ROLE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY OF THE NORTHWESTERN KRAI OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE 1863 POLISH UPRISING

• Main Author: Alexandre Yu Bendin
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2018-12-01
• Series: RUDN Journal of Russian History
• Subjects: Polish-Catholic elite; Roman catholic priests; sacred status of the Roman Catholic clergy; M.N. Muravyov
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/russian-history/article/viewFile/19106/16041
• ISSN: 2312-8674; 2312-8690

The article considers the problems of forming the religious component of the Polish uprising in 1863 in the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. The author analyzes the peculiarities of the relationship between the Roman Catholic clergy and its laity in the process of the religious mobilization of the participants in the uprising. The article reveals the methods of influence of the radically-minded clergy on the consciousness and political behavior of the laity. There is shown that the spiritual power of the Roman Catholic clergy was used to achieve the political goals of the liberation of Poland. There is established the relationship between the religious motivation of the participants in the uprising and the brutality towards the law-abiding population in various forms of insurgent terror and violence. The author comes to the conclusion that radically-minded Roman Catholic priests and monks managed to turn the church doctrine into a mobilizing ideology of the armed struggle. Religious legitimization, propaganda and organization of the armed uprising turned a part of the Roman Catholic clergy of the Northwestern Krai into a political enemy of the Russian Empire. The article deals with the retaliatory measures of punishment applied to the rebellious representatives of the clergy on the part of the administration of M.N. Muravyov, which were caused by the conditions of martial law, the necessity to protect the territorial integrity of the state, to protect the lives and property of law-abiding citizens. In this regard, the Russian government, army, society and the Orthodox population of Lithuania and Belarus perceived the uprising as an attempt on the part of the Polish separatists on the ancestral Russian territory. Therefore, for the Russian side, the goals of the armed struggle were not the return of the Polish land, but the morally justified protection of the Russian land and the Russian people living in the West who had the same faith. In this regard, the author comes to the conclusion that in the process of preparing and carrying out the uprising, some of the Roman Catholic clergy of the Northwestern Kraiacted as a political enemy of the Russian Empire.