Echoes of Repression against Monasteries in the Kingdom of Poland in Krakow’s Daily Czas after the Collapse of the January Uprising

Abstract

The journal Czas (Time), a newspaper of Galician conservatives published in Krakow beginning in 1948, covered events in the Kingdom of Poland related to the January Uprising and repressions of the tsarist government against Poles after its collapse. One of the journal’s main themes was repression of the Catholic Church, especially male and female religious orders. It described all forms of harassment of monastic peoples by the Russians: petty mailce, issuance of regulations impeding the normal functions of monasteries, moral torment, torture, execution, exile to Siberia, confiscation of monastic property, and finally, liquidation of most male and female monasteries. When reporting cases of repression, the journal also presented the reactions of Western powers and the papacy to the anti-Polish and anti-church policy of the tsarist regime, as well as ineffective diplomatic attempts to counter such repressions. For a long time, readers were deluded by the hope of intervention from the Western powers on behalf of the oppressed Polish nation in defense of both national ideas and the Catholic religion. Unfortunately, this hope, which was bitterly reported by Czas, turned out to be in vain.