On 25 February 1831 the Polish army of the November Uprising fought the main Russian army of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch at Grochów, on the eastern approaches to Warsaw. The fighting centered on a small alder wood, the Olszynka, which Russian columns attacked again and again through the day. General Józef Chłopicki, the real leader of the Polish army, was wounded, and in the evening the Poles fell back toward Praga and Warsaw. But Diebitsch, who had lost thousands of men, did not storm the city. One of the largest and bloodiest battles of the uprising, Grochów kept Warsaw free for months.
The road to Warsaw
The uprising broke out in Warsaw in November 1830. On 25 January 1831 the Polish parliament dethroned Tsar Nicholas I as king of Poland, and in early February a large Russian army under Diebitsch crossed into the Kingdom of Poland. dzieje.pl puts it at about 115,000 men. On 14 February General Józef Dwernicki halted a Russian corps at Stoczek, inflicting heavy losses on it, and further Polish successes slowed the Russian march on the capital.1
The Polish army was formally commanded by Prince Michał Radziwiłł, but in practice it was led by the experienced Chłopicki. It took up its position at Grochów, east of Praga, the suburb across the Vistula from Warsaw, where the fighting would center on a small alder wood. Its strength is given differently. The Ministry of National Defence gives about 36,000 Poles with 114 guns against 59,000 Russians with 178 guns, while dzieje.pl, the Museum of Polish History and the Polish education portal give about 40,000 Poles against 60,000 Russians. Another dzieje.pl article credits the Poles with only 120 guns against more than 200 Russian ones.2
The alder wood
North of the main battlefield, at Białołęka, a Polish force under General Jan Krukowiecki stopped the 11,000-strong Russian column of General Shakhovskoy, which after two days of fighting had to fall back. Diebitsch, who had first reckoned on outflanking the Poles from the north, then decided on a frontal attack on their positions at Grochów. The Russian attack began shortly before nine in the morning, against a Polish center held by the divisions of Generals Żymirski and Skrzynecki. After almost an hour of artillery fire, Russian infantry stormed the Olszynka and forced the Poles out of it. The Russians made five attacks in all, and the Poles threw them back. Around noon Chłopicki himself led a counterattack of nine infantry battalions that retook the wood.3
The Russians attacked again, with fresh artillery fire preparing the way for their infantry, and the dead and wounded mounted on both sides. Later Chłopicki was badly wounded by a bursting shell and carried from the field. His wound ended his part in the fighting, and command passed to General Jan Skrzynecki, who ordered the army to fall back toward Praga.4
The great charge
As the Poles withdrew, Diebitsch tried to turn the retreat into a rout and sent his cavalry against them. The charge was stopped by the Polish infantry, above all the famous 4th Line Infantry Regiment, the Czwartacy, under Colonel Bogusławski. A charge by Colonel Ziemięcki's 2nd Uhlans, backed by squadrons of the 5th Uhlans, then threw the Russian horsemen back. The Czwartacy fought again later in the year at Ostrołęka.5
With dusk falling, his cavalry repulsed and Polish troops arriving from Białołęka, Diebitsch gave up the idea of attacking the fortifications of Praga and pulled his troops back. The whole battle is told in more detail in our article on Olszynka Grochowska.6
Losses and memory
The losses are disputed. dzieje.pl and the Museum of Polish History give about 7,300 Polish and 9,500 Russian casualties, and the Polish education portal nearly 7,000 Poles and 10,000 Russians. The Ministry of National Defence speaks of almost 7,300 Polish soldiers left on the field.7
Neither side won outright. Polish accounts usually call it an indecisive battle in which the Poles gained the tactical advantage. It stopped the Russian offensive, delayed the assault on Warsaw and gave the Poles time for their spring offensive. Warsaw fell only on 8 September 1831. At the insurgents' grave, at the corner of Szeroka and Tracza streets in Warsaw, a wooden cross set up on the battlefield in 1916 was replaced in 1930, the centenary of the uprising, by a metal one.8
