Ethnic Descent and Faith of the Russian Border-Guard Officers in the Kingdom of Poland in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

The religiously-ethnical structure of the Russian border-guard officers’ corps in the Kingdom of Poland belonged to the most Russificated amongst the uniformed services. In that sense it gave way only to the Tsars’ political police (gendarmerie). The policy of eliminating the Polish-Catholic element had appeared already before the outbreak of the January Uprising. The national insurgency itself brought about the exacerbation of such course of action. It is worth mentioning that analogous impediments did not take place towards people who represented the protestant churches. However, the Department of Customs (Departament Opłat Celnych) as well as the authorities of the Independent Border-Guard Corps (Samodzielny Korpus Straży Granicznej) undertook the efforts so that the Lutherans would not own a share larger than 20% in a group of officers in a particular brigade. The closer to the outbreak of the First World War, the number of the Orthodox officers was higher. It was set in a universally noticeable tendency which aimed at the elimination of non-Russian factors in the state and military apparatus at the territory of the gubernia of the Kingdom of Poland.