Poland: the Chechnya of the 1860s

Mikhail Zygar, writing in Kommersant, comments on the aftermath and general context of the recent mugging attack in Warsaw on the teenage sons of Russian diplomatic staff, and the two apparent "tit-for-tat" assaults on Polish embassy staff in Moscow - attacks that bear the hallmarks of a calculated provocation on the part of someone doubtless intent on making a further negative impact on the already badly frayed relations between Russia and Poland. Zygar notes that few people remember that some 150 years ago Poland for Russia was the same as Chechnya is now:

Uprisings flared up from time to time in the Polish Kingdom, part of the Russian Empire. The latest, in 1863, caused the indignation of the authorities and broad circles of the Russian public. It began with an act of terror: in the heat of night Poles massacred Russian men and officers sleeping in their barracks.

Many influential, including liberal, mass media demanded that a non-constitutional order be reestablished in Poland by a firm hand (the Constitution in the Polish Kingdom was repealed by Nicholas I after the uprising of 1830). The progressive-minded poet and writer, Nikolai Nekrasov, publicly read an ode to Count Muravyev the Hanger who suppressed the uprising. Only the Russian revolutionary emigrant, Alexander Herzen, who lived in London at the time, spoke with sympathy of the Polish insurgents and openly wished them victory, for which many of his fellow-countrymen denounced him.

The Polish question was a matter of principle for many people. Some persons, like the writer and journalist, Nikolai Danilevsky, maintained that independence shouldn't be granted to Poland, because in that case it would immediately become the centre of all revolutionary intrigues against Russia.

A century-and-a-half later the situation is repeated. Poland is now the main critic of Russia on the problem of Chechnya. And Moscow now regards Warsaw as the extremely dangerous source of revolutionary ideas smuggled into the CIS.

Read the whole thing.

Hat tip: Marius