Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia - Viceroy of Poland

Viceroy of Poland

In 1861, the Russian sector of Poland, partitioned since the previous century, was disturbed and under martial law. Alexander II needed a skillful governor for Poland and decided to appoint Constantin for the job. In early 1862, Konstantin arrived in Warsaw as the new Namiestnik of the Kingdom of Poland. On 4 July 1862, his second day as Governor-General, a tailor's apprentice and Polish nationalist named Jaroszyński saw him leaving a Warsaw theater, and shot him; the bullet grazed the Grand Duke in the shoulder, but left him otherwise unhurt. Konstantin described the attack as follows: "I went into the square", he wrote, "and a man came from the crowd approaching me. Form the breast he pulled a pistol, and fired. I ran back to the theater, otherwise I would have been dead."

Although the Tsar sent him a telegram ordering him to return to St. Petersburg at once, Konstantin preferred to stay, and his wife Grand Duchess Alexandra supported him. His assailant was tried and hanged and Konstantin publicly appealed to the citizens of Warsaw to end the violence. After this attack, he was always escorted by a contingent of Cossacks wherever he went.

In July 1862, Konstantin's wife gave birth to the couple's sixth and last child in Warsaw. As a compliment to the Poles, they decided to give their son a Polish name, Vacslav, but the Russians insisted that the true Russified form, Vyacheslav, should be used, a compromise which pleased neither nation. Alexander II's second son, Grand Duke Alexander, was sent to Warsaw to stand as a godfather to the child. A large, clumsy youth of seventeen, the future Alexander III spilt a decanter of red wine at the dinner table. Konstantin, with his abrupt manners, scolded his clumsy nephew, remarking "See what a pig they have sent us from St. Petersburg". The future Alexander III would never forget this insult and for the rest of his life he bore a grudge against his uncle.

Konstantin sympathized with the Poles and, ignoring the advice of his brother's generals, he ended martial law and embarked on a program of liberalization. Polish was reinstated as the official language, universities were opened and Konstantin appointed Poles to administrative positions, gathering a distinguished court of Poles and Russians around him. Konstantin did all he could to appease the Poles, but his well-meant reforms did not go far enough for the Polish nationalists who wanted nothing short of independence, by force if necessary.

Acting on the advice of the Emperor, Konstantin ordered a forcible conscription of certain young Poles. The move, announced on New Year's Day 1863, was designed not to reinforce the rolls of the Army, but to round up a number of dangerous young nationalist radicals. The measure backfired, marking the outbreak of the so-called January Uprising. National resistance turned to general rebellion that spread into the nine formerly Polish provinces known as Russia's western region, where powerful landlords and Catholic clergy were ready to give vent to their hatred of Russian domination.

Intense fighting, protest, strikes, and even political assassinations, all threatened to undermine the advances that Konstantin had pushed so strenuously. He then had to declare martial law and severely repressed the uprising. Although adept when it came to naval matters, Konstantin had little taste for political fights, and none for ruthlessly crushing revolts. In August 1863, he asked the emperor to relieve him of the post of Viceroy, and Alexander II, aware of how tormented his brother had become by the situation in Warsaw, accepted his resignation. The insurrection was finally quelled in May 1864, when the more conservative Count Frederik Vilhelm Rembert von Berg was sent to replace Konstantin as viceroy.