Riots in Svisloch Gymnasium: Persecution of Secret Societies among Polish-Lithuanian Youth

Abstract

The article deals with the riots in the Svisloch gymnasium that occurred after the closure of the trial of the Philarets and Philomaths (1824), which was initiated by N. N. Novosiltsev, as well as about possible interpretive models that make it possible to supplement the knowledge existing in Polish and European historiography about the reasons that prompted the tsarist government to carry out such a brutal reprisal against Polish youth. A valuable source on the history of secret societies in the Svisloch Gymnasium, which was not taken into account when publishing documents of the investigative case, correspondence of participants in student unrest and other ego-documents is introduced into scientific circulation. This source, extracted from the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA = RSHA, Fund 1409, Inventory 1, storage unit 1300, papers of His Imperial Highness Tsesarevich Konstantin Pavlovich), which makes it possible to judge the unrest in Svisloch and draw a conclusion about the punishment that the students suffered, was ignored by researchers, since chronologically fell into the scope of the Filaret and Philomat case, and the rioters were not brought to trial and were not among those exiled deep into the empire.

Keywords

• philaretes and philomaths
• conspiracy theories
• history of secret societies
• russian-polish cultural relations
• svisloch gymnasium