Poland and Nicholas.: The Polish Meeting.The Polish Emigrants assembled on the 5th of June, 1844...in London

OBORSKI, Colonel L[udwik] (1789-1873). [POLISH EMIGRANTS IN LONDON]. Poland and Nicholas. The Polish Meeting. The Polish Emigrants assembled on the 5th of June, 1844...in London, in order to manifest the unanimous feelings excited in their bosoms by the arrival of the Russian Autocrat and Tyrant of Poland. Resolved,... 4to black bordered broadside, 10 x 7 1/2". London: Steam Press of W[illiam] M[ark] Clark [1844].

A rare broadside printing four fiery resolutions totaling ca. 700 words passed at a meeting to protest the visit of Nicholas I, "In behalf of the Polish Emigrants in London. (Signed). Colonel L. Oborski, Chairman. E. Staniewicz, Secretary." "That having left their fatherland not as slaves flying the wrath of an offended master, but as free citizens of a glorious and once independent, though now enslaved country-protesting in the face of Europe against the violation of their sacred and imprescriptible rights to self-government-they are now the only free organs of their nation's claims and wishes...That, although fate has hitherto been against us, there is a smothered fire in Poland, which, sooner or later, will burst forth; that we, the exiles, have solemnly sworn to collect material for that conflagration, until the whole nation shall rise up...we swear before England and the whole world, never to abate in our efforts, as long as there is one remaining amongst us..." Among the Polish members of the First International "were veterans of the November Uprising, who fought against Russia in 1830-31, like Colonel Ludwik Oborski (1789-1873), a well-known veteran who gained his experience during Napoleonic campaigns, serving in the Polish units under the Frnch command [Legion of Honor 1813]. He joined the army of the Kingdom of Poland, and subsequently particpated in the Rising of 1830. After its collapse he emigrated to France, and then stayed for a while in Switzerland, the United States, and finally in England [1835]. Oborski was engaged in the radical Polish politics in exile, and was also associated with the Fraternal Democrats. Between 1848 and 1849 he took part n the revolutionary struggle on the territory of Poznan and in Baden, and afterwards returned to England. Ludwik Oborski was considered to be a soldier rather than a politician or theoretician but he consequently was associated with the left-wing of the Polish political scene."-Krzysztof Marchlewicz, For Independent Poland and the Emancipation of the Working Class: The Poles in the IWMA, 1864-1876, chapter 11 in, "Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth": The First International in a Global Perspective (2028), p. 187. It was in England that Oborski came into contact with Marx and Engels. He was a member of the First International, and served as a member of its General Council. He was a representative of the Communes of Polish People, "who since the 1830s had articulated the need for social revolution, popularised common ownership of land, demanded nationalization of factories, workshops and banks, and projected systems of social security."-Marchlewicz, p. 190. COPAC records BL only; not in OCLC. Browned, repaired tears, with the loss of three words, and the loss of four or five letters; blank piece missing at top left corner.