They talked with historian Vasyl Gerasimchyk about the role of Ukrainians in the uprising of 1863-64.

President

whose address was read at the celebrations in the Warsaw Citadel on January 23, mentioned only Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania.

He did not say a word about Belarus.

"160 years ago, our nations united their forces, standing shoulder to shoulder against Russian imperialism.

The January Uprising accelerated the national revival and liberation movement on the territory of modern Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania," the President of Ukraine wrote in his address.

The lack of mention of Belarusians in Zelensky's address caused a negative reaction.

"The number of battles on the territory of Ukraine was much smaller than on the territory of Lithuania and Belarus"

Belarusian historian, author of the book "Konstantin Kalinovsky: a person and a legend"

claims that in fact there was an uprising on the territory of Ukraine in 1863.

However, not in the same volume as in the territory of Belarus.

"However, the size of this uprising in Ukraine was incomparable to what happened in Lithuania and Belarus, and incomparable to what happened in the Polish Crown.

I believe that the historians who participated in the writing of President Zelensky's speech would hardly have ignored it - it would only be worth opening the article "January Uprising (1863)" in Wikipedia.

That is how it is called in Ukraine.

Everything is written in the article about the participation of Belarus and Lithuania."

Vasyl Gerasimchyk also showed a map that was created by Stanisław Zieliński, a researcher of the uprising (Stanisław Zieliński. Bitwy i potyczki 1863–1864. Rapperswil, 1913. — RS).

But this map, according to the historian, is quite conditional.

"On this map, sometimes the same battles are shown several times.

And in general, the number of these battles - 1200 - it is more than there actually were.

But if you look at this table, the number of battles on the territory of Ukraine, in Volyn, in the Kyiv region, is much smaller than on the territory of Lithuania and Belarus," the historian claims.

"It was not possible to join the uprising of Ukrainian peasants"

According to Vasyl Gerasimchyk, the events in Ukraine took place from May 7 to July 2, 1863.

In fact, the whole of June can be crossed out.

"I'm not downplaying anything, I'm telling you the facts.

Ukrainian peasants were tried to join the uprising with the help of a document called "Golden Deed".

It was such a "forgery" ordered by Emperor Alexander II, which announced joining the uprising.

They even made leaflets with Orthodox crosses with words in Cyrillic, with a call to rebellion and with a rebel seal.

There was great hope that Ukraine would rise up, that it would show where the rivers spend the winter.

But in Ukraine, in that part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the symbol of which the Archangel Michael was attached to the historical symbol of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Belarusian Pursuit and the Polish Eagle, it didn't work out that way," says historian Gerasimchyk.

As an example, the historian cites the events of May 7, 1863, when a group of Kyiv University students, totaling 21 people, left Kyiv to incite the peasants to rise.

"Students stopped in the first village, and these villagers grabbed them.

Of the 21 people, 12 were killed, 7 were tied up and handed over to the authorities, and only two survived.

This is how the attempt to incite the Ukrainian peasants, who had a very negative attitude towards the nobility with whom they associated this uprising, actually ended.

The most important thing is that it was not possible to join this uprising of Ukrainian peasants.

Some of the guys who associated themselves with the Ukrainian movement refused to join the uprising, even though they were nobles.

Because they believed that this uprising was Polish.

But Ukraine had its leaders of the uprising - Vysotsky, Ruzhytskyi, Vishnevskyi," Belarusian historian Gerasimchyk claims.

"And at that time the tsarist propaganda worked perfectly"

The historian recalled the case that happened on May 8, 1863.

On this day, there was an attempt to establish communication between the Ukrainian and Belarusian rebels.

"One of the detachments under the leadership of Vishnevsky operated near the town of Ovruch.

The battle took place near the village of Maskalewka (now the Naravlyan district of the Gomel region).

The Russians simply surrounded this detachment, did not allow the insurgents to gather, although the peasants and the nobility also approached - there were only 69 people in the detachment.

They were simply surrounded and ordered to lay down their weapons.

Moreover, it is very telling that the last name of the head of the Russian army was Major Jevalinski - quite a few Poles fought on the side of the Russian army.

Unfortunately, the rebels were quickly defeated on the territory of Ukraine, and all attempts to raise people were fruitless.

In fact, already in the summer of 1863, there was no uprising on the territory of Ukraine," said Vasyl Gerasimchyk.

Vasyl Gerasimchyk

According to the researcher, tsarist propaganda was already working perfectly at that time.

The uneducated peasants did not understand what was really happening.

"The peasants were simply told that it was the Polish lords who were trying to return Poland and return the lordship (

).

And this is one of the main lessons: there is a time for everything.

If people are not ready for something, not ready to accept thoughts and ideas, then no matter what you do with them, you will not raise them to fight, even if you convince them that it is fair," concludes the historian.

"There is a war going on in Ukraine, we need to raise our people.

And here is a good reason"

Vasyl Gerasimchyk expressed the opinion that the 160th anniversary of the uprising of 1863 was a good opportunity for the Ukrainians themselves to turn to what they may not have known at all.

"I cannot say whether there is a paragraph dedicated to the January Uprising in Ukrainian history textbooks.

I don't know what they know about the "Golden Letter" in Ukraine.

But it is good that now in Ukraine there will be an occasion to remember that at that time the peoples of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth started a struggle against the Russian Empire, against tsarism.

There is a war going on in Ukraine, they need to raise their people.

And here's a good reason," Belarusian historian and researcher Vasil Gerasimchyk suggests.