Cracow Revolution 1846, a military uprising against Austria in the Cracow
Republic [Rzeczpospolita Krakowska], planned for the night of February
20, 1846 as part of an all-Polish uprising prepared by the Polish Democratic
Society and secret revolutionary organizations in Poland. As a result of
revealing the conspiracy, the uprising did not come into effect in the
Prussian and the Russian sectors of Poland. On February 18-19 the Austrian
troops seized the Cracow Republic to prevent an outbreak
of the uprising;
the struggles with them were initiated by several hundred peasants from
the Cracow region and miners from Jaworzna; as a result, Austrians were
ousted from Chrzanów and Krzeszowice. On 20 February fights also
began in Cracow, with the massive participation of the urban proletariat
and artisans, intending to get rid not only of the Austrians but also of
the local aristocracy and rich bourgeoisie; on February 22, harassed by
the attacks of the insurgents and fearful of being bes
ieged, the Austrian
corps of general Collin, left Cracow for a neighboring Podgórze;
power was taken over by the insurgents and by the National Government of
the Polish Republic [Rzad Narodowy Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej] (Ludwik
J. Gorzkowski, Aleksander Grzegorzewski and Jan Józef Tyssowski).
The Government issued Manifest do Narodu Polskiego [A Manifesto
to the Polish Nation] calling the Poles to rise against the partitioning
powers and promising, among others, enfranchise
ment of the peasants, abolition
of the corvée, and rewards in land from the national properties
for the landless peasants who would participate in the uprising. The Manifest
found a receptive ground in the Cracow Republic; both urban and rural proletariat
as well as a part of the Jewish population reported for active service
in the revolutionary troops; within three days their number reached about
six thousand people. On February 24, as a result of misunderstandings within
the governmen
t, Tyssowski dissolved the government and declared himself
dictator of the revolution; together with other members of the national
government, he sought a compromise with the local conservative nobility
and was not willing to conscript all who reported; on February 24, Edward
Dembowski arrived in Cracow, heading a group of miners from the nearby
salt mine in Wieliczka, assumed the position of Tyssowski's secretary,
soon gained an advantage over the dictator and became the actual leader
of the revolut
ion. In order to influence the masses directly, Dembowski
formed a revolutionary club; in the name of Tyssowski he promised a foundation
of national workshops offering high wages and abolishing some taxes on
basic articles; he threatened with death those who delayed the abolition
of the corvée; and set high penalties for speculators and panic-mongers;
his main concern was to merge the anti-feudal movement in Galician villages
with the revolution against the Austrians; his agents followed these
same
lines. In the Cracow region, where peasants cooperated with the revolution,
the agitation was successful; in the Bochnia and Wadowice communities villagers
took a wait-and-see attitude; but in the Tarnów region, where Austrian
agitation outpaced the revolution, peasants attacked manors under the veil
of a fight against the revolution. Thus the Cracow Manifest did
not mobilize the peasant masses in Galicia to support the Cracow Republic,
except for the very region of Cracow; on Febr
uary 26, a revolutionary detachment
under Colonel Adam Suchorzewski was defeated at Gdów by Austrian
troops commanded by L. von Benedek; on February 27, Edward Dembowski was
killed by the Austrian troops, while heading a procession from Cracow to
establish contact with the rebelling peasants; on March 4, Tyssowski's
military detachment of about 1,500 insurgents, lay down arms at the Prussian
border; Cracow was taken over by the Russian troops; on November 6, the
Cracow Republic was incorporate
d into Austria; Polish institutions were
replaced by Austrian, with German-speaking civil servants; German was introduced
as the language of instruction at Jagiellonian University; incorporation
into the Austrian custom zone and numerous plagues caused a sudden economic
crisis, an increase in the cost of living and poverty. After the collapse
of the Cracow Republic the Austrian authorities began to suppress mercilessly
any attempt of the peasants to get rid of feudal duties. The conspiracy,
seriously
weakened by the events of 1846, continued to exist in Cracow,
supported by the proletariat; in the province, the conspirators feared
another jacquerie and gave up agitation among the peasants. The collapse
of the 1846 revolution and the peasants' jacquerie challenged the role
of the Polish politicians outside the country as a leading political force;
they were more and more detached from the situation in partitioned Poland.
Diplomatic efforts undertaken by the Hotel Lambert did not bring success;
in
November 1846 Palmerston, and in December that year Guizot, sent through
their diplomatic representatives in East European capitals weak protests
against the incorporation of the Cracow Republic into Austria, which, however,
did not change the status quo. Soon after the events of the Cracow revolution
Russia and Austria came out with a demand to the French government of strengthening
supervision over the Polish emigration in France; thanks to the pro-Polish
attitude of a large part of French public o
pinion, the postulates were
not realized. The Cracow revolution, merging the struggle for national
independence with the struggle for social reforms was highly honored by
the European Left. Marx and Engels referred to the Cracow revolution in
the Communist Manifesto; "Among the Poles Communists support
a party which considers an agrarian revolution a condition of a national
salvation, the same party which evoked the Cracow Revolution." The
collapse of the Cracow revolution hampered t
he conspiracies in partitioned
Poland; most leaders ended up in prisons, others emigrated. In 1847 in
Berlin 254 members of the Polish conspiracy were tried; eight of them were
sentenced to death and ninety-seven to prison; thanks to the outbreak of
the March revolution in Berlin, the sentences were not executed.
Jolanta T. Pekacz
J. Bieniarzówna, Z dziejów liberalnego i konspiracyjnego Krakowa. Cracow, 1948.
S. Kieniewicz, Ruch chlopski w Galicji w 1846 roku. Wroclaw, 1951.
B. Limanowski, Historia ruchu rewolucyjnego w Polsce w 1846 r. Cracow, 1913.
M. Szarota, Die letzten Tage der Republik Krakau. Breslau, 1911.
M. Zychowski, Rok 1846 w Rzeczpospolitej Krakowskiej i Galicji. Warsaw, 1956.
Holly Johnston revised this file (http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ac/cracow.htm) on February 18, 1997.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.cats.ohiou.edu
© 1997 James Chastain.