THE JANUARY UPRISING AND GEORGIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

The uprising of 1863-1864 for national freedom is the heroic page in the history of the Polish people. The aim of the rebellion against the Russian Empire was the restoration of the Polish Statehood. Unfortunately the unequal fight was destined to fail. According to the official records because of the repressions about 60-70 thousands of the Poles were deported to Russia (Siberia, the Urals, the Caucasus).

The heroic fight of the Poles had great resonance among the European countries. Of course interest to it arouse in the Georgian Society too. In Georgia, which was the colony of Russia like Poland, the information about the uprising was mainly spread via the Russian periodical press (“Kavkaz”). Also the Georgian community’s relations in Petersburg and in the other Russian cities with the progressive part of the Russian intelligentsia (private correspondence, relations with the Polish society) and probable relations with the Poles in exile in Georgia were the other important resource of the information.

The uprising of the Poles was one of the impulses to the national movement for freedom in Georgia. In the second half of the XIX century because of “Tergdaleulebi” the national consciousness in the Georgian society became to emerge. Therefore the resonance to the processes in the world especially to the fights of the oppressed people was one of the leverages by which “the Tergdaleulebi” formed the anti-Russian disposition and strengthened the national consciousness that was crucial precondition for the independence of Georgia.

The trace of the tragic uprising of the Poles was firmly embedded in the Georgian consciousness. The confirmation to it was the fact that in 1898 after the 30 years of suppression of the rebellion only the community of the Georgian students organized the sympathy protest action.

Keywords: the January Uprising, the Russian Empire, the struggle for national liberation, Georgian society “Tergdaleulebi”.