page_title: Warsaw Uprising (1794)
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Warsaw Uprising (1794) / Aftermath
context_page_description: The Warsaw Uprising of 1794 or Warsaw Insurrection was an armed insurrection by the people of Warsaw early in the Kościuszko Uprising. Supported by the Polish Army, the uprising aimed to throw off control by the Russian Empire of the Polish capital city. It began on 17 April 1794, soon after Tadeusz Kościuszko's victory at the Battle of Racławice.
  Although the Russian forces had more soldiers and better equipment, the Polish regular forces and militia, armed with rifles and sabres from the Warsaw Arsenal, inflicted heavy losses on the surprised enemy garrison. Russian soldiers found themselves under crossfire from all sides and from buildings, and several units broke early and suffered heavy casualties in their retreat.
  Kościuszko's envoy, Tomasz Maruszewski, and Ignacy Działyński and others had been laying the groundwork for the uprising since early 1793. They succeeded in winning popular support: the majority of Polish units stationed in Warsaw joined the ranks of the uprising. A National Militia was formed by several thousand volunteers, led by Jan Kiliński, a master shoemaker.
context_section_description: Several factors contributed to the Russian defeat and losses. Igelström had reduced the size of the garrison, sending some of units to deal with Kościuszko's main forces, and posted his remaining regiments so incompetently that they were easily cut off from each other and overwhelmed by the Polish forces. From the onset of the insurrection, the Polish forces were aided by the civilian population and had surprise on their side; after the crowd captured the city arsenal, Russian soldiers found themselves under attack throughout the city.
  The uprising in Warsaw marked a significant victory for the entire cause of Kościuszko, and echoes of the victory in Warsaw spread across the country. Ignacy Zakrzewski became the city's commander in chief and mayor. General Mokronowski repeatedly begged the King, who was at the same time his cousin, to support the uprising. The king refused and power in the city was seized by the Provisional Temporary Council (Polish: Rada Zastępcza Tymczasowa) composed of Zakrzewski, Mokronowski, Józef Wybicki and Kiliński. Mokronowski was soon removed from the council for his opposition to Kościuszko. On 27 May the council was dissolved, and power passed to Kościuszko's Supreme National Council (Polish: Rada Najwyższa Narodowa). On 9 May four prominent supporters of the Targowica Confederation, including Józef Ankwicz, Józef Kossakowski, hetman Piotr Ożarowski and hetman Józef Zabiełło, were sentenced to death by the Insurrectionary Court and were hanged in Warsaw. A few weeks later, on 28 June, an angry mob stormed the prisons and hanged other supporters of Targowica, including bishop Ignacy Jakub Massalski, prince Antoni Stanisław Czetwertyński-Światopełk, ambassador Karol Boscamp-Lasopolski and others. Felix Potocki was not found; his portrait was hoisted on the gallows instead. Kosciuszko quickly put an end to the lynch mob declaring, "What happened in Warsaw yesterday filled my heart with bitterness and sorrow ...Those who do not obey the laws are not worthy of liberty."
  The National Militia of Warsaw grew to over 20,000 men at arms and constituted a large part of the Polish Army fighting against Russia.  This included 1200 horsemen organised by Peter Jazwinski and 6000 under Kiliński.
  The uprising was also openly commented upon in Russia. As a result of this defeat, Igelström was recalled in disgrace, although he would redeem himself in future fighting. In the 19th century the Uprising of 1794 was presented in a bad light in Imperial Russian historiography, as the fights in Warsaw were referred to as a "massacre" of unarmed Russian soldiers by Warsaw's mob. Russian historian Platon Zhukovich marked his relation of the events with many horrific, yet counter-factual descriptions of unarmed Russian soldiers being slaughtered in an Orthodox church during the Eucharist, even though there was no Orthodox church in Warsaw at that time, the participation of Kiliński's militia was seriously overrated and no other source confirms the thesis that the Russian garrison was unarmed. The defeat in this battle is sometimes seen as one of the reasons for the massacre of Praga, in which the Russian forces killed between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians of Warsaw upon their reconquest of the city later that year.
  The Warsaw Uprising is commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, with the inscription "WARSZAWA 17 IV – 4 XI 1794".
caption: Hanging of traitors at Warsaw's Old Town Market, a contemporary painting by Jan Piotr Norblin. The supporters of the Targowica Confederation, responsible for the Second Partition of Poland, became public enemies. If they could not be captured, their portraits were hanged instead.
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