A strike at identity: The Catholic Church as a target of Russian propaganda after the 1863 Uprising

Abstract

The article analyzes P. Dm. Bryantsev’s work, “The Polish Mutiny of 1863”, as a case study of propaganda that legitimized the Russian Empire’s strategy to destroy Polish national identity. The research focuses on the Catholic Church, the key target of this imperial policy, which was viewed as a bastion of Polish culture and self-awareness. A crucial aspect of the study is revealing the fundamental contradiction between the author’s declared scientific objectivity and the book’s actual status as a state-censored, officially approved ideological product.

The methodological basis of the work is a comprehensive approach based on the principles of intellectual history and discourse analysis. This approach, supplemented by historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods, makes it possible to analyze Bryantsev’s work as a purposeful ideological product, which arose in a specific political and biographical context, and to deconstruct the manipulative techniques used by the author.

The article analyzes in detail the mechanisms for creating the image of a “conspirator church”. It is revealed how, through the criminalization of vocabulary (“mutiny”, “gangs”), the construction of a narrative about an organized clergy conspiracy (from “outrageous sermons” to the “Podlasie Congress”), the personalization of evil in the images of individual priests, and the dissemination of sensational rumors about the immorality of monastic life, propaganda systematically destroyed the moral authority of the Church. It is demonstrated that this ideological offensive was inextricably linked to practical repressions: the mass liquidation of monasteries, the reorganization of the church hierarchy, the severance of ties with Rome, and interference in the family life of the faithful.

It is proven that the ultimate goal of this dual strategy was not only the subjugation of the institution but also the weakening of the very foundation of Polish identity. Parallels are drawn with other Russification measures of the empire during the same period, particularly with the “Valuev Circular”, which indicates the systemic nature of the assimilation policy.

The scientific novelty consists of the deconstruction, based on intellectual history and discourse analysis, of the very mechanism of ideological legitimization, where a “mask” of scientific objectivity is used to justify repressions. This holds significant value for understanding the long-term strategies and continuity of imperial propaganda narratives in modern research.