Poland's November Insurrection 1830-31

The Polish Prometheus (1831) - Horace Vernet (1789-1863)

Poland had been divided in 1795 between the Hohenzollern monarchy of Prussia (20%), the Habsburg monarchy of Austria (18%) and the Russian Czar (62%). The Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the defeat of Napolean confirmed Poland's partition and giving Russia an even larger chunk. In what came to be known as the November Insurrection, the Poles revolted against the rule of Czar Nicolaus I and fought a war against the Russians in 1830-31.

After the defeat of the revolution, many Polish intellectuals and political leaders fled to Germany (Prussia), France and the United States. Prussia was in the conservative period known as the Restoration. But sympathizers of republican government in Germany were especially inspired by the Polish freedom fight against Russia.

Horace Vernet's painting The Polish Prometheus represents Russia as an grim eagle, with its Polish victim lying prostate and the in flames behind.

This Britannica video gives a brief history of "Poland's changing borders."



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