The Polish Emigration, 1831-1871 : the Challenge to Russia

The Polish emigrant organizations which functioned in the years from 1830 to 1871 were perhaps the most active and effective groups of their kind. This survey emphasizes the activities of Prince Adam Czarto- ryski and his center at the Hôtel Lambert in Paris. Czartoryski and his supporters regarded tsarist Russia as their principal adversary because of its actions in its share of partitioned Poland. At least partly because of their actions, the Polish question became one of the main concerns of Russian foreign policy. The measures taken by the emigration in connection with the major events of the period, in particular the revolutions of 1848-1849 in the Habsburg Empire and the Crimean War, are discussed here in detail. After 1871 the Paris agency declined in signifi- (p.t.O.) canee since the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the subsequent Franco-Russian alliance in the 1890s limited French support for Polish independence.Jelavich Barbara. The Polish Emigration, 1831-1871 : the Challenge to Russia. In: L'émigration politique en Europe aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Actes du colloque de Rome (3-5 mars 1988) Rome : École Française de Rome, 1991. pp. 235-245. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 146