Archival Sources on the Support of the January Uprising of 1863-1864 by the Inhabitants of Kherson Province of the Russian Empire and the Consequences for the Liberation Movement

Abstract

The aim of the article is to shed light on the influence of the January Uprising of 1863-1864 on ethnic Polish territory on the revival of the revolutionary and national liberation movement in the Kherson region. The research methodology is based on the principles of objectivity, historicism, systematics, analytical and synthetic critique of sources. The method of historical reconstruction helped to compile from the scattered facts a holistic view of the history of the liberation struggle of the Ukrainian and Polish peoples against tsarism. Scientific novelty is an attempt to systematize our knowledge of the situation in the Kherson region during and after the suppression of the January Uprising of 1863-1864. The main provisions of the article. From the first days of its existence, Kherson, Mykolayiv, Ochakiv, and Odessa had a multinational character due to the tsarist resettlement policy. The national and religious diversity of the region required meeting the urgent needs of the inhabitants. In 1849, Kherson became the center of the Catholic Diocese, which coveredthe southern European part of the Russian Empire. Throughout the nineteenth century, the national liberation struggle and the defense of their own national interests became the content of the Polishsocio-political movement, a powerful impetus for the protection of national culture, language, traditions and religion. The January Uprising, becoming the most massive of all Polish national liberation uprisings, contributed to the growth of national consciousness among a wider section of the Polish community. Conclusions. According to the author, the January Uprising of 1863-1864 had enough sympathizers in the Kherson province, because unlike the situation in Galicia, the Ukrainian and Polish cultural and educational movements were not competitors in the struggle for their own statehood. Despite the persecution and persecution that intensified after the defeat of the January Uprising, national movements continued to unfold in the following decades. At various stages, the Polish community was in search of new, including non-violent, ways to fight for the restoration of lost statehood. In recent decades, Ukrainian scholars have not paid much attention to the impact of the January Uprising on the southern region of Ukraine.