CATALOGUE REFERENCE: SOLID1020/0057 Romuald Traugutt (16 January 1826 – 5 August 1864) was a Polish general and war hero, best known for commanding the January Uprising. From October 1863 to August 1864 he was Dictator of Insurrection. He headed the Polish national government from October 17, 1863 to April 20, 1864, and was president of its Foreign Affairs Office. Before the uprising he was a Lt. Colonel (podpulkownik) in the Russian army where he had won distinction in the Crimean War. He retired from the army in 1862 and became involved with conservative Polish nationalists. After leading a partisan unit in the initial rebellion, he became leader of the rebel forces in October 1863. After the uprising failed, he was sentenced to death by the Russian regime and hanged near the Warsaw Citadel on 5 August 1864, aged 38, together with other rebel commanders (Rafal Krajewski, Jozef Toczyski, Roman Zulinski and Jan Jezioranski). The Roman Catholic Church is considering his beatification due to his overwhelming devotion to God and his sacrifice for his homeland. The January Uprising (Polish: powstanie styczniowe, Lithuanian: 1863 m. sukilimas) was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (present-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, parts of Ukraine, western Russia) against the Russian Empire. It began January 22, 1863, and lasted until the last insurgents were captured in 1865. The uprising began as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army, and was soon joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and various politicians. The insurrectionists, severely outnumbered and lacking serious outside support, were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics. They failed to win any major military victories or capture any major cities or fortresses, but they did blunt the effect of the Tsar´s abolition of serfdom in the Russian partition, which had been designed to draw the support of peasants away from the nation. Severe reprisals against insurgents, such as public executions and deportations to Siberia, led many people to abandon armed struggle and turn instead to the idea of \"organic work\": economic and cultural self-improvement. THIS PROPAGANDA STAMP SET WAS ISSUED BY THE POLISH UNDERGROUND SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT AS A DIVERSIFICATION STATEMENT AGAINST MARTIAL LAW WHICH HAD BEEN DECLARED BY THE COMMUNIST AUTHORITIES IN POLAND. IT IS A VERY RARE AND COLLECTABLE ITEM . THE UNDERGROUND MEMBERS WHO ISSUED THIS STAMP RISKED A LOT, BECAUSE IF CAUGHT THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A UNIQUE PIECE OF HISTORY. IT IS A MUST FOR EVERY SERIOUS HISTORIAN AND COLLECTOR OF THIS PERIOD AND WILL MAKE AN INTERESTING ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION. General Wojciech Jaruzelski announced the introduction of martial law in a speech first broadcast on radio and television at 6:00 am on December 13, 1981. In order to isolate members of the opposition (from the Solidarity movement), 52 internment centers were created. A total of 10,132 internment orders were issued against 9,736 people during the period of martial law.
