“Mesmerized by Napoleon”
The topic of Polish war prisoners from the Napoleonic Army in Kharkiv or in the Sloboda Ukraine province has already been covered in several publications[1]. The authors stay under the influence of the defeats and victories of the year 1812 and cases of the Sloboda Ukraine provincial secretariat of 1812-1813. Although it seems that the contact with the Poles, who were sympathetic to Napoleon, had occurred before. Even the events in Kharkiv from 1812 to 1813 need some clarification. Especially that the relations with the Polish war prisoners continued until 1816 (9, Universytetska Street, 49.991323, 36.230313).
A former professor at the Imperial Kharkiv University, Christoph Dietrich Rommel, recalled at the ebb of his life his stay in Kharkiv in 1814. His story becomes woolly when he writes about the captured French colonel Bissy, who was delighted with the return of the Bourbons and fastened a white cockade (the colors of this French dynasty). According to Rommel, this roused the indignation of French officers of the “Danzig garrison” and then of a passing Polish officer who wanted to tear off Bissy the National Order of the Legion of Honour granted him by Bonaparte, because he was not worth of wearing that combat decoration. Rommel inserts his own remark about “the fierce hatred of the Russians towards the Poles, mesmerized by Napoleon and not rewarded properly”, who “insulted openly the Prussian and Austrian monarchs”[2]. Attentive to xenophobia, Rommel primarily emphasizes the growing hostility to foreigners after the European campaigns of the Russian army (1813-1814). That is, not the presence of prisoners of war, but the attitude to them and their behavior are important.
The history of the Poles in the Napoleonic army is one of the main historiographic topics. The desire to revive the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the military successes of Napoleon attracted many Polish noblemen to his side. The immediate circle of the emperor and he personally were implicitly involved in the geopolitical game. Moreover, the history of the Poles in Napoleon’s army is an integral part of Poland’s national vision of the past (from composition of the national anthem “Poland is not yet lost…” down to the end of Adam Mickiewicz’s national epic “Pan Tadeusz”). It is widely thought that there were up to 100.000 Poles in the Great Army of Napoleon, approximately 14000 were taken captive by Russians. According to overall calculations, there were few prisoners in the Sloboda Ukraine province.
The failures of the Napoleonic army and the march of the Russian imperial army through the territory of the former Commonwealth increased the number of prisoners – supporters of the revival of this state and mercenaries, “soldiers of fortune”. Some of them came with escort to Kharkiv and to the Sloboda Ukraine province; there are documents about them in the State Archives of Kharkiv region, which were kept in the archive of a Sloboda Ukraine civil governor. Sergiy Potrashkov, in his article “War prisoners of the Great Army in the Sloboda Ukraine province”, notes that as early as July 1812, as soon as combat activities began, there were four Polish nobles in Kharkiv (there is no information on them, however). It is believed that one of the first of the captured Poles to come to Kharkiv was a sub-prefect Franz Svezynski (August 1812), who was captured together with his servant Mychailo in the town of Rubeshiv (Rubieszów) (Duchy of Warsaw)[3]. The arrival of captured French officers was also associated with the Poles. In January 1813, Brigadier General Gracian Ferriere, together with his servant Tomas Flensky, arrived in Kharkiv. There was also a Polish translator “Yegor” involved, who, however, did not match the general and was sent with other prisoners to the Caucasus[4].
And at the end of 1813 another captured Pole, General Dominique Dzevalsky (Dzevanovsky), arrived in the city from Chernihiv. He was a Knight of the Military Cross and a member of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (probably, it was him, who was connected with the incident with colonel Bissy, about which Rommel sincerely wrote). Together with Dzevalsky, also his servant Klykhovsky, colonel Mikhailo Sura and lieutenant-colonel Roginsky (alltogether six staff officers) were brought. This time, the number of captured Poles who permanently dwelled in Kharkiv proved to be very small – only 11 people (including two doctors – Simon Svytkovsky and Stanislav Romanovsky, and two pharmacists). The mention of them is significant in the absence of such specialists in the province. Other doctors – Seweryn Lashkevych and Fedir Gushpeka – began their practice in Kharkiv from October 1813. But this mention may be primarily related to the prisoners of war, not the local population. (The Sloboda Ukraine province and Kharkiv were significant transit areas through which groups of prisoners were sent to the Caucasus). In general, given the transit nature of the city, the maximum number of Polish prisoners of war who were in the city at the same point of time ranged from 20 to 350. The prisoners also had to spend different amount of time in the province: several days or months, and some of them – even several years. Various readings of the names and the nonstandard presentation of them in the documentation are also important. In the above mentioned article, Sergiy Potrashkov wrote that Sloboda Ukraine Governor Ivan Bakhtin was ordered to write their names and surnames in the register of prisoners in their native language. Groups of Polish captives sped up their movement through Kharkiv after an amnesty, being sent home from the North Caucasus (town Georgiyivsk) in 1814-1815. According to our estimation[5], in 1814, 1153 captured Poles passed through Kharkiv to Bilostok, and in a year, with changes of the tsarist government’s Polish politics, – 2321 people. Local authorities’ reports indicate that such “transferred persons” were largely peaceful. It was only in 1815 that they “rampaged” in Izyum, the county center of the Sloboda Ukraine province. But this document with details of the incident, unfortunately, almost did not survive[6].
The majority of the prisoners were located in large county centers (Okhtyrka, Lebedyn, Valky), with usual conflicts at the local level (there were fights, drunkenness, conflicts among their own kin). In this case, the behavior of two captured officers who were sent to Kharkiv – Marchevsky and Urbansky – is representative. They accused the Russian Army lieutenant Bilyavsky, who was accompanying them, of ill-treatment, because they were transferred shackled. However, Bilyavsky explained that in Minsk these captives were put in a disciplinary cell because they broke down the main guard room, beat the windows and grabbed the guard officer by the throat. In Chernihiv, Urbansky was rude to the head of the group and called him a “fool”, and tore another war prisoner’s, captain Opalynsky’s, shirt and challenged him to a duel, and smashed sub-lieutenant Bazhanok’s forehead with a smoking pipe, and bruised Bobchynsky’s eye. Already near Kharkiv, in Derkachi, both nobles “fought” the owner of the apartment, where they had stopped, and Bilyavsky was forced to pay 2 rubles for the damage they caused. Such adventures of Polish officers were no exception. Researcher of the everyday life of captives Sergiy Potrashkov noted in general on this occasion: “Forced idleness in the provincial back country, lack of communication with the outside world, limited communication with friends, the availability and cheapness of alcohol formed the moral and mental state that led to the facts of inadequate and aggressive behavior of war prisoners“[7]. The residence and transit of prisoners was a heavy burden on the shoulders of the local population and the provincial authorities: there was a lack of resources that hindered to provide them with clothing, food and appropriate escort. Sergiy Potrashkov noted in the aforementioned work “War prisoners of the Great Army in the Sloboda Ukraine province”, that there were other types of prisoners – taken as a trophy and sent to the landowners’ estates. They were not registered and were used as servants: men – for the learning of the landowners’ children, and women – for the landowners’ wives waiting for their husbands-officers.
According to the manifesto of Emperor Alexander I (April 6, 1814), Polish prisoners of war were allowed to go home, but, as the documentation shows, this process lasted until 1816. The main remark – for a long time it was the Poles who formed the basis of the captives of Napoleon’s Great Army in the Sloboda Ukraine province. The French, Germans or Italians could be counted on fingers. That is, “the Pole” served as the impersonation of the Napoleonic army “in the province.” Only the arrival of the Danzig garrison with wives substantially changed the disproportion in favor of the Germans and the French, and only in Kharkiv.
The most pitiful fact is that Polish captives, occasional visitors or even people involved in the beginnings of Kharkiv University (as, for example, the craftsman August Torszynski, summoned in 1804 together with German craftsmen, who was obviously Germanized Pole[8]) did not leave a significant intellectual print in Kharkiv until 1818. Polish language was too foreign for university circles. Kharkiv University’s curator Seweryn Potocki liked to speak French, and apparently the officers of the Great Army also adhered to this language. Kharkiv’s acquaintance with Polish culture occurred a little later, but as a consequence, not as a direct contact. A young teacher, Ivan Loboyko, who wanted to learn Polish in Kharkiv, could not find a native speaker or a proper tutor in 1816. That’s why he went “over the Bug.”
Acquaintance with Polish culture and Polish public figures, the presence of the Polish community became a reality in Kharkiv during the integration processes concerning the Kingdom of Poland, a little later than 1816-1818, when there were no Polish war prisoners in the city. Here, a relevant question arises: are figures, who unwillingly find themselves in a different environment, able to be carriers of culture and to preserve linguistic identity?
Sources of information:
1. Державний архів Харківської області (ДАХО). – Ф. 3. – Оп. 19. – Спр. 10. – Арк. 2-3, 23.
2. ДАХО. – Ф. 3. – Оп. 25. – Спр. 86. – Арк. 4.
3. ДАХО. – Ф. 3. – Оп. 27. – Спр. 37.
4. ДАХО. – Ф. 3. – Оп. 10. – Спр. 266. – Арк.17.
5. Елкин А.И. Пленные поляки в Слободско-Украинской губернии 1812-1814 // Вісник ХНУ ім. Каразіна. – Харків, 2014. – Вип.46. – С. 185-192.
6. Лобойко И.Н. Мои воспоминания. – Москва, 2013.
Prepared by PhD Volodymyr Masliychuk
[1] Refer to: Потрашков С.В. Военнопленные Великой армии в Слободско-Украинской губернии // Отечественная война 1812 г. Источники. Памятники. Проблемы. – Бородино, 1999. – С. 143-149; Його ж. Военнопленные Великой армии и губернские власти (по документам канцелярии Слободско-Украинского губернатора) // Отечественная война 1812 г. Источники. Памятники. Проблемы. – Москва, 2001. – С. 204-210; Елкин А.И. Пленные поляки в Слободско-Украинской губернии 1812-1814 // Вісник ХНУ ім. Каразіна. – Харків, 2014. – Вип.46. – С. 185-192.
[2] Роммель Кр. Д. Спогади про моє життя та мій час. – Харків: Майдан, 2001. – С.135.
[3] ДАХО. – Ф.3. – Оп.19. – Спр. 10. – Арк. 2-3.
[4] Ibidem. – Арк. 23
[5] Statistics is given on a basis of a table. Refer to: ДАХО. – Ф.3. – Оп. 25. – Спр. 86. – Арк. 4.
[6] ДАХО. – Ф.3. – Оп. 27. – Спр. 37.
[7] Citation of: Потрашков С.В. Военнопленные Великой армии и губернские власти… – С. 210.
[8] ДАХО. – Ф.3. – Оп. 10. – Спр. 266. – Арк. 17.