4.3 Reasons for emigration of settlers in the Duchy of Warsaw

In the sections 3.1 Napoleon creates the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 and 4.1 Beginning of the history of Krasna the difficult situation of the colonists was already mentioned. When the Russians came to Poland in 1813, they had gone through very troubled times. From this situation arose the motives for the onward migration of the people to Bessarabia. The emigrants themselves recorded in the community reports of 1848:

• Krasna municipal report of 1848: “The all-destroying war campaigns of the French to Russia via Poland almost deprived the colonists of all their belongings. Then the colonists felt that the torn Poland could not give them security and protection for the future.”
• Wittenberg: “Due to the revolutionary unrest in Poland in 1810 and 1811 and due to the French campaign across Poland to Russia in 1812, they were forced to emigrate from Poland once again…”
• Borodino: “…since they had suffered great hardship in their former places of settlement due to the many quarterings and marches of local and enemy troops in the wake of the French campaigns, and had forfeited most of their possessions.”