The Whites () were a faction among Polish insurrectionists before and during the

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 ...

in early 1860s. They consisted mostly of progressive-minded landowners and industrialists, the middle class, and some intellectuals of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

. The faction had its origins in the (Agricultural Society) started by

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Andrzej Artur Zamoyski Count Andrzej Artur Zamoyski (2 April 1800 – 29 October 1874) was a Polish szlachta, nobleman, landowner and political and economic activist. Zamoyski organized meetings of landowners (''Klemensowczycy'') at his Klemensów estate ...

in 1858. While the Whites supported ending

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...

, unlike the

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

faction, they advocated for some kind of compensation to be made to the landlords. Also, unlike the Reds, the Whites generally opposed the idea of an armed insurrection against Russia, seeing it as doomed to failure. Instead, they tried to use diplomacy and the support of other European powers to win greater autonomy, a separate administration, and a native Polish army for Congress Poland. They also tried to influence the Tsar to engage in the recovery of former Polish lands, which had been taken by partitioning powers

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. However, once the January Uprising broke out, most Whites supported it both politically and militarily.

Notable members

* Edward Jürgens * Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg * Karol Majewski * Karol Ruprecht *

References

January Uprising {{Poland-hist-stub