“The Polish woman is an eternal, relentless, and incurable conspirator...” The Portrayal of Polish women during the January Uprising in the light of Nikolay Berg's memoirs

Abstract

The article analyzes excerpts from Notes on the Polish Uprising of 1863 and 1864 and the Preceding Era of Demonstrations from 1856 by the Russian journalist and historian Nikolai Berg, which depict the image of Polish women ‒ particularly from Warsaw ‒ during the January Uprising. As an eyewitness to the era, Berg portrayed them as figures deeply engaged in patriotic and independence activities. At the same time, he identified and thoroughly described two types of Polish women: conspirators who, under the guise of elegance and beauty, concealed their patriotic activities, and direct participants in the armed struggle against the Russian occupier. Moreover, Berg keenly observed that the social status of Polish women at the time did not limit their societal significance to traditional domestic roles but rather accepted and even legitimized their active ‒ and sometimes even leading ‒ participation in shaping independence efforts. Analyzing Berg’s Notes reveals how Polish women, through political and cultural actions, contributed to building national consciousness and strengthening patriotic identity in the face of Tsarist repression, while simultaneously asserting their own female agency. Thus, this article may serve as an interesting attempt to take a specific position within the contemporary academic and social discourse on women's history.