{"id":434588,"date":"2013-09-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/?page_id=434588"},"modified":"2013-09-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T00:00:00","slug":"history-of-the-1863-1864-uprising-in-belarus-overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/welcome-to-the-archives-of-belarus-website\/subject-guides-to-archival-records\/historical-events\/archival-documents-and-materials\/history-of-the-1863-1864-uprising-in-belarus-overview","title":{"rendered":"History of the 1863-1864 uprising in Belarus (overview)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\nPrehistory
\r\nEvolution of events<\/a>
\r\nSituation after the suppression of the uprising<\/a>
\r\n<\/u>Memory of the uprising<\/a>
\r\n\r\n<\/div>

\r\n\r\n

After the Partitions of the \r\nPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) \u2013 \r\na federative state which \r\nfrom 1569 included the Kingdom of Poland (present-day Poland and Ukraine) and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present-day Belarus, \r\nLithuania, part of Latvia), \r\nexecuted\u00a0 in 1772, 1793 and 1795 by Austria, Prussia and Russia \u2013 Belarusian lands became part of \r\nthe Russian Empire. <\/p>\r\n

It should be \r\nnoted that at that time the name of Lithuania (Litva) referred mainly to the lands \r\nof Western and Central Belarus \u2013 to the west of the \r\nriver Berezina. The name \r\noriginated from historical Litva which in the old days was located to the west of present-day Minsk. \r\nAnd the ancestors of contemporary Belarusians \r\nwere also called Litvins (Lithuanians). The name of Belarus (White \r\nRussia) referred to the lands lying to the east of the Berezina and the Dnieper. Until \r\n1840 in the Russian Empire the provinces of Vilna (Vilnius), Grodno and Minsk \r\nwere officially called Lithuanian Provinces, and the provinces of Vitebsk and \r\nMogilev, Belarusian Provinces (see the website’s section \r\n“Administrative and Territorial Division of Belarus”<\/a>). The \r\nmajor part of present-day \r\nLithuania was then named Samogitia (Zmudz). The present\u00a0 names of Lithuania and \r\nBelarus were established in the second half of the 19th century and even in the early 20th century. This should be \r\ntaken into account when studying the \r\ndescribed events. <\/p>\r\n

The upper society \r\nof the former state, the aristocracy, as well as the greater part of the \r\nszlachta, the local nobility, by that time, being conscious of their \r\nLitvin origin, regarded themselves as the nationals of the \r\nPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, spoke the Polish language, and were \r\nsubstantially under the influence of Polish culture. The Belarusian language \r\nwas spoken by the common people and partly by the burghers. The percentage of \r\nthe nobility \u2013 szlachta \u2013 among the population in Belarus, Lithuania and \r\nRight-Bank Ukraine was one of the highest in Europe. After these lands were \r\nadded to the Russian Empire, the local residents constituted two thirds of the \r\nnobility in European Russia. The awareness of the loss of statehood, \r\nthe remembrance of former political rights, \r\nthe school system oriented at the Polish Lithuanian culture \r\n(the majority of schools were taught in Polish), the Roman Catholic \r\nChurch etc. formed patriotic sentiments among the local nobility, gave rise to a \r\nprotest against the Russian dominance and the hope for the restoration of the \r\nPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.<\/p>\r\n

The national uprising that \r\nerupted in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1830-1831 involved the majority of \r\nthe local nobility. When it was crushed, the \r\ntsarist authorities exerted great effort to weaken the \r\nprotest movement. The estates and manors of active insurgents were \r\nexposed to confiscation. The noblemen who failed to confirm their noble \r\norigin by documents were transferred to the estate of smallholders in \r\nWestern Provinces, a specially introduced tax category of the rural population, \r\nmeaning that their social status was lowered.<\/p>\r\n

The education \r\nsystem began to change \u2013 many schools were transferred to the Russian language of teaching. In \r\n1839, with the support of the government, the United Greek Catholic Church that \r\nexisted in Belarus from 1596 was officially abolished and the majority of the Uniates, who formed a considerable part of the population, mainly the peasants, \r\nwere converted to the Orthodoxy. <\/p>\r\n

The tsarist government, in \r\nattempt to win a larger support of the Orthodox peasants, carried out an \r\ninventory reform in Belarus: the land allotments of the state-owned \r\npeasants (those who belonged to the state not to the landlords) increased at the \r\nexpense of the portions of land taken from the participants in the 1831 uprising. <\/p>\r\n

The \r\nTsar\u2019s Manifesto of 19 February 1861 (3 March N. S.) abolished serfdom in the Russian \r\nEmpire. Peasants \r\nacquired personal freedom but their land plots were reduced by nearly 30 percent. \r\nThey \r\nwere obliged over time to purchase land, and until that moment were \r\nregarded as temporarily bonded and continued \r\nto perform labour obligations to landlords. Numerous payments to the state treasury \r\nwere introduced. Peasant\r\ndisturbances, resulting \r\nfrom the discontent with the reform, covered\r\nmany areas in Imperial Russia.\u00a0The authorities foresaw the \r\nmassive discontent of peasants and, for example, in Belarusian territory \r\nthey had placed several hundred thousand troops already before the peasant emancipation. <\/p>\r\n

In the late 1850s – early 1860s\r\na liberation movement \r\nbroke out \r\nin the Russian Empire, which brought together citizens of different ranks, \r\nmainly\u00a0 from non-aristocratic strata of the \r\nsociety. The revolutionaries saw their aim in improving the condition of the \r\npopular masses. Various circles and underground organisations were widespread. One \r\nof the largest clandestine organisations called\u00a0 \u201cZemlya i Volya\u201d (Land and \r\nLiberty) was active in preparing a universal peasant revolt. The main idea was to \r\nestablish the democracy of the people and to give the whole land to peasants without \r\nredemption. The plan existed to establish in the Russian Empire a free \r\nfederation of provinces. The revolutionary situation on the eve and during \r\nthe reform of 1861 and the intensification of the peasant movement gave hopes for \r\nthe implementation of these plans. <\/p>\r\n

The \r\nsituation in the Polish and Belarusian-Lithuanian Provinces deteriorated, \r\napart from the agrarian-peasant \r\nissue, because of the national question. \r\nThis period was characterized in the first place by the outburst of the Polish national \r\nmovement aimed to restore the independent Polish state within the borders \r\nof the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Anti-government manifestations \r\ntook place in many towns in Poland, as well as in Vilna, \r\nMinsk, Vitebsk and Grodno. On 22 August 1861 a state of martial law was \r\nintroduced in\u00a0 Belarus and Lithuania. Special police courts were \r\norganized to punish participants in the manifestations. Military squads were \r\nsent out to all local high schools. <\/p>\r\n

In terms of the methods for achieving their goals, members of the national \r\nliberation movement were divided into two wings: conservative and democratic. The \r\nconservative camp, the Whites, who included mainly the middle and large landowners \r\nand the upper bourgeoisie, hoped to succeed through \r\nthe negotiation with the tsarist government and the diplomatic \r\nsupport of the Western states. The so-called Reds, mainly the lesser gentry, who \r\nwere landless or \r\nhad few land, small clerks \r\nand artisans formed a democratic \r\nwing of the future insurgents.<\/p>\r\n

Like the Whites, \r\nThe Reds had no unity between them. The moderate \r\nrevolutionaries from the gentry \r\n\u2013 Polish nationalists \r\n\u2013 saw their main aim \r\nin restoring the Polish republic with the inclusion of Belarus, \r\nLithuania and Right-Bank Ukraine. The \r\nCentral National Committee<\/b>, founded in the summer of 1862 in Warsaw to \r\nadminister the preparation of the \r\nuprising, consisted mainly of their supporters. The Central National Committee \r\nheld ties with the Committee of Russian Officers in Poland, a \r\nrevolutionary organisation in the Russian army which was active in Poland, Belarus, \r\nLithuania and Ukraine and consisted mainly of the people who came from Belarusian \r\nand Lithuanian Provinces. The chief of the Committee of Russian Officers in \r\nPoland, A. Potebnya, in June 1862 attempted murder on the Tsar’s Viceroy in \r\nPoland. In late 1862 the Committee joined the “Land and Liberty” as an \r\nautonomous structure. <\/p>\r\n

In September 1862, members of the Central National Committee held \r\nnegotiations with the Russian revolutionaries A. Gertsen, N. Ogarev and M. \r\nBakunin, who proposed the more radical slogans, calling for the distribution of land to \r\npeasants and declaring freedom to the provinces. These proposals were \r\nindeed not accepted.<\/p>\r\n

Unlike in Poland, the leading role in the preparation of the uprising in \r\nBelarus and Lithuania was taken by the Reds, whose ranks embraced mainly the \r\nschool and university students from the small gentry and the burghers. An \r\nintensive propaganda work was carried out by the \r\nstudents of the land college in Gory-Gorki. The young people reflected the \r\ndesire of the noble intelligentsia for \r\nindependence from Russia, which they believed would be possible in the form of the \r\nrestored federation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Many students \r\nof Russian universities who came from Belarus were captured by the idea of \r\nthe common peasant uprising declared by the Russian revolutionary N. \r\nChernyshevsky, though they distrusted the blind revolutionary nihilism he \r\nadvocated. The radical opposition in Belarus was actively supported by the \r\nPolish revolutionary organisation in Petersburg headed by the revolutionary \r\ndemocrats Z. Serakovsky and Ya. Dombrovsky, one of the future organisers of the \r\nCentral National Committee and future general of the Paris Commune.<\/p>\r\nThe \r\nrevolutionary democratic wing of the Reds led by Ya. Dombrovsky advocated the \r\ncomplete independence of the Commonwealth by means of the popular uprising \r\njointly with the revolutionary forces of Russia. They declared the right of \r\npeasants to land and the right of\u00a0 Belarusians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians \r\nfor their national self-identification.

The \r\nPetersburg atmosphere also influenced the future leader of the Belarusian revolutionaries, Vikenty \r\nKonstantin Kalinovsky<\/b> (1838-1864). In the years of \r\nhis study at the law department in Petersburg University (1856-1860) he, \r\nlike his brother Victor, was an active member of the radical Red wing of \r\nthe student association which united the natives of Belarus, Lithuania, Poland \r\nand Ukraine. Members of the organisation were familiar with the ideas of N. \r\nChernyshevsky and A. Gertsen. According to one member of the organisation, V. Gazhich, the \r\nRed party, who regarded themselves as liberals and revolutionaries, believed in \r\nthe revolution “on fists” connected with the social upheaval. Later, the \r\nofficial historiographer of the uprising, General V. Ratch would \r\ncall Kalinovsky the man “with the attitude of the Gertsen school” who attempted to create a society “on the new \r\nprinciples of Communist delusions propagated by Gertsen and \u041a\u043e”<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0 \r\n <\/p>\r\n

On graduating from the university with the law degree, Kalinovsky returned to \r\nBelarus. Failing to get a job, he turned his whole attention to \r\nthe preparation of the uprising. In 1861 in Grodno, Kalinovsky founded the revolutionary democratic \r\norganisation for the preparation of a peasant \r\nrevolt and became its leader. An active member of the organisation was Kalinovsky’s friend, V. \r\nVrublevsky, a graduate from the forestry college in Petersburg, later General \r\nof the Paris Commune. <\/p>\r\n

In autumn 1861 in Vilna the Belarusian and Lithuanian \r\nrevolutionaries created \r\nthe Committee of the Movement, headed by L. Zvezhdovsky, reorganized in summer 1862 into \r\nthe Lithuanian Provincial Committee<\/b> for the administration of the \r\nuprising in the region. The structural units of this clandestine organisation \r\ncounted nearly three thousand members. In October 1862 Kalinovsky became \r\nhead of the committee and L. Zvezhdovsky discontinued his membership. In late 1862 \u2013 \r\nearly 1863, members of the Lithuanian Provincial Committee also included A. Bonoldi, E. Verigo, \r\nB. Dlusky, A. Zalessky, Ya. Kozel-Poklevsky and Z. Chekhovich. In \r\nautumn 1862 Kalinovsky went entirely underground. By early 1863 the Lithuanian \r\nProvincial Committee sent out its commissioners to the provinces, districts \r\nand villages to organize the insurrection in the region.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

K. Kalinovsky together with F. Rozhansky and V. Vrublevsky founded an illegal \r\nprint shop and organized the publication of a newspaper for peasants \r\ncalled “Peasant’s Truth<\/b>” (Muzhitskaya Pravda), which is \r\nregarded the first \r\nnewspaper in the Belarusian language\u00a0 \u2013 propaganda leaflets in which \r\nunder the pen name of “Yasko a farmer from near Vilna” he explained the aims of the upcoming insurrection \r\nto the common people.\u00a0 At present we know \r\nabout seven issues \r\nof this newspaper, which was printed in Belarusian (with the use of \r\nGrodno dialect) in Latin script. The publisher called them letters; one of the ideological leaders of the Belarusian national movement A. \r\nLutskevich characterized them as a cycle of proclamations. These were dedicated \r\nto various aspects of the people’s life \r\n\u2013 recruitment, requisitions from \r\npeasants, religious issues etc. In particular, one of the issues was focused on the \r\nprotection of the Greek Catholic Church which had existed in Belarus over 200 \r\nyears. Here Kalinovsky sharply criticised the Orthodoxy, which in his opinion was \r\nenforced on Belarusians. Additionally, the Peasant’s Truth contained the radical slogans calling to \r\ntake up arms and decide your own destiny: “A peasant, while he is able to hold \r\na scythe or an axe, can protect his own and will not beg for anyone’s mercy”.\r\n <\/p>\r\n

Kalinovsky also edited two of the three issues of\u00a0the “Banner of \r\nLiberty” (Znamya Svobody), an underground newspaper in the Polish language \r\npublished by the Lithuanian Provincial Committee. On its pages, in\u00a0 \r\nparticular, he wrote: “The Russian people tremble at the sight of our long \r\ncentury grievance. They seek to be our free brothers not the oppressors and the responsibility before the descendants for our \r\nheavy servitude \r\nthey lay on the ready-to-collapse tsarism”. <\/p>\r\n

One of the main political aims proclaimed by Kalinovsky was \r\nthe liberation from the Russian dominance. It was assumed to restore the Grand \r\nDuchy of Lithuania as part of the federative Commonwealth \r\n\u2013 not for the nobles \r\nbut a democratic state built on the principles of social \r\nequity. Kalinovsky sought to break the peasant’s illusions about the “good” tsar, \r\ndisclosed the predatory character of the 1861 reform and advocated the \r\nredistribution of landlords’ land among peasants. He came from the idea of \r\na popular peasant revolution and, as its result, the establishment of the \r\ndemocracy \r\nand he disagreed not only with the Whites but also with the moderate \r\nReds, who accentuated the leading role of the nobles. The peasant actions \r\nagainst landlords he attempted to turn to the path of the national liberation \r\nstruggle. <\/p>\r\n

Kalinovsky pressed for the establishment of equal rights \r\nbetween the Lithuanian Provincial Committee and the Central National Committee \r\nin Warsaw. General V. Ratch would later assert, based on the police \r\ninvestigation records, that \r\nKalinovsky was against “merging with Poland”. He saw the relationship \r\nbetween Lithuania (as the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania was \r\nthen called) and Poland as a federation, with a full independence from Warsaw. \r\nBecause of this “separatism” he was criticised even by some members of \r\nthe Reds, a democratic wing of the Polish revolutionaries. <\/p>\r\n

In late 1862 the relationship between the Lithuanian Provincial Committee \r\nin \r\nVilna and the Central National Committee in Warsaw acquired a very tense \r\ncharacter. The disagreement was so sharp that the Central \r\nNational Committee, when taking a decision on the beginning of the uprising, did \r\nnot coordinate the date with their comrades-in-arms in Vilna.\u00a0\r\n <\/p>\r\n

<\/a>* * * <\/font>\r\n <\/p>\r\n

A sudden order by tsarist authorities for the conscription in the \r\nKingdom of Poland, which could affect many of future insurgents, became one \r\nof the reasons why the uprising began earlier than expected. <\/p>\r\n

On 10 (22) January 1863,\u00a0the Central National Committee \r\nin Warsaw \r\ndeclared a manifesto on the beginning of the uprising; the Provisional \r\nNational Government<\/b> was formed as a governing body in the \r\nwhole area of the former Commonwealth. <\/p>\r\n

On 20 January (1 February) 1863,\u00a0the Lithuanian Provincial Committee \r\ncalled upon all Lithuanians to take up arms and support the uprising in \r\nPoland. They proclaimed the Provisional Provincial Government of Lithuania and Belarus<\/b>. \r\nAn instruction was sent to the sites to punish the most cruel landlords, \r\noppressors of the people. For the sake of the united action, the radical Reds in \r\nthe Lithuanian Provincial Committee made the necessary concessions to the Polish \r\ngentry revolutionaries on the programme issues and submitted almost completely to the Polish Provisional National \r\nGovernment. In Warsaw, however, they did not trust them in full. Also, they were \r\ndiscontented with the actions of Kalinovsky, who supported the autonomy in the \r\nadministration of the uprising in Belarus and Lithuania. <\/p>\r\n

In February 1863, the leadership of the uprising in Vilna was taken by the \r\nWhites. Their main task was to stop the transformation of the revolution into a peasant revolt\u00a0for \r\nwhich \r\nKalinovsky aspired. On 27 February (11 March) 1863,\u00a0 the Provisional Provincial Government of Lithuania and Belarus \r\nwas superseded by the Department for Control of Lithuanian Provinces<\/b>, \r\nheaded by a member of the conservative wing, Ya. Geishtor. On behalf of the \r\nDepartment, a special edict was distributed cancelling all the “powers and \r\nmandates” issued by the Provisional Provincial Government. Kalinovsky announced \r\nthese actions as the betrayal of the revolution, nevertheless he and his \r\ncomrades-in-arms were forced to obey the gentry revolutionists and act in the \r\nname of the Provisional National Government, sticking to their programme.\u00a0 \r\n <\/p>\r\n

In late March 1863, Kalinovsky was appointed a revolutionary commissioner for \r\nGrodno Province, where he was active in the administration of the uprising, \r\ntrying to attract to it as more peasants as possible. Later V. Ratch \r\nwrote: “Kalinovsky proved to be much more active, energetic and capable for the \r\nrevolutionary cause than all other provincial commissioners”. <\/p>\r\n

The first insurgent groups arrived in Belarus from Poland in January\u2013February 1863. \r\nLocal groups began to form and\u00a0assemble in March-April 1863.\u00a0 \r\n <\/p>\r\n

The insurgent groups consisted mainly of the small gentry and students. \r\nIn view of the disparity of forces, the combat actions of insurgents from the \r\nvery beginning had a character of guerilla warfare. On arriving in the \r\nvillage or township, they assembled the residents and announced them the manifesto \r\nof the Polish National Government and the agrarian edicts according to which the \r\nlandless peasants who supported the uprising with arms were to receive \r\nabout two hectares of land. Title deeds were made for conveying land to peasants, \r\nan oath was taken from them, and the already collected taxes \r\nwere returned to them from the confiscated state money. <\/p>\r\n

Sometimes the people who assisted the authorities \r\nagainst the uprising were publicly tried and punished. The revolutionary terror \r\ntook place too. Special squads of “dagger-bearers” were formed to execute the traitors. One of \r\nthe items of the “Instruction of the Provisional Government to the commanders of \r\ninsurgent groups” read: “The most severe oppressors of peasants \r\nshould be punished with death as an example in front of the villagers by the decision of the martial court, no arbitrary violence \r\nallowed\u00bb. <\/p>\r\n

In all, 46 fights and\u00a0skirmishes between the \r\ninsurgents and tsarist troops were reported in the area of present-day Belarus from \r\nFebruary to August 1863. <\/p>\r\n

In Vitebsk Province<\/b> the most important affair was \r\nthe capture of the transport loaded with arms by the group commanded by \r\nL. Plyater in Dinaburg district on 13 (15) April\u00a01863. Soon afterwards the group was crushed, \r\nand its commander was shot. Several other skirmishes,\u00a0unsuccessful for insurgents,\u00a0 took place in the districts of Borisov, Vitebsk, Lepel, Orsha and \r\nSebezh.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

In Mogilev Province<\/b> on the night of 12 (24) April 1863 the group \r\nled by L. Zvezhdovsky with the support of revolutionary students from the land \r\ncollege of Gory-Gorki\u00a0managed to capture the district town of Gorki. \r\nThe \r\ngroup (about 100 people) was however soon disbanded. The other groups acting in \r\nMogilev region (one commanded by I. Antsypa in Bykhov, the other by T. \r\nGrinevich in Rogachev) managed to hold only for a few days,\u00a0then they were crushed \r\nin April 1863, and their commanders were shot. The total number of insurgents in\u00a0Mogilev Province, by official data, did not exceed 800 men. <\/p>\r\n

More organised actions were executed by insurgents in \r\nMinsk \r\nProvince<\/b>, where the\u00a0 uprising was headed by the Minsk insurrectionary \r\norganisation led by the Reds. The largest was the detachment commanded by S. \r\nLeskovsky in Igumen, as well as the group led by A. Trusov in Borisov district and \r\nthe group led by P. Dybovsky in Minsk district. The detachments led by R. Roginsky, R. Traugut and Ya. Vankovich \r\noperated in Pinsk district. Insurgent groups were also active in the \r\ndistricts of Slutsk and Novogrudok. <\/p>\r\n

Two thirds of the fights took place in the region of \r\nGrodno and Vilna. In Grodno Province<\/b> the armed units were formed by the \r\nGrodno-based revolutionary-democratic organisation. Insurgent bands from Poland \r\nalso made \r\nincursions into the province. Sometimes the insurgents managed \r\nto assemble up to 5,000 men. They succeeded to capture the township of \r\nSemyatichi in Belsk district and the town of Pruzhany. <\/p>\r\n

The most important battle was effected on 21 May near the township \r\nof Milovidy, \r\nSlonim district (now in Baranovichi district, Brest region), which engaged \r\nnearly 800 insurgents of several squads and five companies of tsarist \r\nsoldiers who had five guns. The soldiers failed to capture the enemy’s\u00a0camp \r\nand were forced to fall back with considerable losses. <\/p>\r\n

An important fact is that the insurgent groups in Grodno province included \r\none third of all\u00a0 peasants involved in the uprising. As a comparison, \r\nthe Vitebsk province covered only 7 percent of the insurgent peasants, less of \r\nall. In all, the peasants constituted, according to researchers, about \r\n18 percent of the uprising participants.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

The peasants distrusted the fact that the uprising was supported by \r\nlocal landlords, their long-time oppressors, and the limited \r\nprogramme of its leaders. Also, they did not understand the slogan for the \r\nrestoration of the Polish state, which was alien to them. The authorities and the Orthodox Church \r\nspread rumours that Polish landlords revolted against the Russian tsar \r\nbecause of the peasant emancipation and as they wanted to restore the serfdom. Besides, \r\nin view of the uprising, the Government speeded up the implementation of certain \r\nreforms in Belarusian territory. <\/p>\r\n

The tsarist edicts of 1 March and 2 November 1863 cancelled \r\nthe temporary \r\nobligations in Belarusian Provinces, peasants were obliged to purchase \r\nland, and the redemption payment decreased by 20 percent. \r\nIt was ordered to return to many \r\npeasants their land \r\nallotments that were transferred to landlords in recent years before the \r\npeasant emancipation. As a result, the majority of \r\npeasants did not support the insurgents, some of them even assisted in capturing \r\nthem, and crushed the estates of land proprietors.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

According to official data, the number of the \r\nuprising’s participants in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Volhynia totalled 77,000 \r\nmen. The slogan of the Polish gentry revolutionaries for the restoration of \r\nPoland within the borders of the Commonwealth in 1772 instigated an unprecedented \r\noutburst of the great-power chauvinism among the Russian society, thus paralyzing \r\nthe efforts of the “Land and Liberty” to rise an all-Russia peasant revolt.\u00a0 \r\n <\/p>\r\n

The National Government in Warsaw was collecting funds and \r\nexerted effort to \r\norganise the supply of arms from abroad. Despite this, the insurgents, who \r\nnumbered in Belarus and Lithuania about 15,000, were mainly equipped with the \r\nold hunting rifles and self-made pikes (peasant scythes were often used to \r\nmake these). A member of the National Government, O. Aveide, later wrote in his \r\ntestimony to the tsarist police: “… During the whole time Lithuania received \r\nno one carabine”. In the fight against the powerful Russian regular troops (318 \r\nsoldier companies, 48 cavalry squadrons, 19 Cossack hundreds\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 their \r\ntotal number neared 200,000 men), who had, in particular, 120 field guns, \r\nthey were doomed to defeat. <\/p>\r\n

In May 1863, General M. Muravyov was appointed Governor-General of \r\nVilna Province with extraordinary powers, who once served as the governor of the \r\nprovinces of Mogilev \r\nand Grodno. He was in charge of all military governors, military district \r\nchiefs, armed forces, military and civil police, investigation commissions, and \r\nmilitary field courts. Special legal acts were designed to regulate the \r\nsituation in a \r\nstate of martial law, for example, the “Rules of military \r\nand civil administration in the provinces of Vilna, Kovno (Kaunas), Grodno, \r\nMinsk, Vitebsk and Mogilev”. <\/p>\r\n

The hopes of many insurgents that the Western Powers would \r\nexert diplomatic pressure on Russia remained unrealized. M. Muravyov forced the White leaders \r\nto give up the support of the uprising, making them sign the loyal addresses to the Tsar \r\nAlexander II. With the strict\u00a0 measures against the insurgents, M. \r\nMuravyov, who was called a “hangman” among the revolutionaries, \r\nmanaged to suppress \r\ntheir actions. <\/p>\r\n

Both the insurgents and those who sympathized with them were arrested in huge \r\nnumbers. Death sentences were immediately executed by court martials, the \r\nexecutions were conducted in public. On orders by M. Muravyov, several \r\ngentry villages were burned down on suspicion of assisting the insurgents, with \r\ntheir inhabitants deported into the deep areas of Russia. <\/p>\r\n

The land of the nobles exiled for participation in the insurrection was \r\noften transferred to local peasants. The village peasants formed the guard \r\nsquads obliged to capture insurgents, hand them over to the authorities, \r\nand watch the unreliable gentry and nobles. A ban for free purchase and sale \r\nof scythes was introduced; a special permission from \r\nthe police was required. <\/p>\r\n

By Muravyov’s order the use of Polish language was \r\nprohibited in \r\noffices and paper work. Russian was introduced as a compulsory language in \r\neducational and public institutions. Anti-insurrectionary and anti-Polish propaganda was highly \r\nactive. Even wearing mourning \r\nfor the killed was hugely fined, and those caught in this thrice were \r\nordered to be arrested as rebels.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

On 26 June 1863, by the decree of the Provisional National \r\nGovernment in Warsaw, the Department for Control of Lithuanian Provinces was \r\nreorganized as the Executive Department of Lithuania<\/b>. It was initially headed by Ya. Geishtor, after whose arrest on 31 July (12 August) 1863 K. \r\nKalinovsky became its leader. By the end of summer, Kalinovsky concentrated \r\nin his hands the whole power in the insurrectionary organisation in Belarus and \r\nLithuania. Many members of the Executive Department were his \r\nassociates, and the Department was unofficially called “the Red government”. \r\nDespite this, Kalinovsky had already no time nor the opportunity to use this \r\nsituation for the implementation of his programme. <\/p>\r\n

In early September 1863 the insurrection in Belarusian and \r\nLithuanian Provinces was almost crushed. By the \r\ndecision of the Executive Department of Lithuania the armed struggle ceased \r\nand \r\nit was assumed to start the preparation of a new rebellion in the spring of 1864. \r\nUntil summer 1864 the insurrectionary organisation was still active in the \r\ndistrict of Novogrudok, but it was forced to stop its activity too. <\/p>\r\n

Kalinovsky managed to stay free until the end of January \r\n1864. Betrayed by one of the arrested insurgents, he was however captured too. \r\nBehind the bars, he \r\nwas able to hand over several messages out of prison \u2013 “Letters from under the \r\nGallows” written in Belarusian. In the last letter, being aware of \r\nhis inevitable death, he addresses the Belarusian people with the words: “It is \r\na sorrow to leave you, my native land and my dear people. My heart cries, my \r\nbreast aches, but i have no regret to die for your truth”. On 10 (22) March 1864, \r\nK. Kalinovsky was hanged in Vilna in front of the large masses of people. At the \r\nmoment of his execution, being called “a nobleman” during the reading of the sentence, \r\nhe exclaimed: “We have no noblemen. All the people are equal”. <\/p>\r\n

<\/a>* * * <\/font>\r\n <\/p>\r\n

According to official data of the tsarist authorities, more than 15,000 people \r\nwere subject to punishment in the region. Among them, 120 (according to some \r\nresearchers, 128) were hanged or shot, 12,355 were sent to the place of their permanent \r\nresidence under police surveillance, 3,776 men were deported without investigation \r\nand trial. Many of them were condemned to labour servitude in penal battalions. \r\nIn all, according to the estimate of Russian historians, out of 38,000 \r\nparticipants in the uprising exiled into the interior of Russia, the natives of \r\nLithuania and Belarus constituted 57 %. <\/p>\r\n

Particular emphasis was placed on the ruin of the material well-being and \r\npolitical influence of the local elite. The estates of landlords involved in the uprising were subject to confiscation and transferred on \r\nprivileged conditions to the tsarist officials and generals who arrived from the \r\ncentral provinces of the empire. Other landlords were obliged to pay \r\ncontribution to the state treasury. However, over 70 % of all \r\npeople subject to punishment were the small gentry, mainly landless or with little land, who, \r\nby opinion of Governor-General Muravyov, made a major contribution to the \r\nspread of the insurrection. <\/p>\r\n

The administration of the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus did not officially \r\nsupport the insurrection. Many Catholic priests however sympathized with the \r\ninsurgents, read the manifesto of the Provisional National Government to their \r\ncongregation, and for this were subject to reprisals by the tsarist \r\nadministration, in particular to an administrative exile or penal \r\nservitude. Nearly 300 Catholic priests were deported from the area of Belarus, many of them with the confiscation of personal property. \r\nAs a direct result \r\nof the suppression of the insurrection, the Minsk diocese, the seat of the Roman \r\nCatholic bishops, was liquidated in 1869.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

Many of the expelled people remained in the places of exile for many years, \r\nthough part of them were able to return as a result of the amnesties of 1866, \r\n1871, and 1883. <\/p>\r\n

A long period of political reaction and total \r\nRussification began. \r\n

The martial law in Belarus was \r\ncompletely cancelled in \r\n1870 only. The reforms conducted in the Russian empire with the aim of \r\nstrengthening the capitalist principles in the economic and social life were \r\ncarried out in Belarus with significant delay or were not implemented at all. <\/p>\r\n

One of the results of the uprising was the widening of the gap between \r\nthe \r\nland proprietors, mainly Catholics, and the peasants, the \r\nmajority of whom were Orthodox, on whom counted the tsarist authorities and \r\nwhom they opposed to the potential rebels. The Catholic landlords were \r\nprohibited to buy land, as well as the Catholic peasants. As the result, the land market, one of the factors of \r\nthe capitalist relations, could \r\nnot properly develop for long time. <\/p>\r\n

Emergency laws were specially designed to reduce the \r\nPolish influence and strengthen the Russification in the region. <\/p>\r\n

Local officials were replaced by those who came \r\nfrom the central provinces of \r\nthe Russian Empire. They were urged to move to the North-Western Region, as \r\nthe Belarusian and Lithuanian Provinces were then called, were appointed to higher \r\npositions, and were paid higher salaries. <\/p>\r\n

Many Catholic churches were closed or were converted to \r\nOrthodox ones. New \r\nOrthodox churches were increasingly constructed.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

The authorities closed the \r\nthen only higher educational institution in Belarus\u00a0 \u2013 the land college in Gory-Gorki; the number of high schools decreased. The network of public and parish schools taught in Russian was expanding. \r\nAdditionally, several new colleges were opened to \r\ntrain teachers in Russian. <\/p>\r\n

A considerable part of the local intelligentsia were deported or emigrated. Many \r\nemigrants left a noticeable imprint on the life in their adoptive countries \u2013 \r\nthey made contribution as engineers, servicemen, figures in the arts etc. Some of \r\nthe former insurgents took part in the battles of the Paris Commune. A honorary \r\ncitizen of Greece was Z. Mineiko, the ancestor of an outstanding Greek \r\npolitician, Prime Minister A. Papandreou. <\/p>\r\n

<\/a>* * * <\/font>\r\n <\/p>\r\n

The 1863\u20131864 uprising was one of the symbolic events in the history \r\nof Belarus that exerted significant influence on the further fate of the Belarusian \r\npeople, which found reflection in works by scholars and publicists beginning \r\nfrom the second half of the 19th century. \r\n <\/p>\r\n

A considerable part of the archives relating to the uprising have \r\nbeen published. The importance of the uprising in Belarus, the actions and \r\nrole of its leaders, in particular K. Kalinovsky, were differently assessed at different times by different authors. The uprising was declared either \r\nthe Polish revolt, or purely gentry, or purely peasant, or \r\nbourgeois-democratic. Even the existence of the \r\nrevolutionary-democratic wing is sometimes questioned. According to the \r\npreferences of different authors, the religious and clerical element of the \r\nuprising is being either accentuated or shaded. <\/p>\r\n

The differences in assessment still exist and opinions \r\nvary sometimes diametrically. The reason is the difference of authors’ views on the main principles of the formation of the Belarusian \r\nnation, the national mentality, and the fundamentals of its social, economic, \r\nconfessional and cultural development. The full picture and the objective \r\nassessment of the events can only be achieved on the basis of scholarly \r\nresearch, which assumes the study of all available documentary sources and \r\ntheir thorough analysis. <\/p>\r\n

Many participants and contemporaries of the uprising left \r\ntheir recollections \r\nrecorded soon after the events. <\/p>\r\n

A large complex of data about the activities of the insurrectionary \r\norganisation is contained in the “Testimonies and Notes” written in \r\nprison by the member of the \r\nNational Government O. Aveide on demand of the \r\nauthorities and published in a limited number of copies for administrative use \r\nin 1866. <\/p>\r\n

One of the first official historiographers of the uprising was \r\nthe tsarist \r\ngeneral V. Ratch, who on personal request from M. Muravyov wrote two \r\nvolumes of “Data on the Polish Insurrection in 1863 in North-Western \r\nRussia”, published in Vilna in 1867-1868. The author used in his \r\nwork official correspondence, investigative files, confiscated papers, \r\nbooks, brochures and “some oral reports”. <\/p>\r\n

The work by V. Ratch contains data on the major items \r\nof \r\nKalinovsky’s\u00a0 programme: the ruin of the nobility, the liquidation \r\nof land ownership by landlords through a peasant revolt, the necessity of \r\na peasant revolutionary organisation, the connection of the uprising in \r\nBelarus and Lithuania with the Polish national liberation movement and the \r\npopular movement in Russia, the right of Belarus and \r\nLithuania to the state sovereignty. The tsarist historian recorded that \r\n“Kalinovsky never intended to work for Poland, he was afraid of that kind \r\nof \r\nmerging with Poland, when it would be impossible to get loose from\u00a0her”.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

One of the first publications were the four volumes of recollections “The \r\nhistory of the insurrection by the Polish people in 1861-1864” written by the member of the \r\nNational Government A. Giller and published in Paris in 1867-1871. The advocates of \r\nthe social revolution are subjected to criticism on these pages. This edition included \r\nfor the first time “The Letters from under the Gallows” by K. \r\nKalinovsky. <\/p> \r\n

Later, in the early 20th century, the recollections by F. Rozhansky, Ya. \r\nGeishtor, B. Dlusky and other participants and leaders of the uprising were \r\npublished. <\/p>\r\n

In the mid-1920s the Belarusian historian V. Ignatovsky defined the main goal \r\nof the uprising as the radical solution of the peasant question and the creation \r\nof the Belarusian Republic independently from Russia and Poland.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

In the late 1920s, the Belarusian historian S. Agursky \r\nput forward a concept \r\non the exclusive role of landlords and clergy in the uprising and its purely \r\nPolish character. <\/p>\r\n

In the 1950s-1960s, the Belarusian philosopher I. Lushchitsky \r\nregarded the 1863 uprising in Belarus and Lithuania as anti-serfdom and peasant. The \r\nBelarusian historian A. Smirnov, the author of one of the first monographs on K. \r\nKalinovsky, called him an outstanding son of the Belarusian people. The scholar \r\nsaw the uprising as the manifestation of the \r\nclass struggle. \r\n <\/p>\r\n

In the 1970s-1980s, Belarusian scholars conducted new \r\nstudies. \r\nThe philosophers E. Doroshevich and V. Konon called K. Kalinovsky the founder of the \r\nBelarusian revolutionary democracy. They accentuated Kalinovsky’s ideal of \r\n“the just social and political system”, calling it not an abstract ideal of an \r\nutopian dreamer but a concrete programme of the ideological leader of the \r\npeasantry, small gentry and democratic intelligentsia, including both the strong and weak sides of the world-view of these social layers of \r\nthe Belarusian people. <\/p>\r\n

The philosopher A. Maikhrovich assessed the 1863-1864 \r\nuprising in Belarus and \r\nLithuania as bourgeois-democratic, aimed against social and national \r\noppression. He calls Kalinovsky an outstanding Belarusian revolutionary \r\ndemocrat, political figure and publicist and connects the activities conducted \r\nby him and his associates \r\nwith the formation of the revolutionary democratism as an independent \r\nline of the social thought. <\/p>\r\n

The Belarusian historian, literary critic, archive editor \r\nand writer G. Kisilev estimated Kalinovsky’s activity and work as exclusively important on the \r\nhistorical way towards the liberty and national consolidation of the Belarusians. \r\nIn his opinion, the heroic life of Kalinovsky until his last breath, without \r\nexaggeration, was given to his nation and the struggle for the better \r\nfuture. The scholar called Kalinovsky the great son of the Belarusian people and \r\nthe great revolutionary. <\/p>\r\n

Emphasizing that Kalinovsky’s activity reflected the most radical trends of the 1863-64 uprising, G. Kisilev \r\nevaluated them as the most \r\ncourageous attempts to test in practice and to realize in life the programme of \r\nthe revolutionary democrats of the 1860s. He assigns Kalinovsky a role of \r\nthe leader and theorist of revolutionary democracy in the history of \r\nsocial thought and revolutionary movement in Belarus. He also believed that \r\nin historical perspective Kalinovsky’s ideas and work predestined the ideological-aesthetic direction of the Belarusian \r\ndemocratic literature, which became by large the literature of “peasant’s \r\ntruth”. <\/p>\r\n

Another researcher of Kalinovsky’s life and work, Belarusian historian V. \r\nShalkevich calls him a revolutionary democrat, a true national hero, a \r\nfighter for the freedom of the Belarusian people. The scholar regards Kalinovsky \r\nas one of the most worldwide famous representatives of the Belarusian nation. \r\n <\/p>\r\n

M. Bich, who authored an article on the 1863-64 uprising in Poland, \r\nBelarus and Lithuania in the “Encyclopedia of the History of Belarus” \r\nregards it \r\nas the national liberation movement. <\/p>\r\n

In the 2000s, I. Kachalov, one of the authors of the \r\ntextbook “The History of Belarus” edited by E. Novik and G. Martsul called the \r\nuprising of 1863-64, in terms of its goals, the Polish bourgeois-democratic \r\nrevolution, directed against the autocracy and social-national inequality.\r\n <\/p>\r\n

An opinion exists that the uprising was exclusively Polish by character \r\nand Kalinovsky is not a true hero of the Belarusian people but even an \r\nanti-hero. The historian A. Gronsky believes Kalinovsky to be a “fabricated hero” \r\nand a Polish \r\nrevolutionary fanatic assigned to the position of the uprising leader by the \r\nPolish insurrectionary center and he calls the creation of “Peasant’s \r\nTruth” a purely propagandistic action. <\/p>\r\n

Moreover, Kalinovsky is often called a Pole. An argument is the fact \r\nthat he did not declare in his texts the rights and hopes of the \r\nBelarusians and did not use this very name. It should be however noted that at \r\nthat time the name “Belarusians” was not yet established for the whole nation and\r\nwas narrow regional. Kalinovsky’s commitment to the idea of social justice is \r\nalso being questioned. His position on the methods of \r\nstruggle (violent acts) and religious toleration are severely criticized. <\/p>\r\n

The contradicting opinions also exist about the role of Governor-General \r\nM. Muravyov. Some believe he was a talented administrator who defended \r\nlocal peasants against the insurgents, the others call him “the hangman”.\r\n <\/p>\r\n

The historian A. Bendin proclaims Kalinovsky “an ideologist of the brutal \r\nrevolutionary terror” and characterizes the insurrectionary events as \r\nepisodes of “the civil war that erupted in the region from\u00a0the \r\npolitical, social and religious-ethnical confrontation”. <\/p>\r\n

Assessing the significance of the 1863-1864 uprising, \r\nthe Belarusian historian M. Bich believes that, though it had almost no chance for \r\nvictory in those conditions, it manifested the courage, firmness and selflessness of many \r\nsons of Belarus in the struggle for liberty and\u00a0 better life of the common \r\npeople. <\/p>\r\n

It should be noted that various interpretations of the uprising \r\nexist in national historiographies not only in Belarus but also in Russia, Poland, \r\nLithuania and other countries. <\/p>\r\n

The theme of the 1863-1864 uprising\u00a0in Belarus is widely \r\nrepresented in works of art and literature.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

The printed and manuscript legacy of K. Kalinovsky has been published. \r\n <\/p>\r\n

The poem \r\n“Kalinovsky” by M. Tank, poem “Khomitius” by A. Kuleshov, novel “Ears of Rye \r\nunder Thy Sickle” and tragedy “Kastus Kalinovsky The Death and the Eternity” by \r\nV. Korotkevich and many other works by Belarusian writers have been dedicated to \r\nthe uprising events and Kalinovsky’s activity.<\/p>\r\n

The first theatrical performance on the topic of the \r\nuprising was “Kastus Kalinovsky” staged at the Belarusian State Theatre in 1923 \r\nby the playwright and director E. Mironovich after his own play. In 1928, the film \r\n“Kastus Kalinovsky” was shot at the Belarusian Film Studio \r\njointly with the Leningrad Company “Sovkino”. <\/p>\r\n

During the Second World War a partisan brigade and a partisan detachment \r\nboth named after Kalinovsky were active \r\nin Belarus. At the same time the poet M. Klimkovich wrote a \r\nlibretto to the opera “Kastus Kalinovsky”. Already after the war the opera \r\nto music by D. Lukas was staged at the Belarusian Opera and Ballet Theatre. <\/p>\r\n

The Belarusian composer O. Yanchenko \r\ncreated the ballet named “Kastus Kalinovsky”. <\/p>\r\n

Yet in the 1920s \r\nBelarusian sculptors and painters began to turn to the image of Kalinovsky. One of the most famous paintings are “Kastus \r\nKalinovsky among the insurgents in 1863″ and ” K. Kalinovsky and V. Vrublevsky \r\ninspecting the insurgents” created by the artist P. Sergievich in the 1950s. \r\nThe sculptor Z. Azgur created the bust of K. Kalinovsky installed at the building \r\nof the high school at Svisloch. Other painters, graphic artists and \r\nsculptors also turned to the image of Kalinovsky. <\/p>\r\n

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the uprising the Minsk Studio of \r\nScientific-Popular Films, Newsreels and Documentaries made the film entitled \r\n“Kastus Kalinovsky”. <\/p>\r\n

In 1963, in connection with the centenary of the uprising, one of the streets \r\nin Minsk was named after Kalinovsky. Kalinovsky streets appeared in \r\nGrodno, Mogilev, Baranovichi, Gantsevichi, Lida, Molodechno, Mosty, Nesvizh, \r\nNovogrudok, Ostrovets, Oshmyany, Polotsk, Pruzhany and Svisloch. In 1969, the \r\nvillage of Likhoseltsy near Yakushovka, where Kalinovsky spent his childhood, \r\nwas renamed Kalinovskaya. The regional museum in Svisloch has a separate \r\nexposition dedicated to their famous fellow-countryman. In 1987, the name of \r\nKalinovsky was attached to the local school.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

In Belarus the memorial sites of the 1863-1864 uprising are \r\nmainly represented by the graves of insurgents. There are also commemorative signs and \r\nmemorial stones installed as a rule by enthusiasts and \r\npublic organisations. <\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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