Society
The Russification policies were harsh, and there were many repressions, particularly in the aftermath of the November Uprising (1830–1831) and later, the January Uprising of 1863–1864. Many Poles were exiled to Siberia, some 80,000 of them in 1864 in the single largest deportation action commenced by the empire. Polish language was discriminated against, and it lost its official status. "Books were burned; churches destroyed; priests murdered;" wrote Norman Davies. There was no education in the Polish language, and publications in Polish were few. The only elementary schools were constantly underfinanced. The city of Warsaw under the Tsarist rule resembled a military base with exclusively Russian stores and clubs as well as 12 Russian garrisons in the city (along the streets of Czerniakowska, Koszyki, Żelaznej Bramy, Zakroczymska, Konwiktorska, Marszałkowska, Łazienki Królewskie, Przejazd, Petersburska and others) with newly-built horse stables and amenities like laundry shacks and cabbage pickleries.
Polish stores, where the Russian was not being spoken, were routinely denied license. Polish names were removed even from botanical signs. Hunger and poverty were rampant with record number of women working at Russian military brothels, of which there were some 185 in total, including 16 official ones (1884). In cheap army brothels sex could be bought for as little as 30 kopecks (less than 1/3 of a ruble); one woman for every 30 Russians stationed at a garrison, with beatings and instances of women getting killed by them in drunken rages. They were forced to drink with the clients, as a rule. Officers had their own brothels under the chief of police (1888–1895), known sex connoisseur Nikolai Kleigels (Russian: Клейгельс), selling young girls dressed in exotic costumes for 10 rubles a visit.
There was nonetheless growth in national consciousness, and the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907) resulted in the general improvement of the situation soon before the dissolution of the Empire. Some major political parties of the Second Polish Republic developed around that time in the Russian partition (ex. Polish Socialist Party).
Read more about this topic: Russian Partition
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