What happened at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska?
On 25 February 1831, during the November Uprising, the Polish army stood east of Warsaw against the larger Russian army of Field Marshal Diebitsch. The fiercest fighting raged for an alder wood, the olszynka, which changed hands several times. The battle was indecisive: the Poles withdrew into Warsaw, but the Russians, badly mauled, did not attack the city.3
In November 1830 Polish officers in Warsaw rose against Russian rule. By February 1831 a great Russian army was marching on the capital. On the plain of Grochów, just across the Vistula from the city, the Polish army made its stand around a small alder wood, and on 25 February the two armies fought the bloodiest battle of the uprising for it.4
Who won the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska and why?
Neither side won outright. The Russians held the field, but the Polish army withdrew into Warsaw in good order and Diebitsch, shaken by his losses, did not storm the city. The Poles gained more: they stopped a much larger army at the gates of their capital, and the uprising lived on for months.5
The November Uprising
On the night of 29 to 30 November 1830 young Polish officers in Warsaw rose against Russian rule over the Kingdom of Poland. Tsar Nicholas I sent against them an army that, according to both the Polish Army Museum and Puzyrevsky, had been readied in the autumn for intervention in the Belgian revolt. In January 1831 the Polish parliament dethroned Nicholas as king of Poland.6
Diebitsch marches on Warsaw
Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch crossed into the Kingdom of Poland on 5 February 1831, counting on a quick campaign: Puzyrevsky writes that his army set out with food for 21 days, and the Museum of Polish History says 20. The Polish army fell back to defend the approaches to the capital, and on 14 February the cavalry general Józef Dwernicki won the uprising's first victory at Stoczek.7
The Polish army did not simply retreat. On 17 February its rearguards fought the advancing Russian columns at Dobre and Kałuszyn, and both dzieje.pl and Puzyrevsky record these clashes as small Polish successes that slowed the march. Then it fell back to the plain of Grochów, on the approaches to Warsaw, with the Vistula behind it.8
The Polish chain of command was tangled. Józef Chłopicki, who had led the uprising as dictator, had stepped down, and Prince Michał Radziwiłł was now commander in chief; but in practice it was Chłopicki, without a formal command of the whole army, who directed the battle. Andrzej Kałwa, writing for dzieje.pl, notes that the complications of this double command would soon tell on the fighting.9
The commanders' decisions
Diebitsch did not mean to attack the Polish front. His plan was to turn the Polish left from the north: a column under General Shakhovskoy, about 11,000 men by the dzieje.pl account and some 17,500 by Puzyrevsky's, was to march through Białołęka and fall on the Polish rear while the main army pressed the left wing. But Shakhovskoy was held at Białołęka by General Jan Krukowiecki, and on the morning of 25 February, hearing gunfire from that direction, Diebitsch ordered a frontal attack to draw the Poles off him.10
Puzyrevsky concludes that the battle was fought against all of Diebitsch's calculations, and he blames Shakhovskoy, who stood idle for hours and reached the field only late in the afternoon. Chłopicki, for his part, accepted battle in front of Praga with the wood as the anchor of his line, and both the Polish Army Museum and dzieje.pl describe how the fight for it drew in more and more troops from both sides.11
How many soldiers fought at Olszynka Grochowska?
About 40,000 Polish soldiers faced about 60,000 Russians, the figures given by the Museum of Polish History, the Polish Army Museum and dzieje.pl. The Poles had 90 guns by the Polish Army Museum's count or 120 by dzieje.pl's, against more than 200 on the Russian side; the Polish Army Museum gives 212. Puzyrevsky counts 70,000 men and 237 guns in the Russian main army three days after the battle.12
The alder wood
The key to the Polish position was a small alder wood, the olszynka, at the center of the field. The center of the Polish line was held by the divisions of Generals Franciszek Żymirski and Jan Skrzynecki, with Krukowiecki's division on the left, General Szembek's on the right and General Tomasz Łubieński's cavalry in the rear. Among the defenders of the wood itself was the 4th Line Infantry Regiment.13
The Russian attack opened after almost an hour of artillery fire. The infantry then went in against the wood, and through the day it changed hands again and again. Around noon Chłopicki personally led nine infantry battalions in the counterattack that retook it. Puzyrevsky criticizes the Russian command for feeding troops into the wood in small portions, first three battalions, then eleven, then more, against two full Polish divisions.14
The defenders who won the most fame were the men of the 4th Line Infantry Regiment, the czwartacy ("the Fourths"). The Polish Army Museum says they suffered the heaviest losses of any regiment in the battle, and both the museum and dzieje.pl credit them with holding off far larger forces.15
The cavalry charge
In the afternoon Diebitsch threw his cavalry at the Polish line, aiming to break it and cut the Poles off from Praga. Both accounts agree that the charge was finally thrown back by Polish uhlans of the 2nd and 5th Regiments. They differ on how far it got: Puzyrevsky writes that a squadron of Prince Albert's cuirassiers broke a Polish square and rode almost to Praga before it was driven off, while dzieje.pl stresses that the infantry of the 4th Regiment under Colonel Bogusławski stopped the charge.16
The Polish withdrawal
The crisis came at about the same time. Chłopicki wanted a counterattack by Krukowiecki's troops and Łubieński's cavalry, but both generals refused to move without confirmation from Radziwiłł. Then a bursting shell seriously wounded Chłopicki, and he was carried from the field. The Polish Army Museum describes the brief confusion that followed.17
Command passed to Skrzynecki. Puzyrevsky writes that among the senior Polish commanders only Skrzynecki kept his head, restored order on the right and formed a new line on the sandy hills; aware of the odds and of the disloyalty of his fellow generals, he ordered a withdrawal in good order toward Warsaw. The 2nd Uhlans of Colonel Ziemięcki covered the retreat. As dusk fell, at about five o'clock, Diebitsch called off the attack.18
How many died at Olszynka Grochowska?
Losses were heavy on both sides, and the figures differ. The Museum of Polish History and dzieje.pl give about 7,300 Polish and 9,500 Russian casualties; the Polish Army Museum gives about 7,000 Polish and 9,600 Russian killed and wounded. Puzyrevsky puts the Polish losses at up to 12,000 men and three guns, and the Russian at up to 9,400. In a single winter day the two armies lost more than 15,000 men.19
Why did Diebitsch not attack Warsaw after the battle?
Diebitsch held the field, but his army had lost about 9,500 men and was exhausted, Polish troops were arriving from Białołęka, and Praga was strongly fortified. The Polish Army Museum calls his decision to call off the attack a key one: an immediate assault on Praga might have crushed the bled-out Polish army.20
Puzyrevsky explains the other side of the problem: the provisions the army had brought were running out, the ice on the Vistula was becoming unsafe, and a crossing would have to wait for the thaw. The exhausted Russian army fell back into winter quarters, and dzieje.pl describes the campaign from Stoczek to Grochów as the moment when the Russian offensive broke down and the tsar's hope of a quick victory faded.21
Why the battle mattered
Olszynka Grochowska was the largest battle of the November Uprising. It saved Warsaw for the time being and allowed the uprising to continue for months. As dzieje.pl puts it, its significance lay in forcing the Russians to pull back and delaying their assault on Warsaw, which came only in September 1831.22
The battle reshaped the Polish command. Radziwiłł had to step down, and Skrzynecki became commander in chief, while Chłopicki, whose wound proved too serious, never returned to the field. In the spring the Polish army went over to the offensive and won at Wawer and Dębe Wielkie on 31 March and at Iganie on 10 April, but on 26 May it was defeated at Ostrołęka. dzieje.pl sees the success at Grochów as the foundation of that spring offensive; Puzyrevsky, looking at it from the Russian side, calls Grochów a tactical victory but not a strategic one, since the Poles came out of it behind the Vistula with time to rebuild their army.23
Where was the alder wood, and what is there today?
The wood stood on the plain of Grochów, then a distant suburb east of Warsaw and today part of the city. Most of the alders were cut down in the 19th and early 20th centuries; in the 1930s the land was drained and replanted, and a national mausoleum was planned. In 1983 the area was declared a nature and history reserve, with a monument to the battle.24
Along the road to the monument runs an "Avenue of Glory" of boulders with plaques honoring the soldiers of 1831, and the anniversary is marked there each February with a reenactment. A painting of the battle by Wojciech Kossak, in the collection of the Polish Army Museum, shows the czwartacy beating off another Russian assault, with Chłopicki and his staff behind them. For the wider story of Polish arms, see the greatest Polish battles.25
