Konstanty Kalinowski

Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski
Born(1838-02-02)2 February 1838
Mostovlyany, Russian Empire
Died22 March 1864(1864-03-22) (aged 26)
Vilna, Russian Empire
Alma materSaint Petersburg State University
FamilyKalinowski family
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Konstanty Kalinowski (Belarusian: Касту́сь Каліно́ўскі, romanized: Kastuś Kalinoŭski), also known as Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski, was a writer, journalist, and revolutionary leader who operated in the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. Born into a Polish szlachta family, he is widely regarded as a founding father of Belarusian nationalism and a key figure in the history of Lithuania and Poland.[1] He was one of the leaders of the 1863 January Uprising against the Russian Empire, during which he advocated for the rights of the peasantry and the restoration of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a federation of free peoples.[2]

In Belarus, Kalinowski is revered not as an insurgent, but as the "Father of the Nation" who first articulated the idea of a Belarusian political subject separate from Russia. His legacy is central to the modern Belarusian opposition, which views him as a symbol of the country's European, Litvin heritage and resistance to Russification. The "Kalinowski myth" challenges the Soviet and Lukashenko-era historiography that portrays the uprising as a "Polish/Catholic" rebellion against the "Orthodox/Russian" people.[3]

Kalinowski conducted his activities in the spirit of resurrecting the common state of Lithuania, Ruthenia (now Belarus and Ukraine), and Poland in the traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[4]

Early life and education

Kalinowski was born in Mostovlyany, in Grodnensky Uyezd of the Russian Empire (now Mostowlany, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland) to a szlachta family.[5] The Kalinowskis hailed from the Polish region of Mazovia[6] and bore the Kalinowa coat of arms. His father, Szymon, was a manager of the Mostowlany farm and manor. His older brother, Wiktor Kalinowski would become a historian. In 1849 his father, Szymon bought a folwark near Świsłocz (now Svislach, Belarus) where Konstanty grew up.[7]

After graduating from a local school in Svislach in 1855, Kalinowski entered the faculty of Medicine of the University of Moscow as an external student.[7] After one semester he moved to St. Petersburg, where his brother was, and joined the faculty of Law at the University of St. Petersburg. Along with his brother Wiktor, he got himself involved in Polish students' conspiracies and secret cultural societies, headed by Zygmunt Sierakowski and Jarosław Dąbrowski. After graduating in 1860, Konstanty traveled to Vilnius where he unsuccessfully applied to join the civil service under Vladimir Ivanovich Nazimov.[7]

Career

Literary work

Konstanty then returned to the Grodno area in 1861. In June 1862, Kalinowski began publishing Mužyckaja prauda ("Peasants' Truth"), the first newspaper in the Belarusian language. Writing under the pseudonym "Jaśko, a farmer from near Vilnius," Kalinowski addressed the peasantry not as subjects, but as a political nation. By using the Belarusian vernacular rather than Polish or Russian, he elevated the status of the peasant language to a tool of political resistance, marking a turning point in the formation of the distinct Belarusian national identity.[8] The Peasants' Truth was issued seven times until 1863.[7] Konstanty also published two other Polish language newspapers.[9] Konstanty was more aligned with the Reds which represented a democratic movement uniting peasants, workers, and some clergy rather than the more moderate Whites.[7]

In his literary work, Kalinowski underlined the need to liberate all people of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from Russia's occupation and to conserve and promote the Greek Catholic faith and Belarusian language. He also promoted the idea of activisation of peasants for the cause of national liberation, the idea that was until then dominated by the gentry. He favored the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's traditions of democracy, tolerance and freedom, as opposed to national oppression of cultures dominated by Imperial Russia:

While the Polish Council gives all fraternal peoples self-help, the Muscovite not only does not do so, but even where Poles, Lithuanians and Belarusians lived, he opens Muscovite schools, and in these schools they teach in Muscovite language, where you will never hear a word in Polish, in Lithuanian or in Belarusian, as the people want [...][10][11]

Kalinowski was a leader of the "Reds" (radical wing of the uprising) in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He advocated for a social revolution to liberate the peasantry and fought for the political autonomy of Lithuania and Belarus (the former Grand Duchy) within the uprising. He frequently clashed with the "White" leadership in Warsaw, famously stating: "For our people, the order from the Polish government is not a decree." Kalinowski envisioned a distinct statehood for the peoples of the former Grand Duchy, separate from the centralized control of the Polish Crown.[12]

After the outbreak of the January Uprising, he was involved in the secret Provincial Lithuanian Committee in Vilnius. Soon he was promoted to the commissar of the Polish National Government for the Grodno Governorate. His writings made him popular both among the peasants and the gentry, which enabled the partisan units under his command to grow rapidly. Because of his successes he was promoted to the rank of Plenipotentiary Commissar of the Government for Lithuania (Polish: Komisarz Pełnomocny Rządu na Litwę), which made him the commander-in-chief of all partisan units fighting in the areas of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which are in modern Lithuania, Belarus, eastern Poland and Ukraine.

Last months, capture, imprisonment

However, after initial successes against the Russian armies, the Russians moved a 120,000 man army to the area and the revolutionaries started to lose most of the skirmishes. Finally, Kalinowski was betrayed by one of his soldiers and handed over to the Russians.

He was imprisoned in Vilnius, where he wrote one of his most notable works – Letters from Beneath the Gallows (Pismo z-pad szybienicy), a passionate credo for his compatriots. He was tried by a court-martial for leading the revolt against Russia and sentenced to death. On 22 March 1864, at the age 26, he was publicly executed on Lukiškės Square in Vilnius.[7]

Discovery of remains and state funeral

The exact burial location of Kalinowski and other insurgents was unknown for over 150 years. In 2017, archaeologists discovered unmarked graves containing the remains of twenty people on Gediminas Hill in Vilnius during stabilization work following a landslide. Researchers from Vilnius University identified the remains as those of the January Uprising leaders, including Kalinowski and Zygmunt Sierakowski, who were executed in Lukiškės Square.[13]

A state funeral was held in Vilnius on 22 November 2019. The ceremony was attended by President Gitanas Nausėda of Lithuania, President Andrzej Duda of Poland, and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko of Belarus. Thousands of Belarusians traveled to Vilnius for the event, where many displayed white-red-white flags and chanted slogans associated with Kalinowski.[14]

Following the ceremony, the remains of Kalinowski and the other insurgents were interred in the chapel of the Rasos Cemetery.

Legacy

During the so-called Jeans Revolution, protesters who disputed the 2006 Belarusian presidential election symbolically renamed October Square, after the Bolshevik revolution, Kalinovski Square.[15] Kalinovski Square was also the title of a documentary film about these events. In Uladzimir Karatkievich's novel King Stakh's Wild Hunt, one of the principal characters, Andrey Svetsilovich, had a portrait of Kalinowski above his writing desk.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Belarusian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine formed a battalion named Kastuś Kalinoŭski,[16][17] which later transformed into a regiment.

In Ukrainian Rivne, a street was named after Kalinowski.[18] In June 2024, a memorial plaque in honor of Kalinowski was unveiled in a street named after him in Chernihiv.[19]

The Polish Government's scholarship program for Belarusian students expelled from their studies after the Jeans Revolution has been named after Konstanty Kalinowski since 2006.[20]

  • Belarusian commemorative stamp in honor of Kalinowski (1993)
  • Memorial at the place of Kalinouski's execution in Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Monument in Šalčininkai, Lithuania
  • Monument in Mostowlany, Poland
  • Logo of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment (2022)

See also

  • Zaprudnik, Jan; Bird, Thomas E. (1976). Peasant's Truth, the Tocsin of the 1863 Uprising. Vol. 14. New York: Zapisy Belarusian Institute of Arts and Sciences.
  • Kalinoŭski, Kastuś (1980). The 1863 Uprising in Byelorussia: "Peasants' Truth" and "Letters from Beneath the Gallows. commentaries by Jan Zaprudnik and Thomas E. Bird. New York: Byelorussian Institute of Arts and Sciences, The Krecheuski Foundation.
  • Horosko, Leo (1965). "Kastus Kalinouski: Leader of the National Uprising in Byelorussia 1863–64". The Journal of Belarusian Studies. I (I): 30–35. doi:10.30965/20526512-00101005. Retrieved 21 May 2024.

Notes

References

  1. ^ Smaliančuk, Aliaksandr (2015). "Kastuś Kalinoŭski and the Belarusian National Idea: Research Problems". Journal of Belarusian Studies. 7 (3): 70–78. doi:10.30965/20526512-00703004.
  2. ^ Smaliančuk, Aliaksandr (2015). "Kastuś Kalinoŭski and the Belarusian National Idea: Research Problems". Journal of Belarusian Studies. 7 (3): 70–78. doi:10.30965/20526512-00703004.
  3. ^ Rudling, Per Anders (2015). The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906–1931. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 35–40.
  4. ^ Stankiewicz, Zdzisław (2006). Działalność seminariów nauczycielskich na północno-wschodnich kresach Rzeczypospolitej w latach 1919-1939 (in Polish). Wydawn. Adam Marszałek. ISBN 978-83-7441-447-0.
  5. ^ Chylak-Schroeder, Teresa (2013). "Konstanty Kalinowski – w dobie powstania styczniowego i dziś. Refleksje rocznicowe" (PDF). Acta Albaruthenica (in Polish). 13. University of Warsaw: 260. ISSN 1898-8091.
  6. ^ Łaniec, Stanisław (1997). Białoruś w Drugiej Połowie XIX Stulecia (in Polish). WSP w Olsztynie. p. 149. ISBN 9788387315177.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Horosko, L. (1965). "Kastus Kalinouski". Journal of Belarusian Studies. 1 (1): 30–35. doi:10.30965/20526512-00101005.
  8. ^ «Мужыцкая праўда»
  9. ^ Michaluk, D. (2015). "Polish-Language Clandestine Press Published under the Patronage of Kanstancin Kalinoŭski". Journal of Belarusian Studies. 7 (3): 79–93. doi:10.30965/20526512-00703005.
  10. ^ "Kastus Kalinouski". belarusguide.com.
  11. ^ Кастусь Каліноўскі. Пісьмы з-пад шыбеніцы. knihi.com (in Belarusian).
  12. ^ Snyder, Timothy (2003). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999. Yale University Press. pp. 31–35.
  13. ^ "Identification of the Remains of the Participants of the 1863–1864 Uprising" (PDF). Vilnius University. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  14. ^ "Lithuania buries heroes of 1863 uprising against Russia". Reuters. 2019-11-22.
  15. ^ Borowska, Paula (17 September 2013). "Konstanty Kalinouski: A Contested Hero". Belarus Digest.
  16. ^ Беларусы стварылі батальён імя Каліноўскага для абароны Кіева. Euroradio (in Belarusian). 9 March 2022.
  17. ^ Bearak, Max (1 April 2022). "A Belarusian battalion fights in Ukraine 'for both countries' freedom'". Washington Post.
  18. ^ У Роўне з'явіцца вуліца Кастуся Каліноўскага. belsat.eu (in Belarusian). 2022-04-05.
  19. ^ У Чарнігаве з'явілася мемарыяльная дошка Кастусю Каліноўскаму. belsat.eu (in Belarusian). 2024-06-29.
  20. ^ Стыпендыяльная праграма Ураду Рэспублікі Польшча імя Кастуся Каліноўскага пад патранатам Старшыні Рады Міністраў РП [Scholarship program of the Government of the Republic of Poland named after Kastus Kalinowski under the patronage of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland] (PDF). Studium Europy Wschodniej Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego (in Belarusian). 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
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