Abstract: The subject of this study is the analysis of the perception and assessment by Russian officers and government officials of cases of Polish soldiers serving in the imperial army going over to the side of the insurgents during the Polish Uprising of 1863–1864. This problem is considered through the prism of an internal, psychological and ethical dilemma, which was recorded in the memoirs of contemporaries: this is a conflict between professional military duty and a deep national-patriotic feeling, the so-called "sense of a good Pole", among Polish soldiers and officers. Thus, the work is intended to reveal how the Russian officer corps, which itself was a direct participant in this military conflict, interpreted the motives, circumstances and consequences of this difficult moral choice, which called into question the bonds of military solidarity and loyalty to the state. The methodology is based on the historical and anthropological approach and critical analysis of personal documents – memoirs and diaries of Russian officers and officials who participated in the suppression of the uprising or served in the Kingdom of Poland. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the view of the problem of loyalty of the Polish military through the prism of the subjective, personal perception of their defection to the side of the rebels by their Russian comrades-in-arms. This allows us to identify a complex range of feelings among Russian officers: from condemnation of betrayal to understanding and sympathy for the prisoners. The main conclusion of the study is that their attitude to the defectors was contradictory and ambiguous. They condemned the fact of treason, but often understood its reasons. At the same time, Russian officers also write about those Poles in the Russian army who continued to serve and participated in the suppression of the uprising, and at the same time note the particular cruelty in their actions against their fellow tribesmen. Based on the sources studied, the authors of the study conclude that, in the perception of contemporaries, the conflict had the clearly pronounced character of an interethnic war, where professional solidarity gave way to national identity.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the study of the problem of perception by Russian officers and officials of the participants of the Polish uprising of 1863-1864 in the Kingdom of Poland and the Western Region. Russian-Polish Uprising of 1863-1864 is the most important milestone in the history of Russian-Polish relations and the formation of the image of the Pole in Russian society. In the inner provinces, most people received information about the uprising mainly from the periodical press, thanks to which the image of a tough enemy was superimposed on the already existing idea of the Poles. But there were also those among the Russians who were in the thick of things during the uprising. These were the military and officials sent to the Kingdom of Poland and the Western Region. Thanks to the personal experience of the participants of the events, a much more multifaceted image was formed.
The topic of mutual perception of Poles and Russians has been of scientific interest to Russian and Polish researchers for many years. There is a large body of scientific works in historiography devoted to the study of images and mutual stereotypes of Poles and Russians. The relevance of the article lies in the absence of comprehensive studies in which the subject of study would be the personal perception of Russian officers and officials of the participants of the uprising. In the course of the study, the memories of direct participants in the events who took part in the suppression of the uprising and the reform of the administration of the Western Region were studied. The article attempts to show the Polish rebels as they were seen by the Russian military and officials.
In addition, their perception of such aspects of the uprising as the degree of its preparedness, the reasons for the victories and defeats of the rebels is also of interest. The result of the study was the construction of the image of the rebel, as well as the identification of factors that influenced the formation of this image.