Viktor Bilotas
Who were they, why were they exiled, how many women and children were among them? How did they arrive in exile? Dr. Viktor Bilotas of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas writes about the results of research conducted in the archives of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Krasnoyarsk on exiles from the Vilnius, Kaunas, and Augustów Governorates during the January Uprising.
Between 2016 and 2018, the Lithuanian Cultural Council funded the “Lithuanian Siberia” project. Through visits to the archives of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Krasnoyarsk, its participants acquired approximately 3,000 copies of documents relating primarily to exiles from the Augustów, Vilnius, and Kaunas Governorates. Analysis of the data shows that the majority of post-January exiles came from the Kaunas Governorate (688 people), the Vilnius Governorate (278), and the Augustów Governorate (49). Most of those sentenced to exile lived in the Panevėžys, Šiauliai, and Kaunas counties of the Kaunas Governorate, and in the Trakai County of the Vilnius Governorate. This uneven distribution becomes understandable when compared to the map of active uprising activity in 1863-1864; undoubtedly, the zones of activity and the residences of most exiles overlap.
Who were they?
Among the exiles from the three aforementioned governorates, there were 70 married couples and 149 children of both sexes. There were a total of 74 adult women, and 804 men. In percentage terms, these data are as follows: children (aged up to 18) constituted approximately 15% of the study group, their parents approximately 14%, and the remaining approximately 70% were single men. Single people predominated among the exiles – 437 of them, while 136 men and 66 women were married. About half of the married men were exiled with their families. A total of three widowed individuals were recorded.
Researchers found 624 records regarding the religious affiliation of exiles. The vast majority (615, or 99%) identified themselves as Roman Catholics, four as Jews (Gurwicz, Fitel, Krawiec, Szerok), three as Orthodox (Diewgun, Kolesnikov, Truchszyn). There was also one Old Believer (Kasztelan) and one Lutheran (Hercman).
In 866 cases, the documents allow us to determine the social origins of the exiles, which allows us to estimate, to some extent, the percentage distribution of various social groups. This also indirectly indicates the proportions of representatives of different classes among the participants in the Uprising. In the analyzed set of documents, 491 exiles were listed as peasants, 97 as townspeople or urban dwellers, 193 as nobility, 8 as clergy, 42 as farmers, and 35 as landowners. Therefore, it was primarily peasants and nobility who were exiled to Siberia.
Among the exiles there were noblemen with the following surnames: Abramowicz, Alkimowicz, Baranowski, Bekin, Beludski, Bielski, Bogdanowicz, Bołtuc, Bortkiewicz, Bujwid, Bukamowicz, Bukowski, Butkiewicz, Chamski, Chodorowicz, Czechowicz, Czertożewski, Dąbrowski, Danilewicz, Daniłowicz, Dyrmont, Dobrowolski, Domaszewicz, Domkowski, Doviat, Gojlewicz, Franckiewicz, Gaziewicz, Giedrojć, Gerwiatowski, Gąsniewski, Gregorowicz, Grieniewicz, Grzywaczewski, Ignatowicz, Iwanowski, Iwiański, Iwowicz, Jackowski, Jałynski, Januszkiewicz, Jawojsza, Józefowicz, Jucewicz, Kaczyński, Kamiński, Karłowski, Kerbidż, Kłopotowski, Kochanowski, Kochański, Konstantynowicz, Konuszewski, Koryzna, Korsak, Koszka, Kosko, Kowalewski, Kozełło, Kożeniewski [Korzeniewski?], Krasowski, Krupowicz, Krzecanowicz, Lenartowicz, Lewandowski, Limont, Lipniewicz, Mackiewicz, Majtekanis, Malicki, Markowski, Mejer, Michajłowski, Myszkowski, Monkiewicz, Muraszko, Narkowicz, Narutowicz, Nowicki, Nowodworski, Nowogoński, Obremski, Paszkowski, Pawłowicz, Pawłowski, Pilkiewicz, Pitota, Pogroszewski, Protasiewicz, Radel, Rymkiewicz, Ryży, Rogalski, Romaszewski, Romaszowski, Rusecki, Sarzeczewski, Sidowski, Siemaszko, Sinkiewicz, Skinder, Skokowski, Skroczyński, Sobolewski, Sokołowski, Staniewicz, Stankiewicz, Sutkiewicz, Sutkowski, Szymanowski, Szmatowicz, Szołoczko, Tuczyński, Uwojn, Wasilewski, Wilk, Witkowski, Wojna, Wojszwillo [Wojszwiłło?], Wołodko, Wołowicz, Wądilowski [Wądołowski?], Wrocki, Wruciński, Zabłocki, Zaremba, Zdrojewski.
To help readers better understand the tragedy of exile, we will cite the example of one of the deported families. Nobleman Józef Ryży from the Dzieśnia County in the Vilnius Governorate was accused of belonging to an insurgent unit and “political dissent.” In 1864, the 53-year-old man was forced into exile in the Tomsk Governorate (approximately 4,000 km away). Józef was accompanied by his 46-year-old wife, Placyda, four daughters, and four sons. The eldest, Kamila, was 24, and the youngest, Aneta, was 9.
Why were they exiled?
In most of the cases studied, the documents accompanying the exiles, including their rosters, contained charges (often two or three) on the basis of which the individual was sentenced to exile. The most common such charge in the materials examined was membership in an insurgent unit, or “к шайке мятежников,” as Tsarist officials wrote (283 cases). A more general definition of guilt—participation in an uprising—was cited 164 times. Even more general terms—political crime or political dissent—were cited 86 and 67 times, respectively. Direct military action against the Tsarist army was mentioned in only 22 indictments.
Many people provided aid to the insurgents, both material and spiritual. “Relationships with the insurgents” were mentioned 32 times. Other instances of assistance provided are fewer, but sufficiently diverse to allow for a partial reconstruction of the history of public support for the uprising. The most frequently mentioned assistance included providing food (16 instances) and calling on others to join the insurgents (15); less frequently, providing shelter (4), concealing information about the insurgents, failing to report to the authorities (3), reading insurgent manifestos or signing an appeal (Father Korzeniewski, Father Wałowski, Żylewicz), as well as sewing clothes and uniforms (Fitel, Klaiszewicz, Szerok) and treating the wounded (Rukolc).
Among those punished by exile were those who had aided the insurgents in their fights. According to the charges, information on enemy troop movements was provided by Czopas and Paszkiewicz from the Kovno Governorate, and Sokołowski and Jaworowski from the Vilnius Governorate; Gudas, Zdrajewski, Molawski, Towtkiewicz, and Skrotski provided weapons and gunpowder; Petrovsky repaired the weapons; and Bojarys donated his scythe.
Some of the reasons for exile were downright absurd: suspicion of committing a crime (8 cases), intention to join the insurgents (5), failure to stop the insurgents (Sawdorg and Szymkus), greeting the insurgents with the sound of a bell (Michajłowski) or playing the organ (Jackowski), the passage of the insurgents through their own land (Iwiański), searching for the portrait of the emperor (Sviatokh), words directed against the authorities (Mickiewicz), handing over the flag (Grygolunowicz).
All the people mentioned were not exiled at the same time, but over a period of almost 10 years (1863–1872), with only a few people being exiled in 1863 and 1869–1872, and several hundred in 1864–1866. 1,015 people were deported or sent after deportees, and 12 were sent to Siberia “as recruits.”
Routes to Places of Exile
The materials we worked with, came from the former governorate capitals of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Krasnoyarsk. These documents certify the locations of exiles in the Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Yenisei provinces, respectively. One might assume that all exiles were transported to their places of exile by the shortest route, but archival data show that this was not always the case.
The analyzed documents contain 486 references to long stops en route to Siberia. Most of these stops, according to archival data, occurred east of Lithuania: in the Tula, Moscow, and Vladimir governorates. Nearly 27% of the exiles were held in the Tula governorate at various times. A total of 205 exiles (approximately 42% of all known cases) were temporarily held in these three governorates.
As already mentioned, however, the eastern route was not the only one. Exiles left Lithuania not only via the eastern route through Smolensk and Kaluga, but also through Pskov and Tver in the northeast, and through Oryol, Kursk, Poltava, and Kherson in the southeast. In this way, the tsarist authorities likely wanted to avoid a concentration of exiles in one place.
Most of the exiles (about 15 percent) were sent east through Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, and Samara. Another 14 percent were sent north through Yaroslavl, Kostroma, and Arkhangelsk. Eight percent were sent southeast to Astrakhan. Finally, the remaining 3 percent were transported northeast through Vyatka and Perm.
The destinations of exile indicated in the documents examined are naturally concentrated in the regions where they were created and stored. The Tobolsk Governorate is the most frequently mentioned (444), followed by Tomsk Governorate (360), while the Yenisei Governorate is mentioned 104 times.
Women
At least 66 women followed their husbands to Siberia, bringing with them 149 children. This means that families accounted for almost a third of all exiles. However, several women were exiled directly for their participation in the uprising. It is possible that some of them were resettled on false charges, perhaps with the aim of seizing their homes and land. Here are the names of the “political” exiles: Aleksandra Babiańska, Anna Beludska, Elżbieta Abramowicz, Placyda Grinevich – all noblewomen. Elżbieta (46) was accused of ties to the rebels, Anna (51) of “political crime,” and Aleksandra and Placida (30) of “political dissent.”
The Tomsk Archives also contain lists of political exiles. The governorates from which they arrived in 1864–1865 are not listed, only that they came from the Western Krai, meaning Lithuania in the broadest sense of the word. Anna Dąbrowska was exiled to the Tomsk Governorate for possessing passport forms and delivering documents to insurgents; Karolina Wasilewska and her five children were exiled for their association with the insurgents; Karolina Dobszewicz and her daughter were exiled for providing shelter to insurgents; Zofia Żaromska – for accepting and delivering food; Józefa Zubrzycka – for contacts with the insurgent Szteinar and delivering food to him in the forest; Katarzyna Kmit – for hosting insurgents; Kazimiera Plichta – as “hardened in patriotic convictions”; Karolina Staniewicz with two children – for “harboring” the unit commander and several insurgents; Leontyna Sernycka – for participating in the uprising and for insulting words directed at the emperor; Anna and Michalina Malewicz – for giving shelter to the insurgents and providing them with food.
The reason for the exile of the remaining seven women was not specified, and it is unclear which part of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth they came from: the Kingdom of Poland or Lithuania. Their names are: Aleksandra Romaszewska, Palmira Biniewicz, Benigna Żylewicz, Anna Romaszewska, Elżbieta Tobieńska, Karolina Gintowt, and the aforementioned Aleksandra Babiańska. We know the latter’s “guilt”—”political dissent,” so we can assume a similar charge against the remaining six.
Clergy
We have already mentioned two exiled priests – Jan Korzeniewski and Michał Wałowski – who were punished by exile for reading the uprising’s manifesto in churches. However, several dozen Lithuanian clergy also found themselves in Siberia after the uprising. Archival documents about many of them have survived.
Thus, in the materials of the Tobolsk archive one can find mentions of Abbot Zefiryn Rusecki and Father Wincenty Mossiej, exiled for “inciting peasants to rebellion”; of the “politically unreliable” Father Augustyn Bohusz; of Father Kazimierz Choromański, who “possessed a forbidden weapon”; and of Jerzy Wołoszyński, who “delivered patriotic sermons.”
Documents from the Tomsk archives also mention priests exiled for inciting people to take part in the uprising (Józef Gegużyński) and maintaining contacts with rebels (Cyprian Skirmont). Also sent to the Tomsk Governorate were Józef Bartoszewicz, Augustyn Wojsznar, Mikołaj Girtowicz, Julian Kiełpsz, Joseph and Placyd Szarkowski. Between 1865 and 1869, they were joined by priests Jerzy Bakiewicz, Jan Witkiewicz, Józef Dawidowicz, Dominik Żuk, Dominik Kozicki, Ambroży Kossarzewski, Jerzy Kossiłowski, Józef Ławkowicz, Leopold Urbanowicz, and Ambroży Schulz.
Priests attempted to continue their ministry in exile. Józef Dawidowicz distinguished himself most in this field, demonstrating zeal not only in preaching the Word of God and administering the sacraments, but also in organizing clandestine schools for children and charitable work. “I used the money I received to help the poor. Specifically, I gave 25 rubles to a certain Zieliński, who had returned to the Kingdom of Poland. I gave 25 rubles to the Rodziewicz family, a poor family living near the post office, another 2 rubles, and a third ruble. I often gave tea and sugar to the sick in the hospital and to many others whom I don’t remember, and some of whom I didn’t even know. The main expense was supporting an 80-year-old woman named Irunowicz with two small children, a crippled old man named Dobrowolski, Dombrowski with three small children, one of whom died, and the two small children of the Terasewicz family,” the documents read.
The archives also mention exiles who died in Siberia, returned to their homeland, or voluntarily remained in this harsh region—for example, several priests from Lithuania who, after serving their sentences, remained in Siberia to serve their fellow believers. After his release, Jerzy Bakiewicz until his death in 1882 assisted the Tomsk parish priest. Józef Bartoszewicz also assisted the Tomsk parish priest, but in a distant branch in the village of Spasskie, until his death in 1885. Augustyn Wojsznar was a vicar in Tomsk, where he died in 1888. Dominik Żuk lived in Kuznetsk and Mariysk (Tomsk parish) until 1889. Ambroży Kosarzewski was also a Tomsk vicar (he died in 1880). Grzegorz Kossiłowski was vicar in Mariysk until 1881, and in Krasnoyarsk from 1881 to 1887. Józef Ławkowicz assisted in Tomsk and Mariysk until 1882, and from 1882 to 1890 was vicar in Irkutsk. Wincenty Mosiej resided in Omsk until 1881, served in Tobolsk (1881–1883), and in Spasskoye and Kainsk in the Tomsk Governorate from 1883 to 1911. Information about the activities and travel routes of these shepherds can also be found in parish records preserved in the archives.
Viktor Bilotas (PhD) – researcher at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas
Translated from Polish: Katarzyna Remża (Sybir Memorial Museum)