By the end of the 1860s, political circumstances had changed. In 1865, following a failed uprising against Russia by Poles, the autonomous Congress Poland was abolished. After having struggled with Russian authorities, the Uniate bishop Mikhail Kuzemsky issued a letter of resignation and left Chełm. His resignation was not accepted by the Vatican, while the Russian authorities appointed a Galician Russophile priest, Markell Popel, as administrator of the Eparchy, despite Popel's living in open concubinage.