The November Uprising was an armed rebellion in Russian-ruled Congress Poland that lasted from 1830 to 1831, ending with the military suppression of the nationalist revolt and the stripping of Poland's autonomy.
The Third Partition of Poland between Austria, Prussia, and Russia in 1795 caused Poland-Lithuania to cease to exist as an independent political entity. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French emperor Napoleon I created an independent Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, but the Congress of Vienna brought Polish independence to an end in 1815. Russia reassumed control over its share of Polish territory, creating the Congress Kingdom of Poland as a semi-autonomous puppet state. The kingdom initially enjoyed a large degree of internal autonomy, having its own constitution, Sejm, military, and courts. However, the freedoms granted to Poland were gradually taken back and the constitution progressively ignored. In 1819, Czar Alexander I of Russia reintroduced censorship of the press, and, in 1821, the Czar banned the Freemasons as the secret police started to infiltrate and persecute Polish clandestine organizations. After 1825, sessions of the Sejm were conducted in secret, and, in 1829, Czar Nicholas I of Russia did what his predecessor had never done and formally crowned himself King of Poland. Poland's personal union with Russia rapidly drifted towards centralized Russian rule, and Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations and replaced Poles with Russians in important administrative positions.
In 1830, revolutions overthrew the Bourbon monarchy in France and Dutch rule in the Netherlands, and the Czar planned to use the Polish Army to suppress those revolutions, in violation of the Polish constitution. On 29 November 1830, a group of cadets from the Warsaw officers' school, led by Piotr Wysocki, took arms from their garrison and assaulted the Grand Duke's seat at Belweder Palace. The Grand Duke escaped in women's clothing, and the Poles took control of the city's arsenal and expelled the Russian garrison from Warsaw. On 29 November 1830, Adam Czartoryski, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, and Jozef Chlopicki formed a new administrative council and attempted to negotiate with Grand Duke Konstantin. Although Konstantin was ready to forgive the offenders, Maurycy Mochnacki and other radicals demanded a national uprising, and the Polish government let Konstantin depart with his troops. On 3 December, Mochnacki called for a military campaign in Lithuania, the establishment of a revolutionary government, and an immediate attack on Konstantin, and the Polish army joined in the uprising.
The pre-revolutionary cabinet promptly disbanded and was replaced by Mochnacki, Joachim Lelewel, and other radicals; on 5 December 1830, Chlopicki was proclaimed "dictator of the uprising." Chlopicki was initially reluctant to assume command, and he refrained from strengthening his army or expelling the Russian forces from Lithuania. On 13 December, however, the Sejm pronounced the National Uprising against Russia. On 8 January, after the Czar demanded the unconditional surrender of Poland, Chlopicki resigned. On 25 January 1831, the Sejm dethroned Nicholas I, effectively declaring war on Russia. On 29 January, Czartoryski was brought back to head a national government, and Michal Gedeon Radziwill was made dictator while Chlopicki was persuaded to take command of the army.
Before the Poles could move the theatre of hostilities to Lithuania, Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a 115,000-strong Russian army invaded Poland on 4 February 1831. On 14 February 1831, Polish cavalry defeated a Russian division at the Battle of Stoczek, but the Russian advance on Warsaw continued. Battles at Dobre, Wawer, and Bialoleka were inconclusive, but, on 25-27 February, the Poles defeated the Russian advance on Warsaw at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska with heavy losses. Chlopicki was wounded and replaced by Jan Skrzynecki. The Polish cause won widespread sentimental support overseas, including in France and America, but the governments of France and Britain sought to maintain friendly relations with Russia. Austria and Prussia also declared neutrality and closed their frontiers with Poland. The Poles, stymied in their efforts to win international recognition, failed to rouse Volhynia, Podolia, Samogitia, and most of Lithuania to their side, and Russia crushed local risings and slaughtered the inhabitants of Ashmiany in Belarus. Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia's army suffered many defeats during its invasion of Poland, but constant warfare depleted the Polish forces. The Polish government's failure to bring about land reform caused the enthusiasm of the peasantry to wane, and Skzynecki's failure to prevent the Russian armies from joining enabled the Russians to encircle Warsaw. Riots broke out in Warsaw, and the Ruling Council president Jan Krukowiecki capitulated on 7 September; Warsaw fell to the Russians a day later as the remainder of the Polish Army retreated to Modlin.
With Warsaw lost, the remnants of the Polish army crossed the Austrian and Prussian frontiers and laid down their arms before those nations rather than surrender to Russia. In 1832, Czar Nicholas I stripped Poland of its autonomy and integrated it into the Russian Empire, the University of Warsaw was closed, and the Polish capital became little more than a Russian military garrison.