The Polish Uprising of 1863 in the Social and Political Discourse of the Czech Kingdom

Abstract

The article analyzes the views of leading Czech public and political fi gures and publicists on the prerequisites, course, features and potential consequences of the Polish uprising of 1863, which broke out on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland and the Belarusian-Lithuanian provinces of the Russian Empire. Most Czech newspapers, initially striving for objective coverage of the uprising, soon completely switched to pro-Polish positions. This was explained both by the infl uence of Polish propaganda and by the position of the Western European press, which supported the Polish insurgents. At the same time, a number of leading Czech politicians, including the famous historian F. Palacky and F. Rieger, criticized the Polish uprising, noting that the plans of Polish politicians to include vast Ukrainian and Belarusian lands in the future Poland are unfair. In addition, Palacky sharply criticized the Polish rebels for their radicalism and the use of terror methods. According to Palacky, the Polish uprising was initially doomed to failure and was a colossal misfortune for all Slavic peoples, since objectively only opponents of the Slavs and Russia benefi ted from it. Similar criticism of the Polish uprising was made by a number of Czech scholars and publicists, including F. Jezbera and J. Rank. The ideological struggle and controversy surrounding the Polish uprising politicized Czech public opinion and contributed to the split of the previously unifi ed Czech national party into Old Czechs and Young Czechs.