Wileńscy studenci a polska sprawa narodowa w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku. Postawy, zachowania, decyzje

ENThe Napoleonic era was the fi rst political event that gave the Polish youth the opportunity to actively engage in the matter of Polish nationality shortly after the fall of the Polish state. It was, however, a quite painful experience for them – Napoleon did not live up to their hopes, he lost the 1812 campaign, and the “good guy”, despite some repressions, turned out to be the tsar. Though suppressed by the Russians, attempts to try to fi nd new ways of meeting the patriotic needs were not abandoned. The solution in this situation was to be The Philomaths and The Filaret Association. Their lifespan was not long and their fate was decided by one person – M. Nowosilcow. His 1823−1824 investigation put an end to such forms of youth organization, however, as was the case earlier, it did not discourage other forms of expressing Polishness and opposing the Russian rule. Another opportunity came in the form of the November Uprising and the conspiracy movement of the 1830s and ‘40s which reached the Vilnius region.