January Uprising
Events
in wich Poland was/is involved

January Uprising



The January Uprising (Polish: powstanie styczniowe, Lithuanian: 1863 m. sukilimas,) was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (present-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, parts of Ukraine, and western Russia) against the Russian Empire. It began on 22 January 1863 in Poland and on 1 February in Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, northern Ukraine and western Russia. It lasted until the last insurgents were captured in 1865.

The uprising began as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army, and was soon joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and various politicians. A coalition government of the Reds and the Whites was formed. It was led by Zygmunt Sierakowski, Antanas Mackevicius and Konstanty Kalinowski. They fully supported their counterparts in Poland and adhered to the same policy. The insurrectionists, severely outnumbered and lacking serious outside support, were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics. They failed to win any major military victories or capture any major cities or fortresses. Reprisals against insurgents included the Tsar's abolition of serfdom that granted land at low value and was designed to draw support of peasants away from the        
Photograph of Polish insurrectionists,       
    armed with scythes and rifles.    
insurrectionists and disrupt the national economy. Public executions
and deportations to Siberia led many Polish and Lithuanian to abandon armed struggle and turn instead to the idea of economic and cultural self-improvement.
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Polonica stamps:
Lithuania 2013, 23 III