Kościuszko proclaims the 1794 Uprising in Kraków's Main Square

On 24 March 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko stood in the Main Square of Kraków and proclaimed an uprising against Russia and Prussia. He had returned to Poland a few days earlier and took the title of Commander-in-Chief of the insurgent forces, with wide powers over the rebel effort.

The revolt was a response to the Second Partition of 1793, which had stripped the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of much of its territory and left it under Russian influence. Kościuszko, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, swore an oath in the square and issued the Act of Insurrection, setting out the aims of the rising.

He soon gathered an army that included regular soldiers, volunteers and peasants armed with scythes. The best-known early success was the Battle of Racławice on 4 April 1794.

The uprising spread to Warsaw, where fighting broke out in April and ended Russian control of the city for a time. Heavy fighting took place across the capital and its surroundings in the months that followed. The insurrection was defeated by autumn 1794, and in 1795 the Commonwealth was erased from the map in the Third Partition. This is why objects from 1794 found in Warsaw are linked to these events.