Vistula land
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Vistula Land[1][2] or Vistula Country[3] (Russian: Привислянский Край, Privislyansky Krai; Polish: Kraj Przywiślański) was the name applied for the lands of Congress Poland when after the defeat of the November Uprising (1830-31) it was increasingly stripped from autonomy and incorporated into Imperial Russia. It also continued to be informally known as Russian Poland.
After 1837 all voivodeships that constituted the Kingdom of Poland were turned into gubernias and became an integral part of Russia, ruled directly by the Russian tsars. In 1831 the Polish Army, constitution, Sejm and local self-administration were disbanded. Also all universities were closed, only to be reopened several years later as purely-Russian high schools.
Initially the territory maintained certain degree of autonomy than other gubernias. The former Kingdom of Poland continued to use the Polish currency (złoty) and the Administrative Council retained some of its privileges (although it was directly controlled by the Russian governor Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich). However, by 1832 the currency and the customs border were abolished, as was the metric system and penal code. Also the Catholic Church was persecuted and most monasteries were closed and nationalised. In 1839 following the Synod of Polotsk the Greek-Catholic Church self-disbanded and united under the Russian Orthodox Church.
After the January Uprising in 1863, the coat of arms of the Congress Kingdom was abandoned, the Polish language was banned from office and education and the process of incorporation of the Polish gubernias and Russification of its administration was completed.
After the reform of 1867 (see Administrative division of Congress Poland) it consisted of 10 guberniyas: Сувалкская (Suvalskaya), Ломжинская (Lomzhinskaya), Плоцкая (Plotskaya), Седлецкая (Sedletskaya) and Люблинская (Lublinskaya) by the right side of the Vistula River, and the remaining 5 by the left side: Калишская (Kalishskaya), Варшавская (Varshavskaya), Петроковская (Petrokovskaya), Радомская (Radomskaya) and Келецкая (Keletskaya).
The territory was a namestnichestvo until 1875 and later Governorate General - see Namestnik of the Kingdom of Poland.
During World War I, in 1915 the area was occupied by the Central Powers who proposed the Kingdom of Poland (1916–1918). In 1917 Russia ceded all Polish territories it had possessed to the German Empire and Austria-Hungary.
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The name of the kingdom was changed to Vistula Land, which was reduced to a tsarist province; it lost all autonomy and separate administrative institutions. Richard C. Frucht, Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture. 2005
- ^ The name of the territory, which had been Congress Poland, was changed to the more innocuous Vistula Land. Vistula Land was administered by Russians; Alison Fleig Frank, Oil Empire: Visions of Prosperity in Austrian Galicia , 2005
- ^ The name of Poland ceased to be used by the Russian authorities, who designated the region once occupied by the kingdom as the "Vistula Country", John Clark Ridpath: Ridpath's History of the World: Being an Account of the Principal Events in ... 1910
[edit] Further reading
- Manfred Alexander: Kleine Geschichte Polens. Stuttgart: Reclam 2003 (Quelle)
- Roman Dmowski: Deutschland, Rußland und die polnische Frage (Auszüge). In: Polen und der Osten. Texte zu einem spannungsreichen Verhältnis. Hrg. Andrzej Chwalba, ISBN 3-518-41731-2 (Denken und Wissen. Eine Polnische Bibliothek. Band 7)
- [Hensel, Jürgen (ed.): Polen, Deutsche und Juden in Lodz 1820 - 1939. Eine schwierige Nachbarschaft, Osnabrück: fibre Verlag 1999
