Czy całkowicie dobrowolnie? Okoliczności wstępowania Polaków do carskiego korpusu oficerskiego od konfederacji barskiej do powstania listopadowego
Was it Entirely Voluntary? Circumstances in which Poles Joined the Tsarist Officer Corps between the Bar Confederation and the November Uprising

Summary/Abstract: It is difficult to determine the number of Poles who voluntarily joined the tsarist officer corps in the period from the Bar Confederation to the fall of the November Uprising because reliable source data is scarce. Available information shows that from the partitions to 1814, several dozen to several hundred officers joined the Russian officer corps. Most often, they came from the eastern parts of the Commonwealth. The situation was similar between 1815 and 1830 when mostly Poles from the so-called Russian Taken Lands (Western Krai) enlisted in the tsarist army. They either joined corps located in the different parts of the Russian Empire or the Independent Lithuanian Corps. The greatest numbers of Poles joined the Russian officers’ corps after the fall of the Novem- ber Uprising. Among them, a large part of the officers of the Uprising decided to pledge allegiance to the tsar, which enabled them to gain further promotions in the Russian army. It was mainly senior officers who chose that route. On the other hand, those officers who were in Russian captivity after the fall of the November Uprising did not decide to continue their service in the Russian army. In 1832–1833, they were systematically released from captivity and offered military service in the Russian army. Only dozens of officers, mainly senior ones, from around 1100 who had become Russian prisoners, accepted such proposals.

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