History
POLAND
Battle of Malogoszcz
By Dominik
Langiewicz began concentrating his forces
in the Holy Cross Mountains; he wanted
t o a t t a c k Wa r s aw w i t h t h e m , b u t
the Russians unveiled his attempts. He
was attacked by a few Russian forces
simultaneously. Langiewicz defeated them
all in many skirmishes. Polish forces grew
to 2,600 men.
This year is the 150 anniversary of the
January Uprising. The uprising began on
22 January 1863 and continued to 1864.
The January Uprising was in the
former
Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth against the Russian
Empire. It was the biggest Polish uprising
in a history. The insurrectionists, severely
outnumbered and lacking serious outside
support, were forced to resort to guerrilla
warfare tactics and despite earlier
victories, it’s ended in defeat.
Reprisals against insurgents included the
Tsar’s abolition of serfdom that granted
land at low value and was designed to
draw support of peasants away from the
Polish nation and disrupt the national
e c o n o m y. P u b l i c e x e c u t i o n s
and deportations to Siberia led many
Polish to abandon armed struggle and
turn instead to the idea of “organic
work”: economic and cultural selfimprovement. On Ma?ogoszcz territory
took place one of the most bloodily and
biggest battle in all
the January
Uprising . It happened on 24 February
1863. Polish general Marian
Russian colonel Dobrowolski attacked
near Ma?ogoszcz. The Russians shelled
Polish positions, but their attack was
eventually smashed by a Polish cavalry
c o u n t e ra t t a c k . L a n g i e w i c z o r d e r e d
a retreat. The battle was indecisive – the
Russians failed to annihilate the Polish
army and the Polish failed to defend their
positions. The inhabitants of Ma?ogoszcz
were helping insurgents and they were
dying with them. But despite of the
failure we are proud of our ancestors and
their sacrifice, cause their died for
freedom like real patriots, like real
Polish…