page_title: History of Poles in the United States
section_title: Russian
hierarchical_section_title: History of Poles in the United States / 1870–1914 / Wave of Polish immigration / Background / Partitions / Russian
caption_attribution_description: Fotografia przedstawia widok na kompleks fabryczny Izraela K. Poznańskiego znajdujący się przy ulicy Ogrodowej. Na teren fabryczny wchodziło się przez widoczną na fotografii bramę kojarząca się mieszkańcom z łukiem triumfalnym. Po jej prawej stronie znajduje się niewielki, elegancki budynek, który był siedzibą kantoru i biura dyrektorów firmy. W jego wnętrzu zachował się marmurowy wystrój. Po lewej strony od bramy widać pięciokondygnacyjną przędzalnię bawełny zbudowaną w latach 1877-1878. Budynek ten wzniesiony z czerwonej cegły, ma 170 metrów długości. Znajdowały się w nim pięcionawowe hale produkcyjne, w narożnikach oraz części środkowej umiejscowione zostały wieże z klatkami schodowymi, pionami wentylacyjnymi i zbiornikami przeciwpożarowymi. Gmach ten zagrał w "Ziemi obiecanej" Andrzeja Wajdy. Imperium Poznańskiego funkcjonowało od lat 70. XIX wieku do wybuchu II wojny światowej. Po jej zakończeniu zakłady fabryczne, w których skład wchodziły tkalnie, przędzalnia, bielnik i apretura, farbiarnia, drukarnia tkanin i wykończalnia, oddział naprawy i budowy maszyn, ślusarnia, odlewnia i parowozownia, gazownia, elektrownia, remiza strażacka, magazyny, bocznica kolejowa oraz kantor fabryczny, zostały znacjonalizowane i do początku lat 90. XX wieku funkcjonowały, jako Zakłady Przemysłu Bawełnianego im. Juliana Marchlewskiego "Poltex". Na przełomie XX i XXI wieku prywatny właściciel terenu dokonał jego rewitalizacji pod stworzenie miejsca handlowo-usługowego pod nazwą „Manufaktura”. W widocznej na fotografii przędzalni mieści się Hotel Andel’s i centrum konferencyjne. Fotografia pochodzi z wydanego w 1896 roku albumu Bronisława Wilkoszewskiego „Widoki m. Łodzi”. Saryusz Bronisław Paweł Wilkoszewski (1847-1901), zwany "łódzkim Canaletto" był mistrzem fotografii ilustracyjnej. Udokumentował zabudowę Łodzi z końca XIX wieku przede wszystkim wille, fabryki, budynki użyteczności publicznej, obiekty sakralne, ulicę Piotrkowską. Jego zakład fotograficzny znajdował się w willi "Trianon" w Pasażu Meyera 5 (obecnie ulica Moniuszki).
context_page_description: The history of Poles in the United States dates to the American Colonial era. Poles have lived in present-day United States territories for over 400 years—since 1608. There are 10 million Americans of Polish descent in the U.S. today, making it the largest diaspora of Poles in the world. Polish Americans have always been the largest group of Slavic origin in the United States.
  Historians divide Polish American immigration into three "waves", the largest from 1870 to 1914, a second after World War II, and a third after Poland's independence in 1989. Most Polish Americans are descended from the first wave, when millions of Poles fled Polish districts of Germany, Russia, and Austria. This group is often called the za chlebem immigrants because most were peasants in Poland who did not own land and lacked basic subsistence. Austrian Poles were from Galicia, unarguably the most destitute region in Europe at the time. Up to a third of Poles living in the United States returned to Poland after a few years, but the majority stayed.
context_section_description: The Russian partition of Poland experienced considerable industrialization, particularly the textile capital of Łódź, then the Manchester of Imperial Russia. Russia's policies were pro-foreign immigration, whereas German Poland was unambiguously anti-immigrant. Polish laborers were encouraged to migrate for work in the iron-foundries of Piotrków Trybunalski and migrants were highly desired in Siberian towns. Russia also established a Peasant Bank to promote land ownership for its peasant population, and many Poles were given employment opportunities pulling them from rural areas into industrial Russian cities. Of the three partitions, the Russian one contained the most middle-class Polish workers, and the number of industrial workers overall between 1864 and 1890 increased from 80,000 to 150,000. Łódź experienced a booming economy, as the Russian Empire consumed about 70% of its textile production.
  Russian-occupied Poles experienced increasingly abusive Russification in the mid-19th century. From 1864 onward, all education was mandated to be in Russian, and private education in Polish was illegal. Polish newspapers, periodicals, books, and theater plays were permitted, but were frequently censored by the authorities. All high school students were required to pass national exams in Russian; young men who failed these exams were forced into the Russian Army. In 1890, Russia introduced tariffs to protect the Russian textile industry, which began a period of economic decline and neglect towards Poland. The decline of Russia's economy after the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 Russian Revolution further pushed Polish emigration. Polish nationalists at first discouraged emigration. In many respects, the nationalists were succeeding, creating secret Polish language schools so children could learn Polish, and leading insurrectionist activity against the Russian occupiers. However, when emigrants in the United States began sending back money to their poor relatives in Russia and Galicia, attitudes against emigration subsided. Polish National Party leader Roman Dmowski saw emigration in a positive light, as an "improvement of the fortunes of the masses who are leaving Europe." At its peak, in 1912–1913, annual emigration to the U.S., from the Polish provinces of the Russian Empire, exceeded 112,345 (including large numbers of Jews, Lithuanians and Belarusians).
  Among the most famous immigrants from partitioned Poland at this time was Marcella Sembrich. She had performed in Poland as an opera singer and moved to the United States. When sharing her experience with the Kansas City Journal, she described the social discrimination affecting her in what was then The Kingdom of Poland, a puppet state of Russia:
  "...children who speak Polish on the streets of Vilna are punished and performances of any kind in the Polish language are forbidden. Polish is not allowed anywhere, and the police are still as strict as ever in trying to prevent its use. The first night I sang at Vilna I was wild to sing in Polish. I spoke to the manager about it and he implored me on his knees not to think of such a thing. But I was determined to do it if I could, so at the end of the performance, when the audience kept demanding encores, I prepared for it by singing a song in Russian. Then I sang one of Chopin's songs in Polish.
  When I finished there was a moment of absolute stillness. Then came such an outburst as I have never seen in my life. I seized my husband's arm and stood waiting to see...
  
   ...I had to sign a paper saying that I would never sing in Polish again in Vilna, and at my second concert I left out the Chopin songs. Every year I have come to Vilna and every time the chief of police comes to me with the same paper to sign, and every time I have to sign the promise that I will not sing in Polish."
  — Marcella Sembrich, On Learning to Sing, On Learning to Sing, Kansas City Journal, Oct. 22, 1899.
caption: The Poznanski Factory, Łódź (1895), was a spinning factory key to the Polish textile industry. Thousands of Poles worked and resided in living quarters at the location.
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "EPSON", "Image Model": "Expression 12000XL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:11:24 10:03:21", "Image ExifOffset": "226", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:11:24 09:40:45", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3399", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2459"}