God's playground: A history of Poland

[Wannabe Tatar]

Hello all and welcome to my new AAR. I hope this one will do better as my last two AARs, which ended due to personal reasons rather suddenly. As you might have expected, it’ll be about Poland and will be played with the latest version of VIP, with some custom events added from the beginning and more as time goes by. It’ll start with a few prologues describing the history of Poland after the Napoleonic Wars and their fight for freedom.

I hope you’ll enjoy this AAR.

Index

Part I: The November Uprising
Part II: The Russo-Polish War
Part III: The Treaty of Stockholm and the foundation of a new state
Part IV: Poland Reborn
Part V: The Defence of Krakow
Part VI: The Treaty of Krakow
Part VII: Changing Sides
Part VIII: The Crimean War and the Treaty of Paris
Part IX: The Times of Troubles
Part X: The Polish Gamble

[Wannabe Tatar]

Part I: The November Uprising

The Partitions of Poland wiped the country of the map of Europe for the time being. Due to the Napoleonic Wars and the Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw. But in the wake of the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna, the Polish nation was once again not on the maps of Europe. This time Poland was divided between Russia, Prussia and the Habsburg Empire. Initially the Poles had been given a large degree of autonomy over their internal affairs. The Polish estates could elect their own parliament, government; furthermore the Kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury.

Grand Duke Konstantin was installed by the Russian Tsar as the de facto ruler of Congress Poland. His efforts to strengthen the secret police and suppress the patriotic movements led to discontent amongst his subjects. Konstantin persecuted the liberal opposition, important post in the local administration and army were given to Russians. More often as not he insulted and assaulted his subordinates, which led to conflicts with the officer corps. The disobedience of the constitution, which he was personally proud of, brought conflict between him and the Sjem, who at that time was dominated by supported of a personal union with the Russian Empire

Grand Duke Konstantin

The November Uprising began when a group of conspirators under the leadership of Piotr Wysocki took up arms from their garrison and attacked the palace of the Grand Duke on the 29th of November 1831. The spark that finally ignited Warsaw was the Russian plan to send the Polish army to France and the Netherlands to suppress the July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution. During the night of 29th of November the insurgents captured the city’s arsenal after a short fight with Russian troops. With the acquired weapons, the Polish civilians managed to push the Russians out of Warsaw the following day. Taken by surprise the Polish government replaced unpopular ministers with the likes of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, who tried to negotiate a settlement with the Grand Duke. When the council heard that the Russians were willing to settle the matter amicably, Maurycy Mochnacki and other radicals wanted a national uprising. He advocated for a military campaign outside Poland, so to spare the country of the devastations of war. By the 3rd of December the entire Polish Army, except for two generals, defected.

The taking of the Warsaw Arsenal

Negotiations were held between the Tsar and the Polish government, but the Tsar demanded a complete and unconditional surrender by the Poles. And on 25 January 1831, the Sjem past a law, which dethroned Nicholas I as King of Poland, which ended the personal union between Poland and Russia and was effectively a declaration of war against Russia. By this time it was too late to move the theatre of operations to Lithuania, as a Russian army of 115,000 soldiers under the leadership of von Diebitsch, crossed the Polish borders. In what became known as the Polish War of Independence, the Battle at Stoczek was the first battle where Polish and Russian troops met. With a victory for the Poles there, Polish morale was high and many believed that an independent Poland was becoming a reality. But within a month of several clashes with the Russian forces, the Polish were being pushed back to the capital. Polish forces prepared to defend their capital on the right bank of the Vistula and on 25 February 1831, a 40,000 men strong Polish army encountered a Russian force of 60,000. After two days of heavy fighting, both sides withdrew after sustaining heavy losses. For the time being Warsaw was saved and Diebitsch was forced to withdraw to Siedlice.

The Battle of Olszynka Grochowska

Sympathetic echoes of the Polish dream for independence were spreading through Europe, just as the Greek and Belgian cause had done. Especially in France and Britain the people supported an independent Polish state, but unlike the people the governments of those nations didn’t actively support an independent Poland. King Louis-Phillipe of France sought recognition for himself from the European nations; and the British government sought to keep her relationships with Russia warm and at the same time feared an independent Poland would weaken Russia, as Britain might need her services once again in the cause of order and to prevent Poland to become a French province of the Vistula. Both Prussia and Austria, who had significant Polish communities in the bordering provinces, remained benevolently neutral towards Russia. Both were quick to close the borders with Poland to prevent the transportation of any munitions or war supplies to Poland. Regarding these circumstances, the future for Poland started to look dark and disquieting.

[RGB]

Interesting there. This is either going to be among the shortest AAR ever or one of the greatest, most successful nationalist liberation wars of history.

PS: Love the pictures.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I've always enjoyed playing a liberated Poland, not to mention its Wannabe Tatar so I'm sure this AAR will be a treat

Keep going

[robou]

A fantastic start, and we are very glad to have you back here in AARland. I wonder if Poland can negotiate with the Russians? I somehow doubt it, perhaps a battle of the Vistula River will be the decideing factor. Love the pictures as well, quite brilliant.
Consider me Subscribed
Rob

[asd21593]

*Interested*

I've never seen a Vicky-Poland AAR.

Good luck

By the way, Konstantin looks like a baby



asd

[Sematary]

Well Wannabe Tatar is a very good writer so I am going to have to read this from the start. Glad to catch one from the start.

[Cinéad IV]

A Poland AAR! I'm sold

*subscribes*

[Ahura Mazda]

Well Wannabe Tatar is a very good writer so I am going to have to read this from the start. Glad to catch one from the start.

Me to!

[kalenderee]

Subscribed. Are you starting as Krakow, or getting more creative with your modding?

[stnylan]

I very much look forward to what you will be able to go with this.

[DerKaiser]

A free Poland? Potentially, could be a very strong state... I look forward to it!

[Prinz Wilhelm]

Love the idea! Glad I was looking for something to read or I wouldn't have spotted this lying around!

[TheExecuter]

Ah, at LAST! Someone is going to do it!

*Subscribed*
TheExecuter

[Mr.Forn@L]

Very nice start and i'm looking to read more But i finded one spelling error. It schould be Sejm not Sjem

[Libri]

Well I don't know if to cry or applaud.....cry because I've been planning for six months to do an independent Poland AAR as my entry into this forum....or applaud for a new Wannabe Tarter AAR! Oh heck with it...yay! Will be following this one.

Interesting set up.....I assume you're going with General Puzyrevsky's analysis that the Poles could have won the 1831 uprising with some better choices. Will be interesting to see how you shape this....I was going for an earlier departure from OTL, basically pushing the 1828 Russo Turkish war back a few years, and even then I felt compelled to resort to a deus ex machina to give a result that seemed plausible. I'm also interested in seeing what borders and cores you give your Poland. Will you be setting up a Polish monarchy or a Republic?

[Maximilliano]

A Wannabe Tartar AAR? Count me in!

[likk9922]

Great start. Well written, historically plausible... I like it. I will follow this one.

[Wannabe Tatar]

@kalenderee: I'll have to do some extensive modding to create this Poland.

@DerKaiser: Or it could be just as easily crused between Austria, Prussia and Russia.

@Libri: Indeed, I'll change some decisions as it's requires less altering with the timeline. As for cores and bounderies, they'll receive the cores of a 1918 Poland at least, perhaps some more if the Radicals have their way. The bounderies will at least consist of the Congress Poland borders and perhaps some more, depending on how the Russo-Polish war goes. As for the style of government, it'll be giving away too much

@The rest: Thanks for all your comments.

[Ahura Mazda]

A presidential dictatorship? Oh please, please let me have a Polish presidential dictatorship a lá Robespierre!