161. The Big Mess
“Мятеж не может кончиться удачей,
В противном случае его зовут иначе.”
S. Marshak [1]
“Revolution is a belief supported by bayonets.”
Napoleon
“Hang (be sure to hang so that the people can see)”
Lenin
“Everything could have get back to normal with the passage of time.”
Korzavin
Things in Poland had been in a state of a temporary and rather peculiar balance. On one hand, the Constitution was accepted and,
formally, in a process of implementation. OTOH, being written by the well-intentioned but not necessarily excessively competent people, it had
huge “grey areas”.
“…
We solemnly guarantee the noble country all freedoms, liberties, prerogatives and advantages in private and public life… We recognize as equal all nobles not only in terms of receiving positions and providing services to the fatherland that bring honor, glory and wealth, but also in terms of equal enjoyment of privileges and prerogatives belonging to the noble class”. And at the same time between 300 and 700,000 had been excluded from the political life by introduction of a property ownership requirement.
“
The people must ensure their own defense against attack and preserve the integrity of the state. Therefore, all citizens are defenders of the integrity of the homeland and its freedoms. The army is nothing more than a force that serves to defend and ensure order and is part of the common strength of the people. The people must maintain and respect their army for devoting itself entirely to its defense. The army must protect the borders of the state and its tranquility, i.e. it should be its strongest shield. In order to fulfill this purpose flawlessly, she must be constantly subordinate to the executive branch in accordance with the law.” Very true, nice and progressive but what about the place of traditional leadership, the hetmans (and lesser officers) in the new army? These positions are not being abolished even if their rights were somewhat restricted by creation, in 1776, of the Military Department in the Permanent Council (which the new constitution abolished). What is Hetman’s position vis-a-vis military minister?
Taking into an account that
both top commanders (Great Hetman and Hetman Polny) were the members of Targowica Confederacy, accompanied by commander of the artillery (who financed a big part of it out of his own pocket) the command chain of the newly-created army was somewhat in the limbo and on the top of all of the above a considerable part of the taxes was going to the Confederacy’s coffers making creation of the new army rather difficult. On the other side of the equation, the Confederacy found itself in a position where it could screw things up for the ruling “progressive” party but hardly could do anything serious in the terms of overthrowing it because the Hetmans did not have a
regular loyal military force of their own and the traditional
Pospolite ruszenie proved its uselessness during the war of 1771-73.
As a result, it became clear to both parties that the issues should be discussed. The Confederacy supporters (or rather opponents of the Constitution) in Warsaw, some of whom had been holding the high positions in the government, Church and army, started discussions with the King regarding possible compromise with the Confederacy while simultaneously trying to get the foreign rulers involved on their behalf.
This did not sit well with the “patriots” and in the early 1794 the uprising started. Lithuanian nobleman Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was elected leader of the uprising: besides being unquestionably patriotic and progressive, he had a name recognition in France and the United States and upon returning to Poland in 1784, was commissioned as a
major general in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 1789. He, with sympathetic high-ranking officers, started planning the uprising since September 1793 and it was expected to start late in 1794 but the events (including expectation of the temporary Russian distraction due to the change of a monarch) prompted the conspirators to act earlier. Kościuszko entered Kraków on the night of 23 March 1794. The next morning, in
the Main Square, he announced an uprising. Kościuszko received the title of Naczelnik (commander-in-chief) of Polish–Lithuanian forces. Kościuszko gathered an army of some 6,000, including 4,000 regular soldiers and 2,000 recruits, and marched on Warsaw. Near
Połaniec he received reinforcements and met with other Uprising leaders (Kołłątaj, Potocki); at Połaniec he issued a major political declaration of the Uprising, the
Proclamation of Połaniec. The declaration stated that serfs were entitled to civil rights and reduced their work obligations (corvée).
In order to strengthen the Polish forces, Kościuszko issued an act of mobilisation, requiring that every 5 houses in
Lesser Poland delegate at least one able male soldier equipped with
carbine,
pike, or an
axe. Kościuszko's Commission for Order in Kraków recruited all males between 18 and 28 years of age and passed an income tax. Making the best out of a generally bad situation with the weapons he created some infantry units of peasant volunteers armed with the scythes (
kosynierzy, scythemen) which, if deployed properly, could be quite useful: at the close quarters the pole-arms may give certain advantage over a shorter musket with a bayonet and could provide an adequate defense against cavalry charge.
But here was the 1st alarm signal, which he choose to ignore: there were not enough peasants willing to join these units. Even Proclamation of Połaniec issued on 7 May 1794 did not produce the expected results. It was promising freeing from serfdom of all peasants conscripted to the military but
without the land. The rest were mostly the promises of a better serfs’ treatment
after the war but, again, nothing about the land or abolishing the institution of a serfdom. As a result, the kosynierzy were only a support formation in Kościuszko's forces during the uprising, as they formed a majority only in one infantry regiment.
In a meantime the uprising had been spreading including the territories lost during the Partition. By the reason rather difficult to figure out participants of the rebellion seriously expected to get help from the French Republic [2]. There were uprisings in the Swedish-held part of Lithuania including Wilno itself where a part of the Swedish garrison, taken by surprise, was massacred. A Polish corps under
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski captured
Bydgoszcz and entered
Pomerania almost unopposed. Thanks to the mobility of his forces, General Dąbrowski evaded being encircled by a much less mobile Prussian army and disrupted the Prussian lines, forcing the Prussians to withdraw. On the South there was an uprising in Austrian-held Galicia. Russian territories were relatively quiet because majority of their population were not excessively fond of the PLC. Few minor militant gatherings of the local szlachta had been subdued without problems.
Warsaw already had its own “Jacobine Club” and on May 9 1794 it initiated an uprising in the Polish capital. The rebel leadership was forced to yield to the “demands of the masses” and executed four prominent figures cooperating with Russia, Sweden and Prussia. The Great Crown Hetman Ozharovsky, the full Lithuanian Hetman Zabello, Bishop Józef Kossakovsky and Marshal Ankwich were executed. On June 28, the Warsaw residents organized a new people's tribunal, hanging a number of other people whom they considered traitors to their homeland. Among them: Prince of Chetvertinsky and Bishop Masalski. Other leading “traitors” had been hanged in effigy.
_
Not to stop there, the revolutionaries attacked and looted the foreign embassies killing some of their personnel in a process. Among other things, some of the Russians present at the Church service (there was an important religious holiday) had been massacred.
To sum it up, nothing was missed as far as pissing off the neighbor states had been involved and, quite predictably, the PLC was invaded from all directions. From Austria, 20,000 corps gathered on the Galician border. 54,000 Prussians, under the personal leadership of the king, entered the Kingdom of Poland, while other Prussian detachments (11 thousand) covered their own regions of Prussia.
The 12,000 strong corps under the leadership of Tomasz Wavrzecki entered Courland and reached Libava, taking it. Oginsky fought a rather successful guerrilla war, and Grabovsky and Yasinsky occupied Vilna and Grodno. In August 1794, the rebel detachments of Oginsky and Grabovsky raided Dinaburg and the lands of Minsk province but had been defeated in both cases.
Kosciuszko with the title of generalissimo announced general mobilization. His army increased to 70,000, but a significant part of the troops lacked firearms. The main corps of Poles and Lithuanians (23,000) under the personal command of Kosciuszko was positioned on the road to Warsaw, other detachments at Lublin, Grodno, Vilno and Rava, the general reserve (7 thousand) - at Krakow.
Sweden landed additional troops to Riga and after 30,000 troops were assembled there 15,000 entered Courland and the rest, together with the Russian corps of 10,000 marched into Lithuania.
The leadership of Russian detachments in Poland was entrusted to Prince Repnin. Field Marshal Rumyantsev was entrusted with the defense of the entire border region from Minsk province to Turkey in case of hostile sorties from the Polish side, as well as assistance to Repnin in his offensive actions. Rumyantsev sent Suvorov with a detachment to occupy Brest and defend the line along the Bug River.
Couple small detachments moved forward too early suffered defeats (greatly improving Kosciuszko’s image) but the bigger forces had been moving in.
On May 26 (June 6), 1794, Frederick William defeated Kościuszko near Szczekocin.
Scythemen successfully repulsed the cavalry charge but then they charged (on an open field) Prussian battery of 12 guns and had been almost completely exterminated. The Polish uhlans had been put to flight and Kosciuszko had to retreat with a loss of 1,200 and 16 guns. However, FWII could not use his victory due to the uprising in his rear (Powstanie wielkopolskie).
On June 12, the Supreme National Council issued a proclamation "To the inhabitants of Greater Poland", calling for the formation of rebel detachments and joining the rebel army. However, strong Prussian garrisons stationed in the cities of Wielkopolska made it almost impossible for the rebels to conduct open hostilities. Instead, a sabotage war and appeals to soldiers of Polish origin to desert from the Prussian army were organized. The possibility of an armed demonstration in Wielkopolska appeared after the main forces of the Prussian army from South Prussia were sent for the siege of Warsaw. There are only 8,000 soldiers left in South Prussia, who were reinforced by another 1,500 soldiers from distant garrisons in August. In addition, the uprisng in the rear of the Prussian army was supposed to alleviate the situation of the besieged Polish capital. The uprising was wide-spread and initially scored some minor successes but it did lack unified leadership. The Prussian troops maintained the discipline and were assembled in the major cities, mostly in Poznan and Thorn. The withdrawal of Prussian troops from Warsaw and their transfer to Wielkopolska, where the rebels did not have a single command, required Kościuszko to make a decision to support the uprising. Tadeusz decided to send a corps to Greater Poland, which was to sabotage the Prussians, in order to prevent them from sending units from there to fight the main uprising. In addition, the corps commander had to take under his command disparate rebel units in Greater Poland. General Jan Henrik Dombrowski was elected for these actions. For a while he was successful but the order issued to ban robberies and refusing to take indemnities from Bydgoszcz led the corps to the brink of rebellion. In this critical situation, Dombrovsky disbanded his headquarters and marched with part of the corps (4,000 soldiers, the rest decided to stay in the city) on Torun. However, having learned about the strengthening of the Torn garrison and march of Prussian units from Poznan against it, he decided to return to Bydgoszcz, where he began to prepare for the winter. General deterioration of the situation forced him to leave the Greater Poland and the uprising was eventually crushed.
On June 26, the rebels under the command of Y. Yasinsky were defeated near the village of Soly by Russian troops under the command of M. Zubov and Bennigsen.
A detachment of Derfelden's Russian troops advancing from the Pripyat River defeated Zayonkek's corps, occupied Lublin and reached Puław, and in Lithuania the Swedish and Russian troops approached Vilno.
Austria occupied Krakow, Sandomierz and Chelm, but this limited the actions of its troops, thereby assuming to ensure participation in the new partition of Poland [3].
The weakness of the Polish leader in Lithuania, Vielgorsky, prevented the Poles from achieving great success there. Swedish and Russian troops captured Vilna and on August 1 defeated Khlevinsky's detachment, which was appointed to Vielgorsky's place. The new Polish commander-in-chief, Mokronovsky, who arrived in Grodno, could not save the situation.
Branicki resigned as hetman and switched to Russian service with a rank of a general of infantry. Soon afterwards he retired and went to his estate near Belaya Tserkov.
By the beginning of September, general of infantry Suvorov at the head of a 10,000 strong detachment appeared at the main theater of the war. In process of his operations he kept being strengthened by other units. On September 4 (15), 1794, he took Kobrin, on September 6 (17), 1794 defeated Serakovski's troops at Krupčice, and on September 8 (19), 1794 - near Brest-Litovsk, after which the Poles in a complete disorder retreated toward Warsaw.
Shortly before that, the Prussian army, which included a detachment of Russian General Ivan Fersen, failed in the siege of Warsaw and retreated. Ferzen's detachment accompanied by the Cossacks of Denisov, by order of Repnin, moved to join Suvorov. Trying to prevent this, Kościuszko with forces of up to 10,000 entered the battle with 12,000 Fersen's corps, was defeated on September 28 (October 10) near Maciejowice and was captured wounded.
Battle of Maciejowice. In total, there were about 12,000 people under Kosciuszko's command, of which more than 7,000 were K.'s division. Serakovskiy and 4 thousand division of A. Poninsky, which was located at a distance from the main forces. On September 28 (October 9), Kościuszko marched from Zelechowa in the direction of Maciejovice. Arriving there, he placed his troops on a hill, which gave some advantages but at his rear there was the swampy Okrejka River, which made it difficult to retreat. The battle began with a strong artillery cannonade, then Denisov attacked Kościuszko’s left flank and after the third attack the resistance was broken. At the same time, General G. Min. Rakhmanov from Ferzen's corps crossed Okrejica and entered the right flank for the Poles. The Polish cavalry began to retreat, Kościuszko jumped after them to stop and send them on a counteroffensive, but faced the Don Cossack detachments from Denisov's corps surrounding him, was wounded by a cavalryman who suddenly appeared from Fersen's corps. The retreat of the rebels turned into an escape, only about 2,000 people were able to reach Warsaw, the rest were defeated, captured or fled. The defeat at Maciejowice predetermined the defeat of the entire Kościuszko Uprising.
On October 1 (12), 1794, the rebels left Grodno, retreating to Warsaw.
In early October, Suvorov came out of Brest with a ready-made combat plan. The plan provided for the capture of Prague, the suburbs of Warsaw on the right bank of the Vistula, followed by placement in winter quarters and the continuation of the campaign in 1795.
On October 14, Ferzen's detachment was subordinate to Suvorov, his army began to number up to 19,000 soldiers. On October 15 (26), on the way to Warsaw at the town of Kobylka, Suvorov's vanguard defeated a 4,000-strong detachment of rebels from Makranovsky's corps. On October 19, a Russian detachment of Lieutenant General Derfelden joined Suvorov, after which the number of troops under Suvorov amounted to 24-25 thousand soldiers (including 4,000 cavalry and 3,000 Cossacks) with 86 guns. On October 22, Russian troops approached Prague directly and began to prepare positions for artillery batteries.
Despite the panic in Warsaw caused by the news of the Battle of Maciejović and the captivity of Kościuszko, the population demanded the continuation of the war. The newly elected commander-in-chief, Wavrzecki, sent an order to all Polish detachments to hurry to defend the capital, which they managed to fulfill.
Storming Praga. Prague was connected to Warsaw by a long bridge over the Vistula, which has a significant width in this place. The inner line of defense was an earthen rampart around Prague. The outer line that the Poles built during the summer stretched for more than 6.5 km and had about the shape of a right angle, the short side of which went east from the Vistula to the sandy hills, then turned more than 90 degrees and rested on the swampy tributary of the Vistula. The distance between the internal and external line of defense was about a kilometer, and here Polish troops were located inthe camp. The outer line of fortifications (a rampart with a triple palisade and a moat) was covered in places by forward bastions and was reinforced by various artificial obstacles, including 6 rows of wolf pits with pointed stakes. More than 100 guns were installed on the fortifications, including many large-caliber guns. Additional support could be provided by artillery batteries from the opposite bank of the Vistula. The disadvantage of Prague's defense was its long length, the rebels did not have enough manpower to adequately cover the entire line of fortifications. According to Suvorov's reports, up to 30,000 people defended Prague but these figures were based on the testimony of prisoners and a speculative assessment. Polish General Wavrzecki claimed that on the day of the assault in Prague there were up to 10,000 troops, of which up to 6,000 were armed peasant militia armed with scythes. This testimony is completely inconsistent with the losses of Poles, there were many more prisoners alone. The commonly accepted number is approximately 20,000. General Wawrzecki, who became Polish commander-in-chief after the capture of Kościuszko, decided to leave Prague and concentrate all forces on the defense of Warsaw and the left bank of the Vistula, but did not have time to fulfill the plan.
Suvorov divided his forces into 7 columns. In front of each column there were 500 people with the tools and means of overcoming fortifications, they were covered with rifle fire by 128 shooters. These forces were followed by an infantry reserve, which should open a passage for the cavalry after occupying the forward line of the fortifications. All field guns will line up on the rampart of the outer line and support the storming of the inner line of defense of Praga with fire. At the beginning of the assault, the Cossacks distract the attention of defenders along the entire line.
At 5 a.m. on October 24 (November 4), even before dawn, a rocket withered and the first 4 columns moved in silence on an attack. The further course of fighting fully corresponded to Suvorov's disposition. The soldiers covered the wolf pits with whips and stairs, threw a moat with faschines and climbed the rampart, from where they knocked out the Poles with bayonets. Eyewitness described fighting as a “hell”. The explosion of an ammunition depot in Praga further exacerbated panic in the ranks of the defenders. The bridge was under Russian control, attempts by the Polish side to destroy it were stopped by artillery fire until Suvorov's order to set fire to the bridge followed. A small part of the rebels escaped by boats and even less swimming, there were no successful breakthroughs from Praga through the positions of the Russians.
By 9 a.m., the field battle ended with the complete extermination of the Polish garrison of Praga, the robbery of the suburb began. The artillery duel with batteries on the left bank of the Vistula lasted until 11 a.m. and in the afternoon resumed only for moral influence on Warsaw, already shocked by the destruction of many thousands of rebels in front of its inhabitants.
Suvorov's direct order forbade touching civilians, but at the same time there was a principle "you'll take a camp - all yours, you'll take a fortress - all yours." According to the Russian officer participating in the storm “We were shot from the windows of houses and roofs, and our soldiers, breaking into the houses, killed everyone they came across... Fierce and thirst for revenge reached the highest degree... the officers were no longer able to stop the bloodshed... The massacre came again at the bridge. Our soldiers shot at the crowds without disassembling anything..” According to some assessments more than 20,000 civilians and Polish soldiers had been killed.
Suvorov's report of November 7 says that there are 13340 killed Poles, 12860 prisoners, more than 2,000 drowned; among the prisoners there are 3 generals (Mayen, Gesler and Krupinsky) and 442 officers; among the killed 4 generals (Yasinsky, Korsak, Kvashnevsky and Grabovsky); the famous military engineer Yan Bakalovich also died in the battle; the artillery went to the winners of 104 guns. Suvorov's own losses are determined by more than 1,500 people, including 580 killed.
Following his usual practice of good attitude to the defeated enemy, Suvorov disbanded up to 6,000 prisoners from the militia, about 4,000 Poles from regular troops were sent to Kiev, and soon at the request of the Polish king all Polish officers were released. Not everybody approved of this. Emperor’s State Secretary wrote: “Count Suvorov great provided services by taking Warsaw, but he unbearably annoys with his inappropriate orders there. All Poles, not excluding the main rebels, are released freely into their houses, giving open passes...”
Suvorov’s report to the emperor was short: “Praga is burning, Warsaw is trembling”.
On October 25, Suvorov dictated to delegates from Warsaw soft conditions of surrender right on the battlefield, among the unremoved corpses, and confirmed them during the negotiations on October 26, announcing his intention to maintain a truce only until October 28. On October 28, Russian troops in the ceremonial formation entered the surrendered Warsaw through the restored bridge, and a week later, having learned of the amnesty, the remnants of rebel detachments in Poland laid down their arms and dispersed. On October 29, on the bank of the Vistula, the magistrate of Warsaw presented A. C. Suvorov bread and salt, and city keys, which symbolized the surrender of Warsaw, and a gold snuffbox with diamonds with the inscription "Warsaw to its deliverer." Second report, from Warsaw also was short “Hurrah! Warsaw is our! General-anshef Suvorov.” Response also was short: “Hurrah, field marshal!”
On November 20, 1794, Emperor Paul awarded Suvorov the highest military rank of field marshal, and besides, sent rich gifts [4]. Prussian King Friedrich-Wilhelm sent Suvorov the Order of the Red Eagle and the Great Black Eagle, and the Austrian Emperor Franz granted his portrait, richly decorated with diamonds.
Big disappointments. After the general excitement was over, Frederick Wilhelm and Franz got disappointing news: there is not going to be a new partition. The allied forces helped to free King Stanislav who had been held hostage by the revolutionaries and there is absolutely no justification for demanding territories as a reward for fulfilling …er… the moral duty (and kicking the rebels out of your own territories). Taking into an account the ongoing war with France, none of the disappointed monarchs risked an additional conflict with Russia.
On 28 November 1796, Emperor
Paul I pardoned Kościuszko and set him free after he had tendered an
oath of loyalty. The same was done to other Polish prisoners. Kościuszko left for the United States. In 1798 he received letter from France contained news that Polish General
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and Polish soldiers were fighting in France under Napoleon and that Kościuszko's sister had sent his two nephews in Kościuszko's name to serve in Napoleon's ranks. Around that time Kościuszko also received news that
Talleyrand was seeking Kościuszko's moral and public endorsement for the French fight against one of Poland's partitioners, Prussia. Kościuszko arrived in
Bayonne, France, on 28 June 1798. Kościuszko refused the offered command of
Polish Legions being formed for service with France. On 17 October and 6 November 1799, he met with
Napoleon Bonaparte. He failed to reach an agreement with the French general, who regarded Kościuszko as a "fool" who "overestimated his influence" in Poland. Kościuszko disliked Napoleon for his dictatorial aspirations and called him the "undertaker of the [French] Republic”.
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[1] “rebellion cannot end in success: then it is called differently”. Samuil Marshak. Actually, this was his free translation of “Treason doth never prosper; what ’s the reason ? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.” by John Harington.
[2] Seems to be the case in OTL as well. It looks like the noble revolutionaries and their followers had a rather vague notion regarding geography.
[3] An assumption which at that time was taken for granted in Vienna and Berlin.
[4] Suvorov was very fond of the jewels.