Spitting at the Russian Occupation of Poland

Maria Sklodowska, 16 years old.
From: Wikimedia

"Nowhere in Warsaw was the Russian military presence more palpable than in Saxon Square. The Saxon Palace, once a royal residence, was now a Russian military headquarters; low-lying buildings surrounding the square were given over to barracks. Sometimes there would have been military reviews in progress when Maria [Sklodowska, in her early teens in the early 1880s, later to become the scientist Marie Curie] and Kazia passed by. And always towering over the buildings and the people coming and going in the square was the graceless bronze obelisk, surrounded by horrific two-headed eagles, erected by the Tzar after the November uprising [1830].

"Bivouac of the Russian Army on the Saxon Square in 1861"
This picture was taken about twenty years before Marie and
her friend spit on the obelisk.
From: Wikimedia

The obelisk celebrated the bravery of those Poles who remained faithful to the Tzar during the uprising. To Poles, of course, these 'brave' men were traitors, and the monument was a provocation. Indeed, for some time after the January Uprising [1863] a sentinel protected the obelisk from vandals day and night. Kazia and Maria, for their part, made a point of spitting on the obelisk every time they passed by." --Susan Quinn, Marie Curie: A Life