On 31 October 1906 Marian Malinowski set off, as he himself put it, “on a journey into the unknown at government expense.”
On the night of 6 to 7 July (24/25 June old style) 1866, 5,000 kilometres east of their homeland, a group of January insurgents sent to Baikal for penal labour stirred up a rebellion, disarmed their guards and tried to forge an escape route to Mongolia.
“Poles! The hour of vengeance has come. Today die or prevail! Let us go, and let your breasts be Thermopylae for your enemies!”
Prayer of the Bar Confederates before the Battle of Lanckorona, oil painting by Artur Grottger.
