Poland, Kingdom of

Poland, Kingdom of

 

the name of the part of Poland that was given to Russia at the Congress of Vienna (1814–15). On Nov. 27, 1815, Alexander I signed a constitution establishing the kingdom as a constitutional monarchy bound to the Russian empire by a personal union. After the suppression of the Polish Uprising of 1830–31, it lost its autonomy, and after the Uprising of 1863–64 the process of absorption into the Russian empire intensified. In 1888 its name was changed to the Vistula Region. In 1918 the area became the nucleus of the restored Polish state.