In the 19th century, two nations shared roads and struggles but ended up on vastly different paths. Discover how a forgotten uprising intertwined their fates and challenged imperial rule,...

In the 19th century, "Ukrainians" and "Poles" sat on neighboring chairs and traveled the same roads. However, they ultimately achieved different results. The face of the "long" century was shaped by the Great French Revolution (1789) and the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), which served as a transit point for the achievements of the revolution. The Polish movement operated more effectively than the Ukrainian one in this field, more organically adapting to current realities and seizing new opportunities. The Poles secured a state at the beginning of the 20th century and monopolized the interpretation of historical events in the region, including those related to our territories. Although the correctness of certain interpretations raises questions.

This was the case with the November Uprising of the 1830s and the January Uprising of the 1860s. Their participants appealed to the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and aimed to revive this state, but that does not mean it was solely about the Poles. The Commonwealth was not an exclusively Polish state. The events of the mentioned uprisings were not limited to Polish history and did not occur solely on Polish lands. In the 19th century, Poles, like Ukrainians today, were the face of democracy, a symbol of the struggle against imperialism. Therefore, these uprisings are associated with them, but not everything is straightforward.

Military men, a scholar, and a youth

In 1906, Shimon Shydlovski died in Lviv. He had a military career, held an officer's rank, and served under a notable Russian general, likely even saving his life. Despite this, most of Shydlovski's life was spent under assumed names, as he was forced to hide. Benedict Dybowsky, the founder of the Zoological Museum at Lviv University, lived nearly 100 years and devoted his life to research. He even turned his exile into a research expedition and is now considered one of the first and most authoritative researchers of Lake Baikal. Makary Dragomiretsky died in battle near the town of Sieradz, having sustained 30 wounds at the age of 21. What unites them? All were participants in the anti-imperial uprising of 1863-1864.

They are referred to as Polish insurgents. However, the uprising encompassed modern Ukrainian, Polish, and even Belarusian and Lithuanian territories. It is also known as the January Uprising (beginning on January 16, 1863), and certain nuances of this event are worthy of special attention. For instance, Shydlovski was a patriot of Lithuania and deeply loved his homeland, with Lithuania being the center of his world, despite being in union with Poland. One of the images of Shydlovski depicts him holding a flag with the coats of arms of Poland, Lithuania, and Rus. Dragomiretsky was born on Ukrainian lands, just like Andriy Potebnya, who was also a participant in the uprising and the brother of linguist and professor at Kharkiv University, Oleksandr Potebnya.

Polish and Rus blood flows...

Andriy Potebnya was born near Romny (Sumy region) and received military education in St. Petersburg. Everything indicated a successful officer career. However, the young man interacted with people who were skeptical of autocracy and absorbed these ideas. A movement of discontent with the tsarist policy began, and the authorities ruthlessly suppressed it, dealing harshly with participants. Potebnya sided with the insurgents, particularly outraged by the condemnation to a humiliating death by hanging of officers Petro Slyvytsky, Franczek Rostkovsky, and others, despite their participation in the uprising not being proven. The sentence was confirmed by the imperial governor, General Leaders, who was subsequently killed in one of the parks in Warsaw, shot by none other than Potebnya. After that, he went into hiding and eventually moved to London, but later returned to continue fighting against the regime.

In Warsaw, Potebnya published an appeal titled "Polish blood flows, Rus blood flows," calling on soldiers of the Russian army to support the insurgents in their quest to change the tyrannical government. The leaflet gained distribution and was found during searches. Potebnya did not abandon the struggle. He was wounded in one of the battles and died the following morning. Andriy Potebnya was not particularly concerned about promises of land as "unconditional property" and "eternal inheritance" for the "peasant people," as proclaimed by the ideologists of the uprising. For him, it all started with retribution for the wrongs suffered by the military. Besides Andriy Potebnya and Makary Dragomiretsky, Ivan Nechai, known as "Father," a doctor from the Chełm region who formed a unit of Ukrainians and Poles, was also a participant in the January Uprising.

Another participant in the 1863-1864 uprising was Kostiantyn (Kastus) Kalinowski. He was a graduate of St. Petersburg University, a lawyer, and the leader of the "Polish" uprising in Belarus, as well as one of the initiators of the first newspaper in the Belarusian language. Conscious Belarusians in Kalinowski's regiment are currently defending Ukraine from Russian aggression within the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

To established evaluations

After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (late 18th century), most of the modern Ukrainian and Polish territories were part of the Romanov and Habsburg empires. In both cases, representatives of the Polish movement became promoters of struggle and change. They balanced between communication with the imperial administration and attempts to restore their own state. Activists of the Polish movement served in Napoleon's army, had emigration centers, and promoted and established the idea of a national identity. They managed to navigate both the "patchwork" empire of the emperor and the archaic and bloody empire of the tsar. In the 19th century, the Polish movement became a symbol of national struggle.

With the Habsburgs, it was simpler — this also applies to the Ukrainian movement: there was the possibility of parliamentary representation and building a career without denationalization. However, with the Romanovs, the dialogue did not progress for either Ukrainians or Poles. The uprisings of Tadeusz Kościuszko (1794), the November Uprising of the 1830s, and the January Uprising of the 1860s all took place on the lands of what was then the Russian Empire, due to the lack of mechanisms to legally defend their interests and the impossibility of organizing even the most naive initiatives. The authorities not only ignored the voices of national movements but suppressed them, notably through the words and actions of "greater poets." The imperialist Pushkin condemned the uprising of 1830, while Lermontov, through word and deed, stifled the freedom-loving peoples of the Caucasus and forced them to "voluntarily" join the Russian Empire. The presence of these figures in the 21st century would have given "SVO" two more hard-headed supporters.

Both Ukrainian and Polish movement activists in the 19th and 20th centuries experienced first-hand the organized world of the Habsburgs and the coercive-repressive reality of the Romanovs. These were different yet interconnected worlds where Ukrainians and Poles came to understand their own identity and built national projects. The uprisings of the 1830s and 1860s also became part of this struggle. They are difficult to classify as belonging to one national movement, but they are associated with the Polish one. However, the examples provided above call into question the categorical nature of such an assessment.

The insurgents adopted the slogan "For our freedom and yours." An interesting mobilization slogan, but only for certain categories — those familiar with the ideas of the Great French Revolution. In the territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which in the 19th century belonged to different states, it did not resonate. The ideals of freedom and the value of the nation remained unclear to a vast number of people. Most of the population was not particularly concerned about which ruler was in power. The uprising remained an expression of the aristocracy, officers, and intelligentsia. Not only Ukrainians but also a significant portion of the Polish community were indifferent to the calls and actions of the insurgents. Therefore, the line between supporter and opponent of the uprising should not be sought in the national dimension. These processes cannot be understood through a black-and-white matrix; they require study and consideration.

Neither Ukraine nor Poland existed during the aforementioned uprisings. The Ukrainian movement, like the Polish one, was ultimately in a stage of formation. It was raw material, with no constants. Thus, the uprisings of the 1860s were movements where people of different ethnic backgrounds (Ukr