The Kosciuszko Uprising was a Polish nationalist uprising against Russia and Prussia that occurred in 1794. Led by the American Revolutionary War veteran Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the uprising aimed to liberate Poland-Lithuania from external influence after the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, but its failure resulted in the Third Partition of Poland and the loss of Polish independence for 123 years.
Background[]
Poland-Lithuania had entered a long decline in the early 18th century as the result of the intrigues of feuding magnates who halted liberal reforms, paralyzed the Sejm's proceedings, and lived under the illusion that they were living in an unprecedented "Golden Age." In 1772, Prussian king Frederick the Great persuaded Russian queen Catherine the Great to focus her expansion on Poland rather than the Ottoman Turks in order to avert a war between Russia and a jealous Austria. The First Partition of Poland resulted in Prussia acquiring West Prussia, Austria acquired Galicia and Lodomeria, and Russia acquired lands in present-day Belarus and Lithuania. In 1791, Poland took advantage of Russia and Austria's wars with Sweden and the Turks to ally with Prussia and pass a popular new constitution that threatened Russian influence in Poland. Both Prussia and Russia opposed the new constitution, and a Second Partition of Poland was implemented in 1793, further reducing Poland's size (Prussia acquiring the Grand Duchy of Posen and Russia a large stretch of land from Belarus to Ukraine).
The Polish military was widely dissatisfied with King Stanislaw II's capitulation to the Russians without little resistance, and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Prince Jozef Poniatowski, and many others emerged as leaders of a nationalist movement. In 1794, the Russians forced the Polish Army to downsize from 36,000 to 15,000. In August 1793, Kosciuszko began planning a Polish uprising from exile in Leipzig, but Czarist agents discovered plans for a revolution in Warsaw in March and started arresting notable Polish politicians and generals. On 15 March 1794, Kosciuszko set out for Krakow to execute his rebellion sooner than planned. Meanwhile, General Antoni Madalinski disobeyed Russia's order to demobilize the Polish army, advancing his troops from Ostroleka to Krakow. Riots against the Russian occupation broke out across the country, and Krakow's garrison was dispatched to confront Madalinski.
On 24 March 1794, Kosciuszko announced the general uprising at the Krakow town square and assumed teh powers of commander-in-chief. Kosciuszko ordered the mobilization of one man for every 5 houses in Lesser Poland, and he recruited all Krakow males between ages 18 and 28. Difficulties with providing armaments meant that most rebels were armed with scythes. Empress Catherine the Great responded by sending General Fyodor Denisov's corps to attack Krakow, but the Poles defeated the Russians at the Battle of Raclawice on 4 April 1794. The Poles were too weak to pursue and annihilate the Russians, but news of the victory spread fast and other parts of Poland joined the revolution.
On 17 April, an attempted Russian crackdown on revolutionary activities in Warsaw led to an uprising led by Jan Kilinski, and up to 4,000 soldiers from the 5,000-strong Russian garrison were massacred after two days of heavy fighting. Jakub Jasinski led a similar uprising in Vilnius on 23 April, and other towns and cities soon followed. On 7 May 1794, Kosciuszko partially abolished serfdom in Poland, granted civil liberty to all peasants, and provided them with state help against abuses by the nobility. While this rallied peasants to the revolutionary cause, the Polish army was still poorly equipped.
On 10 May, 17,500 Prussian soldiers crossed the Polish border and joined the 9,000-strong Russian army in northern Poland. The Russo-Prussian army defeated the Poles at the Battle of Szczekociny on 6 June and the Battle of Chelm two days later, and the Poles withdrew towards Warsaw and fortified the city. On 15 June, the Prussians captured Krakow, and 41,000 Russians and 25,000 Prussians laid siege to Warsaw. Vilnius fell to the Russians on 12 August, but Polish rebels captured Bydgoszcz on 2 October and entered Pomerania almost unopposed. The Prussians were forced to withdraw most of their forces from central Poland to deal with Jan Henryk Dabrowski's invasion of Prussia, but the Poles soon returned to central Poland. The Russian general Alexander Suvorov was then dispatched with a new corps to join up with Ivan Fersen's corps near Warsaw. Kosciuszko attempted to prevent the two armies from meeting up, but he was wounded and captured at the Battle of Maciejowice on 10 October. Tomasz Wawrzecki, the uprising's new leader, inherited a weakened army, while General Jozef Zajaczek was unable to manage the divisions between the liberal Polish Jacobins and the monarchist nobility. On 4 November, the Russians defeated the Poles at the Battle of Praga, enabling the Cossacks to loot and burn Warsaw. In revenge for the massacre of Warsaw's Russian garrison, the Russians massacred 20,000 Polish soldiers and civilians. On 16 November, Wawrzecki surrendered, marking the end of the uprising. The following year, a Third Partition of Poland ended Polish independence. Poland would not again enjoy independence until 1918, thousands of Polish noble families were stripped of their estates (which were then granted to Russian generals and nobles), 650,000 Polish serfs were enslaved by the Russians, Poles were heavily recruited into the Imperial Russian Army for lifetime service, and peasants were flogged for mentioning Kosciuszko or protesting against worsening conditions.