Walery Antoni Wróblewski
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Walery Antoni Wróblewski (; 27 December 1836 – 5 August 1908) was a Polish-Belarusian and French revolutionary, politician, general of
Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...
and commander of
January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
and one of the leaders of the
Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * ''Reds'' (film), a 1981 American film starring and directed by Warren Beatty * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists duri ...
.Leonard Dubacki - Walery Wróblewski.
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Early life

Walery Antoni Wróblewski was born in
Żołudek Zhaludok is an urban-type settlement in Shchuchyn District, Grodno Region, in western Belarus. As of 2025, it has a population of 947. History In the interwar period, Żołudek was the seat of a gmina in the Lida County in the Nowogródek Vo ...
(present day Zhaludok,
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
) to an impoverished
szlachta The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...
family. His father Antoni worked as a forester. During his studies, he participated in the student movement, was a member of an illegal revolutionary circle led by Polish revolutionary democrats such as
Zygmunt Sierakowski Zygmunt Erazm Gaspar Józef Sierakowski (, ; 19 May 1826, – 27 June 1863, Vilnius) was a Polish leader of the January Uprising in lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Biography Youth and ed ...
and
Jarosław Dąbrowski Jarosław Żądło-Dąbrowski (; 13 November 1836 – 23 May 1871), also known as Jaroslav Dombrowski, was a Polish nobleman (szlachta member) and military officer in the Imperial Russian Army, a Polish nationalist and radical republican for ...
. He was sent to work for the position of the deputy head of the forestry school in Sokółka, and in 1861 he became the head of the school and was appointed a second lieutenant. He actively participated in the creation of an illegal revolutionary organization in the Grodno region and carried on propaganda among school students. Together with
Konstanty Kalinowski Konstanty Kalinowski, or Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski ( – ), was a Polish-Belarusian writer, journalist, lawyer and revolutionary. He was one of the leaders of the 1863 January Uprising on the lands of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwea ...
he worked on distributing of the illegal newspaper '' Mużyckaja prauda''.


January Uprising

After the outbreak of the January Uprising, from April 1863 he became a deputy general and head of the armed forces of the Augustów and Grodno as a supporter of the Reds. He had the rank of brigadier general and was the commander-in-chief of all the insurgent formations of the Grodno province. His skillful leadership of the rebels in the area entrusted to him made it possible to maintain an active partisan war against the Russian troops for much longer than in many other regions of the North-Western Territory covered by the uprising. However, after the final defeat of the rebellion in the Grodno region, he fled to Warsaw. In Warsaw, the recently inaugurated dictator
Romuald Traugutt Romuald Traugutt (16 January 1826 – 5 August 1864) was a Polish military officer and politician who served as the last dictator of the January Uprising. Following a career in the Imperial Russian Army that included service in Hungary and Crim ...
appointed Wróblewski as commissar of the Lublin and Podlaskie and set him the task of reviving the insurgent movement that was fading there. However, in December 1863, when crossing with a horse detachment next to a river in the Kotsk region near the village of Ustinov, the group was attacked by a Cossack detachment. In a fierce battle, Wróblewski was seriously wounded in the head and shoulder, but survived. The Cossacks, who considered him dead, left him on the battlefield. Wróblewski was soon found there in a half-dead state by local peasants sympathizing with the rebels, and hidden in the barn of one of them. After receiving medical treatment, and disguised as a woman, Wróblewski in July 1864 managed to escape to Galicia, which was under the control of the Austrian Empire. Since the authorities of the Russian Empire issued a warrant for his arrest, sentencing him to death in absentia, all of his property in the Russian Empire was confiscated.


France and the Paris Commune

During his settlement in France, Wróblewski was a member of the Union of Polish Emigrants and at first worked as a teacher but later joined the
National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...
. During the Franco-Prussian War, he defended Paris in a battalion of the National Guard. After the revolution in Paris and the establishment of the
Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...
, on 18 March 1871, he actively supported the revolutionary aspirations of the Parisian workers. Wróblewski offered the Communards his services and was soon promoted to the rank of general and led one of the three revolutionary armies that defended the southern part of Paris. During the
semaine sanglante The ''Semaine sanglante'' ("") was a weeklong battle in Paris from 21 to 28 May 1871, during which the French Army recaptured the city from the Paris Commune. This was the final battle of the Paris Commune. Following the Treaty of Frankfurt ...
, he defended in vain the
Butte-aux-Cailles The Butte-aux-Cailles ( is a hilltop neighbourhood of Paris, France, located in Paris' south-eastern 13th arrondissement of Paris, 13th arrondissement. The name of the hill could be translated as "quail hill", but it actually originates from it ...
and the district of the Bastille at the head of the 101st battalion trained workers of 13th and 5th arrondissements of Paris. After these two failures and the death or injuries of many other senior officers of the Commune, he was offered the chief command of what remained of the army of the Communards. After the defeat of the Communards he fled Paris and reached London in mid-August 1871. On May 28, 1872, a French tribunal sentenced him to death in absentia.


Later life

While in London, he became secretary of the General Council of the
International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist g ...
, and was among the so-called Of the First International and Poland's delegate at its congresses. He was a member of the Polish People's Union committee in London. He actively supported
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...
and his supporters. After the collapse of the First International and the organization and Polish People's Union, Wróblewski moved to Geneva. In 1878, he illegally settled in Russia. When the French government announced an amnesty to the participants of the Paris Commune, in 1885 he moved to France and settled in the city of Nice. In 1901, the French government even awarded him a pension. He spent the last years of his life in Ouarville. His last wish was to be buried in the
Père Lachaise cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...
, next to his comrades killed in 1871. The funeral was organized by a special committee of the Paris section of the
Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction The Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction (, PPS–FR) also known as the Old Faction () was one of two factions into which the Polish Socialist Party split in 1906. The Revolutionary Faction's primary goal was to restore an independe ...
. Nearly five thousand people participated in the funeral. On his gravestone there is an inscription: "to the heroic son of Poland - the people of Paris". Streets in Katowice, Brest and Grodno are named after the general.


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wroblewski Walery Antoni 1836 births 1908 deaths Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire Polish revolutionaries Belarusian socialists Polish socialists People from Shchuchyn district People from Lidsky Uyezd Walery Polish Socialist Party politicians Polish participants of the January Uprising Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Polish emigrants to France Communards