Trzy okupacje Krakowa przez wojska rosyjskie w latach 1809–1831 Analiza porównawcza
A Comparative Analysis of the Russian Army’s Three Occupations of Cracow between 1809–1831

Summary/Abstract: During the first half of the nineteenth century, Cracow found itself under Russian military occupation three times: in 1809, when the city belonged to Austria, between 1813–1815, when it belonged to the Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1831, when it was the capital of the Free City of Cracow. Each period of Russian occupation had different aims and character. In 1809, the main (unrealised) goal was to prevent the Duchy of Warsaw from capturing the then Austrian city. The Russian offensive against the states of Napoleonic Europe, launched after Bonaparte’s defeat near Moscow in 1812, resulted in the second occupation between 1813–1815. In 1831, the city was occupied for a third time as punishment for the city’s strong support of the November Uprising. Each period of occupation resulted in economic perturbations and an increase in crime. For the occupying forces, the greatest threat turned out to be the mass morbidity of soldiers caused by venereal diseases attested to 1813–1815. The political importance of the three Russian occupations of Cracow was relatively minor. The cost of housing and maintaining the soldiers was considerable but did not deplete the city’s finances. The behaviour of the occupying forces, reprehensible in many cases, did not differ from the standards that prevailed during the first half of the nineteenth century.

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