November 29, 1830 is an important date in Polish history. A group of young people took up the fight against the Russian Empire, hoping that their action would stir up the rest of Polish society. However, this did not happen. The outbreak of the uprising surprised some Poles, and worried others. However, all attempts to stifle the uprising in the bud came to nothing. On January 25, 1831, when attempts at negotiations with Tsar Nicholas I ended in failure, the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland voted to dethrone the Romanov dynasty. There was no turning back from this decision – armed struggle was inevitable.
The clash between Polish and Russian forces was unequal, but not without hope for victory. Ultimately, it ended in defeat. However, it was not a complete defeat that destroyed the chances of Poles regaining independence. Further efforts to achieve this goal after the fall of the uprising in 1831 were made in emigration. To this day, we call it "great" (Great Emigration). It is not about the number of emigrants - depending on the methodology of calculations, there were from 5,000 to about 9,000 of them. The emigrants were mainly young representatives of the nobility, intelligentsia, and wealthy bourgeoisie, including officers, cadets, and civilian organizers of political life. They included, among others: Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Joachim Lelewel, Maurycy Mochnacki, Józef Bem, Bonawentura Niemojowski, Karol Kniaziewicz, Gustaw Małachowski, Stanisław Barzykowski, Ludwik Bystrzonowski, Bogdan Jański, Hieronim Kajsiewicz. The representatives of the Great Emigration also include Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Fryderyk Chopin, who lived outside the country before the outbreak of the November Uprising, and after the fall of the independence uprising became involved in the life of emigrant circles.
Polish emigrants at a meeting in Belgium, 1830 (Source: Wikipedia)
The majority of emigrants were young men who left the Kingdom of Poland with the baggage of their insurrection experiences. They were usually between sixteen and twenty years old, had just started their married life, had just started families that they had to leave behind. Many of them never saw their wives and children again. They could not stay in the country because they would be either conscripted into the tsarist army, imprisoned, or executed. They could not take their loved ones with them either, because if all family members left, the tsarist authorities would confiscate all their property. Polish emigrants had no guarantee that they would be able to successfully organize a new life abroad. Leaving for a foreign country without any funds and support from relatives who had remained in the homeland and had certain resources was too risky, especially if the insurgent had to take care of not only himself, but also his wife and children. Therefore, separation was decided out of necessity. This in turn resulted in one of the greatest pains of emigrants – melancholy, longing for what they had left behind.
All the belongings of people crossing the borders of the Kingdom of Poland in 1831 usually fit in hand luggage. Emigrants carried with them some money, poems, letters from loved ones, small gifts, some favorite books and a few memories. Most believed that they were leaving Polish lands for a short while, that their homeland would soon call them to fight again. For this reason, people usually chose nearby places as their destinations for emigration; primarily France, although they also went to other countries, including Switzerland, Belgium, the countries of the Apennine Peninsula, Great Britain, the German countries and Scandinavia. The popularity of France among Polish emigrants also resulted from the fact that the local authorities agreed to accept Poles, which, considering the risk of exposing Russia in this way and the cholera epidemic that was raging in Europe, was rather the exception than the rule. At the same time, it is worth remembering that the thesis about France being particularly open to Poles is a myth. We were one of many nations whose representatives were accepted on the Seine. The French deserve gratitude and respect for what they did for Polish emigrants, including organizing small but important financial aid for new arrivals, which enabled many of them to survive. Each emigrant could count on a subsidy paid in the form of pay. Its amount depended on military rank and decorations, which is why many people were promoted and received decorations while in emigration based on fictitious daily orders from the last days of the uprising.
Poles who emigrated were treated in Europe in two ways. On the one hand, governments and politicians feared them as potential troublemakers and revolutionaries. On the other hand, Polish emigrants, on their march west, were met with numerous demonstrations of the public in support of the uprising against Russia. It was the same in France itself. Officials and politicians did not want to allow too many Poles to settle in Paris, so they were placed in created military establishments (dépôt militaire) located in cities that were considered the most conservative, the former being Besançon, Bourges, Châteauroux, Avignon. However, practice showed that the residents of these cities quickly came to an understanding with Polish emigrants. On the second anniversary of the outbreak of the November Uprising (1832), the Poles and the French organized joint demonstrations. Concerned French authorities decided to speed up the liquidation of large concentrations of Poles and to disperse Polish emigrants throughout France, sending them to all departments. This did not change the fact that many French treated the participants of the November Uprising as heroes, assuming, among other things, that having a Polish son-in-law who fought bravely against Russia in 1831 would be a real honor.
The grandeur of the Polish emigration after the November Uprising results not only from its personnel, but also from the intellectual, material and spiritual achievements that Polish emigrants left behind. It is difficult to overestimate their influence on Poles who remained in their homeland – the material and ideological support they offered to their compatriots devoted to the cause of independence. Representatives of the Great Emigration sought answers to two questions: who was responsible for the defeat of the November Uprising and what caused this defeat. The concepts developed at that time shaped not only the contemporary discourse, but also inspire us intellectually to this day. The ideological size of the emigration circles is evidenced by, for example, letters written by their members, who, having the opportunity to leave for America, expressed their willingness to stay in France and perform the hardest work, even in the quarries or docks of Marseille, as long as they did not stray far from the border of the Kingdom of Poland and were ready to take part in the fight when Poland needed it.
The memory of the homeland became the foundation of the legacy of the Great Emigration. Emanations of this memory are the timeless works of outstanding artists, the activities of political circles (the Polish Democratic Society, the Third May Insurrectional-Monarchical Society, the Union of Polish Emigration), the diplomacy "without credentials" of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, which did not allow Europe to forget about the Polish cause, and finally various institutions, some of which exist to this day. Representatives of the Polish emigration tried to preserve their national identity and ensured that subsequent generations of Poles born outside the country presented a similar attitude. In connection with this, the Literary Society in Paris (since 1854 the Historical and Literary Society in Paris), the Scientific Aid Society and the Polish Polytechnic Society were established as early as 1832. In 1838, a single Polish Library was created by combining the libraries of emigrants, which was ceremonially opened on 24 March 1839, on the anniversary of Tadeusz Kościuszko's oath in the Market Square in Kraków. Moved in 1854 to a building purchased by Polish emigrants at 6 Quai d'Orléans, it has been operating continuously to this day.
Attempts were made to provide education for the youngest, establishing schools in Nancy and Orléans. The Polish National School, established in 1842 and later moved to its own building at the Batignolles Bld, educated generations of Polish children (currently, the Polish School named after Adam Mickiewicz at the Polish Embassy in Paris refers to its tradition). The House of St. Casimir in Paris, founded in 1846 by the Sisters of Charity expelled from Vilnius, also exists to this day. Initially, it operated as an orphanage, and from the early 1850s as a shelter for veterans, where the last years of their lives were spent with dignity by, among others, Cyprian Kamil Norwid or General Józef Wysocki.
Not all the outstanding figures who co-created the legacy of the Great Emigration are as well-known today as Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Chopin, Adam Jerzy Czartoryski or Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. It is impossible to mention everyone who deserves it in a short text, so I will only mention selected figures, such as Antoni Patek (founder of one of the largest watchmaking factories in Europe, the first company to produce watches on an industrial scale), Karol Chobrzyński (engineer, inventor of the movable grate for firing steam locomotives), Ludwik Wołowski (co-founder of the Crédit Foncier de France bank), Aleksander Ignacy Straszewicz (outstanding industrialist, one of the richest men in Alsace), Jan Józef Baranowski (inventor of the manual ticket validator, gas meter, semaphore, machine for checking bills and machine for counting electoral votes), Jan Dybowski (agronomist, co-author of the French colonial policy) or Piotr Skawiński (agronomist, "rescuer of French winemaking").
The Great Emigration, however, was not only about outstanding figures and successful careers. It was also about great poverty. It was not without reason that one of the basic tasks that the leaders of the emigrant communities were engaged in was charitable activity for the poorest. Apart from the aforementioned St. Casimir's House, there was the Charity Society of Polish Ladies, founded in 1834, which "regardless of the differences in political opinions - only for the love of one's neighbour and for the love of the good name of Poland (because poverty often leads to evil) to come to the aid of the poor and to find no income for their countrymen". In order to earn money to help the poorest, collections were organised in churches, gifts were asked for from wealthier countrymen, balls and concerts were organised, as well as sales and raffles.
The calming of moods can be attributed to the progressive stabilization of the emigrants' lives. Young people were slowly getting used to the new conditions. For most, the French language was not a barrier, because they had learned it in their home country. France gradually became their second homeland. Many, despite their terrible financial situation, decided to stay in France, waiting for the outbreak of a conflict that would give them a chance to return to their homeland.
The tradition of the Great Emigration has not been forgotten by contemporary Poles living in France or the descendants of Polish emigrants. To this day, the two most important holidays for them, celebrated in a solemn manner, are those on May 3 and November 29. It is worth realizing that if we want to be remembered, we must give others the tools to cultivate this memory. Such places are the Polish Library in Paris with its priceless collections, as well as other institutions taking care of Polish collections. On October 9, 2023, the Polish Library Institute in Paris was established, based in Krakow, whose task will be to take care of the Parisian treasures on the Île Saint-Louis, provide them with proper protection and make them available to the widest possible group of researchers and history lovers, all those who want to better understand the history of our homeland.
