Constructing the Loyal Peasant: the Policy of the Constituent Committee on the Peasant Issue in the Kingdom of Poland (1864-1871)

The article examines the policy of fostering peasant loyalty to the Russian Tsar during the peasant reform of 1864 in the Kingdom of Poland. The idea of Russian officials about Polish peasants as traditionally loyal subjects of the empire is present in the historiography of Russian governance of Congress Poland after the Polish uprising of 1863-1864. It is usually depicted as a static phenomenon, a natural consequence of the peasant reform. This work aims to study the genesis of this perception and its practical foundations in the policies of N. A. Milyutin and the Constituent Committee from 1864 to 1871. The primary sources include documents from the stocks 869 (Milyutin's correspondence - dos. 1145) and 1270 (the notes "On the Course of the Peasant Matter in the Kingdom of Poland" - dos. 1490-1493 and materials of several meetings of the St. Petersburg Committee for the Affairs of the Kingdom of Poland, containing positions of both the Warsaw authorities and the central departments) of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), as well as materials from the periodic press. The research shows heterogeneity of views among the members of the "Milyutin's party", which emerged during the work in the Editorial Committees on the peasant reform of 1861 in the empire. The active discursive policy, combining direct work with peasants and the construction of an external image of a loyal peasant, was conducted until 1868. The closure of the Constituent Committee in 1871 meant the destruction of the parallel center of power in Warsaw, but did not lead to a decisive change in the authorities' policy on the peasant issue, resulting in the preservation of the imagery system created by N. A. Milyutin.