Galician slaughter
Encyclopedia
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
uprising (Kraków Uprising
Kraków Uprising
The Kraków Uprising of February 1846 was an attempt, led by Edward Dembowski, to incite a Polish fight for national independence. Even though most of Poland was part of the Russian Empire, the Polish risings were conducted mainly in Prussia and in the Austrian Empire.-History:Most of the...
) and massacre of szlachta in Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
in the Austrian partition
Austrian partition
The Austrian partition refers to the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Austrian Empire during the partitions of Poland in late 18th century.-History:...
in early 1846. The peasant uprising lasted from February to March. It was a rising against serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
, directed against manorial property (for example, the manorial prisons) but with many victims; Galician, mainly Polish, peasants killed about 1,000 noblemen and destroyed about 500 manors. The Austrian government used the uprising to decimate nationalist Polish nobles, who were considering an uprising against Austria. It was the largest peasant uprising
Peasant movement
Peasant movement is a social movement involved with the agricultural policy.Peasants movement have a long history that can be traced to the numerous peasant uprisings that occurred in various regions of the world throughout human history. Early peasant movements were usually the result of stresses...
on the Polish lands in the 19th century.
The massacre, led by Jakub Szela
Jakub Szela
Jakub Szela was a Polish leader of a peasant uprising against the gentry in Galicia in 1846; directed against manorial property and rising against serfdom; scores of manors were attacked and their inhabitants murdered...
, is also known as the Galician Massacre, and began on 18 February 1846. This led to the "Galician Slaughter," in which many nobles and their families were murdered by peasants. Szela units surrounded and attacked manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
s and settlements located in three counties - Sanok
Sanok
Sanok is a town in south-eastern Poland with 39,110 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009. It's the capital of Sanok County in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Previously, it was in the Krosno Voivodeship and in the Ruthenian Voivodeship , which was part of the Lesser Poland province...
, Jasło and Tarnów
Tarnów
Tarnów is a city in southeastern Poland with 115,341 inhabitants as of June 2009. The city has been situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999, but from 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of the Tarnów Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east-west connection...
.
In the Free City of Kraków
Free City of Kraków
The Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Kraków with its Territory , more commonly known as either the Free City of Kraków or Republic of Kraków , was a city-state created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and controlled by its three neighbours until 1846, when in the aftermath of the...
(Republic of Cracow), a few democratic nobles tried to rouse the peasants to rise up against Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. They began the insurrection in February 1846, gathering support from the more enlightened peasants of the Cracow region (the Kraków Uprising
Kraków Uprising
The Kraków Uprising of February 1846 was an attempt, led by Edward Dembowski, to incite a Polish fight for national independence. Even though most of Poland was part of the Russian Empire, the Polish risings were conducted mainly in Prussia and in the Austrian Empire.-History:Most of the...
). However, most of the peasants of Austrian Poland (Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
) were undernourished because of bad harvests and hated their lords. Peasants, incited by the partitioning power
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
, attacked the nobility, looted their estates and killed the landlords who were leaders of the independence movement. The peasants accused them of subjecting everyone to repressions by the “legal” partitioning authorities, who paid peasants who presented members of Tarnów’s city council with the corpses of members of the nobility. Furthermore, the Austrians offered money for the heads of Polish nobles.
A similar uprising of nobility (szlachta) was planned in Posen
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, but the police quickly caught the ringleaders. By contrast, Tarnow's district officer panicked and asked for peasant help.
Some Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
officials sponsored a counter-appeal to the peasantry of the province, urging loyalty to the emperor and resistance to the insurrectionary Polish szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
, the gentry; the unexpectedly ferocious response was a peasant uprising against the gentry, culminating in the massacre of more than a thousand people in the region around the town of Tarnów
Tarnów
Tarnów is a city in southeastern Poland with 115,341 inhabitants as of June 2009. The city has been situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999, but from 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of the Tarnów Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east-west connection...
. The lesson that the gentry learned was that the Polish peasants were not susceptible to the insurrectionary cause of Polish nationalism and actually preferred to cast their lot with the Habsburg dynasty; many nobles in Galicia came to the conclusion that they should do likewise.
The Republic of Cracow was abolished and incorporated into Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
.
The massacre of the gentry in 1846 was the historical memory that haunted Stanisław Wyspiański's play The Wedding
The Wedding (1901 play)
The Wedding is a defining work of Polish drama written at the turn of the 20th century by Stanisław Wyspiański. It describes the perils of the national drive toward self-determination following the two unsuccessful uprisings against the Partitions of Poland, in November 1830 and January 1863...
of fin-de-siècle Cracow's excursion in the country. An old beggar in the cast of characters can still remember the massacre after half a century—"I saw, I watched with my own eyes"—and it is he who later finds himself face to face with the ghost of Jakub Szela, the peasant who took the lead in the violence of 1846.
Serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
existed in Galicia until 22 April, 1848.