2.6 NAROD
imperial regimes. They knew few moments of success; and each of their abortive
adventures provoked waves of repression which vastly multiplied the injustices
they were seeking to remove.
The leading advocates of insurrectionary nationalism included the 'Belvedere
Group' of November 1830; the Polish Democratic Society (TDP), which co-
ordinated conspiratorial enterprises from abroad between 1832 and 1846;
the 'Reds' of Warsaw's City Committee, who launched the Rising of 1863; the
'revolutionary wing' of the Polish Socialist Party, whose fighting squads played
such a prominent role in 1905-7; the Polish Legions of the First World War, and
the Home Army (AK) of the Second World War. As militants devoted to their
cause, their lives tended to be intense, principled, and short. These men, whose
views of social issues were often as radical as on the national issue, were the pro-
totypes of 'Les Justes' — the terrorists, revolutionaries, and 'anarchists' who
appeared in many parts of Eastern Europe at the end of the century.
Understandably enough, insurrectionary nationalism was specially influen-
tial abroad. The Polish Cause provided the natural preoccupation of political
emigres, who had nothing more to lose, and was espoused by a variety of
European liberals ever ready for a cheap crusade in distant parts. 'Poland'
became a symbol of other people's frustrations. It sprang to the lips of Heine,
and especially of Victor Hugo who in 1847 addressed the National Assembly in
Paris where in the following year the gallery rang to shouts of 'Vive la Pologne!'
It attracted multitudes of well-wishers, but few active supporters of conse-
quence. It inspired a stream of diplomatic notes, but not a single demonstration
of intent by the Powers. One of the strongest elements of its appeal lay in the fact
that its cause was thought to be 'lost'. When Alexander II talked of Polish 'rever-
ies' and Bismarck of 'Polonismus', they had exactly the same thing in mind - the
virulent concoction of misguided hopes and false sentimentality. Meanwhile,
Polish emigres were cheerfully exploited on other people's business. The fate of
Bonaparte's Polish Legions in Haiti was far from unique. Poles have appeared,
like Irishmen, in all of Europe's revolutionary confrontations with great regu-
larity. They fought in large numbers on the barricades in Paris in 1848; in Italy
and in Hungary in 1848-9 and in 1859-60; and in the Paris Commune of 1871.
Like Adam Mickiewicz, who died in Turkey in 1855 whilst trying to organize a
Legion for service against Russia in the Crimea, they often sought a hero's death
in distant parts; and some of them, like Jaroslaw D^browski (1836-71),
Commander-in-chief of the forces of the Paris Commune, actually found it.
Others lived out their lives in loneliness andisolation. Jozef Bern (1794-1850),
one-time Commander of the Hungarian Insurrectionary Army, died in Syria, in
the Turkish service; Henryk Kamienski (1813-66), theoretician of the People's
War, died in Algiers; Ryszard Berwinski (1819-79), Mickiewicz's assistant and
fellow-poet, died alone in Constantinople.
Of these insurrectionists, none was more typical than Ludwik Mierostawski
(1814-78). As a youth he fought in the November Rising. As an emigre, he
joined the Carbonari, and belonged to a 'Young Poland' in the image of