A publication documenting the activities of the Polish National Committee (KNP), founded in Paris on December 8, 1831, following the fall of the November Uprising. This book was published in Paris between 1831 and 1833 by the A. Pinard printing house and serves as an official summary and account of the political, diplomatic, and organizational activities of the Polish émigré community.
The book contains manifestos, proclamations addressed to the peoples of Europe (including the French, Germans, and English), political correspondence, and meeting minutes. It documents the émigré community’s efforts to keep the Polish cause on the international stage and to provide material aid to insurgents arriving in France.
The Polish National Committee represented the democratic wing of the Great Emigration. However, attempts to unite the émigré community around Lelewel’s program met with resistance from conservatives (the camp of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski) and with reluctance on the part of the French authorities, who feared the radicalism of Polish émigrés. Under pressure from Russian diplomats working on behalf of the government of Louis-Philippe I, the KNP was ultimately forced to cease its official activities, and Joachim Lelewel himself was ordered to leave Paris. The publication *“A Year’s Hard Work...”* was thus not only a report but also a kind of ideological testament of the organization.
36 pages
