Kraków Uprising of 1846

an uprising in Kraków against Austrian domination and feudal practices. The revolt occurred during a crisis in the feudal system, intensified social and national oppression, an upsurge in the liberation struggle in the Polish lands, and an imminent revolutionary crisis in Europe. It was planned as part of a nationwide Polish uprising prepared by Polish national liberation organizations led by the Polish Democratic Society. The uprising began on February 20. After taking possession of the city, the insurgents formed the National Government of the Polish Republic on February 22, which issued a manifesto calling upon the people to struggle for national independence and proclaiming democratic rights, the abolition of feudal obligations, and the peasants’ full ownership of their land. E. Dembowski, who arrived in Kraków on February 24 at the head of a detachment of miners from the Wieliczka salt mine and became secretary to the dictator of the rebellion, J. Tyssowski, persuaded the insurgents to proclaim that class differences and titles were abolished, land would be given to landless peasants, and national workshops would be created to improve the position of the workers. The National Government, however, which consisted mainly of moderate gentry and bourgeois elements, refused to make use of the revolutionary enthusiasm of the urban poor and peasants. Dembowski’s death on February 27 was a great loss for the uprising. On March 3 revolutionary Kraków fell before the united forces of tsarist Russia and Austria. The uprising occupies a prominent place in the European revolutionary movement of the 1840’s.