The Battle of Lututów was a clash between Polish rebel forces and units of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

. It took place during the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

, on June 15, 1863, near the village of

Lututów Lututów is a small town in Wieruszów County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Lututów. It lies approximately east of Wieruszów and south-west of the regional capit ...

, which at that time belonged to Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

. Rebel forces, commanded by

Antoni Korotyński Antoni is a Catalan, Polish, and Slovene given name and a surname used in the eastern part of Spain, Poland and Slovenia. As a Catalan given name it is a variant of the male names Anton and Antonio. As a Polish given name it is a variant of the fem ...

were defeated by the Russians.

Battle and massacre

On June 14, 1863, a Polish insurgent unit retreated before the advancing Russian forces from Węglewice to Lututów. Later that day the Russians approached the insurgents in Lututów. The Poles then split into two groups, one of which broke through the Russian encirclement to rescue people and weapons.Zieliński, p. 205–206 The remaining group of 120 scythemen, led by Antoni Korotyński, engaged in a battle with 10 times more numerous Russians, which was doomed to be unsuccessful from the beginning. Some of the insurgents surrendered, but the Russian commander ordered the murder of captured Polish prisoners and the battle turned into a massacre. Korotyński's unit was completely annihilated, as 64 rebels were killed and 46 were wounded. All the dead and wounded were stripped naked by the Russians and many of the dead had their throats slit. Polish commander Antoni Korotyński, fatally wounded, died shortly after the battle.

Burial and memorials

Bodies of the rebels were buried in a mass grave at the local cemetery. The location of the battle is marked by two large crosses and boulders.

References

Sources

Stefan Kieniewicz Stefan Kieniewicz (20 September 1907, in Dereszewicze – 2 May 1992, in Konstancin) was a Polish historian and university professor, notable for his works on the 19th-century history of Poland. During his work at various universities he became ...

: Powstanie styczniowe. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1983. . Conflicts in 1863 1863 in Poland Lututow June 1863 events Lututow Lututow {{Russia-battle-stub