M.N. Muravyov and “Potapovshchina’: an Attempt at Oblivion

Abstract

In the article the author examines the main directions of Vilna Governor General M.N. Muravyov’s activity in the years of 1863 – 1865. He pays special attention to the issues of national and social liberation of Western Russian peasants in the context of the reconquista and Russian North-Western territories decolonization. He also examines ideological changes of Russian society under the impact of the Polish uprising. He attempts to offer comparative analysis of Muravyov’s phenomenon and that of the so-called “Potapovshchina” in connection of the fi rst experience of the forced oblivion of the Vilna Governor General’s name and work.