ДВІ ШЛЯХТИ, ДВІ ДОЛІ: СТАНОВИЩЕ ПОЛЬСЬКОГО ДВОРЯНСТВА НА ПОДІЛЛІ НАПРИКІНЦІ XVIII–XIX ст.

Abstract

The existence of the Polish nobility on the territory of Podilia can be conventionally divided into two periods. During the first period, which related to 1795–1830, the policy of St. Petersburg in relation to the strata remained relatively loyal. The gentry was transferred to noble status, representatives of the group could apply for positions in the civil service, freedom of religion was preserved. The situation changed radically after The November Uprising of 1830–1831, after which the Russian empire took a course to limit the freedoms of the Polish nobility. The rentier gentry will experience a great collapse. The courtiers, who remained tax-free strata and didn’t hurry to swear allegiance to the emperor, were an obstacle for the Russian empire. In addition, St. Petersburg saw a potential danger in the political activity of the group that had a hand in the uprising. Over time, the rentier gentry were equalized in rights with the Ukrainian peasantry. The great gentry also experienced social and economic oppression, against which the government initiated demonstrative punitive trials. The educational and cultural policy of the anti-Polish direction included the persecution of church clergy and trials of students, the closing of churches and religious schools, the elimination of Greek Catholicism, etc. The Russian government was aware that the fight against culture is an effective tool that will help Poles to forget their ethnicity, so it spared no effort and no money. The initial attitude of the government officials of the Romanov state towards the nobility was the usual deception. The Polish uprisings of 1830–1831 and 1863–1864 were only a pretext for starting a repressive policy against a group that came from Russia’s hated rival, the Rzeczpospolita. The further attitude of the imperial ideologues was aimed at humiliating and subjugating the nobility, turning it into a second-rate figure of the state hierarchy and an obedient tool in the hands of St. Petersburg. A variety of tools were used: discriminatory legislation, humiliating trials, exile to a katorga, transfer of peasants to the rank of peasants in the case of the rentier gentry. However, the Russian Empire remained powerless, because Polish landowners continued to prevail in Podilia and retain strong influence.