THE CONGRESS KINGDOM 2-451831 explicitly condemned the Rising, and praised the Tsar for its suppression.
In 1833, an abortive incursion into the Kingdom of Galicia by the indefatigable
Zaliwski encouraged the partitioning powers to synchronize their plans. At a
conference at Miinchengratz in Bohemia, Russian and Austrian negotiators
made provision for the common suppression of any future Polish troubles. The
Prussians were not slow to join them.^23
For nearly thirty years, the Congress Kingdom lingered on in name only. So
long as Nicholas and Paskievitch were alive, there was no chance of relief. One
by one, the surviving Polish institutions were dismantled. In 1837, the Polish
wojewodztwa (palatinates) were replaced by ten Russian gubemias. In 1839, the
Education Commission was abolished. All its schools were placed under
the direct control of the Ministry of Enlightenment in St. Petersburg. In 1841,
the Polish Bank lost its emissary rights; the Polish zloty was withdrawn from cir-
culation in favour of the rouble. In 1847, the Napoleonic Code was curtailed,
and the Russian Criminal Code introduced. In 1849, to the vast consternation of
the ordinary people, the Russian imperial system of Weights and Measures
replaced the 'New Poland' system of 1818; the mila (mile), the lokiec (yard), the
wloka (hide) of 16.8 hectares, the korzec (bushel) and cetnar (quintal of 100
kilograms) gave way to the versta (two-thirds of a mile), thearshin (28 inches),
the diesyatina (2.7 acres), the chetvert' (209.9 litres), and the pud (16.8 kg). To
all intents and purposes, the Kongresowka was dead. The attempt to revive it in
1861-4 produced another round of violent, and, as it proved, fatal convulsions.
Meanwhile, the prisoners and exiles bore their fate as best they could. Many did
not live to see the amnesty proclaimed at the start of the new reign of 1855.
Wincenty Niemoyowski died in 1834 on the road to the Urals. Krzyzanowski
died in Siberia in 1839. Lukasinski survived, but was not granted an amnesty.
Blinded and chained, he was one of the convicts whom the Grand Duke
Constantine had evacuated from Warsaw in December 1830. He eventually died
in the Schliisselburg prison in 1868, after forty-six years in total darkness — the
last pathetic symbol of the departed Polish Kingdom.