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.
Years ago, Poles, like Ukrainians today, did not want to be a Russian colony. They dreamed of their own independent country.
On 12 February 1833, Aleksander Czekanowski was born in Krzemieniec in Volhynia. He trained as a geologist, but was not given the freedom to pursue his career as he was sent to Siberia at the age of 30 for taking part in the January Uprising.
