Polish history series

Polish statehood

Kingdom of Poland (Piasts) Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian) Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Duchy of Warsaw Congress Poland Free City of Kraków Kingdom of Poland Second Polish Republic Polish government-in-exile People's Republic of Poland Poland

The term Congress Poland refers to the Polish political entity that was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when European powers reorganised Europe following the Napoleonic wars.

Congress Poland largely emerged as a result of the efforts of Adam Czartoryski, the Russian foreign affairs minister and a Pole who aimed to resurrect the Polish state in alliance with Russia. Formally, Congress Poland was one of the few contemporary constitutional monarchies in Europe, with the Tsar of Russia as Polish King. The main problem was that the Tsar, who had absolute power in Russia, similarly wanted no restrictions on his rule in Poland.

Congress Poland had a parliament which could vote on laws and was responsible to the Tsar's Viceroy in Poland, Grand Duke Constantine, the Tsar's brother, who was also responisble for Lithuania. Congress Poland lasted for a mere 15 years. In 1831, the Polish parliament deposed the Tsar as king of Poland in response to his repeated curtailment of its constitutional rights. The Tsar reacted by sending Russian troops into Poland and the so-called November Uprising broke out.

The end of Congress Poland came with the crushing of the uprising following an 11-month military campaign. The constitution was abolished. In 1863 the January Uprising started. After the defeat of the uprising, the official language of Congress Poland was changed to Russian, and eventually the territories of what had been Congress Poland were simply incorporated into the Russian empire under the name "Vistula Country" (Russian Privislinsky Kray), although there were still many differences to the rest of the empire. Throughout the 19th century the term Congress Poland continued to be used in relation to these territories, although the political entity they were connected with no longer existed.

Congress Poland was abandoned by the Russian army in 1915.

• Kingdom of Poland (Mitteleuropa)

Area: 127 000 km²

Population:

• In 1816 around 2,600,000
• In 1897 9,300,000, including 1,300,000 Jews (14% of the population)