The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-25 00:00:00

ADDRESS TO THE RUSSIAN ARMY.

The Polish central democratic committee begs to
send a copy of the subjoined address to the Rus•
sian army to the editor of The Sun, and expects
from his well-known sympathies its speedy inser-
tion :

THE FREE RUSSIAN COMMUNITY TO THE
RUSSIAN SOLDIERS IN POLAND.

Brothers,—At last the Czar has succeeded in calling
down war upon Russia.
His colleagues, fearing their peopleimore than any other
enemy have in vain shuffled back and made every conces-
sion. He has succeeded in provoking them to a contest.
He has had no pity for Russian blood. But we, Russians
and Poles, exiles in the land of the stranger, we shed tears
at the recital of these exorbitant levies, of these heavy
surcharges imposed upon the people, of our soldiers hurried
on by thousands to a useless death.
To die for a just cause is noble. It is for this that man's
heart contains courage, fortitude, devotion, love. But to
perish without serving one's fellows for a caprice of the
Czar, that is indeed pitiful. The whole world cornpa,s-
siona,tes the Turks- not from sympathy with them, but
because their cause is just. They are attacked, and they
have indeed the right of self-defence.
And our poor soldiers ? They shed their blood in tor-
rents, fight valiantly, heap the ground with their dead
bodies, and no man, save us, laments their fate, no man
appreciates their bravery.
The Czar says that he is defending the othodox church.
But it is not attacked ; and, if the Sultan has oppressed it,
why then has the Czar kept silent since 1828 ?
The lot of Christians, adds the Czar, is hard in Turkey.
We have never heard that the Christians in Turkey are
more oppressed than the peasants are with us, especially
those who, by the Czar's command, are given in bondage
to the nobles. Would it not be better to begin by freeing
the slaves at home ; these, too, are orthodox, and, what is
more, they are Russians !
No ; the Czar defends no cause, he has no good object
in view. He is solely guided by his pride, and it is for
that pride, that he sacrifices your blood. Yours, we say,
not his own ! He is too much in love with that
Have you ever seen him in front of your ranks ? Not on
parade grounds, but—on fields of battle ?
It is he that has begun the war; may it fall solely on
his own head ! May it set a limit at our sad state of stag-
nation !
After 1812 came the 26th of December
What will come after 1854 ?
Shall we, then, be so slothful as to let the present hour
escape ; such an hour as will not return for long ? Shall
we not bo able to profit by the storm called down by the
Czar upon himself ?
We ho;.e, we have faith
See Poland. Hardly did the news of war reach her,
when already she raises her head again, and awaits but the
first opportunity to reclaim her rights, her freedom
What will you do when the Polish nation shall fly to
arms ?
Your lot is the worst of all. Your comrades in Turkey
are soldiers; and you, who are in Poland, will you be
merely executioners? Your victories they will cover you
with shame ; you will have to blush for your courage. ;le
blood of kinsmen is washed out with difficulty. Beware of
again deserving the name of Cain. It might cleave to you
ever after.
We know well that it would bo from no wish of yours
if you were to march against the Poles. But it is time
you should have a will of your own ! Du you think it easy,
then, to constrain the will of thousands in arms, who
understand one another ?
One day, we no longer remember in what province,
when the new administration of the crown domains was
introduced, some peasants revolted (it was the case in nearly
all the provinces). Troops were sent for; the peasants did
not disperse. The general ordered his men to load. The
soldiers executed this order, supposing it to have been
merely given for frightening the insurgents. But the
people were not intimidated. Then the general gave the
colonel the sign to fire. The latter uttered the order, the
soldiers presented, but did not pull their triggers.
Amazed, the general dashed up and himself cried—Fire !
The soldiers grounded their arms, and remained motionless.
Well, whel, think you was done to these soldiers ? Abso-
lutely nothing. The commanding officers were so afraid
of the business, that they passed it over in silence.
That is an example of what you may do. But abstaining
is not all. The hour is come to range yourselves on the
side of the poor Russian people, as the Polish army did for
its own in 1831.
We are approaching a mighty period. Let it not be said
that, in so solemn a moment, so terrible a one, you have
been left without brotherly advice.
,We forewarn you of the danger that threatens you. We
wish to preserve you from a crime. Have confidence in us.
It is the Russia of the future that speaks to you through
us. Rus da free and young, condemned to silence in its
native land, but whose voice resounds in exile—the Russia
of marts rs, of mines, of Siberia, and of casemates—the
Russia of the Pes• els and Mouravieffs, of the Ryleieffs and
Bestoujeffs—thatißussia, of whom we are the heralds, of
which we are the speaking-trumpets.
We are your wail of grief, your hatred, your cry for
vengeance on your oppressors. Y . We denounce to the
world the murky crimes of your Government ; we are a
living reproach to it, we stigmatise it, we brand it with a
hot iron, as it does to living men.
If our word be harsh and acrid, it is because it is the
echo of the lamentations of violated women, the death-
rattle of old men who died under the lash, the clank of
chains that fettered our dear poets, our best friends, when
transported to Siberia.
In the land of the stranger we have commenced an open
struggle by words, but in expectation of one by deeds.
Our words are an appeal ; our voice is the distant sound
of the bell announcing that the matins for the grand festi-
val of the resurrection of nations have commenced also for
the Russian people. This voice shall not cease to resound
until it shall be changed into a tocsin or a hymn of
triumph.
Far as we are from you, we are your relatives, your bro-
thers, your only friends. We have reconciled the Russian
people with the peoples of the West, who were apt to con-
found us with the Government of St. Petersburg, Tho
Poles hove stretched out their hands to us as to Russians.
Such is also the sense of the words that we have addressed
to them, such is the meaning of our alliance with them.
They have appreciated our love for the Russian people
On your side, understand it too, and love the Poles, be-
cause they are Polr s.
What do the Poles desire ?

An independent Poland, that shall be free to confederate
with Russia, when emancipated from autocracy, but with-
out allowing herself to be absorbed by her. Federal unity
is perhaps that which is most opposed to the uniformity of
a despotic centralisation.

The actual annexation of Poland to Russia is an ab-
surdity, a fact of brutal violence. After three and twenty
years of persecutions, the Government dares not displace
one single regiment throughout entire Poland without
sending anothr to replace it.
These forced unions do but perpetuate hatred, and time
cannot modify it. Is Hungary or Lombardy Austrian ?
and is even Finland Russian? It is only the Baltic pro-
vinces that find the Holstein-Mongol Government of St.
Peteraburgh to their taste, and who arm from devotion
their children in defence of the Greek orthodox church—
with Luther's bible in their pockets. . .
If we Russians, if we do not choose to comprehend the
necessity of Poland's restoration, Poland will not fall off
from Russia the less—she will be severed from her by
others. And then she will become, not independent, but
a stranger to us.
The question between Poland and Russia is a family ono.
No foreign intervention. Wo ought to solve it between
ourselves—that, too, without arms.
It is not the Russian people whom you defend in Poland.
The Russian people, in the very first hours of its awaking,
will deny you, and will curse your victories. You are up-
holding there the pretensions of the Czar—of that Czar who
leaves the half of Russia in a state of thraldom, who takes
nine recruits out of every thousand, who permits his
officers to strike his soldiers, and his police agents to beat
the citizens, and everything that is not peasant to belaboar
whatever is peasant. Know, then, that in defend;ng him
you are maintaining all the scourges of Russia; that in
fighting for him, you are fighting for the seignmial rights,
the knout, slavery, robbery organised by the officials, and
larcenies carried on in broad daylight by the nobles.
Poland has suffered quite enough from Russia. Even if
sbo has often been in the wrong. she has long since ex-
piated her faults. . . . Her children at a tender age
have been carried off, her women cast into prison, her do-
fenders have perished in Siberia, her friends are scattered
over all the surface of the globe, her trophies have been
taken away to St. Petersburg, her traditions have been
falsified. They have not even left her the past.
No- on Polish ground no laurels grow for the Russian
warriors. It is too saturable for women's tears and the
blood of men shad by your fathers—perhaps by yourselves.
On the banks of the Vistula, near the graveyards of Frage,
and Vole, there can be no military glory for you. The
only glory possible for you in Poland is that of reconcilia-
tion and alliance.
What you have to do, how you are to set about it—this
is what you wiil learn as soon as the proper time arrives.
But, until events arise, convince yourselves of the truth of
our words, and by all that is sacred to you, swear not to
take up arras against Poland.
This oath, it is not demanded of you by the Czar, but „