THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE, 



OF 



POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND THE BELLES LETTRES. 

 VOL. XV.] JUNE, 1833. [No. 90. 



RECENT ATROCITIES OF THE RUSSIANS IN POLAND. 



COMMUNICATIONS with Poland are now so difficult, that the public 

 prints can give but vague and imperfect details on the deplorable 

 fate of that heroic land. Russia, it is true, does not conceal her 

 intentions with regard to Poland any longer from the rest of Europe* 

 In abolishing the constitution guaranteed by the treaty of Vienna, she 

 proclaims loudly her project of reducing the country to the rank of a 

 province ; but what she yet wishes to enshroud in a veil of mystery, 

 is the atrocity of the measures she puts in force to attain this object. 

 We shall present to our readers a few facts and official documents, 

 the authenticity of which we can guarantee. Their simple repro- 

 duction here, without either reflection or commentary, will perhaps 

 silence those men who, like Lord Durham and his clique, extol to the 

 skies the good faith and generosity of the Emperor Nicholas. 



The exportation of children is one of the means made use of to 

 consummate the destruction of the Polish people. The imperial ukases 

 for this measure spread terror and desolation through the kingdom. 

 The terrified mothers ceased to send their children to the schools so 

 much so, that the municipal body of Warsaw was at last obliged to 

 issue a proclamation, in which it declared, that the Emperor took 

 under his protection only poor and orphan children ; but the deter- 

 mination of this quality was made to depend on the arbitrary will 

 and caprice of the military commandants. 



It must however be allowed, that there are some men among the 

 Russians who are sensible of the atrocity of their master's orders, but 

 who, nevertheless, seek to propagate a belief that every thing done 

 relatively to Poland is with the consent of the three united powers of 

 Russia, Prussia, and Austria. It is also worthy of remark, that the 

 ukase only makes mention of orphans ; but then, according to its defi- 

 nition, an orphan is, 1st, a child without a father, although he may 

 possess a fortune ; 2dly, a child whose parents are living, but who 

 are in indigent circumstances. In order to find out these orphans, 

 the following measures were taken by the Russian government : 

 They invited, at Warsaw, through the intermedium of the commis- 

 saries of police, and in the provinces through that of the " commis- 

 saires d'arrondissemens" all those who required assistance for their 



