Poles, the Revolutionary International, and the Berezowski Assassination Attempt

• In Event: Seeing the Enemy in the "Other": Visions of Conspiracy and Treachery among Russians, Poles, and Jews

Abstract

Russian authorities and educated society believed that the Polish nationalist cause was tied to a broader European revolutionary movement. They were not wrong. So when a young Polish political refugee of the January 1863 insurrection (Anton Berezowski), motivated by Polish patriotism, tried to assassinate Emperor Alexander II in Paris in 1867, Russian educated society was skeptical of the conclusion that Berezowski acted alone. This paper will position the Berezowski affair vis-à-vis international revolutionary movements, with a focus on Polish and Russian political emigrants and Russian perceptions of Polish conspiracies.

Author

• Heather Leigh Bailey, U of Illinois at Springfield