THE THAW AND THE JANUARY RISING 26.1warfare, and was the prototype of similarly successful enterprises which the
Poles were to operate in similarly harsh conditions in 1905-7 and again during
the Second World War. It operated on the same ground as the Russian author-
ities, and in many cases doubled their functions. It was run by officials, who to
all outward appearances were ordinary citizens, officially employed as bank
clerks, postmen, or merchants, but who in reality were ministers, secretaries,
agents, or couriers of the National Government. It had five permanent
Ministries,' each with its separate staff, their seals of office, and their secretari-
ats in cellars and boxrooms. Its own great Seal bore the inscription: 'RZAD
NARODOWY - WOLNOSC, ROWNOSC, NIEPODLEGLOSC' (National
Government - Liberty, Equality, Independence). It possessed an efficient
Treasury, which collected taxes from volunteers by request and from recalci-
trants by force, and which received both loans, and protection money from
industrialists, landowners, and shopkeepers. It had a security corps of 'stiletto
men' who kept order in Warsaw, and an intelligence network which penetrated
all the civilian departments and military garrisons of the enemy. Its couriers
travelled by road and rail to all ends of the Empire. Its diplomatic agents circu-
lated in all the capitals of Europe. Yet apparently, it did not exist. As the new
military Governor, Field Marshal Feodor Berg (1793—1874), who took over
from Wielopolski, told the new Viceroy, the Grand Duke Constantine: 'I have
reached the conclusion that I do not belong to it myself; and nor does your
Imperial Highness.' (See Map 10.)
In April 1863, the Rising spread eastwards into Russia. Emissaries were sent
to all parts of the old Polish-Lithuanian Republic. The response was mixed. In
the Ukraine, there was a major outbreak at Miropol on the Slucz. But the bear-
ers of a Golden Letter written in Ukrainian and calling the locals to action, met
the same fate as the Russian Narodniki and were massacred by the peasants. In
Byelorussia, there was considerable activity both among the Jews at Pinsk and
in the countryside. Konstanty Kalinowski (1838-64), a Polish nobleman, who
operated in the region of Grodno and Biaiystok, published a rebel journal,
Muzhytskaia Pravda (Peasants' Truth), and is regarded as one of the founding
fathers of Byelorussian Nationalism. In Lithuania, the Rising briefly assumed
the same proportions as in the Kingdom. The work of the White leader Jakub
Gieysztor (1827-97), a lawyer from Wilno, was matched by that of the Red lieu-
tenant, Zygmunt Sierakowski (1826—63), among the peasants. The radical
priest, the Revd Antoni Mackiewicz (1827-63), remained in the field well into
- To the immense chagrin of the Russians, there is no doubt that Lithuania
opted for Poland at this time. The original Manifesto of the KCN had been
addressed to 'the nation of Poland, Lithuania, and Rutllenia'. In the summer of
1863, they showed by their deeds that this 'one nation' was no less a reality than
the 'one Empire' of Russia.
In the nature of things, military action was fragmented. Of the two hundred
thousand Poles who are estimated to have carried arms during the Rising, there
were never more than thirty thousand in the field at any one time. Most of them