Congress Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( ; , " Korolevstvo Polskoye " , " Tsarstvo Polskoye " , , , Tsardom of Poland ) , informally known as Congress Poland ( or Russian Poland ) , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna , was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire . It was gradually politically integrated into Russia over the course of the 19th century , made an official part of the Russian Empire in 1867 , and finally replaced during the Great War by the Central Powers in 1915 with the theoretically existing Regency Kingdom of Poland . Though officially the Kingdom of Poland was a state with considerable political autonomy guaranteed by a liberal constitution , its rulers , the Russian Emperors , generally disregarded any restrictions on their power . Thus effectively it was little more than a puppet state of the Russian Empire . The autonomy was severely curtailed following uprisings in 1830 – 31 and 1863 , as the country became governed by " namestnik s " , and later divided into guberniya ( provinces ) . Thus from the start , Polish autonomy remained little more than fiction . The territory of the Kingdom of Poland roughly corresponds to the Kalisz Region and the Lublin , Łódź , Masovia and Świętokrzyskie voivodeships of Poland . Naming . Although the official name of the state was the " Kingdom of Poland " , in order to distinguish it from other Kingdoms of Poland , it was sometimes referred to as " Congress Poland " . History . The " Kingdom of Poland " was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw , a French client state , at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 when the great power s reorganized Europe following the Napoleonic war s . The creation of the Kingdom created a partition of Polish lands in which the state was divided among Russia , Austria and Prussia . The Congress was important enough in the creation of the state to cause the new country to be named for it . The Kingdom lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative divisions were reorganized . It was sufficiently distinct that its name remained in official Russian use , although in the later years of Russian rule it was replaced with the " Privislinsky Krai " ( Russian : Привислинский Край ) . Following the defeat of the November Uprising its separate institutions and administrative arrangements were abolished as part of increased Russification to be more closely integrated with the Russian Empire . However , even after this formalized annexation , the territory retained some degree of distinctiveness and continued to be referred to informally as Congress Poland until the Russian rule there ended as a result of the advance by the armies of the Central Powers in 1915 during World War I . Originally , the Kingdom had an area of roughly 128 , 500 km and a population of approximately 3 . 3 million . The new state would be one of the smallest Polish states ever , smaller than the preceding Duchy of Warsaw and much smaller than the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth which had a population of 10 million and an area of 1 million km . Its population reached 6 . 1 million by 1870 and 10 million by 1900 . Most of the ethnic Poles in the Russian Empire lived in the Congress Kingdom , although some areas outside it also contained Polish majority . The Kingdom of Poland largely re - emerged as a result of the efforts of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski , a Pole who aimed to resurrect the Polish state in alliance with Russia . The Kingdom of Poland was one of the few contemporary constitutional monarchies in Europe , with the Emperor of Russia serving as the Polish King . His title as chief of Poland in Russian , was " Tsar " , similar to usage in the fully integrated states within the Empire ( Georgia , Kazan , Siberia ) . Initial independence . Theoretically the Polish Kingdom in its 1815 form was a semi - autonomous state in personal union with Russia through the rule of the Russian Emperor . The state possessed the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland , one of the most liberal in 19th century Europe , a Sejm ( parliament ) responsible to the King capable of voting laws , an independent army , currency , budget , penal code and a customs boundary separating it from the rest of Russian lands . Poland also had democratic traditions ( Golden Liberty ) and the Polish nobility deeply valued personal freedom . In reality , the Kings had absolute power and the formal title of " Autocrat " , and wanted no restrictions on their rule . All opposition to the Emperor of Russia was suppressed and the law was disregarded at will by Russian officials . Though the absolute rule demanded by Russia was difficult to establish due to Poland ' s liberal traditions and institutions , the independence of the Kingdom lasted only 15 years ; initially Alexander I used the title of the King of Poland and was obligated to observe resolutions of the constitution . However , in time the situation changed and he granted the viceroy , Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich , almost dictatorial powers . Very soon after Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed , Russia ceased to respect them . In 1819 , Alexander I abolished freedom of the press and introduced preventory censorship . Resistance to Russian control began in 1820s . Russian secret police commanded by Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev started persecution of Polish secret organizations and in 1821 the King ordered the abolition of Freemasonry which represented patriotic traditions of Poland . Beginning in 1825 the sessions of the Sejm were held in secret . Uprisings and loss of autonomy . Alexander I ' s successor , Nicholas I was crowned King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw , but he declined to swear to abide by the Constitution and continued to limit the independence of the Polish Kingdom . Nicholas ' rule promoted the idea of Official Nationality , consisting of Orthodoxy , Autocracy , and Nationality . In relation to Poles , those ideas meant assimilation : turning them into loyal Orthodox Russians . The principle of Orthodoxy was the result of the special role it played in Russian Empire , as the Church was in fact becoming a department of state , and other religions discriminated against ; for instance , Papal bulls could not be read in the Kingdom of Poland without agreement from the Russian government . The rule of Nicholas also meant end of political traditions in Poland ; democratic institutions were removed , an appointed - rather than elected - centralized administration was put in place , and efforts were made to change the relations between the state and the individual . All of this led to discontent and resistance among the Polish population . In January 1831 , the Sejm deposed Nicholas I as King of Poland in response to his repeated curtailing of its constitutional rights . Nicholas reacted by sending Russian troops into Poland , resulting in the November Uprising . Following an 11 - month military campaign , the Kingdom of Poland lost its semi - independence and was subsequently integrated much more closely with the Russian Empire . This was formalized through the issuing of the Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland by the Emperor in 1832 , which abolished the constitution , army and legislative assembly . Over the next 30 years a series of measures bound Congress Poland ever more closely to Russia . In 1863 the January Uprising broke out , but lasted only two years before being crushed . As a direct result , any remaining separate status of the Kingdom was removed and the political entity was directly incorporated into the Russian Empire . The formerly unofficial name of Privislinsky Krai ( ) , i . e . ' Vistula Land ' , replaced ' Kingdom of Poland ' as the area ' s official name and the area became a " namestnichestvo " under the control of a namestnik until 1875 , when it became a Guberniya . Government . The government of the Congress of Poland was outlined in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815 . The Emperor of Russia was the official head of state , considered the King of Poland , with the local government headed by the Viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland ( ) , Council of State and Administrative Council , in addition to the Sejm . In theory , Congress Poland possessed one of the most liberal governments of the time in Europe , but in practice the area was a puppet state of the Russian Empire . The liberal provisions of the constitution , and the scope of the autonomy , were often disregarded by the Russian officials . Executive Leadership . The office of " " Namestnik " " was introduced in Poland by the 1815 constitution of Congress Poland . The Viceroy was chosen by the King from among the noble citizens of the Russian Empire or the Kingdom of Poland . The Viceroy supervised the entire public administration and , in the monarch ' s absence , chaired the Council of State , as well as the Administrative Council . He could veto the councils ' decisions ; other than that , his decisions had to be countersigned by the appropriate government minister . The Viceroy exercised broad powers and could nominate candidates for most senior government posts ( ministers , senator s , judges of the High Tribunal , councilors of state , referendaries , as well as bishops and archbishops ) . He had no competence in the realms of finances and foreign policy ; his military competence varied . The office of " namestnik " or Viceroy was never officially abolished ; however , after the January 1863 Uprising it disappeared . The last namestnik was Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg , who served from 1863 to his death in 1874 . No namestnik was named to replace him ; however , the role of namestnik — viceroy of the former Kingdom passed to the Governor - General of Warsaw — or , to be more specific , of the Warsaw Military District ( , ) . The governor - general answered directly to the Emperor and exercised much broader powers than had the namestnik . In particular , he controlled all the military forces in the region and oversaw the judicial systems ( he could impose death sentences without trial ) . He could also issue " declarations with the force of law , " which could alter existing laws . Administrative Council . The " Administrative Council " ( ) was a part of Council of State of the Kingdom . Introduced by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815 , it was composed of 5 ministers , special nominees of the King and the Viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland . The Council executed the King ' s will and ruled in the cases outside the ministers competence and prepared projects for the Council of State . Administrative divisions . The administrative divisions of the Kingdom changed several times over its history . Over the next several decades , various smaller reforms were carried out , either changing the smaller administrative units or merging / splitting various subdivisions . Immediately after its creation in 1815 – 1816 , the Kingdom of Poland was divided into departments , a relic from the times of the French - dominated Duchy of Warsaw . On January 16 , 1816 the administrative division was reformed from the departments of the Duchy of Warsaw into the more traditionally Polish voivodeship s , obwód s and powiat s . There were 8 voivodeships . On 7 March 1837 , in the aftermath of the November Uprising earlier that decade , the administrative division was reformed once again , bringing Congress Poland closer to the structure of the Russian Empire , with the introduction of guberniya s ( governorate , Polish spelling " gubernia " ) . In 1842 powiat s were renamed okręg s , and obwód s were renamed powiats . In 1844 several governorates were merged with others , and some others renamed . 5 governorates remained . The 1867 reform , initiated after the failure of the January Uprising , was designed to tie the Congress Kingdom ( now " de facto " the Vistulan Country ) more tightly to the administration structure of the Russian Empire . It divided larger governorates into smaller ones . A new lower level entity , gmina , was introduced . The existing 5 governorates were restructured into 10 . The 1912 reform created a new governorate - Kholm Governorate - from parts of the Sedlets and Lublin Governorate s . It was split off from the Vistulan Country and made part of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire . Notes . a Sources agree that after the fall of the January Uprising in 1864 , the autonomy of Congress Poland was drastically reduced . They are however contradictory on whether Kingdom of Poland , colloquially known as Congress Poland , as a state , was officially replaced by the Vistula Land ( " Privislinsky Krai " ) , a province of the Russian Empire , as many sources still use the term Congress Poland for the post - 1864 period . The sources are also unclear as to when did the Congress Poland ( or Vistula land ) officially end ; some arguing it ended when the German and Austro - Hungarian occupying authorities assumed control ; others , that it ended with the creation of the Kingdom of Poland in 1916 ; finally , some argue that it occurred only with the creation of the independent Republic of Poland in 1918 . Examples :