Why did Russian tsars forbid Poles to dress in black, and why Polish schoolgirls painted themselves with ink

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 2016, the sensational “Black Protest” took place in Poland - its participants, among other things, dressed in all black. The color was chosen for a reason. Black clothes were already a symbol of protest in Poland in 1861, and every Polish schoolchild knows this story. And the Russian tsar is also involved in it.

Polish kingdom, Russian tsar

For almost the entire nineteenth century, Poland, as the Kingdom of Poland, was part of the Russian Empire, and the Russian tsar was necessarily crowned separately as the Polish tsar. Nevertheless, many Poles were not satisfied with the dependent position of their homeland, and they rebelled. In 1830, the first major Polish uprising took place, one of the central events of which was the Battle of Grochow. After stubborn battles, the Russians under the leadership of Field Marshal Karl Friedrich Anton von Diebitsch defeated the Polish army in this battle and approached Warsaw.

The uprising was ultimately suppressed, but the Poles still did not give up their dreams of regaining their independence. Themselves once a large empire, they grieved that now they were only part of another empire. Moreover, the religious issue was acute for them: they were Catholics and the reign of “heretics” - the Orthodox seemed to them blasphemous. One of the stumbling blocks with the Russian tsars, in fact, was the constant attempt by the tsars to equalize in the Kingdom of Poland (where most of the laws were their own, local, and not all-Russian) representatives of different Christian denominations in rights.

In 1861, a massive peaceful demonstration took place in Warsaw in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the defeat in the Battle of Grochows. By this time, compared to the fifties, Polish society was strongly radicalized. First, not long before that, 8700 amnestied rebel Poles had returned from Siberia, who, let's say, had not been re-educated. Secondly, as in the Russian part of the Russian Empire, radical left-wing views began to spread among the youth in Poland. Young men and women wanted a new world, total equality and - many of them - revolution.

Perhaps that is why the Russian authorities did not trust the peaceful manifestation and were afraid. that it would end in mass and most likely armed riots and … preventively shot some of the demonstrators, dispersed other participants in the demonstration with whips. The bloody suppression of the peaceful march angered Polish society, and radical sentiments intensified many times over. This eventually led to a new uprising, but two years before that, the Poles had continued to protest peacefully.

A country in mourning

It is said that the Archbishop of Warsaw called on Poland to dress in mourning in memory of the trampled peaceful protest. In any case, the old, from the times of the defeat of the uprising of the thirties, the poem by Konstantin Gashinsky "Black Dress"

… When Poland entered the coffin, I had only one outfit left: Black dress.

He was quoted at evenings and meetings, in schools and coffee shops. And, of course, they did it wearing black clothes. Half of the country on the streets looked like they were rushing to someone's funeral - or returning from there. Even the brides appeared at the wedding in black.

They also rejected ordinary decorations in favor of discreet mourning ones (noblewomen and bourgeois women of that time could not imagine themselves at all without decorations under any circumstances). Bracelets resembling prisoners' handcuffs were popular; to make the similarity more noticeable, the ladies kept their hands folded on the skirt in front of them. Popular were buckles and brooches in the form of a handshake (which meant the union of Poles and Lithuanians, from which Great Poland once grew), anchors (as a symbol of hope), a Polish eagle in a crown of thorns (heroes died for our country!), A skull (just to heighten mourning). Someone wore brooches with the profile of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a national Polish hero (and, by the way, an American one at the same time).

Abbreviations were popular, in the spirit of those that would later spread among Soviet prisoners - but only, of course, on the topic of Polish independence. For example, the ROMO inscription on the belt buckle meant Rozniecaj Ogień Miłości Ojczyzny - Kindle the Fire of Love for the Motherland. Naturally, all these decorations were made from the cheapest materials to show that the hostess or the owner gave the gold to the fight against the conquerors. That is, literally, for the purchase of weapons by this or that rebel organization.

While the men secretly armed themselves, the women engaged in propaganda and arms smuggling. Leaflets, letters, pistols swept behind the corsages of dresses and under fluffy skirts (especially since the unhurried step of a lady, which was sometimes caused by too many heavy objects tied to her legs, at that time did not arouse suspicion in anyone - the lady had to walk slowly).

The most radical Poles tore off fashionable top hats from men on the streets - they were supposed to wear a modest mourning hat, they could deliberately ruin or stain colored clothes, and sometimes real fights broke out because of the outfit. At some point, they began to dress in black just in case, and not because of political beliefs. And, although no one forced the children to do anything, they themselves, seeing that adults walk only in black, began to ask for a mourning suit.

It is forbidden to grieve

The Russian authorities soon began to take action against radical sentiments. And they started … with clothes. Women were allowed to wear mourning only with the special permission of officials, in the event of a proven recent death of a relative, and tsarist agents tore too fluffy skirts right on the streets with special hooks. Men were also forbidden to wear black - and they switched to gray (the color of ash) and purple (the color of mystery, which was also used as a mourning color in the Middle Ages). Children were also banned from black.

Pupils of schools and gymnasiums reacted to the ban on black in a peculiar way: they drew a mourning ribbon around their necks with ink. Unlike the paste in modern pens, it was not easy to wash off such a drawing, so the protesting girls kept an eyesore on the inspectors and teachers all day.

They were also arrested for other details of the costume. For example, for the green branch, which in honor of the day on which the Polish constitution was adopted in the eighteenth century, was carried in the hands of the Poles. On Polish national holidays, police officers could arrest even for a white tie or white gloves. Every slightest change in Polish protest fashion was closely monitored. Here is a decree issued before the 1863 uprising:

“The hat must be colored, and the black hat must be decorated with flowers or colored, but never white, ribbons. Black and white feathers with black hats are prohibited. Hoods can be black on colored lining, but not white. It is prohibited to use: black veil, gloves, black and black and white umbrellas, as well as shawls, shawls and scarves of the same color, and completely black, as well as black and white dresses. Salopes, burnoses, fur coats, coats and other outerwear can be black, but without white. Men are not allowed to mourn for any reason.”

Nevertheless, Poland went about in mourning, inventing new ways to demonstrate it, up to the great tsarist amnesty to the rebels in 1866. It was possible to get into a punishment cell for a black suit until 1873. By the way, not only mourning was prohibited, but also some types of national costume, for example, men's zhupan.

Mourning for all of Europe

It was thanks to its design that the Black Protest of the nineteenth century Poles became widely known in Europe. In Spain, black beads immediately began to be called Polish tears. The press discussed protest fashion news and the reasons why Poles are protesting. As a result, black clothing became a symbol of protest in general, which returned more than once between 1861 and 2016. Probably, including with an eye to the Polish protest, the initially black flag of the anarchists appeared. Other cases of ostentatious dressing up in mourning were usually localized.

Already in our time, not only Poles dressed in black in protest. In 2018, participants in the Golden Globes showed up dressed in mourning to protest sexist-ruined careers. In Latvia in 2008, all newspapers in one day came out in mourning design in protest against the increase in VAT. The Portuguese met Angela Merkel in mourning clothes, protesting against the measures of austerity she had proposed.

The constant resistance to the power of the Russian tsars is often explained by the nationalist prejudices of the Poles. But it's worth seeing which of the Polish kings was not a Pole at all and why this happened, and it will be clearthat the Poles did not care about the nationality of the person who ruled them.