The ceremonies in Warsaw on Friday marked the 158th anniversary of the outbreak of the revolt, which was the largest Polish national uprising in the 19th century.
As part of the commemorations, officials laid flowers at the Warsaw Citadel, a 19th-century fortress in the Polish capital where many Poles were imprisoned and executed after the failed insurrection.
Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said in a Twitter post that the January Uprising was an “an act of great courage" in which Polish fighters rose against their Russian occupiers at the time.
"Glory to the Heroes," he wrote.
The 1863 revolt, though unsuccessful, paved the way for the country’s hard-won sovereignty in 1918, officials have said.
The January Uprising broke out on January 22, 1863 when a provisional national government issued a manifesto in which it appealed to all Poles to take up arms against czarist Russia.
The insurgency became the largest and longest of Poland's armed struggles for independence during the 19th century. It comprised more than 1,200 battles and skirmishes fought by some 200,000 insurgents.
Over 30,000 insurgents were killed during the bloody one-year-long struggle and some 40,000 were deported to Russia’s remote Siberia region.
Poland ultimately regained independence on November 11, 1918, the day World War I ended, after 123 years of being partitioned by Russia, Austria and Prussia.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP