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83-544: The area where the town of Ełk is located was originally inhabited by Jatvingians , a Baltic peoples , during the Early Middle Ages . By 1281, Skomand the last leader of the pagan Jatvingians, capitulated to the crusading Teutonic Knights , who initially were invited in 1226 by Konrad I of Masovia from the Polish Piast dynasty to put an end to the constant pagan raids into his territory. After 1323,

166-597: A Western Baltic people who were closely tied to the Old Prussians . The linguist Petras Būtėnas asserts that they were closest to the Lithuanians . The Yotvingians contributed to the formation of the Lithuanian state . According to Vytautas Mažiulis , the name Sūduva derives from a local hydronym *Sūd(a)vā , derived from a Baltic verbal root, *sū- : to flow, pour. Numerous linguists consider

249-639: A Prussian military envoy has concluded a military convention with the Russian Government, according to which the two governments will reciprocally afford facilities to each other for the suppression of the insurrectionary movements which have lately taken place in Poland and Lithuania. The Prussian railways are also to be placed at the disposal of the Russian military authorities for the transportation of troops through Prussian territory from one part of

332-515: A crushing defeat on 21 February 1864 which presaged the end of the armed struggle. On 29 February, Austria imposed martial law, and on 2 March, the tsarist authorities brought in the abolition of serfdom in the Polish Kingdom. Both events neutralised Traugutt's concept of developing the uprising with a general mobilisation of the population in the Russian partition and reliance on assistance from Galicia. In April 1864, Napoleon III abandoned

415-491: A forest, pasture and other privileges, known under the name of servitutes , which proved to be a source of incessant irritation between the landowners and peasants over the ensuing decades and impeded economic development. The government took over all church estates and funds and abolished monasteries and convents. With the exception of religious instruction, all teaching in schools was ordered to be in Russian . That also became

498-661: A gradual enrollment into the uprising of agricultural workers. The secret Polish state was directed by the Rada Narodowa (RN, National Council) to which the civil and military structures on the ground were accountable. It was a "virtual coalition government" formed of the Reds and the Whites and was led by Zygmunt Sierakowski , Antanas Mackevičius and Konstanty Kalinowski . The latter two supported their counterparts in Poland and adhered to common policies. Its diplomatic corps

581-589: A journalistic foothold in Masuria". In 1896, Polish and Masurian activists founded the Masurian People's Party in the city, which sought to resist efforts of German authorities at forced Germanization. The co-founder of the party was poet Michał Kajka , today honoured in Ełk with a monument in the centre of the city. From the start, the party was subject to severe repressions and attacks by Prussian authorities. In

664-689: A local gathering of fascist sympathizers In 1932, the local pharmacist Leo Frankenstein was attacked; a hand grenade was thrown into his home. The wave of anti-Semitic repressions intensified after Nazis gained power in Germany in 1933 and many local merchants and intellectuals of Jewish descent were arrested. During Kristallnacht , Jewish shops and synagogue were plundered and devastated in the town. Facing these events, several Jews of Lyck decided to escape, some abroad, some to Berlin, others as far as Shanghai Of those Jews who remained, 80 were murdered in various Nazi concentration and death camps . The city also

747-486: A more liberal attitude in its internal politics which encouraged Poland's underground National Government to plan an organised strike against their Russian occupiers no earlier than the spring of 1863. They had not reckoned with Aleksander Wielopolski , the pro-Russian archconservative head of the civil administration in the Russian partition. In an attempt to derail the Polish national movement, he brought forward to January

830-427: A petition for a change in the system of governance. Ultimately, he agreed to the appointment of Aleksander Wielopolski to head a commission to look into Religious Observance and Public Education and announced the formation of a State Council and self-governance for towns and powiats . The concessions did not prevent further demonstrations. On 8 April, there were 200 killed and 500 wounded by Russian fire. Martial law

913-706: A printing house. After converting to Lutheranism, Malecki translated and published Martin Luther 's Small Catechism in Polish In 1546 the first school for secondary education in Masuria was founded in the city, where Polish nobles from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , as well as Poles and Germans from Ducal Prussia were taught in Polish; the position of a Polish teacher remained in place until 1819. Polish pastor, translator, publisher and co-creator of

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996-485: A single national banner that the struggle could be upheld. His restructuring in preparation for an offensive in spring 1864 was banking on a European-wide war. On 27 December 1863, he enacted a decree of the former provisional government by granting peasants the land they worked. The land was to be provided by compensating the owners through state funds after the successful conclusion of the uprising. Traugutt called upon all Polish classes to rise against Russian oppression for

1079-472: A sympathizer with Poland, was concerned to protect his border on the Rhine and turned his political guns on Prussia with a view to provoking a war with it. He was simultaneously seeking an alliance with Austria. The United Kingdom , on the other hand, sought to prevent a Franco-Prussian war and to block an Austrian alliance with France and so looked to scupper any rapprochement between France and Russia. Austria

1162-553: Is the center of the Catholic Diocese of Ełk with its bishop Jerzy Mazur. Ełk is twinned with: Former twin towns: In March 2022, Ełk ended its partnership with the Russian city of Ozyorsk as a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . The current coat of arms of Ełk were adopted in 1999, after the town was visited by the Pope John Paul II . The colors have been changed (from green to yellow),

1245-451: The Reds , represented a democratic movement uniting peasants, workers and some clergy. For both streams central to their dilemma was the peasant question . However, estate owners tended to favour the abolition of serfdom in exchange for compensation, but the democratic movement saw the overthrow of the Russian yoke as entirely dependent on an unconditional liberation of the peasantry. Just as

1328-632: The Greek Catholic population, outraged and persecuted for their religious observance, " Kryaki " (those baptised into the Greek Orthodox Church), and others like the commander and priest Stanisław Brzóska , clung the longest to the revolutionary banner until the spring of 1865. After the collapse of the uprising, harsh reprisals followed. According to official Russian information, 396 persons were executed and 18,672 were exiled to Siberia. Large numbers of men and women were sent to

1411-582: The Hebrew language, Ha-Magid ("the preacher") was founded in 1856 by Eliezer Lipmann Silbermann , a local rabbi. The paper was eventually moved to Berlin. In Weimar Germany anti-Semitism became prevalent, which led to persecution of the local Jewish population even before the Nazis took power. An anti-Semitic publication, Die jüdische Überlegenheit ( The Jewish Supremacy ) attacking the Jews circulated in 1927 at

1494-697: The Masurian Lakes . English and Italian troops were deployed in the town after the Treaty of Versailles to supervise the East Prussian plebiscite . The plebiscite was preceded by a campaign of violence and terror by the Germans against the Poles and even against Allied soldiers. The Germans vandalized Polish information boards and held an anti-Polish rally at which they encouraged the beating of Poles and

1577-674: The Neuri (Νευροί) were a tribe living beyond the Scythian cultivators, one of the nations along the course of the river Hypanis (Bug river), west of the Borysthenes (Dniepr river). This was roughly the area of modern Belarus and Eastern Poland by the Narew river, coinciding with the Yotvingian linguistic territory of toponyms and hydronyms ( Narew river) and the Scythian tribe of

1660-485: The Polish National Government for being reactionary with its policy to incentivise Polish peasants to fight in the uprising. The government justified its inaction on the back of hopes of foreign military intervention promised by Napoleon III that never materialised. It was only after Polish General Romuald Traugutt had taken matters into his own hands on 17 October 1863 to unite all classes under

1743-558: The Potsdam Agreement . It was rebuilt and its modern Polish name Ełk was confirmed as official. In 1999, Ełk was visited by Pope John Paul II . About 300,000 people attended a papal Mass. In 2017, the anti-Muslim Ełk riots occurred after a fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old man by a Muslim kebab cook. Several hundred men surrounded the Prince Kebab restaurant, tossing firecrackers, stones, and Molotov cocktails at

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1826-832: The Principality of Turov . In the sentence of Breslau of the emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg to the Livonian Order from 1325, this area is called Suderlandt alias Jetuen . Vytautas the Great wrote about "terra Sudorum", in a letter to King Sigismund of March 11, 1420. A 1860 census by the clergy of the Belarus Grodno area, had 30,929 inhabitants identifying as Yatviags. January Uprising [REDACTED] Russian Empire [REDACTED] Polish National Government [REDACTED] Garibaldi Legion Foreign volunteers: The January Uprising

1909-697: The Warsaw Citadel . That marked the symbolic closure of the Uprising. Only Aleksander Waszkowski, the head of the Warsaw insurgency eluded the police till December 1864, but he too joined the list of "the lost" in February 1865. The war consisting of 650 battles and skirmishes with 25,000 Polish and other insurgents killed, had lasted 18 months. The insurgency persisted in Samogitia and Podlasie , where

1992-753: The Yotvingian language as a dialect of the Old Prussian language . The Lithuanian linguist Petras Būtėnas states that such an opinion is incorrect, because the Lithuanian kalnas predominates in Yotvingian toponymy instead of the Old Prussian garbis . The Lithuanian professor Zigmas Zinkevičius wrote that the Yotvingians spoke a dialect of Western Baltic that was closer to Lithuanian than Prussian. The only known written source of

2075-830: The conscription of young Polish activists into the Imperial Russian Army for 20-year service. That decision is what triggered the January Uprising of 1863, the very outcome that Wielopolski had wanted to avoid. The rebellion by young Polish conscripts was soon joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and members of the political class. The insurrectionists, as yet ill-organised, were severely outnumbered and lacking sufficient foreign support and forced into hazardous guerrilla tactics . Reprisals were swift and ruthless. Public executions and deportations to Siberia eventually persuaded many Poles to abandon armed struggle. In addition, Tsar Alexander II hit

2158-546: The deer is different than in the former emblem. Lastly is the addition of the insignia of the Papacy. Until 1967, a different emblem with the two-faced head of the god Janus was used, but its origin is unknown. Yotvingians Yotvingians (also called: Sudovians , Jatvians , or Jatvingians ; Yotvingian : Jotvingai ; Lithuanian : Jotvingiai , Sūduviai ; Latvian : Jātvingi ; Polish : Jaćwingowie , Belarusian : Яцвягі , German : Sudauer ) were

2241-455: The " Nerchinsk silver-mining district... after the unsuccessful insurrection of 1863". These measures of cultural eradication proved to be only partially effective. In 1905, 41 years after Russia crushed the uprising, the next generation of Poles rose once again in the Łódź insurrection , which too failed. The January Uprising was one in a centuries-long series of Polish uprisings . In its aftermath, two new movements began to evolve that set

2324-537: The Aroteres to the south-east. Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD called the people Galindai kai Soudinoi (Σουδινοί). Peter of Dusburg called them Galindite and Suduwite . In the Hypatian Codex the spelling changes: Jatviagy, Jatviezie, Jatviažin, zemlia Jatveskaja, na zemliu Jatviažs´kuju and more. Polish sources also used Russian spellings: Jazviagi, Iazvizite, Jazvizite, Yazvizite . This name

2407-582: The German federal elections, the MPL received 229 votes in 1898 and 20 in 1912 in the Lyck constituency. In 1910, Lyck had more than 13,000 inhabitants. Mateusz Siuchniński gives the percentage of Poles in 1900 as 35.7% but warns that the numbers come from lowered German estimates. Many citizens fled during World War I , when Imperial Russian troops attacked the region, but returned after the battles of Tannenberg and

2490-530: The German-language newspaper "Lycker gemeinnütziges Unterhaltungsblatt" , later called "Lycker Zeitung" , was founded. Between 1842 and 1845, a Polish newspaper "Przyjaciel Ludu Łecki" (Łek's Friend of the People) was printed in the city, whose aim was to resist Germanisation and cultivate Polish folk traditions as well as educate the local rural population. In May 1845, a Polish resistance movement in

2573-562: The Polish cause. Władysław Czartoryski wrote to Traugutt: "We are alone, and alone we shall remain". Arrests eliminated key positions in the secret Polish state, and those who felt threatened sought refuge abroad. Traugutt was taken on the night of 10 April. After he and the last four members of the National Council, Antoni Jezioranski, Rafał Krajewski, Józef Toczyski and Roman Żuliński , had been apprehended by Russian troops, they were imprisoned and executed by hanging on 5 August at

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2656-405: The Polish national movement in Masuria, was published in the city. It soon faced repression and discrimination from the German authorities which led to its demise; its paid circulation dropped from 357 copies in 1896 to less than 250 at the turn-of-the-century. According to German-American author, Richard Blanke, the "demise marked the end of the second major effort by Polish nationalists to establish

2739-644: The Yotvingian language is the manuscript " Pagan Dialects from Narew  [ lt ; be-tarask ] ". The Yotvingians lived in the area of Sudovia (Yotvingia) and Dainava , southwest from the upper Nemunas river . Today, this area corresponds mostly to the Podlaskie Voivodeship in Poland , portions of Lithuania west of the Nemunas and a part of Hrodna Province in Belarus . The territory

2822-466: The Yotvingians to add to his army. In two dotations, in 1253 and 1259, by Mindaugas , a new name was recorded: Dainava, Deynowe, Dainowe, Denowe (land of songs). The forests were named Deinova Jatvež . In the 1260 treaty with the Teutonic Knights, the region is called " terre Getuizintarum ". Skalmantas , leader of the Yotvingians was responsible for single-handedly raiding Pinsk in

2905-484: The advice of Władysław Czartoryski, had taken to arms. Moreover, to Indicate their solidarity, all Commonwealth citizens holding office under the Russian government, including the Archbishop of Warsaw , Zymunt Feliński , resigned their positions and signed their allegiance to the newly constituted Government, which was composed of the five most prominent representatives of the Whites . The Reds , meanwhile, criticised

2988-605: The autocratic regime then seemed to be brewing. It also counted on the active support of Napoleon III , particularly after Prussia , expecting the inevitable armed conflict with France, had made overtures to Russia sealed in the Alvensleben Convention and offered assistance in suppressing the Polish uprising. Arrangements had already been completed on 14 February and the British Ambassador to Berlin , Sir Alexander Malet , informed his government that

3071-610: The borders from Galicia , in the Austrian Partition , and from the Prussian Partition . Volunteers also arrived from Italy , Hungary , France and Russia itself. The greatest setback was that in spite of the liberation manifesto from the KCN, without prior ideological agitation, the peasantry could not be mobilized to participate in the struggle except in those regions that were dominated by Polish units, which saw

3154-606: The city was organized by Kazmierz Szulc, whose aim was to prepare local Polish youth for an uprising. During the January Uprising , weapons were smuggled through the city to the Russian Partition of Poland, and Polish insurgents fleeing the Russian Partition took refuge in the city; among others, a detachment of Colonel Józef Konstanty Ramotowski  [ pl ] passed through it. In 1885

3237-579: The city, under its modern name Ełk , was named capital of Masuria by the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland . In the late 19th century it was the largest town of the region (according to data from 1880 and 1890), before being surpassed by Osterode (Ostróda) (according to data from 1905 and 1925). From 1896 to 1902, "Gazeta Ludowa" , a Polish-language newspaper, heavily subsidised by banks from Greater Poland representing

3320-411: The conditions: an amnesty for the insurgents, the creation of a national representative structure, the development of autonomous concessions across the Kingdom, a recall of a conference of Congress of Vienna (1815) signatories and a ceasefire for its duration. That fell well below the expectations of the leadership of the uprising. While concerned by the threat of war, Alexander II felt secure enough with

3403-406: The creation of a new Polish state. The response was moderate since the policy came too late. The Russian government had already begun working among peasants to grant them generous parcels of land for the asking. The peasants who had been bought off did not engage with Polish revolutionaries to any extent or provide them with support. Fighting continued intermittently during the winter of 1863–1864 on

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3486-550: The creation of national structures that were intended to become a new secret Polish state. The CNC had not planned an uprising before the spring of 1863 at the earliest. However, Wielopolski's move to start conscription to the Russian Army in mid-January forced its hand to call the uprising prematurely on the night of 22–23 January 1863. The uprising broke out at a moment when general peace prevailed in Europe, and although there

3569-533: The democrats organized the first religious and patriotic demonstrations in 1860, covert resistance groups began to form among educated youth. Blood was first to shed in Warsaw in February 1861, when the Russian Army attacked a demonstration in Castle Square on the anniversary of the Battle of Grochów . There were five fatalities. Fearing the spread of spontaneous unrest, Alexander II reluctantly agreed to accept

3652-486: The devastation of their homes and property. In April 1920, the German Sicherheitswehr even battered Italian soldiers, two fatally. Voting under such conditions resulted in 8,339 votes for Germany and 8 for Poland , which just regained independence. In 1922, a Polish consular agency was opened, which was upgraded to a vice-consulate the next year. It was in Lyck that the first-ever weekly newspaper in

3735-500: The evolution of the insurgency would ultimately push western powers to adopt an armed intervention, which was the flavour of Polish diplomatic talks with those powers. The Polish line was that the establishment of continued peace in Europe was conditional on the return of an independent Polish state. With the threat of war averted, St. Petersburg left the door open for negotiations but was adamant in its rejection of any western rights to armed conflict. In June 1863, western powers iterated

3818-427: The ex-serfs in the empire who actually gained land after 1861 were confined to the eight western provinces. Along with Romania , Polish landless or domestic serfs were the only people who were eligible for land grants after serfdom had been abolished. All of that was to punish the szlachta for its role in the uprisings of 1830 and 1863. In addition to the land granted to the peasants, the Russian government gave them

3901-418: The former Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth to another. That step by Otto von Bismarck led to protests from several governments and incensed the several constituent nations of the former Commonwealth. The result was the transformation of a relatively insignificant uprising into another "national war" against Russia. Encouraged by promises made by Napoleon III, all provinces of the erstwhile Commonwealth, acting on

3984-482: The general proportion of participants. Despite outreach to Rus (Ruthenian) peasants by the Polish gentry (szlachta), comparatively few partook in the January Uprising. In some cases they assisted the Russian forces in catching rebels. This has been cited as one of the primary reasons for the failure of the uprising. During the first 24 hours of the uprising, armouries across the country were looted, and many Russian officials were executed on sight. On 2 February 1863,

4067-539: The interior of Russia and to the Caucasus , Urals and other remote areas. Altogether over 60,000 persons were imprisoned and subsequently exiled from Poland and consigned to distant regions of Russia. The abolition of serfdom in early 1864 was deliberately enacted in a move designed specifically to ruin the szlachta . The Russian government confiscated 1,660 estates in Poland and 1,794 in Lithuania. A 10% income tax

4150-601: The landed gentry hard and, as a result, the whole economy, with a sudden decision in 1864 for finally abolishing serfdom in Poland . The ensuing breakup of estates and destitution of many peasants convinced educated Poles to turn instead to the idea of " organic work ", economic and cultural self-improvement. Despite the Russian Empire's loss of the Crimean War and weakened economic and political state, Alexander II warned in 1856 against further concessions with

4233-572: The late spring and the early summer of 1863, there were 35,000 Poles under arms facing a Russian Army of 145,000 in the Polish Kingdom. On 1 February 1863, the uprising erupted in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In April and May, it had spread to Dinaburg , Latvia and Witebsk , Belarus , to the Kiev Governorate , northern Ukraine, and to the Wolynian Voivodship . Volunteers, weapons and supplies began to flow in over

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4316-521: The literary Polish language, Hieronim Malecki , was the school's first rector . In the mid-16th century Ełk was one of the most thriving centers of Polish-language printing. In 1600, the town's population was Polish, and almost all innkeepers had Polish surnames. In 1639 the King of Poland Władysław IV Vasa visited the town. It remained under Polish suzerainty until 1660. In 1709-10, the plague claimed 1,300 victims. In 1831, 300 people, about 10 percent of

4399-688: The medieval Christianization of the region, the city's population was Roman Catholic , and after the Reformation, it was almost entirely Lutheran until World War II. After the war, the main religion in Ełk became again Roman Catholicism, although a number of Protestant churches are also represented and play an important role in the religious life of the population. These include the Methodist , Baptist , Pentecostal ( Assemblies of God - Kościół Zielonoświątkowy ) and other churches. Ełk

4482-427: The nations of Western Europe that was received everywhere with supportive sentiments from Norway to Portugal . The Confederate States of America sympathized with the Polish-Lithuanian rebels and viewed their struggles analogous. Italian, French and Hungarian officers answered the call. Pope Pius IX was against the 1863 uprising of which he informed Wsyslaw Czartoryski. The historian Jerzy Zdrada records that by

4565-426: The northern part of the region was administered by the commandery of Brandenburg , while the larger part with the later town belonged to Balga commandery. A former Old Prussian settlement, the town was first documented in 1398 around a castle built by the Teutonic Knights. The town's name has various postulated origins. Its German version Lyck is postulated to be derived from its Old Prussian name, Luks (from

4648-447: The number as 80,000 and noted it was the single largest deportation in Russian history. Whole villages and towns were burned down. All economic and social activities were suspended, and the szlachta was ruined through the confiscation of property and exorbitant taxes. Such was the brutality of Russian troops that their actions were condemned throughout Europe. Count Fyodor Berg , the newly appointed governor, Namiestnik of Poland , and

4731-503: The official language of the country, to be used exclusively in all offices of central and local government. All traces of former Polish autonomy were removed, and the Kingdom was divided into ten provinces, each with an appointed Russian military governor under the control of the Governor-General in Warsaw. All former Polish government functionaries were deprived of their positions and replaced by Russian officials. According to George Kennan , "thousands of Polish insurgents" were transported to

4814-410: The peasants, whether on the basis of rent or service, should become their unconditional property, and compensation for it would be given to the landlords out of State general funds. The provisional government did its best to send supplies to the unarmed and scattered volunteers, who, in February, had fought in eighty bloody skirmishes with the Russians. Meanwhile, the CNC issued an appeal for assistance to

4897-401: The political agenda for the next century. One, led by the descendant of Lithuanians, Józef Piłsudski emerged as the Polish Socialist Party . The other, led by Roman Dmowski , became the National Democracy movement; sometimes referred to as Endecja , its roots lay in Catholic conservatism that sought national sovereignty, along with the reversal of forced Russification and Germanisation by

4980-532: The populace, died of the cholera , in 1837 another 80 and 333 in 1852. In 1825, Lyck was inhabited by 1,748 Germans and 1,394 Poles. At the beginning of the 19th century, a Polish-language school was organised in the city by Tymoteusz Gizewiusz In 1820, Fryderyk Tymoteusz Krieger became the superintendent of the school and actively defended the rights of local Poles to use the Polish language. Kireger also prepared Polish educational programs, in opposition to attempts at Germanization by Prussian authorities. In 1840,

5063-479: The region into the Kingdom of Poland , which resulted in the town becoming part of the Polish state. The town was briefly captured by the Teutonic Knights in 1455, and later on, it was conquered alternately by the Poles and the Teutonic Knights. After 1466 it was a part of Poland as a fief . In 1537, Duke Albert of Prussia donated an estate to Jan Malecki, a Polish printer from Kraków who had either fled or moved to Ducal Prussia for material reasons, to establish

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5146-414: The shop. Police initially stood by and did not intervene for several hours; however, when they did intervene the crowd turned against them as well. Following the riots in Ełk, other attacks on kebab restaurants took place throughout Poland. In 2018, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence, a monument to Józef Piłsudski was erected in front of the town hall. The Marshal of Poland

5229-430: The southern edge of the Kingdom, near the Galician border, from where assistance was still forthcoming. In late December in the Lublin Voivodeship , General Michał Heydenreich 's unit was overwhelmed. The most determined resistance continued in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains , where General Józef Hauke-Bosak distinguished himself by taking several cities from the vastly superior Russian forces. However, he too succumbed to

5312-430: The successor to Muravyov, employed harsh measures against the population and intensified systematic Russification in an effort to eradicate Polish traditions and culture. Insurgents of landed background constituted 60% of the uprising's participants (in Lithuania and Belarus around 50%, in Ukraine some 75%). Records indicate that 95% of those punished for participation in the uprising were Catholic, which corresponded to

5395-701: The support of his people to reject the proposals. Although France and Britain were insulted, they did not proceed with further interventions, which enabled Russia to extend and finally to break off negotiations in September 1863. Apart from the efforts of Sweden , diplomatic intervention by foreign powers on behalf of Poland was on the balance unhelpful in drawing attention away from the aim of Polish national unity towards its social divisions. It alienated Austria, which had maintained friendly neutrality towards Poland and not interfered with Polish activities in Galicia. It prejudiced public opinion among radical groups in Russia that until then had been friendly because they regarded

5478-428: The uprising an internal matter, and European stability was generally predicated on the fate of Poland's aspiration. The uncovering of the existence of the Alvensleben Convention , signed on 8 February 1863 by Prussia and Russia in St. Petersburg, to suppress the Poles jointly, internationalized the uprising. It enabled Western powers to take the diplomatic initiative for their own ends. Napoleon III of France, already

5561-501: The uprising as a social, rather than a national, insurgency. It also stirred the Russian government to ever more brutal suppression of hostilities and repression against its Polish participants, who had grown in strength. In addition to the thousands who fell in battle, 128 men were hanged under the personal supervision of Mikhail Muravyov 'Muravyov the Hangman', and 9,423 men and women were exiled to Siberia, 2,500 men according to Russia's own estimates. The historian Norman Davies gives

5644-438: The uprising gathered secretly in St. Petersburg , Warsaw , Vilna, Paris and London . Two bodies emerged from those consultations. By October 1861, the urban "Movement Committee" (Komitet Ruchu Miejski) had been formed, followed in June 1862, by the Central National Committee ( CNC ). Its leadership included Stefan Bobrowski , Jarosław Dąbrowski , Zygmunt Padlewski , Agaton Giller and Bronisław Szwarce . The body directed

5727-407: The uprising inevitable in early 1863. The Polish nobility and urban bourgeois circles longed for the semi-autonomous status they had enjoyed in Congress Poland before the previous insurgency , a generation earlier in 1830, and youth encouraged by the success of the Italian independence movement urgently desired the same outcome. Russia had been weakened by its Crimean adventure and had introduced

5810-417: The word for waterlily , luka ), while another theory holds that the name comes from Polish word "łęg" meaning meadow. Old Polish names of the town included Łek , Łęg and Łęk . It received its town rights in 1445. After the outbreak of the Thirteen Years' War in 1454, the town sided with the Prussian Confederation , at whose request the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon announced the incorporation of

5893-416: The words "forget any dreams". There were two prevailing streams of thought among the population of the Kingdom of Poland. One had patriotic stirrings within liberal-conservative usually landed and intellectual circles, centered around Andrzej Zamoyski and hoped for an orderly return to the constitutional status before 1830; they became characterized as the Whites . The alternative tendency, characterized as

5976-587: Was also a significant number of the younger sons of the poorer szlachta (nobility) and a number of priests of lower rank. Initially, the Russian government had at its disposal an army of 90,000 men, under Russian General Anders Edvard Ramsay , in Poland. It looked as if the rebellion might be crushed quickly. Undeterred, the CNC's provisional government issued a manifesto in which it declared "all sons of Poland are free and equal citizens without distinction of creed, condition or rank". It decreed that land cultivated by

6059-474: Was also honored with a mural on one of the townhouses in the city center. The city of Ełk is divided into 14 administrative units, known in Polish as osiedla : Local sports clubs include football club Mazur Ełk , boxing club Mazur Ełk, cycling club LUKK Ełk, judo club MKS Żak Ełk and basketball club Wilki Ełk. The Polish Cyclo-cross Championships were held in Ełk in 1998, 2005 and 2012. Since

6142-598: Was an insurrection principally in Russia 's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last insurgents were captured by the Russian forces in 1864. It was the longest-lasting insurgency in partitioned Poland. The conflict engaged all levels of society and arguably had profound repercussions on contemporary international relations and ultimately transformed Polish society. A confluence of factors rendered

6225-646: Was between the later cities of Marijampolė and Merkinė (Lithuania), Slonim and Kobryn (Belarus), and Białystok and Lyck in Prussia (now Ełk , Poland). Before the 10th century, in the south, Yotvingian homesteads reached the Brest area. In the west, they reached the Narew river basin. In the north, they reached the Vilnius ' and Kaunas ' southern outskirts. The territory was shrinking over time. According to The Histories of Herodotus (5th century B.C.) ,

6308-426: Was centered on Paris under the direction of Wladyslaw Czartoryski . The eruption of armed conflict in the former Commonwealth of Two Nations had surprised western European capitals, even if public opinion responded with sympathy for the rebel cause. It had dawned on Paris, London, Vienna and Saint Petersburg that the crisis could plausibly turn into an international war. For their part, Russian diplomats considered

6391-675: Was competing with Prussia for the leadership of the German territories but rejected French approaches for an alliance and spurned any support of Napoleon III as acting against German interests. There was no discussion of military intervention on behalf of the Poles, despite Napoleon's support for the continuation of the insurgency. France, the United Kingdom and Austria agreed to a diplomatic intervention in defense of Polish rights and in April issued diplomatic notes that were intended to be no more than persuasive in tone. The Polish RN hoped that

6474-481: Was imposed in Warsaw, and brutally-repressive measures were taken against the organisers in Warsaw and Vilna by deporting them deep into Russia. In Vilna alone, 116 demonstrations were held in 1861. That autumn, Russians had introduced a state of emergency in Vilna Governorate , Kovno Governorate and Grodno Governorate . The events led to a speedier consolidation of the resistance. Future leaders of

6557-513: Was imposed on all estates as a war indemnity . Only in 1869 was the tax reduced to 5% on all incomes. It was the only time that peasants paid the market price for the redemption of the land (the average for the Russian Empire was 34% above the market price). All land taken from Polish peasants since 1864 was to be returned without rights of compensation. Former serfs could sell land only to other peasants, not to szlachta . Ninety percent of

6640-631: Was taken by the papal administration: terra Jatwesouie, Gretuesia, Gzestuesie, Getuesia und Getvesia . The Knights called this tribe Sudowite, Sudowia, in qua Sudowit . and the Scythian tribe of the Aroteres to the south-east. In 944, during the treaty between the Kievan Rus' prince Igor and the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, the Yotvingians were hired by the Kievan ruler to serve as mercenaries. In 983, Vladimir I of Kiev hired

6723-495: Was the site of German prison camps for Norwegian and Soviet PoWs during World War II . The Polish resistance was active and operated one of the region's main smuggling points for Polish underground press in the city. It was heavily damaged by bombardments. The Soviet Army approached in January 1945. The city was placed under Polish administration in April 1945 and the remaining German inhabitants were expelled in accordance with

6806-531: Was the start of the first major military engagement of the uprising between Lithuanian peasants armed mostly with scythes and a squadron of Russian hussars outside Čysta Būda, near Marijampolė . It ended with the massacre of the unprepared peasants. While there was still hope of a short war, insurgent groups merged into larger formations and recruited new volunteers. The provisional government had counted on an insurgency erupting in Russia, where wide discontent with

6889-475: Was vociferous support for the Poles, powers such as France, Britain and Austria were unwilling to disturb the international calm. The revolutionary leaders did not have sufficient means to arm and equip the groups of young men hiding in forests to escape Alexander Wielopolski's order of conscription into the Russian Army. Initially, about 10,000 men rallied around the revolutionary banner. The volunteers came chiefly from city working classes and minor clerks, but there

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