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The Courland Uprising[a] was a series of battles during the Kosciuszko Uprising, fought between the Russian Empire and Polish–Lithuanian insurgents. It toon place between from 25 June to 12 August 1794, in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and Pilten County.
History
[edit]The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, led by duke Peter von Biron, remained neutral during the first and second partition of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Furthermore, it feel into heavy influence of Prussia and Russia. On 30 May 1794, Peter von Biron had officially condemn the outbreak of the Kościuszko Uprising.[1]
The Kosciuszko uprising spread to Courland when a unit of around 1,500 soldiers and 2 cannons of the major general of the Telšev county, Antoni Wojtkiewicz, part of the division of the lieutenant general Tomasz Wawrzecki operating on the border between Samogitia and Courland, took Lipava without a fight, disarming the small Courland garrison. The outbreak of the uprising in Courland led to the disruption of the land connection between Prussia and Russia.
The formal proclamation of the act establishing the Duchy of Courland took place on 28 June 1794. Ernest Jan Karol Mirbach was elected Major General of the Duchy, and immediately set about forming local troops. The insurgents' proclaimed slogans of freedom and equality attracted local burghers and peasants to the uprising. Only the Courland nobility, most of whom were of German origin, regarded the insurgents with hostility.
Concerned about the spread of the uprising to the Courland area, Russian General Sergei Golitsyn sent a detachment of 1,100 soldiers and 8 guns from Bauska to Lipava, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Kozlainov, who was soon joined by a Kurland detachment of 200 soldiers and 2 guns. The insurgents, not feeling up to the task, left Lipava in the night of 11 July and retreated towards Durbe. Kozlainov occupied the abandoned town on 12 July and imposed a contribution on it.
In skirmishes that took place on 24 and 25 June near Lipava with Lithuanian troops commanded by Major-General Ignatius Prozor of the Kaunas County, the Russian troops suffered heavy losses and Kozlainov himself was seriously wounded. At the beginning of August, Wawrzecki arrived in Dorbian, bringing with him considerable reinforcements of about 3,000 troops, and on 8 August, after a short battle, recaptured Lipava. He left the garrison in the city and set off in pursuit of Kozlainov's retreating forces, which were fleeing in the direction of Jelgava.
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- ^ Lenka Vašková Šínová: Courland during the Reign of Peter von Biron (1769-1795). České Budějovice: České Budějovice Institute of Technology and Busines, 2015, p. 151–162. ISSN 1805-9112.