| Baikal Insurrection | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Russian Empire | Siberian Legion of Free Poles [pl] | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Narcyz Celiński (POW) Gustaw Szaramowicz (POW) | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Several thousand | Around 700 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 300 dead, rest taken prisoner | ||||||
TheBaikal Insurrection (Polish:Powstanie zabajkalskie orPowstanie nad Bajkałem;Russian:Кругобайкальское восстание), also known as theSiberian Uprising, was a short-lived uprising of about 700Polishpolitical prisoners andexiles (Sybiracy) inSiberia,Russian Empire, that started on 24 June 1866 and lasted for a few days, until their defeat on 28 June.
After the failure of theJanuary Uprising in Poland in 1863–1864, the Russian empireexiled many of the Poles involved to Siberia.[1]
The insurgents had brief contacts withSiberian nationalists, who hoped for a general Siberian uprising and the establishment of the republic ofSvobodoslaviya (Свободославия).[2][3] They also had contact withNikolai Serno-Solovyevich; another group supporting the insurgents was theZemlya i Volya with activists such asNikolai Chernyshevsky andAleksandr Herzen. The Poles and the Russians planned a major uprising under Chernyshevsky andWalenty Lewandowski, but due to betrayal a wave of arrests disrupted their plans.
Although the arrests prevented a major uprising from occurring, a group of about 700 Poles who were assigned to the construction of theCircumbaikal Highway (a road nearLake Baikal and theMongolian border) decided to disarm the guards and escape via Mongolia to China, where they hoped to find English ships and return to Europe by way of America.
The insurgents called themselves a Siberian Legion of Free Poles (Syberyjski Legion Wolnych Polaków). Numbering about 700 people and led byNarcyz Celiński andGustaw Szaramowicz they attacked the nearby units ofRussian Army, starting with their escort of 138 soldiers. They liberated other small groups of prisoners and raided local institutions such as the post office. However some of the Russian soldiers (Cossacks) taken captive managed to escape and alerted thegovernor-general inIrkutsk. A major mobilization of Russian forces in Siberia occurred, with many thousands of troops converging on the insurgents. The insurgents split, with Celiński trying to evade the enemy forces and Szaramowicz trying to break through them. Some of the insurgents quickly surrendered, particularly those who were content with the partialamnesty and reduction of sentences they received in the aftermath of an assassination attempt onAlexander II of Russia in April that year. On 28 June the rest, commanded by Szaramowicz, were defeated at the battle ofMishikha (Miszychna, Мишиха).[4]
Most of the insurgents were either killed or captured. Virtually none escaped, although some were taken prisoner weeks after the uprising started. All of the 400 survivors had their sentences increased, and four of the leaders were to be executed (in addition to Celiński and Szaramowicz,Władysław Kotkowski andJakub Reiner). They were allowed to write letters to their families, but they were never delivered, as the delivery was stopped by a personal order from tsarAlexander II of Russia.[citation needed] They were executed on 27 November 1866 nearIrkutsk.
Polish poetKornel Ujejski dedicated one of his poems to this event.[5] A street in Irkutsk is also named afterPolish insurgents.
Polish uprisings | |||||
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| Kingdom of Poland |
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| Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth |
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| After thepartitions | |||||
| Second Republic | |||||
| World War II |
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