Now - after a few hundred years - and in the coming decades, at least the past of Russia and Poland will greatly influence our relationship. The history of Poland is thoroughly saturated with Polish-Russian disputes, wars, ideological differences. Three sections of the Commonwe alth turned into 123 years of enslavement.
And the history of Poland is inextricably linked with the struggle for independence.
After the fall of the anti-Russian January uprising in 1862, a further process of Russification of the Polish lands and the unification of the Polish Kingdom began. Polish institutions ceased to exist, forcibly submitting to the St. Petersburg administration. Decree from 1865 introduced the Russian language as an administrative language, three years later a separate budget was created, the central government was created, and the country was divided into 10 provinces. In 1876, the judiciary was reorganized according to the Russian model, and ten years later the Polish Bank was liquidated. Russian became the state language in institutions and courts, and most officials came from Russia. Therefore historyPoland and at that stage was a history of enslavement and struggle for the preservation of national identity.
After the death of the Viceroy Theodore (Fedor) Berg, the kingdom, which began to be called the "Privislinsky Territory", began to be led by governors-general, who have special rights in the field of security. In addition, the liberal reforms carried out in the empire did not apply to Poland, everything was kept on the system of a police state, censorship, and martial law (since 1861)
was still preserved to a certain extent. The Catholic Church, which stood up for the rebels, was also persecuted: monasteries were closed, property was taken away from those that survived, bishops depended on the collegium in St. Petersburg (despite the objections of the Pope) and lived under a ban on contacts with the Vatican.
On the Polish lands included in the Empire, the situation of the Poles was the worst. The most difficult for the population was the forced cultural assimilation and suppression of ethnic identity. Poland as part of Russia was discriminated against as
national autonomy - most of the Poles were evicted to the eastern territories, the rest, under the weight of high taxes, could not acquire land, establish enterprises. Naturally, this caused latent discontent among the population, which eventually developed into open protests. If before the reign of Alexander II, the history of Poland underwent a difficult period of liquidation of the Polish statehood, then later the authorities focused on issues of culture and language. Again andnew nationalist currents were formed again, as a result of which the Russians intensified Russification at every turn. In the territories beyond the Bug, they sought to erase any manifestations of Polishness - both at school and in the administration - then the Polish language was finally banned for public use. In the territories of the kingdom, this was not possible, however, here too the development of Polish culture was limited and preference was given to Russian.
In the mid-60s of the 19th century, Russian became the language of instruction in secondary schools. The main school in 1869 was turned into a royal university. In 1872, as a result of the reform of the Minister of Education Dmitry Tolstoy, the specifics of the Polish school were completely eliminated.
Russia and Poland. The history of these countries has always been in conflict. It was with Russia that Poland waged war in 1920. In Poland, it is believed that the next partition - the occupation of the country - came in 1939, when Soviet troops entered Poland on September 17 (recall that on September 1, Hitler's troops occupied the country). However, the history of Poland still remembers sore spots. And until we can openly and honestly discuss all the complex historical twists and turns, real dialogue is unlikely to be possible. After all, the struggle against Russification - first from the 19th century, then the dominance of everything Russian in the Soviet era - is still alive in the Poles. And although in recent years there has been a trend of rapprochement, nevertheless, true friendship is still far away.
