Zabójstwo Adama Mickiewicza: żołnierze, cywile i urzędnicy na litewskiej prowincji w początkach XIX wieku

ENThis article, based on sources discovered in the Central Historical Archive of Lithuania in Vilnius, concerns a little-known episode in the history of the family of the poet Adam Mickiewicz. In 1802, his uncle (also Adam) was murdered in Nowogródek by men of the Tartar-Lithuanian cavalry regiment stationing in the town (composed of Poles and Tartars former soldiers of the Commonwealth who decided to serve the Russians). The tardiness of the police authorities inclined the county marshal of the local gentry to intervene with Bennigsen, the Governor-General of Lithuania. The investigation, conducted by General Szembek (another Pole in Russian service) concerned also financial abuse committed by the command of the regiment, and complaints made by the Tartar soldiers about ill treatment. It also disclosed the fact that the murder, perpetrated in the presence of numerous witnesses, was not the only committed by the Tartar-Lithuanian regiment, which terrorised the environs of Nowogródek.Although the article contains heretofore unknown details from the history of the Mickiewicz family, the author focused on an analysis of the situation of prov- inces intimidated by countrymen in Russian uniforms, and the reasons for the decline of discipline within the regiment (the conflict between the Poles and the Tartars) as well as the role played in the whole issue by the gentry self-government. The author also claims that the question of the so-called disturbances in the Tartar-Lithuanian regiment contributes to research on the attitudes of Poles in the Russian partition area at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I. A situation in which Polish landowners and townspeople were forced to seek the protection of a Russian governor-general against the excesses of soldiers who once served in the army of the Commonwealth had to exert an impact on norms of conduct in public life. Furthermore, it expanded the boundaries of admissible compromise in relations with the Russian authorities, influenced the shaping of loyalist stands, and weakened the awareness of a community linking former citizens of the Commonwealth.