Alexanderwohl 34

The excursus on the naming of Lushton was enjoyable, but it also served a useful purpose: to help us to establish a process for evaluating the historical accuracy of an etiological tale. Not surprisingly, we learned that one should judge historical accuracy on several levels: the broader, general level and the narrower, more detailed level. In the case of Lushton, we discovered that no single explanation of the naming of Lushton gave a full or fully accurate account. Still, thanks to contemporary records, we were able to weave the details of several tales into a coherent narrative that proved the general reliability of the overarching etiology: Lushton was named in honor of an official of the railroad that gave birth to the village. Will we find something similar with the naming of Alexanderwohl? There is only one way to find out.

To set the stage, we repeat the relevant portion of the community report once again:

When this community, which had existed as a church in Prussia for over 200 years, emigrated to Russia under the leadership of its church Ältester (elder), Peter Wedel, they rested for two days on the south side of the city of Warsaw. Tsar Alexander I—may he rest in peace—and a segment of his troops were outside the city engaging in field manoeuvres. We waited anxiously when the tsar, who had been alerted by several passing generals, stopped his carriage and beckoned with his right hand. Several church leaders ran to him and were asked where we came from and where we were going. When he heard we were going to Molotschna in southern Russia the tsar said: “I wish you luck on your journey. Greet your brethren for I have been there.” This happened on September 14, 1820.

When we arrived in Molotschna these greetings were promptly conveyed by Peter Wedel, our Ältester, to the congregations gathered in the churches. When the office in Ekaterinoslav heard of this extraordinary event, the chief judge Fadeyev immortalized it by naming the colony Alexanderwohl because, as he said, “Tsar Alexander has wished you well.”

Several of the claims can be judged reliable without any further investigation: a sizable group from the (Przechovka) church did emigrate to Russia under the leadership of Elder Peter Wedel in 1820, and presumably they made periodic rest stops along the way; Alexander I, the son of Paul I (reigned 1796–1801) and grandson of Catherine the Great (1762–1796), was tsar from 1801 to 1825; and Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeev was the chairman of the Ekaterinoslav Bureau of the Guardianship Committee in 1820 (he succeeded Samuel Contenius in 1818). Finally, the German word wohl does indeed mean “well,” so the etiology makes sense from a lexical perspective. (It may surprise readers to learn that some etiologies of this type fail on a lexical level.)

Other claims will be the focus of our investigation:

1. Is it conceivable that the tsar of Russia was on maneuvers in Poland in 1820?
2. Is there evidence that Tsar Alexander I was in Warsaw on 14 September 1820?

To answer the first of these questions, we must engage in more than a little history.

1. The Partitions of Poland

As noted from time to time in previous posts, the Kingdom of Poland had its territory systematically reduced through three successive partitions in the waning years of the eighteenth century. In 1772, 1793, and 1795 Russia, Prussia, and Austria divvied up Polish territory to add to their expanding realms.

Image made by Halibutt and uploaded to Wikipedia by the author.

What is evident in the map above—and important to note—is that the city of Warsaw never fell under Russian rule during this time. 

2. The Duchy of Warsaw

In 1807, during the middle of the Napoleonic wars of the early nineteenth century (1803–1815), the Prussians ceded their territory to Napoleon, who immediately established a Polish state that would provide him and his army material aid in their war against the Russians to the east. As is evident in the map below, the area of the Duchy of Warsaw corresponded roughly to the areas that Prussia had partitioned in 1793 and 1795 and Austria in 1795.

Wikipedia Commons: User:Mathiasrex Maciej Szczepańczyk, based on layer of User:kgberger.

Of course, Napoleon failed in his attempt to conquer and subdue Russia, and when his army retreated from Russian territory in December 1812 the Russians filled the vacuum and assumed control over most of the Duchy of Warsaw (the Prussians reclaimed the rest).

3. Congress Poland

The Russian rule over the former Duchy of Warsaw was formalized through an agreement once again made between the powers (victors against Napoleon) of the day: Russia, Austria, Prussia, and the United Kingdom. At the Congress of Vienna, which lasted from November 1814 to June 1815, Tsar Alexander I proposed, and the other participants surprisingly agreed, to form the Kingdom of Poland (more commonly known as Congress Poland in recognition of its origin—an etiology of sorts). The surprising aspect of the assent is that, although the new state was technically independent with its own constitution (Congress Poland was a constitutional monarchy), its rulers were to be the Russian tsars. In short, Polish independence was more hypothetical than real, and Alexander I was simultaneously tsar of Russia and king of Poland.

Wikipedia Commons: Mariusz Paździora. The Przechovka church was located
roughly 25 miles north and slightly northwest of Toruń, just outside of Congress Poland.

We engaged in this long historical account to answer our first question above: Is it conceivable that the tsar of Russia was on maneuvers in Poland in 1820? Clearly, given the fact that Tsar Alexander I was ruler of Congress Poland beginning in 1815 and continued his rule over Poland through the end of his reign in 1825, it is plausible to imagine him on maneuvers south of Warsaw in September 1820.

This leaves only one more question to answer: Is there evidence that Tsar Alexander I was in Warsaw on 14 September 1820? That will be the focus of the following post.