Kościuszko Uprising

The Kosciuszko Uprising was a rebellion against Russia and Prussia, which had divided up much of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second partition of 1793. It was led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, who proclaimed himself commander in Krakow and called for a national struggle. His peasant soldiers armed with scythes, the kosynierzy, won a victory over Russian troops at Raclawice. The uprising spread to Warsaw and Vilnius, but the insurgents were outnumbered, and Kosciuszko was wounded and captured at Maciejowice. In November the Russian general Suvorov stormed Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, and the city fell. The third partition in 1795 erased Poland from the map for over a century.

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