Congress Poland

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Królestwo Polskie(pl)
Царство Польское (ru)
Tsarstvo Polskoye
Kingdom of Poland
Protectorate of the Russian Empire, later turned into provinces
←
1815–1867 →

Map of Congress Poland (in German), coloured in light green. Dark line shows borders of pre-partition Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania.
Capital Warsaw
Language(s) Polish and Russian
Government Constitutional monarchy
King
 - 1815–25 Alexander I
 - 1825–32 Nicholas I (incorporated the Kingdom into Russia)
Namestnik See list
Legislature Sejm
History
 - Established June 9, 1815
 - November Uprising November 29, 1830
 - January Uprising January 22, 1863
 - Collapsed 1867
Area
 - Varied 128,500 km² (49,614 sq mi)
Population
 - Varied est. 3,300,000 
     Density 25.7 /km²  (66.5 /sq mi)

The Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie [kruˈlɛstfɔ ˈpɔlskʲɛ], Russian: Царство Польское Tsarstvo Polskoye Russian pronunciation: [ˈtsarstʋə ˈpolʲskəje]), informally known as Congress Poland Polish: Kongresówka [kɔngrɛˈsufka] or Russian Poland, was a constitutional personal union of the Russian Empire created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, replaced by the Central Powers in 1915 with the Kingdom of Poland.[a] Though officially the Kingdom of Poland was to begin its statehood with considerable official political autonomy, the Tsars generally disregarded any restrictions on their power and severely curtailed autonomous powers following uprisings in 1830-31 and 1863 turning it first into a namestnik of the Russian Empire and later dividing it into guberniya (provinces).[1][2] Thus from the start the Polish autonomy remained nothing more than fiction.[3]

The territory of the Polish Kingdom roughly corresponds to the Lublin, Łódź, Masovia and Świętokrzyskie voivodeships of Poland.

Naming

Although the official name of the state was the Kingdom of Poland, in order to distinguish it from other Kingdoms of Poland, it was sometimes referred to as Congress Poland.

History

The Kingdom of Poland was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when European states reorganized Europe following the Napoleonic wars. The creation of the Kingdom created a partition of Polish lands in which the state was divided and ruled between Russia, Austria and Prussia.[4] The Congress was important enough in the creation of the state to cause the new country to be named for it.[5][6] The Kingdom lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative divisions were reorganized. It was sufficiently distinct that its name remained in official Russian use, although in the later years of Russian rule it was replaced [7] with the Privislinsky Krai (Russian: Привислинский Край). Following the defeat of the November Uprising its separate institutions and administrative arrangements were abolished as part of increased Russification to be more closely integrated with the Russian Empire. However, even after this formalized annexation, the territory retained some degree of distinctiveness and continued to be referred to informally as Congress Poland until the Russian rule there ended as a result of the advance by the armies of the Central Powers in 1915 during World War I.

Originally, the kingdom had an area of roughly 128,500 km² and a population of approximately 3.3 million. The new state would be one of the smallest Polish states ever, smaller than the preceding Duchy of Warsaw and much smaller than the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which had a population of 10 million and an area of 1 million km².[6] Its population reached 6.1 million by 1870 and 10 million by 1900. Most of the ethnic Poles in the Russian Empire lived in the Congress Kingdom, although some areas outside it also contained Polish majority.

The Kingdom of Poland largely re-emerged as a result of the efforts of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski,[8] a Pole who aimed to resurrect the Polish state in alliance with Russia. The Kingdom of Poland was one of the few contemporary constitutional monarchies in Europe, with the Emperor of Russia serving as the Polish King. His title as chief of Poland, in Russian, was Tsar, similar to usage in the fully integrated states within the Empire (Georgia, Kazan, Siberia).

Initial independence

Theoretically the Polish Kingdom in its 1815 form was a semi-autonomous state in personal union with Russia through the rule of the Russian tsar. The state possessed the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, one of the most liberal in 19th century Europe,[8] a Sejm (parliament) responsible to the tsar capable of voting laws, an independent army, currency, budget, penal code and a customs boundary separating it from the rest of Russian lands. Poland also had democratic traditions (Golden Liberty) and the Polish nobility deeply valued personal freedom. In reality, the tsars had absolute power and the formal title of Autocrat, and wanted no restrictions on their rule. All opposition to the emperor was persecuted and the law was disregarded at will by Russian officials.[9] though the absolute rule demanded by Russia was difficult to establish due Poland's liberal traditions and institutions. The independence of the Kingdom lasted only 15 years; initially Alexander I used a title of the King of Poland and was obligated to observe resolutions of the constitution. However, in time the situation changed and he granted the viceroy, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, almost dictatorial powers.[5] Very soon after Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them. In 1819 Alexander I abolished freedom of the press and introduced preventory censorship. Resistance to Russian control began in 1820s.[3] Russian secret police commanded by Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev started persecution of Polish secret organizations and in 1821 the Tsar ordered the abolition of Freemasonry which represented patriotic traditions of Poland.[3] Beginning in 1825 the sessions of the Sejm were held in secret.

Uprisings and loss of autonomy

Alexander I's successor, Nicholas I was crowned King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw, but he declined to swear to abide by the Constitution and continued to limit the independence of the Polish Kingdom. Nicholas rule was representing the idea of Official Nationality, that is Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality. In relation to Poles those ideas meant the goal of assimilation that is turning them into loyal Orthodox Russians.[3] The principle of Orthodoxy was the result of special role it played in Russian Empire, as the Church was in fact becoming a department of state,[3] and other religions discriminated, for instance papal bulls in the Kingdom of Poland could not be read without agreement from Russian government. The rule of Nicholas also meant end of political traditions in Poland, it ended the existence of democratic institutions, introduced centralized administration that was not elected but appointed, and it tried to change relations between state and individual. All of this led to discontent and resistance among Polish population.[3] In January 1831 the Sejm deposed the Tsar as King of Poland in response to his repeated curtailment of its constitutional rights. The Tsar reacted by sending Russian troops into Poland and the November Uprising broke out.[10]