was defending Konstantin’s rights), which nearly brought down tsardom 92 years earlier.
Konstantin married a Polish woman, countess Joanna Grudzińska. It was a love marriage and Konstanin was very pro-Polish.

He particularly loved the Polish army and was a great admirer and imitator of Napoleon.

But that was all in theory. In practice he was totally unsuitable for his role. Konstantin by nature was a terrible martinet.

He could never accept the “republican spirit” of the Polish Napoleonic army. He insisted on corporal punishment like in the Russian army, which Poles considered degrading even for common soldiers.

He kept insulting (and then apologizing) senior officers for the slightest violation of discipline, especially at military parades, which he took extremely seriously, while the Polish commanders did not.

The army was in a state of constant tension, with patriotic conspiracies ever present among the lower ranks.
Alexander too, proved temperamentally incapable of dealing with the Constitution he had agreed to uphold.

After only four years year he introduced preventive censorship of the press. Patriotic conspiracies multiplied among young Poles, and secret police started arresting their members.

In 1825 Alexander died and in the confusion that resulted the Decembrists made their attempt to overthrow the monarchy in Russia. Believing that the ideas behind the Decembrist revolt were inspired by the constitutional monarchy in Poland,

Tsar Nicholas was from the beginning hostile to it, and insisted that all parliamentary proceedings take place in secret. In 1829 Nicholas formally crowned himself King of Poland.

In 1830 the July revolution in Paris overthrew the Bourbons. A Russian intervention was seen as a real possibility and the Polish army was put by Konstantin in a state of emergency. It was believed that it was going to be sent to France, in a clear violation of the Constitution.

This provided the spark for the uprising of November 1830.