A description of the deportation to Siberia of Poles and others involved in the 1863 Polish Uprising, and of their conditions and activities there

Gentes, Andrew A.

University of Queensland eSpace

Siberian Exile and the 1863 Polish Insurrectionists 
According to Russian Sources 
 
ANDREW A. GENTES 
 
Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 51(2):197-217. 
 
 
Abstract 
A description of the deportation to Siberia of Poles and others involved in the 1863 Polish Uprising, and of 
their conditions and activities there. 
 
Keywords 
Siberia; exile; Poland; penal labour; Russia; deportation 
 
Note: The complete full text of this article will be made available once copyright 
clearance has been obtained. 
 
Introduction 
The 1863 Polish Uprising began in January and soon spread to disaffected elements throughout the so-
called Western gubernii, a region roughly equivalent to modem day Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. 
Although insurrectionists included small numbers of Jews, Lithuanians, and those prototypically 
identifying themselves as Ukrainians or Belorussians, the majority of insurrectionists were ethnic Poles.1 
Most came from the urban nobility and meshchane, though a significant number were bourgeois, wealthy 
estate owners, or peasants. This heterogeneity lent the uprising some semblance of a popular rebellion 
and largely explains Alexander II’s harsh repression of it. For nearly a year forces under the command of 
General Mikhail Nikolaevich Murav’ev fought a full-scale war to reassert Russian dominance over the 
region. Murav’ev’s pacification methods earned him renown as “The Hang-man.” Yet if the regime did 
summarily execute many insurrectionists, it deported many more. According to historian Ninel’ Petrovna 
Mitina, “[ the  overall number of persons exiled from the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuania, Belorussia, and 
Ukraine for participation in the uprising of 1863-1864 reached 36 459.”2 Between 1863 and 1868 these 
exiles were assigned to locations throughout the empire, with between 18 000 to 24 000 going to 
Siberia.3 
 
 
Notes: 
 
1 On the ethnic composition of Congress Poland and the Westem gubernii see THEODORE R. WEEKS Nation and 
State in Late Imperial Russia: Nationalism and Russification on the Western Frontier, 1863-1914. DeKalb 
1996; Polish Encyclopaedia. Vol. 2. New York 1972, tables XVII, XX, pp. 146, 152. 
2 N. P. MITINA Vo glubine sibirskikh rud: K stoletiiu vosstaniia pol’skikh ssyl’nykh na Krugobaikalskom trakte. 
Moskva 1966, p. 10. 
3  Exact figures are elusive. See those in S. V. MAKSIMOV Sibir’ i katorga. 3e izdanie. S.-Peterburg 1900, p. 358; 
L. P. ROSHCHEVSKAIA Istoriia politicheskoi ssylki v Zapadnoi Sibiri vo vtoroi polovine XIX v. (60-kh-80-kh 
godov). Tiumen’ 1976, table 3, p. 43. Concerning those Poles assigned to locations other than Siberia, several 
hundreds are listed in a document entitled Alfavitnyi spisok litsam, prichastnym v delakh po miatezhu, 
prednaznachennym voennymi sudami k administrativnym vzyskaniiam i otpravlennym na zhitel’stvo v otdalennyia 
gubernii, imushchestvo koikh podlezhit sekvestru. Po 1 fevralia 1865 g. [handwritten on cover page: “s 15 maia 
1863 goda”]. This is clearly an official document, but it contains no indication as to where it originated or for 
whom it was intended. It is filed under MK XII A.6.a/4 in the Muzei knigi, Russian State Library (Rossiiskaia 
gosudarstvennaia biblioteka), Moscow. 


Siberian Exile and the 1863 Polish Insurrectionists According to Russian Sources

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Siberian Exile and the 1863 Polish Insurrectionists According to Russian Sources

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