WI: The Polish(-Lithuanian) Question resolved in the Crimean War

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, probably the most influential Pole at the time advocated for the inclusion of the Polish freedom in the Treaty of Paris from the very start of the war (and even suggested a Anglo-French alliance against Russia at the beginning of the year), but his suggestion fell on deaf ears - but what if they didn’t? What if English troops landed in Lithuania like Czartoryski suggested instead of Bulgaria. Could have Austria been appeased by being given some amount of control over the reunited Polish-Lithuanian State? And what would the Polish-Lithuanian borders look like- would they resemble the 1771 (pre-partition) ones or would they be closer to the borders of the Russian Kingdom of Poland?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a substantial concentration of Russian forces in the area to repel such an invasion?
 
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, probably the most influential Pole at the time advocated for the inclusion of the Polish freedom in the Treaty of Paris from the very start of the war (and even suggested a Anglo-French alliance against Russia at the beginning of the year), but his suggestion fell on deaf ears - but what if they didn’t? What if English troops landed in Lithuania like Czartoryski suggested instead of Bulgaria.

Plan is quite unrealistic on pretty much each and every account but the main idea of isolated "English" (no Scots?) landing in Lithuania makes it quite a "jewel". Did he REALLY propose something of the kind?

Was he already insane enough (85 years a good time for developing the age-related mental problems) to assume that 2+ decades after the Kingdom of Poland ceased to exist Lithuania and Russian part of Poland did amount to something as a military force?

IIRC, at the beginning of the CW Britain scrambled to raise 20 - 30K and sending an isolated army of that size for an ambitious invasion so close to the Russia proper would be plain suicidal even with the allowance for the sorry state of the Russian army circa 1855.

Not to mention that this would negatively impact French invasion into the Crimea (minus 20 - 30K and minus a lot of ships could make a lot of difference).

Plus there were trifles like a general logistics: in OTL the Brits and French had convenient bases on the Ottoman territory but in this scenario the Brits would have nothing closer than the British Isles.

Could have Austria been appeased by being given some amount of control over the reunited Polish-Lithuanian State?

The Austrians had enough of their own Poles and even had to promote Ukrainian nationalism to balance the Polish one. And, as already had been mentioned, Prussia was not going to be excited either by the reasons obvious.

And what would the Polish-Lithuanian borders look like- would they resemble the 1771 (pre-partition) ones or would they be closer to the borders of the Russian Kingdom of Poland?

Taking into an account a complete absurdity of the schema why not have these borders as in the early XVII? You know, Smolensk, all Ukraine and all Baltic coast (Latvia and Estonia). And get back the former Royal Prussia from the Prussians. Surely, the benevolent Brits would have no problems conquering all these territories and giving them to the Poles (as everybody knows, benefiting Poles always was the main British goal). BTW, how about giving them Moscow as well? After all, they hold it for a while. :winkytongue:
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a substantial concentration of Russian forces in the area to repel such an invasion?
Would a well organized major Polish Uprising help to spread out the troops stationed there? Think a January Uprising-style ordeal with Polish guerilla forces being a sizeable nuisance across massive swaths of land.
Not going to happen. That move would automatically made Prussia Russian ally.
Fair point, but would Prussia want to join a war against both France and England? Another possibility (forgive me if it's too "bad history") could be Austria joining in on the French side to extend her influences further east (instead of south, seeing as the Danubian Principalities were being granted to the Ottomans), which would then definitely disencourage Prussians from helping Russia.

E: Oof, sorry about that "English", i meant to write British. Oh well, honestly sorry for taking up your time with a crazy scenario.
 
Fair point, but would Prussia want to join a war against both France and England? .
UK and France seemingly have lost any sanity, better stop them now, otherwise what would be their next move? Giving Silesia back to Austria or Northern Saxony to Wettins? ;) Prussians don't need to defeat UK and France, just helping Russians to crush any Polish uprising they would make playing Polish Card completyly useless.
 
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Would a well organized major Polish Uprising help to spread out the troops stationed there? Think a January Uprising-style ordeal with Polish guerilla forces being a sizeable nuisance across massive swaths of land.

Well-organized uprising is not something easy to accomplish. You need a reasonably big organization (led by the competent people), a lot of weapons, a considerable training and a wide support base. Very little of any of the above was available in Poland circa 1855. Why would the Polish or Lithuanian serfs rise at the order of their owners?

Then, there is a general logistical absurdity: how the invading Brits (forget about their minuscule numbers) would land in a reasonably well-guarded territory like Lithuanian coast? The coast of the Crimea was almost uninhabited, practically unguarded and lacking any defenses (except for the naval defenses of Sevastopol). Not the same with the Russian Baltic coast.

And why do you think that they'd be able to accomplish any miracles? In OTL, the Brits and (mostly) French and the Ottomans spent huge amount of time and effort trying to take the makeshift fortifications built in a process of the siege. How would they fare against any real fortress?

I'll skip on the political implications of such a folly because they were already comprehensively addressed.
 
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