An Outline of the Military Operations of the 1863–64 Uprising in Belarus

Matveichyk, D. Ch. (2013). The 1863–1864 Uprising in Belarus: An Outline of Military Operations. Minsk: Medysont, 122 pp.

Review prepared by Vasil Herasimchyk.

In 2013, the series “Belarus in Wars” published a book by Dzmitry Matveichyk devoted to the largest military event on the territory of Belarus in the second half of the nineteenth century, the uprising of 1863–1864. The author calls the main goal of the book “popularization” and sees his task as giving “a broad circle of readers a general idea of the military actions of the insurgents in Belarus in 1863”. One of the compilers of the “Belarus in Wars” series, the archaeologist Mikalai Plavinski, made an apt remark about the difficulties of this task and of working on the text when presenting the publication to readers in Hrodna on 7 November 2013: “it is much more difficult to make a popular-scientific book than a scholarly one”.

Given today’s need in Belarusian society for works that clearly explain complex pages of our past, Dzmitry Matveichyk’s book appeared long-awaited and aroused great interest in what the author calls this “modest work”, thereby already achieving its goal.

The book consists of an introduction, four chapters, a conclusion, and a list of sources and literature.

In the introduction Dzmitry Matveichyk rightly notes:

1) the uprising of 1863–1864 is one of the most ambiguous phenomena in the history of Belarus during its time within the Russian Empire, and its assessment later depended on the political conjuncture of one or another researcher;

2) many researchers have examined the most diverse aspects of the uprising, but a full-fledged comprehensive monographic study of the uprising in Belarusian has not yet been published. In general, the only such study of the history of the uprising in Belarusian is Usievalad Ihnatouski’s book (Ihnatouski, 1930).

One can fully agree with the first thought, with the qualification that such dependence persists today.

Regarding the second, one need only add that U. Ihnatouski’s book, although it is the only conceptual monograph on the uprising of 1863–1864 in Belarusian, is not the only one in domestic historiography, since there is also the Russian-language monograph by Smirnov (Smirnov, 1963). In terms of influence, it significantly surpassed U. Ihnatouski’s work, which was hidden away for a long time and even today is known only to a narrow circle of researchers.

Although D. Matveichyk’s book is above all an outline of the military actions of insurgent detachments against tsarist troops, it covers a broader range of problems reflected here factually. Among them are the growing dissatisfaction in the lands of Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland on the eve of the uprising, the preparation of an armed action against the tsarist authorities, the activity of the insurgent organization and contradictions within it, and the measures taken to suppress the uprising.

The first chapter, “On the Eve of the Uprising”, consists of four sections and describes the tense situation that developed in Belarus during the early period of Emperor Alexander II’s rule. At that time, despite attempts to soften the harsh measures of autocracy, dissatisfaction among the local population grew and resulted in the appearance of demonstrations and the growth of the peasant movement. The book also provides information about measures to prepare an armed action, about armaments, and about the balance of forces between the opposing sides: at the beginning of 1863, a three-thousand-strong insurgent organization in Belarus and Lithuania faced 123.5 thousand Russian soldiers, not counting internal guard battalions, invalid and escort teams, and the police, who also took part in suppressing the uprising.

Here it is worth noting the author’s effort, even within a limited format, to give a schematic overview of what textbooks usually neglect: events in the neighbouring Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania. This is all the more important because, despite regional features in Belarus and Lithuania, the uprising of 1863–1864 in our region took place above all in the context of a broader movement and was an attempt to restore the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the form and understanding of which were disputed.

The second chapter, “The Beginning of the Uprising in Belarus and Lithuania”, consists of two sections and is devoted to the period from January to March, the organization and activity of the first insurgent detachments, and disagreements between the “Whites” and the “Reds”.

The next, third chapter, “Military Operations in April 1863 – Early 1864”, consists of eight sections. It is the most important and, accordingly, the largest in the book. It is based on a description of the actions of insurgent detachments, divided according to the administrative-territorial units, or provinces, that made up the territory of present-day Belarus: Mahiliou, Vitebsk, Minsk, Vilnius, and Hrodna. This structure resembles the classic work by the librarian of the museum in Rapperswil, Stanisław Zieliński (Zieliński, 1913), where armed clashes are presented as a dry chronicle. D. Matveichyk, however, uses the essay as the form of presentation, which only improves readability.

Among the sections of the third chapter, the description of events in Minsk province is the most complete, while the sections on Hrodna and especially Vilnius provinces would benefit from expansion. Even in this form, however, they present the most important events and names of the uprising in these regions.

The last, fourth chapter of the book, “Repressions against Participants in the Uprising”, provides a list and brief descriptions of measures undertaken by the tsarist authorities headed by Mikhail Muravyov to suppress the consequences of 1863–1864.

It is necessary separately to highlight a number of positive features of Dzmitry Matveichyk’s monograph, thanks to which it is not merely an outline of the military actions of insurgent detachments but becomes a book with elements of entertainment. Great attention is paid to the selection of illustrative material, and this bears fruit: it is not simply an addition to the main text but becomes a story above the story. Among the rare illustrations are engravings from the French publication “Le Monde illustré” and colour images of elements of insurgent clothing.

In total, the 122-page book contains almost 150 images. Among them are many photographs of insurgents. For the ten most significant insurgents in Belarus, the book includes separate biographical notes with a brief list of events in their lives: Raman Rahinski, Yulian Bakshanski, Ludwik Ostyk-Narbut, Vincent Konstanty Kalinowski, Jakub Wilhelm Gejsztor, Zygmunt Erazm Gaspar Józef Sierakowski, Ludwik Zwiazdowski, Henryk Dmochowski, Walery Antoni Wróblewski, and Romuald Traugutt. The author also does not ignore the most representative figures of the tsarist machine for suppressing the uprising, including Zakhar Maniukin-Neustruev, Arthur Egger, Vladimir Nazimov, and Mikhail Muravyov, who are also briefly characterized in relevant biographical notes.

Dzmitry Matveichyk’s book is an important step toward popularizing the uprising of 1863–1864 in Belarus and deserves the highest praise. Therefore, while supporting its author, one also wishes to express the hope “that for professional researchers it will serve as an additional stimulus to write a full-scale scholarly monograph on the history of the uprising, and for history enthusiasts it will be useful for becoming acquainted with such an interesting and large-scale event”. Unfortunately, the 150th anniversary of the uprising of 1863–1864 did not make it possible to cross the much-needed threshold of analytical work of national importance. Yet thanks to Dzmitry Matveichyk’s “Outline”, another significant step forward has been made on this path.

Literature mentioned in the review

1. Ihnatouski, Usievalad Makaravich (1930). 1863 in Belarus. An Outline of Events. Minsk: Belarusian Academy of Sciences.
2. Smirnov, Anatolii Filippovich (1963). The Uprising of 1863 in Lithuania and Belorussia. Moscow.
3. Zieliński, Stanisław (1913). Bitwy i potyczki 1863-1864. Rapperswil.