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{{Short description|1863 Polish–Lithuanian revolt in the Russian Empire}}
{{About||the similarly named event|Kiev Arsenal January Uprising|the United States insurrection|January 6 United States Capitol attack}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = January Uprising
| partof            = the [[Polish-Russian wars]]
| image             = Jan_Matejko_-_Polonia_1863_(Poland_Enchained)_-_MNK_XII-453_-_National_Museum_Kraków.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = ''[[Poland - The Year 1863]]'', by [[Jan Matejko]], 1864, oil on canvas, 156 × 232 cm, [[National Museum (Kraków)|National Museum]], [[Kraków]]. Pictured is the aftermath of the failed January 1863 Uprising.  Captives await transportation to [[Siberia]]. Russian officers and soldiers supervise a blacksmith placing [[shackle]]s on a woman ([[Polonia (personification)|Polonia]]). The blonde girl next to her represents [[Lithuania]].
| date              = 22 January 1863 – 18 June 1864<br/>({{Age in years and days|1863|01|22|1864|06|18}}) (though the last insurgent, [[Stanisław Brzóska]], fought into 1865)
| place             = [[Poland]], [[Lithuania]], [[Belarus]], [[Latvia]] and [[Ukraine]], then [[Russian Poland|part]] of the [[Russian Empire]]
| casus             = impending forced conscription into the Tsarist Army
| territory         = 
| result            = Russian victory
| combatant1        = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Russian Empire (black-yellow-white).svg}} [[Russian Empire]]
* [[File:Lesser Coat of Arms of Russian Empire.svg|15px]] [[Warsaw Military District (Russian Empire)|Warsaw]]
* [[File:Lesser Coat of Arms of Russian Empire.svg|15px]] [[Vilna Military District (Russian Empire)|Vilna]]
* [[File:Lesser Coat of Arms of Russian Empire.svg|15px]] [[Kiev Military District|Kiev]]
'''Supported by:'''<br>{{flag|Kingdom of Prussia|1803}}
| combatant2        = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth (January Uprising).svg}} [[Polish National Government (January Uprising)|Polish National Government]]<br>
* Rebels from the pre-partition lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Italy_(1861-1946)_crowned.svg}} [[Garibaldi Legion (Poland)|Garibaldi Legion]]<br>Foreign volunteers:<br>
* {{flagicon|France|1830}} [[French people|French]] volunteers
* {{flagicon|UK}} [[Britons|British]] volunteers
* {{flagicon image|Flag_of_Hungary_(1915-1918;_angels).svg}} [[Hungarians|Hungarian]] volunteers
'''Supported by:'''<br>{{flagicon image|Zemlya_i_volya.svg}} [[Land and Liberty (Russia)|Land and Liberty]]<br>{{flagicon image|Flagge Preußen - Provinz Posen (1815).svg}} [[Polish nationalism|Dzyalynsky Committee]]
| commander1        = {{flagicon image|Imperial_Standard_of_the_Emperor_of_Russia_(1858–1917).svg}} [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the Russian Empire (black-yellow-white).svg}} [[Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg|Friedrich von Berg]]<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the Russian Empire (black-yellow-white).svg}} [[Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky|Mikhail Muravyov]]
| commander2        = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth (January Uprising).svg}} [[Stefan Bobrowski]] {{KIA}}<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth (January Uprising).svg}} [[Romuald Traugutt]] {{Executed}}<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth (January Uprising).svg}} [[Konstanty Kalinowski]]{{Executed}}<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth (January Uprising).svg}} [[Ludwik Mierosławski]]<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth (January Uprising).svg}} [[Marian Langiewicz]]
| strength1         = At least 220,000 by June 1864.
| strength2         = Around 200,000 over the course of the uprising. Around 20 men of the Garibaldi Legion.
| casualties1       = '''Russian estimates''': 4,500 killed, wounded and missing<ref name="ReferenceA"/><br/>'''Polish estimates''': 10,000 killed, wounded and missing
| casualties2       = '''Polish estimates''': 10,000 to 20,000<br>'''Russian estimates''': 30,000<ref name="ReferenceA">Польское восстание 1863 // Большая российская энциклопедия : [в 35 т.] / гл. ред. Ю. С. Осипов. — М. : Большая российская энциклопедия, 2004—2017.</ref> (22,000 killed and wounded, 7,000 captured<ref>''Айрапетов О. Р.'' Польское восстание 1863 года. Русский сборник,  Том XV, стр. 132</ref>)
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox January Uprising}}
{{Polish-Russian Wars}}
}}
[[File:Podział terytorialny Rzeczypospolitej 1863.png|thumb|266px|Administrative divisions of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] within the partition borders of 1772 that were introduced by the National Government during the January Uprising in 1863]]
[[File:National Cockade of Poland.svg|thumb|159x159px|On 7 February 1831 it adopted white and red, the [[Tincture (heraldry)|tinctures]] (colours) of the Polish and Lithuanian coats of arms, as the national cockade of Poland. The white-and-red cockade was henceforth worn by Polish soldiers in the November Uprising... and Polish insurgents during the January Uprising of 1863–1864.<ref>Znamierowski</ref>]]
The '''January Uprising'''{{efn|{{langx|pl|powstanie styczniowe}}; {{langx|lt|1863 metų sukilimas}}; {{langx|uk|Січневе повстання|Sichneve povstannya}}; {{langx|ru|Польское восстание|Pol'skoe vosstanie}}; {{Langx|be|Паўстанне 1863–1864 гадоў|Pawstannie 1863-1864 hadow}}}} was an insurrection principally in [[Russian Empire|Russia]]'s [[Congress Poland|Kingdom of Poland]] that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last [[insurgency|insurgents]] were captured by the Russian forces in 1864.

It was the longest-lasting insurgency in partitioned Poland. The conflict engaged all levels of society and arguably had profound repercussions on contemporary international relations and ultimately transformed Polish society.<ref name="Zdrada">{{cite web |author-link=Jerzy Zdrada |last=Zdrada |first=Jerzy |title=Powstanie styczniowe |publisher=Muzeum Historii Polskiej |url=http://muzhp.pl/pl/c/983/powstanie-styczniowe |access-date=19 June 2018 |archive-date=23 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123163809/http://muzhp.pl/pl/c/983/powstanie-styczniowe |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A confluence of factors rendered the uprising inevitable in early 1863. The Polish nobility and urban bourgeois circles longed for the semi-autonomous status they had enjoyed in [[Congress Poland]] before the previous [[November Uprising|insurgency]], a generation earlier in 1830, and youth encouraged by the success of the [[Second Italian War of Independence|Italian independence movement]] urgently desired the same outcome. Russia had been weakened by its [[Crimean War|Crimean adventure]] and had introduced a more liberal attitude in its internal politics which encouraged Poland's underground National Government to plan an organised strike against their Russian occupiers no earlier than the spring of 1863.<ref name="Zdrada" />  They had not reckoned with [[Aleksander Wielopolski]], the pro-Russian archconservative head of the civil administration in the Russian partition. In an attempt to derail the Polish national movement, he brought forward to January the [[conscription]] of young Polish activists into the [[Imperial Russian Army]] for 20-year service. That decision is what triggered the January Uprising of 1863, the very outcome that Wielopolski had wanted to avoid.<ref>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wielopolski, Aleksander". ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 622.</ref>
 
The rebellion by young Polish conscripts was soon joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and members of the political class. The insurrectionists, as yet ill-organised, were severely outnumbered and lacking sufficient foreign support and forced into hazardous [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla tactics]]. Reprisals were swift and ruthless. Public executions and [[deportations]] to [[Siberia]] eventually persuaded many Poles to abandon armed struggle. In addition, [[Tsar Alexander II]] hit the landed gentry hard and, as a result, the whole economy, with a sudden decision in 1864 for finally abolishing [[serfdom in Poland]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bardach |first1=Juliusz |last2=Lesnodorski |first2=Bogusław |last3=Pietrzak |first3=Michał |title=Historia państwa i prawa polskiego |location=Warsaw |publisher=Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe |year=1987 |pages=389–394 |isbn=83-01-07919-3}}</ref> The ensuing breakup of estates and destitution of many peasants convinced educated Poles to turn instead to the idea of "[[organic work]]", economic and cultural self-improvement.<ref name="Janowski">{{cite book | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieF7NYaEqQYC&pg=PA166 | chapter=The Rise of Positivism | publisher=Central European University Press | title=Polish Liberal Thought Before 1918 | year=2004 | access-date=September 7, 2012 | author=Maciej Janowski | page=166 | isbn=9639241180}}</ref>

==Background==
[[File:K Beyer - Plac Zamkowy z namiotami wojska rosyjskiego (1861).jpg|thumb|200x200px|Russian army in Warsaw during martial law 1861]]
Despite the Russian Empire's loss of the [[Crimean War]] and weakened economic and political state, [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]] warned in 1856 against further concessions with the words "forget any dreams". There were two prevailing streams of thought among the population of the Kingdom of Poland. One had patriotic stirrings within liberal-conservative usually landed and intellectual circles, centered around [[Andrzej Artur Zamoyski|Andrzej Zamoyski]] and hoped for an orderly return to the constitutional status before 1830; they became characterized as the ''[[Whites (January Uprising)|Whites]]''. The alternative tendency, characterized as the ''[[Reds (January Uprising)|Reds]]'', represented a democratic movement uniting peasants, workers and some clergy. For both streams central to their dilemma was the ''peasant question''. However, estate owners tended to favour the abolition of serfdom in exchange for compensation, but the democratic movement saw the overthrow of the Russian yoke as entirely dependent on an unconditional liberation of the peasantry.<ref name="Zdrada" />[[File:Bitwa - Grottger (5579025).jpg|thumb|330px|"The Battle" from the cycle of paintings "Polonia" dedicated to January Uprising of 1863 – [[Artur Grottger]].]]
Just as the democrats organized the first religious and patriotic demonstrations in 1860, covert resistance groups began to form among educated youth. Blood was first to shed in Warsaw in February 1861, when the Russian Army attacked a demonstration in [[Castle Square, Warsaw|Castle Square]] on the anniversary of the [[Battle of Grochów]]. There were five fatalities. Fearing the spread of spontaneous unrest, Alexander II reluctantly agreed to accept a petition for a change in the system of governance. Ultimately, he agreed to the appointment of [[Aleksander Wielopolski]] to head a commission to look into Religious Observance and Public Education and announced the formation of a State Council and [[self-governance]] for towns and [[powiats]]. The concessions did not prevent further demonstrations. On 8 April, there were 200 killed and 500 wounded by Russian fire. [[Martial law]] was imposed in Warsaw, and brutally-repressive measures were taken against the organisers in Warsaw and [[Vilna]] by deporting them deep into Russia.

In Vilna alone, 116 demonstrations were held in 1861. That autumn, Russians had introduced a state of emergency in [[Vilna Governorate]], [[Kovno Governorate]] and [[Grodno Governorate]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Piotr S. |last=Wandycz |title=The lands of partitioned Poland, 1795–1918 |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=1974 |page=166 |isbn=0-295-95351-9 }}</ref>

The events led to a speedier consolidation of the resistance. Future leaders of the uprising gathered secretly in [[St. Petersburg]], [[Warsaw]], Vilna, [[Paris]] and [[London]]. Two bodies emerged from those consultations. By October 1861, the urban "Movement Committee" (Komitet Ruchu Miejski) had been formed, followed in June 1862, by the [[Central National Committee]] (''CNC''). Its leadership included [[Stefan Bobrowski]], [[Jarosław Dąbrowski]], [[Zygmunt Padlewski]], [[Agaton Giller]] and [[Bronisław Szwarce]]. The body directed the creation of national structures that were intended to become a new secret Polish state. The CNC had not planned an uprising before the spring of 1863 at the earliest. However, Wielopolski's move to start conscription to the Russian Army in mid-January forced its hand to call the uprising prematurely on the night of 22–23 January 1863.

==Call to arms in the Kingdom of Poland==
[[File:Marian Langiewicz 1863 (338183) (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Marian Langiewicz]], military commander]]
The uprising broke out at a moment when general peace prevailed in Europe, and although there was vociferous support for the Poles, powers such as France, Britain and Austria were unwilling to disturb the international calm. The revolutionary leaders did not have sufficient means to arm and equip the groups of young men hiding in forests to escape Alexander Wielopolski's order of conscription into the Russian Army. Initially, about 10,000 men rallied around the revolutionary banner. The volunteers came chiefly from city working classes and minor clerks, but there was also a significant number of the younger sons of the poorer ''[[szlachta]]'' (nobility) and a number of priests of lower rank. Initially, the Russian government had at its disposal an army of 90,000 men, under Russian General [[Anders Edvard Ramsay]], in Poland.

[[Image:Battles of January Uprising in Congress Poland 1863-1864.JPG|200px|thumb|Battles of January Uprising in Congress [[Poland]] 1863–1864]]

It looked as if the rebellion might be crushed quickly. Undeterred, the CNC's provisional government issued a manifesto in which it declared "all sons of [[Poland]] are free and equal citizens without distinction of creed, condition or rank". It decreed that land cultivated by the peasants, whether on the basis of rent or service, should become their unconditional property, and compensation for it would be given to the landlords out of State general funds. The provisional government did its best to send supplies to the unarmed and scattered volunteers, who, in February, had fought in eighty bloody skirmishes with the Russians. Meanwhile, the CNC issued an appeal for assistance to the nations of Western Europe that was received everywhere with supportive sentiments from [[Norway]] to [[Portugal]]. The [[Confederate States of America]] sympathized with the Polish-Lithuanian rebels and viewed their struggles analogous.<ref>{{Cite book|last=R. Jurgėla|first=Kostas|url=http://www.partizanai.org/lietuvos-sukilimas-1862-1864-metais|title=Lietuvos sukilimas 1862–1864 metais|publisher=LIETUVIŲ ENCIKLOPEDIJOS LEIDYKLA|year=1970|pages=166|language=lt|chapter=7. JUNGTINĖS AMERIKOS VALSTYBĖS}}</ref> Italian, French and Hungarian officers answered the call. Pope [[Pius IX]] was against the 1863 uprising  of which he informed Wsyslaw Czartoryski.<ref>[https://bazhum.muzhp.pl/media/files/Saeculum_Christianum_pismo_historyczne/Saeculum_Christianum_pismo_historyczne-r2001-t8-n1/Saeculum_Christianum_pismo_historyczne-r2001-t8-n1-s101-125/Saeculum_Christianum_pismo_historyczne-r2001-t8-n1-s101-125.pdf Sprawy polskie w pontyfikacie Piusa IX (1846-1878)] (in Polish) Retrieved 11 March 2023</ref> The historian [[Jerzy Zdrada]] records that by the late spring and the early summer of 1863, there were 35,000 Poles under arms facing a Russian Army of 145,000 in the Polish Kingdom.

== Uprising spreads to Lithuania ==
[[Image:Battles of January Uprising in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.JPG|200px|thumb|left|Battles of January Uprising in [[Lithuania]], [[Latvia]], [[Belarus]] and [[Ukraine]]]]
[[Image:Coat_of_arms_of_the_January_Uprising.svg|166px|thumb|right|January Uprising's coat of arms, of a proposed [[Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth]]: [[Coat of arms of Poland|White Eagle]] (Poland), {{lang|lt|[[Coat of arms of Lithuania|Vytis]]}} ([[Lithuania]]) and [[Michael (archangel)|Archangel Michael]] ([[Ruthenia]])]]
On 1 February 1863, the uprising erupted in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.  In April and May, it had spread to [[Dinaburg]], [[Latvia]] and [[Witebsk]], [[Belarus]], to the [[Kiev Governorate]], northern Ukraine, and to the [[Volhynian Voivodeship (1569–1795)|Wolynian Voivodship]]. Volunteers, weapons and supplies began to flow in over the borders from [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], in the [[Austrian Partition]], and from the [[Prussian Partition]]. Volunteers also arrived from [[Italy]], [[Hungary]], [[France]] and Russia itself. The greatest setback was that in spite of the liberation manifesto from the KCN, without prior ideological agitation, the peasantry could not be mobilized to participate in the struggle except in those regions that were dominated by Polish units, which saw a gradual enrollment into the uprising of agricultural workers.

[[File:Powstanie Styczniowe flag.svg|thumb|Flag of the uprising]]

===Secret State===
The secret Polish state was directed by the Rada Narodowa (RN, National Council) to which the civil and military structures on the ground were accountable. It was a "virtual coalition government" formed of the ''Reds'' and the ''Whites'' and was led by [[Zygmunt Sierakowski]], [[Antanas Mackevičius]] and [[Konstanty Kalinowski]]. The latter two supported their counterparts in Poland and adhered to common policies.

Its diplomatic corps was centered on Paris under the direction of [[Wladyslaw Czartoryski]]. The eruption of armed conflict in the former [[Commonwealth of Two Nations]] had surprised western European capitals, even if public opinion responded with sympathy for the rebel cause. It had dawned on Paris, London, [[Vienna]] and [[Saint Petersburg]] that the crisis could plausibly turn into an international war. For their part, Russian diplomats considered the uprising an internal matter, and European stability was generally predicated on the fate of Poland's aspiration.

===International repercussions===
[[File:Władysław Czartoryski.JPG|thumb|right|150px|Władysław Czartoryski]]
The uncovering of the existence of the [[Alvensleben Convention]], signed on 8 February 1863 by Prussia and Russia in St. Petersburg, to suppress the Poles jointly, internationalized the uprising. It enabled Western powers to take the diplomatic initiative for their own ends. [[Napoleon III]] of France, already a sympathizer with Poland, was concerned to protect his border on the [[Rhine]] and turned his political guns on Prussia with a view to provoking a war with it. He was simultaneously seeking an alliance with Austria. The [[United Kingdom]], on the other hand, sought to prevent a Franco-Prussian war and to block an Austrian alliance with France and so looked to scupper any [[rapprochement]] between France and Russia. Austria was competing with Prussia for the leadership of the German territories but rejected French approaches for an alliance and spurned any support of Napoleon III as acting against German interests. There was no discussion of military intervention on behalf of the Poles, despite Napoleon's support for the continuation of the insurgency.[[File:Napoleon III, 1865.jpg|thumb|200px|Napoléon III, 1865]]France, the United Kingdom and Austria agreed to a diplomatic intervention in defense of Polish rights and in April issued diplomatic notes that were intended to be no more than persuasive in tone.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jasiakiewicz |first=Wojciech |year=1983 |title=The British Political Standpoint concerning the January Uprising until April 1863 |journal=Zeszyty Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej w Bydgoszczy: Studia Filologiczne; Filologia Angielska |volume=z 21/6/ |url=https://repozytorium.ukw.edu.pl/bitstream/handle/item/2591/Jasiakiewicz%20The%20British%20political%20standpoint%20concerning%20the%20january%20uprising%20until%20April%201863.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=21 June 2018}}</ref> The Polish RN hoped that the evolution of the insurgency would ultimately push western powers to adopt an armed intervention, which was the flavour of Polish diplomatic talks with those powers. The Polish line was that the establishment of continued peace in Europe was conditional on the return of an independent Polish state.<ref name="Zdrada" />

With the threat of war averted, St. Petersburg left the door open for negotiations but was adamant in its rejection of any western rights to armed conflict. In June 1863, western powers iterated the conditions: an amnesty for the insurgents, the creation of a national representative structure, the development of autonomous concessions across the Kingdom, a recall of a conference of [[Congress of Vienna]] (1815) signatories and a ceasefire for its duration. That fell well below the expectations of the leadership of the uprising. While concerned by the threat of war, Alexander II felt secure enough with the support of his people to reject the proposals. Although France and Britain were insulted, they did not proceed with further interventions, which enabled Russia to extend and finally to break off negotiations in September 1863.

==Outcome on the ground==
[[File:Andriolli.Ludwik Narbutt.jpg|thumb|right|[[Michał Elwiro Andriolli]]: the death of [[Ludwik Narbutt]]]]
Apart from the efforts of [[Sweden]], diplomatic intervention by foreign powers on behalf of Poland was on the balance unhelpful in drawing attention away from the aim of Polish national unity towards its social divisions. It alienated Austria, which had maintained friendly neutrality towards Poland and not interfered with Polish activities in Galicia. It prejudiced public opinion among radical groups in Russia that until then had been friendly because they regarded the uprising as a social, rather than a national, insurgency. It also stirred the Russian government to ever more brutal suppression of hostilities and repression against its Polish participants, who had grown in strength.

In addition to the thousands who fell in battle, 128 men were hanged under the personal supervision of [[Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov-Vilensky|Mikhail Muravyov]] 'Muravyov the Hangman', and 9,423 men and women were exiled to Siberia, 2,500 men according to Russia's own estimates. The historian [[Norman Davies]] gives the number as 80,000 and noted it was the single largest deportation in Russian history.<ref name="Davies1996">{{cite book|author=Norman Davies|title=Europe: a history|url=https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0|url-access=registration|access-date=2 February 2011|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-820171-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0/page/828 828]–}}</ref> Whole villages and towns were burned down.{{verify source|date=November 2020}} All economic and social activities were suspended, and the ''szlachta'' was ruined through the confiscation of property and exorbitant taxes. Such was the brutality of Russian troops that their actions were condemned throughout Europe.<ref name="Ulam1977">{{cite book|author=Adam Bruno Ulam|title=Prophets and conspirators in prerevolutionary Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpL2GkQmQEAC&pg=PA8|access-date=2 February 2011|year=1977|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0443-3|pages=8–}}</ref> Count [[Fyodor Berg]], the newly appointed governor, [[Namiestnik of Poland]], and the successor to Muravyov, employed harsh measures against the population and intensified systematic [[Russification of Poles during the Partitions|Russification]] in an effort to eradicate Polish traditions and culture.

===Social and ethnic divisions laid bare===
Insurgents of landed background constituted 60% of the uprising's participants (in Lithuania and Belarus around 50%, in Ukraine some 75%).<ref>{{cite book|last=Sikorska-Kulesza|first=Jolanta|author-link=Jolanta Sikorska-Kulesza|year=1995|title=Deklasacja drobnej szlachty na Litwie i Białorusi w XIX wieku|location=Pruszków, PL|publisher=Ajaks|isbn=9788385621379|page=29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVAsAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> Records indicate that 95% of those punished for participation in the uprising were Catholic, which corresponded to the general proportion of participants.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Зайцев |first=В. М. |title=Социально-сословный состав участников восстания 1863 г. (Опыт статистического анализа) / В. М. Зайцев — М.: Наука |year=1973 |pages=264}}</ref>

Despite outreach to Rus (Ruthenian) peasants by the Polish gentry (szlachta), comparatively few partook in the January Uprising. In some cases they assisted the Russian forces in catching rebels.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Кропоткин |first=П. А. |title=Записки революционера.- М.: Моек. рабочий |year=1988 |pages=190}}</ref> This has been cited as one of the primary reasons for the failure of the uprising.

During the first 24 hours of the uprising, [[armoury|armouries]] across the country were looted, and many Russian officials were executed on sight. On 2 February 1863, was the start of the first major military engagement of the uprising between Lithuanian peasants armed mostly with [[scythe]]s and a squadron of Russian hussars outside Čysta Būda, near [[Marijampolė]]. It ended with the massacre of the unprepared peasants. While there was still hope of a short war, insurgent groups merged into larger formations and recruited new volunteers.

== Evolution of events ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=January 2020}}
[[Image:Zuawi smierci.jpg|thumb|right|[[Zouaves of Death#Polish Zouaves of Death|Zouaves of Death]] (''żuawi śmierci''), an 1863 Uprising unit organized by [[François Rochebrune]]. Drawing (published 1909) by K. Sariusz-Wolski, from a photograph. From left: Count Wojciech Komorowski, Colonel [[François Rochebrune]], Lieutenant Tenente Bella]]
The provisional government had counted on an insurgency erupting in Russia, where wide discontent with the autocratic regime then seemed to be brewing. It also counted on the active support of [[Napoleon III]], particularly after [[Prussia]], expecting the inevitable armed conflict with France, had made overtures to Russia sealed in the [[Alvensleben Convention]] and offered assistance in suppressing the Polish uprising. Arrangements had already been completed on 14 February and the British Ambassador to [[Berlin]], [[Sir Alexander Malet, 2nd Baronet|Sir Alexander Malet]], informed his government that a Prussian military envoy

<blockquote>has concluded a military convention with the Russian Government, according to which the two governments will reciprocally afford facilities to each other for the suppression of the insurrectionary movements which have lately taken place in Poland and Lithuania. The Prussian railways are also to be placed at the disposal of the Russian military authorities for the transportation of troops through Prussian territory from one part of the former Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth to another.</blockquote>

That step by [[Otto von Bismarck]] led to protests from several governments and incensed the several constituent nations of the former Commonwealth. The result was the transformation of a relatively insignificant uprising into another "national war" against Russia. Encouraged by promises made by Napoleon III, all provinces of the erstwhile Commonwealth, acting on the advice of Władysław Czartoryski, had taken to arms. Moreover, to Indicate their solidarity, all Commonwealth citizens holding office under the Russian government, including the [[Archbishop of Warsaw]], [[Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski|Zymunt Feliński]], resigned their positions and signed their allegiance to the newly constituted Government, which was composed of the five most prominent representatives of the ''Whites''. The ''Reds'', meanwhile, criticised the [[Polish National Government (January Uprising)|Polish National Government]] for being reactionary with its policy to incentivise Polish peasants to fight in the uprising. The government justified its inaction on the back of hopes of foreign military intervention promised by Napoleon III that never materialised.

===Romuald Traugutt===
It was only after Polish General [[Romuald Traugutt]] had taken matters into his own hands on 17 October 1863 to unite all classes under a single national banner that the struggle could be upheld. His restructuring in preparation for an offensive in spring 1864 was banking on a European-wide war.<ref>[[Józef Jarzębowski]]. ''Węgierska polityka Traugutta: na podstawie znanych i nieznanych dokumentów''. Warszawa 1939. ("Traugutt's [[Hungary|Hungarian]] policies").</ref> On 27 December 1863, he enacted a decree of the former provisional government by granting peasants the land they worked. The land was to be provided by compensating the owners through state funds after the successful conclusion of the uprising. Traugutt called upon all Polish classes to rise against Russian oppression for the creation of a new Polish state. The response was moderate since the policy came too late. The Russian government had already begun working among peasants to grant them generous parcels of land for the asking. The peasants who had been bought off did not engage with Polish revolutionaries to any extent or provide them with support.

Fighting continued intermittently during the winter of 1863–1864 on the southern edge of the Kingdom, near the Galician border, from where assistance was still forthcoming. In late December in the [[Lublin Voivodeship]], General [[Michał Heydenreich]]'s unit was overwhelmed. The most determined resistance continued in the [[Świętokrzyskie Mountains]], where General [[Józef Hauke-Bosak]] distinguished himself by taking several cities from the vastly superior Russian forces. However, he too succumbed to a crushing defeat on 21 February 1864 which presaged the end of the armed struggle. On 29 February, Austria imposed martial law, and on 2 March, the tsarist authorities brought in the [[abolition of serfdom in Poland|abolition of serfdom]] in the Polish Kingdom. Both events neutralised Traugutt's concept of developing the uprising with a [[general mobilisation]] of the population in the Russian partition and reliance on assistance from Galicia. In April 1864, Napoleon III abandoned the Polish cause. Władysław Czartoryski wrote to Traugutt: "We are alone, and alone we shall remain".

Arrests eliminated key positions in the secret Polish state, and those who felt threatened sought refuge abroad. Traugutt was taken on the night of 10 April. After he and the last four members of the National Council, Antoni Jezioranski, Rafał Krajewski, Józef Toczyski and [[Roman Żuliński]], had been apprehended by Russian troops, they were imprisoned and executed by hanging on 5 August at the [[Warsaw Citadel]].<ref>Jarzębowski, Józef. ''Traugutt'', nakładem Archidiecezjalnego Instytutu Akcji Katolickiej, Warszawa, 1938.</ref><ref>Jarzębowski, Józef. ''Traugutt: dokumenty, listy, wspomnienia, wypisy''. Londyn: Veritas, 1970.</ref> That marked the symbolic closure of the Uprising. Only Aleksander Waszkowski, the head of the Warsaw insurgency eluded the police till December 1864, but he too joined the list of "the lost" in February 1865. The war consisting of 650 battles and skirmishes with 25,000 Polish and other insurgents killed, had lasted 18 months. The insurgency persisted in [[Samogitia]] and [[Podlasie]], where the [[Greek Catholic]] population, outraged and persecuted for their religious observance, "''Kryaki''{{-"}} (those baptised into the Greek Orthodox Church), and others like the commander and priest [[Stanisław Brzóska]], clung the longest to the revolutionary banner until the spring of 1865.

<gallery widths="150px" heights="200px">
File:Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński 06.jpg|Archbishop of Warsaw [[Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński|Feliński]]
File:Romuald Traugutt 111.PNG|Romuald Traugutt
File:Stanisław Brzóska (original photo portrait).jpg|Fr. Stanisław Brzóska (original photo portrait)
</gallery>

==Decades of reprisals==
[[File:Malczewski wigilia na syberii.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Jacek Malczewski]]: ''Christmas Eve in Siberia'']]

After the collapse of the uprising, harsh reprisals followed. According to official Russian information, 396 persons were executed and 18,672 were exiled to Siberia. Large numbers of men and women were sent to the interior of Russia and to the [[Caucasus]], [[Ural Mountains|Urals]] and other remote areas. Altogether over 60,000 persons were imprisoned and subsequently exiled from Poland and consigned to distant regions of Russia.<ref>Database of Polish exiles after the January Uprising through ''Genealogia Okiem'': http://www.genealogia.okiem.pl/powstanies/index.php?sybir=on Retrieved 21 June 2018</ref>

The abolition of serfdom in early 1864 was deliberately enacted in a move designed specifically to ruin the ''szlachta''. The Russian government confiscated 1,660 estates in Poland and 1,794 in Lithuania. A 10% income tax was imposed on all estates as a [[war indemnity]]. Only in 1869 was the tax reduced to 5% on all incomes. It was the only time that peasants paid the market price for the redemption of the land (the average for the [[Russian Empire]] was 34% above the market price). All land taken from Polish peasants since 1864 was to be returned without rights of compensation. Former serfs could sell land only to other peasants, not to ''szlachta''. Ninety percent of the ex-serfs in the empire who actually gained land after 1861 were confined to the eight western provinces. Along with [[Romania]],{{clarify|date=March 2023}} Polish landless or domestic serfs were the only people who were eligible for land grants after serfdom had been abolished.

All of that was to punish the ''szlachta'' for its role in the uprisings of 1830 and 1863. In addition to the land granted to the peasants, the Russian government gave them a forest, pasture and other privileges, known under the name of ''servitutes'', which proved to be a source of incessant irritation between the landowners and peasants over the ensuing decades and impeded economic development.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} The government took over all church estates and funds and abolished monasteries and convents. With the exception of religious instruction, all teaching in schools was ordered to be in [[Russian language|Russian]]. That also became the official language of the country, to be used exclusively in all offices of central and local government. All traces of former Polish autonomy were removed, and the Kingdom was divided into ten provinces, each with an appointed Russian military governor under the control of the Governor-General in Warsaw. All former Polish government functionaries were deprived of their positions and replaced by Russian officials. According to [[George Kennan (explorer)|George Kennan]], "thousands of Polish insurgents" were transported to the "[[Nerchinsk]] silver-mining district... after the unsuccessful insurrection of 1863".<ref name="Kennan">{{cite book|last1=Kennan|first1=George|title=Siberia and the Exile System|date=1891|publisher=James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.|location=London|pages=280}}</ref>

[[Image:Farewell Europe!.jpg|400px|thumb|center|''Farewell to [[Europe]]'', by [[Aleksander Sochaczewski]]. The artist himself is among the exiled here, near the [[obelisk]], on the right.]]

==Legacy==
These measures of cultural eradication proved to be only partially effective. In 1905, 41 years after Russia crushed the uprising, the next generation of Poles rose once again in the [[Łódź insurrection]], which too failed.

The January Uprising was one in a centuries-long series of [[Polish uprisings]]. In its aftermath, two new movements began to evolve that set the political agenda for the next century. One, led by the descendant of Lithuanians, [[Józef Piłsudski]] emerged as the [[Polish Socialist Party]]. The other, led by [[Roman Dmowski]], became the [[National Democracy (Poland)|National Democracy]] movement; sometimes referred to as ''Endecja'', its roots lay in Catholic conservatism that sought national sovereignty, along with the reversal of forced Russification and [[Germanisation of Poles during the Partitions|Germanisation]] by the [[Polonization|Polonisation]] of the partitioned territories in the former Commonwealth.<ref>Biskupski, M. B. B. Pula, James S.Wróbel, Piotr J. Eds. ''The Origins of Modern Polish Democracy'' "Polish and Polish-American Studies", Ohio University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978 0821443095}}</ref>

== Notable insurgents ==
[[File:Anna Pustowojtowna 1863 (77091871) (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|150px|Anna Pustowojtówna, alias "Michał Smok"]]
[[File:Weterani powstania styczniowego przed frontem warty w Belwederze.jpg|thumb|200px|Last veterans of the January Uprising, photographed in the [[Second Polish Republic]], c. 1930]]
* [[Francišak Bahuševič]] (1840–1900), Belarusian poet and writer, one of the founders of modern [[Belarusian literature]]
* [[Stanisław Brzóska]] (1832–1865), Polish priest and commander at the end of the insurrection.
* Saint [[Albert Chmielowski]] (1845–1916), founder of the Albertine Brothers and Sisters.
* [[Jarosław Dąbrowski]] (1836–1871), officer in the Russian Army, left-wing member of the "secret committee" of officers in St. Petersburg. He took over its leadership from Sierakowski. He died in Paris fighting for the [[Paris Commune]].
* [[Konstanty Kalinowski|Wincenty Kalinowski]] (also known as Kastus) (1838–1864), was one of the leaders of [[Lithuania]]n national revival, a founder of [[Belarusian nationalism]], and the leader of the January Uprising in the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
* Saint [[Raphael Kalinowski]] (1835–1907), born Joseph Kalinowski in Lithuania, resigned as a Captain from the Russian Army to become Minister of War for the Polish insurgents.  He was arrested and sentenced to death by firing squad, but the sentence was then changed to 10 years in Siberia, including a grueling nine-month overland trek to get there.
* [[Apollo Korzeniowski]] (1820–1869), Polish playwright and father of [[Joseph Conrad]].
* [[Marian Langiewicz]] (1827–1887), Military Commander of the uprising. He had an English wife, Suzanne, next to whom he was buried in [[Istanbul]].
* [[Antanas Mackevičius]] (1828–1863), Lithuanian priest who organized some two hundred and fifty men, armed with hunting rifles and straightened scythes. After a defeat near Vilkija, he was captured and taken to the prison in Kaunas. After Mackevičius refused to betray other leaders of the uprising, he was hanged on 28 December 1863.
* [[Edmund Matejko]] (1829–1907), teacher, older brother of the painter [[Jan Matejko]]
* [[Ludwik Mierosławski]] (1814–1878), veteran of the [[November Uprising]] and of the [[Greater Poland uprising (1846)]], general, strategist, writer and emigrant with wide foreign contacts.
* [[Władysław Niegolewski]] (1819–1885), was a liberal Polish politician and member of parliament, an insurgent in the [[Greater Poland Uprising (1846)|Greater Poland Uprising of 1846]] and [[Greater Poland Uprising 1848|1848]] and of the January 1863 Uprising, and a co-founder (1861) of the [[Central Economic Society]] and (1880) the [[People's Libraries Society]].
* [[Francesco Nullo]] (1826–1863), Italian general who headed the [[Garibaldi Legion (Poland)|Garibaldi Legion]], and that carried huge symbolic value. Nullo died at the [[Battle of Krzykawka]].
* [[Bolesław Prus]] (1847–1912), leading Polish writer of historical novels.
* [[Anna Henryka Pustowójtówna]] (1838–1881), alias "Michał Smok", adjutant to Marian Langiewicz. She was of Russian-Polish descent and an activist from 1861. She later took part in the [[Paris Commune]] and the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. Having had four children, she later died in Paris.
* [[François Rochebrune]], (1830–1870), one of several French officers in the Uprising, he formed and led a Polish rebel unit called the [[Zouaves of Death]] and was promoted to General. 
* [[Leon Przanowski]] (1844–1924), a member of the National Government who held the equivalent office to [[Adjutant General]] during the January Uprising. He served under General [[Dionizy Czachowski]].
* [[Aleksander Sochaczewski]] (1843–1923), Polish painter.
* [[Romuald Traugutt]] (1826–1864), a [[Lieutenant colonel]] of German descent in the Russian Army, he was promoted general in the insurrection, was its leader for a spell and held the [[Foreign Affairs]] portfolio in the underground government. He was tortured and hanged by the Russians with several of his colleagues.

==Influence on art and literature==
Falling into the late [[Romanticism in Poland|romantic period]], the events and figures of the uprising inspired many Polish painters, including [[Artur Grottger]], [[Juliusz Kossak]] and [[Michał Elwiro Andriolli]], and marked the delineation with the [[Positivism in Poland|positivism]] that followed.

* The Polish poet [[Cyprian Norwid]] wrote a famous poem, "[[Frédéric Chopin#Education|Chopin]]'s Piano," describing the [[defenestration]] of the composer's [[piano]] during the January 1863 Uprising, when Russian soldiers maliciously threw the instrument out of a second-floor [[Warsaw]] apartment. Chopin had left Warsaw and Poland forever shortly before the outbreak of the [[November Uprising|November 1830 Uprising]].
* [[Eliza Orzeszkowa]], a leading Polish [[Polish positivism|positivist]] writer and nominee for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] wrote ''[[Nad Niemnem]]'' a novel set in and around the city of [[Grodno]] after the 1863 January Uprising.
* [[Józef Jarzębowski]] has put together material from unknown people who lived through the uprising in his ''Mówią Ludzie Roku [[1863]]: Antologia nieznanych i małoznanych Głosów Ludzi współczesnych''. London: Veritas, 1963. ("Voices from 1863: An Anthology of unknown and little known contemporary Perspectives").
* In the initial draft of ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas]]'' by [[Jules Verne]] but not in the published version, [[Captain Nemo]] was a Polish nobleman whose family had been brutally murdered by the Russians during the January 1863 Uprising. Since France had only recently signed an alliance with the [[Russian Empire]], for the novel's final version, Verne's editor, [[Pierre-Jules Hetzel]], made him obscure Nemo's motives.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}}
* In [[Guy de Maupassant]]'s novel ''[[Pierre et Jean]]'', the protagonist Pierre has a friend, an old Polish chemist who is said to have come to [[France]] after the bloody events in his motherland. The story is believed to refer to the January Uprising.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="200" heights="200" align="center">
File:Fotografia portretu Aleksandra Wielopolskiego. 1860-1869 (6110650) (cropped).jpg|[[Aleksander Wielopolski]]
File:Alexandre 2 photo.jpg|[[Alexander II of Russia]]
File:Zygmunt Sierakowski 1863 (31236873) (cropped).jpg|Z. Sierakowski 1863
File:Муравьёв-Виленский литография.jpg|[[Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky]]
File:Ludwik Mieroslawski. ca 1863 (77158556) (cropped).jpg|[[Ludwik Mierosławski]]
File:Polish partisans from 1863.PNG|[[Juliusz Kossak]], Polish partisans of 1863
Image:Battle of Wegrow post 1863 (93815448) (cropped).jpg|[[Battle of Węgrów]] 1863
Image:January Uprising Russian revision.PNG|Russian soldiers [[looting]] a Polish [[Manorialism|manor]]
Image:Wilno kaplica.jpg|Chapel in Vilnius, erected to commemorate the crushing of the 1863 January Uprising against Russia, picture taken [[Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii]]
File:Graves of January Uprising veterans.jpg|Graves of January Uprising veterans at Warsaw's [[Powazki Cemetery|Powązki Cemetery]]
Image:Cross commemorating 70th Anniversary of January Uprising.JPG|Cross commemorating 70th Anniversary of January Uprising
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Stefan Brykczyński]]
* [[Menotti Garibaldi]]
* [[Zouaves of Death]]
* [[Insurgence]]
* [[List of Polish uprisings|Polish uprisings]]
* [[Sybirak]]
* ''[[The Prisoners (painting)|The Prisoners]]''
* [[International Workingmen's Association]]
* [[Lapinski expedition]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |last=Kutolowski |first=John F. |title=Mid-Victorian Public Opinion, Polish Propaganda, and the Uprising of 1863 |journal=Journal of British Studies |volume=8 |issue=2 |year=1969 |pages=86–110 |doi=10.1086/385572 |jstor=175218 |s2cid=146409495 }} 
*{{cite book |last=Leslie |first=Robert Frank |title=Reform and insurrection in Russian Poland, 1856–1865 |publisher=Greenwood |year=1969 |isbn=0-8371-2415-8 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Lincoln |first=W. Bruce |title=The Makings of a New Polish Policy: N. A. Milyutin and the Polish Question, 1861–1863 |journal=Polish Review |year=1970 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=54–66 |jstor=25776889 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Zyzniewski |first=Stanley J. |title=The Russo-Polish Crucible of the 1860s: A Review of Some Recent Literature |journal=Polish Review |year=1966 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=23–46 |jstor=25776655 }}

==External links==
{{wikisourcelang|pl|Kategoria:Powstanie_styczniowe|January Uprising}}
* [http://powstanie.okiem.pl Database of January insurgents]
* [https://archive.org/details/petersburgwarsaw00obriiala Augustin O'Brien Petersburg and Warsaw: scenes witnessed during a residence in Poland and Russia in 1863–1864 (1864)]
* [https://archive.org/details/russiangovernmen00daywuoft William Ansell Day. The Russian government in Poland: with a narrative of the Polish Insurrection of 1863 (1867)]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z6eEM2axVE Pictures and paintings dedicated January Uprising] on [[YouTube]]
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q4473305|title=Szwadron}}—Polish movie about the uprising (1992)

{{Dictators of the January Uprising}}
{{Heads of the Polish National Government (January Uprising)}}
{{Lithuanian wars and conflicts}}
{{Polish uprisings}}
{{Polish wars and conflicts}}
{{Russian Conflicts}}

{{Authority control}}

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