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Senators divided on honouring 1863 insurgency

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 24.07.2012 17:24
Tuesday saw impassioned debates in the Polish Senate, where plans are underfoot to honour a doomed insurrection against Tsarist Russia on the occasion of its 150th anniversary in 2013.

Tsarist
Tsarist troops in Warsaw in lead-up to insurrection: photo - wikipedia

The so-called January Insurrection, sometimes called the January Uprising, erupted in 1863, almost seventy years after the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was wiped from the map by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

“We are talking about heroes who sacrificed their lives and who deserve to be remembered with special honour in our culture and history,” said Chairman of the Senate's Committee on Culture Grzegorz Czelej of conservative party Law and Justice, as quoted by the Polish Press Agency.

Nevertheless, veteran film director Kazimierz Kutz, an independent senator, is against making 2013 the Year of the January Insurrection.

“This doesn't make any sense,” he argued.

“The January Insurrection was one of the worst disasters that Poles have suffered throughout our history,” he said.

Kutz reflected that the intentions of the insurgents were “beautiful”, but that in his opinion, the Senate should honour a theme that “awakens positive energy,” as opposed to one connected with "martrydom."

Besides executions of insurgents, tens of thousands were deported to Siberia, and countless properties were confiscated.

The dreams of the insurgents were finally realised in 1918, when Polish independence was recovered in the wake of the First World War. (nh)

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