Browsing by Author "Demidowicz, Tomasz"

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    Reforma szlachectwa w Królestwie Polskim w latach 1836-1861.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Demidowicz, Tomasz
    The reform of the nobility in the Kingdom of Poland carried out between 1836 and 1861 by the Russian Empire controlling its part of Partitioned Poland constituted an element of a wider plan to transform its social and legal systems in order to bring the structure of the Polish society closer to the Russian one. This plan was part of the anti-Polish policy of the Russian Empire adopted after the defeat of the November Uprising 1830/31 the objective of which was to ‘build a united nation of Russians and Poles’. As a result of the reform, the number of Polish nobles was reduced from 300,000 in 1830 to 84,800 in 1861, when the nobility accounted only for 17% of the total population of the Kingdom of Poland. The reform was originally planned for two years but actually lasted 25 years. Following the Russian model, the hereditary as well as personal (life) title was introduced. This principle was overtly contrary to the spirit of the Organic Statute of 1832 and infringed the rule of equality before law, undermining at the same time the integrity of the civil and criminal codes binding in the Kingdom of Poland. It also opened doors to corruption and numerous instances of bribery, costing the State Treasury 1,800,000 roubles. The reform was perceived by Poles as yet another act of repression of the Russian Empire after the fall of the November Uprising.
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    Statut Organiczny Królestwa Polskiego w latach 1832-1856.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Demidowicz, Tomasz
    The Organic Statute of 26 February 1832 signed by tsar Nicholas I of Russia in the aftermath of the November Uprising 1830/31 replaced the autonomy of the Kingdom of Poland resulting from its personal union with the Russian Empire and reduced the Kingdom to one province of the Empire, leaving it, however, a certain separate political system. The Statute was of fundamental importance from the point of view of the functioning of the Kingdom of Poland and set out, in Articles 22-29 and 39-41, its ‚final organisation’ as well as its head, central and local authorities. The judiciary was constituted pursuant to Article 1 and Articles 55-67, while Articles 31-33 gave rise to such institutions as Department for the Matters of the Kingdom of Poland and the Secretariat of the State of the Kingdom of Poland. Article 18 set grounds for the formation of the Land Credit Society and the Bank of Poland. The provisions of Article 11 were referred to in the declaration of martial law in 1833, and those of Article 12 were relied on in the legalisation of the practice of sequestration and forfeiture. Article 13, in turn, gave the possibility to impose stricter censorship and culturally isolate the Kingdom of Poland, Articles 14-15 were used to justify free economic exploitation, while similar exploitation but of human material (such as 15-years of compulsory military service) was possible owing to the provisions of Article 20. Further, Articles 31 and 68 were referred to by the Imperial authorities in their attempts to implement in the Kingdom of Poland a social system similar to that in the Russian Empire, by inter alia, the imposition of the Laws on Nobility and the matrimonial Law of 1836. Pursuant to the provisions of Article 68, a special policy was developed at the end of the 1830s to unify and centralise the Kingdom of Poland with the Russian Empire, and the formation in 1839 of the Warsaw Scientific Society, the District Board of Communication District Board in 1846 and the Post District Board in 1852 are but a few examples. This anti-Polish policy pursued by the Russian Empire was temporarily stopped by Aleksander Wielopolski’s reforms.