November Uprising - The Uprising

The Uprising

Taken by surprise by the rapid unfolding of events during the night of 29 November, the local Polish government (Administrative Council) assembled immediately to take control and to decide on a course of action. Unpopular ministers were removed and men like Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, the historian Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and General Józef Chłopicki took their places. Loyalists led by Prince Czartoryski initially tried to negotiate with Grand Duke Constantine and to settle matters peacefully. However, when Czartoryski told the Council that Constantine was ready to forgive the offenders and that the matter would be amicably settled, Maurycy Mochnacki and other radicals angrily objected and demanded a national uprising. Fearing an immediate break with Russia, the Government agreed to let Constantine depart with his troops.

Mochnacki did not trust the newly constituted ministry and set out to replace it with the Patriotic Club, organized by him. At a large public demonstration on 3 December in Warsaw, he denounced the negotiations between the Government and Grand Duke Constantine, who was encamped outside the city. Mochnacki advocated a military campaign in Lithuania so as to spare the country the devastation of war and preserve the local food supply. The meeting adopted a number of demands to be communicated to the Administrative Council, including the establishment of a revolutionary government and an immediate attack upon the forces of Constantine. The Polish army, with all but two of its generals, Wincenty Krasiński and Zygmunt Kurnatowski, now joined the uprising.

The remaining four ministers of the pre-revolutionary cabinet left the Administrative Council, and their places were taken by Mochnacki and three of his associates from the Patriotic Club, including Joachim Lelewel. The new body was known as the Provisional Government. To legalize its actions the Provisional Government ordered the convocation of the Sejm and on 5 December 1830 proclaimed Chłopicki as Dictator of the Uprising. Chłopicki considered the uprising an act of madness, but bowed to pressure and consented to take command temporarily, in the hope that it would be unnecessary to take the field. An able and highly decorated soldier, he had retired from the army because of the chicanery of Constantine. He overestimated the power of Russia and underestimated the strength and fervor of the Polish revolutionary movement. By temperament and conviction he was opposed to a war with Russia, not believing in a successful outcome. He accepted the dictatorship essentially in order to maintain internal peace and to save the Constitution.

Believing that Tsar Nicholas was unaware of his brother's actions and that the uprising could be ended if the Russian authorities accepted the Constitution, Chłopicki's first move was to send Count Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki to Saint Petersburg to negotiate. Chłopicki refrained from strengthening the Polish army and refused to initiate armed hostilities by expelling Russian forces from Lithuania. However, the radicals in Warsaw pressed for war and the complete liberation of Poland. On 13 December, the Sejm pronounced the National Uprising against Russia, and on 7 January 1831 Count Drucki-Lubecki returned from Russia with no concessions. The Tsar demanded the complete and unconditional surrender of Poland and announced that the Poles should surrender to the grace of their Emperor. His plans foiled, Chłopicki resigned the following day.

Power in Poland was now in the hands of the radicals united in the Towarzystwo Patriotyczne (Patriotic Society) directed by Joachim Lelewel. On 25 January 1831, the Sejm passed the Act of Dethronization of Nicholas I, which ended the Polish-Russian personal union and was equivalent to a declaration of war on Russia. The proclamation declared that "the Polish nation is an independent people and has a right to offer the Polish crown to him whom it may consider worthy, from whom it might with certainty expect faith to his oath and wholehearted respect to the sworn guarantees of civic freedom."

On 29 January, the National Government of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was established, and Michał Gedeon Radziwiłł was chosen as successor to Chłopicki. Chłopicki was persuaded to accept active command of the army.