TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES TO AND FROM THE KINGDOM OF POLAND DURING THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE 1831 NOVEMBER UPRISING: PASSPORT ISSUANCE AND TRAVELLER CONTROL.

Purpose. The article focuses on exploring the possibilities of traveling outside the Kingdom of Poland and entering its territory in the period following the fall of the 1831 November Uprising. The issue is examined through the perspective of: a) defining the administrative and legal frameworks for obtaining passports, permitting departure from the country; b) attempts to introduce passport-related facilitations for selected social groups; c) increased surveillance of travellers arriving in the Kingdom. Method. The historical research method was conducted employed content analysis of archival source materials as well as contemporary periodicals, in which government decrees were printed. Findings. As a result of the extremely restrictive passport policy imposed by tsarist authorities in the subjugated Kingdom of Poland during the 1830s, the Kingdom itself effectively became a closed territory with limited accessibility. The occupying authorities’ policies not only severely restricted opportunities to travel abroad, but also stifled travel into the Kingdom. Consequently, nearly all travellers were treated there as suspicious individuals requiring surveillance. This transformed the Kingdom of Poland into a territory largely "hostile to travel and travellers", where tourism, in practice, became non-existent. Research and conclusions limitations. A potential limitation of the study lies in its focus on the legal-formal aspects of the issue, primarily due to the lack of preserved data illustrating the actual scale and nature of travel to and from the Kingdom of Poland during the analysed period. This approach, which inherently emphasizes the intentions and objectives of the authorities in implementing post-uprising passport policies, allows for a comprehensive analysis of the issue from a strictly legal perspective. Practical implications. The conclusions drawn from the analysis may contribute to understanding the timeless mechanisms by which non-democratic authorities (for instance military regimes) exert arbitrary control over cross-border travel processes. Originality. The article is entirely original, both in its presentation of sourced data and in its synthesizing, as well as in generalising conclusions. Type of paper. The article is based on archival research conducted within: a) government/ministerial records, and b) periodicals publishing administrative decrees of the era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]