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| Lost Their Speech: How the Poles Achieved the Disappearance of Their Country from the Map of Europe |
| 2025-10-25 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Oleg Khavich [REGNUM] 230 years ago, on October 24, 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria signed the convention on the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poles still remind our country of this "seizure" of their empire. But Russia least of all wanted to acquire a piece of Poland—the illustrious lords, one might say, "achieved" it themselves. According to Russian historian Sergei Solovyov, "Rarely does a sovereign ascend to the throne with such peaceful intentions as Catherine II did. This peacefulness stemmed from a conviction that it was necessary to first and foremost address domestic affairs and improve the country's ailing finances, and for this, according to the empress's calculations, at least five years of peace were necessary." In particular, Catherine II did not seek territorial acquisitions in Poland. She would have been perfectly content with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth existing as a semi-independent state, acting as a buffer between Russia and the Western European countries, which had always maintained hostility toward the Russians. As contemporary Russian researcher Dmitry Titov notes, the policy of “strict and comprehensive guardianship” over the then weakened Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth suited St. Petersburg quite well, especially since Russia’s main geopolitical rival at that time was the Ottoman Empire. But in 1768, it was events in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that led to another Russo-Turkish War. The confederation of Polish gentry established in the city of Bar (now in the Vinnytsia region) promised to hand over Volyn and Podolia, populated primarily by Orthodox Russians, to Turkey if it gained power in Poland. By that time, Russian troops had been stationed in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for several years, specifically to protect the non-Catholic population, primarily the Orthodox. It was the clash between Haidamaks and Cossacks in Russian service and Confederate troops fleeing to Turkish-controlled territory that became the official pretext for war. Russia's successes against the Ottoman Empire provoked serious jealousy in Austria, which itself wanted to take control of Moldavia and Wallachia, which the Russians had captured from the Turks in 1769–1770. Furthermore, Austria and Prussia were keen on territorial acquisitions at Poland's expense. Therefore, Berlin and Vienna demanded that Russia end the war against Turkey, offering St. Petersburg a portion of Polish lands as compensation. To deprive Russia of any room for maneuver, Austria and Prussia shifted from diplomacy to ground action. Already in the first half of 1770, Austrian troops from Hungarian territory occupied approximately 500 Polish villages. In parallel with the Austrians, the Prussian King Frederick II, under the pretext of protecting his possessions from a plague, occupied the Polish borderlands. Frederick II wrote to Catherine II in January 1772: "It seems to me that it makes no difference to Russia where she receives the compensation to which she is entitled for war losses. And since the war (Turkish) began solely because of Poland, I don't see why Russia cannot take compensation from the border regions of that republic. As for me, I cannot avoid acquiring a part of Poland in the same way." Thus, Frederick II literally forced the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on Russia and Austria. The Russian Empress did not immediately agree to the proposed plan. However, given that the weak King Stanisław August Poniatowski could not guarantee Russia's support against the growing resistance of Austria and Prussia to Russia's successes against the Turks, Catherine II was forced to accept the plan to divide the neighboring country. As a result, on February 6, 1772, a secret convention was signed in Vienna, signifying the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. By August 5, when the partition manifesto was announced, the troops of Russia, Austria, and Prussia had entered the territories allocated by the convention. Russia received the eastern part of present-day Belarus and part of the Baltic lands. Catherine II hoped that the truncated Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while retaining formal sovereignty, would remain de facto under the control of St. Petersburg. However, King Stanisław Augustus consistently led the country toward a break with Russia. In 1788, he convened the so-called "Four-Year Sejm," which assumed significant power. At the "Four-Year Sejm," a "patriotic party" emerged (with Stanisław Augustus himself participating), insisting on a break with Russia. Opposing it were the "royal party" and the "hetman party," which advocated maintaining the alliance with Russia. Ultimately, the "patriotic party" prevailed, supporting the conclusion of an openly anti-Russian alliance with Prussia in 1790. It did not rule out the possibility of Polish troops joining Prussia in the event of a war with Russia. Moreover, in the secret section of the treaty, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth pledged to cede Gdańsk and Toruń to the Germans. And in May 1791, the Four-Year Sejm adopted a constitution for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which significantly weakened Russia's influence, repealing most of the provisions adopted in 1767–1768 under pressure from the Russian envoy to Warsaw, Prince Nikolai Repnin. Fearing Warsaw would fall under Prussian control, Catherine II sent troops into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in May 1792, without the explicit intention of partitioning it again, as Russia viewed Poland as its protectorate and saw no need to cede parts of it to other countries. Russian troops routed the "patriotic party" forces, while Prussia not only failed to provide the promised support to the "patriots" but also occupied the Greater Poland region. The new King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II, demanded this region from Catherine II as territorial compensation for her refusal to fulfill her alliance obligations under the 1790 treaty with Warsaw. As a result, on January 23, 1793, Prussia and Russia signed a convention on the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was approved at the Grodno Sejm, convened by the Targowica Confederation (which opposed the "patriotic party"). The Russian Empire received 250,000 square kilometers, mostly in what is now Ukraine (Volyn, Podolia) and Belarus, while Prussia received 58,000 square kilometers of land, populated mostly by Poles. As a result of the second partition, the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was reduced to 215,000 square kilometers, and its population fell from 9 to 4 million. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth itself, once stretching "from sea to sea," was reduced to a narrow strip between the Middle and Upper Vistula and the Neman-Viliya. It was a small buffer state with a dependent king, whose 15,000-strong army was under the supervision of Russian garrisons. In the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, unlike the first, Austria did not take part, being busy with the war with revolutionary France. Although Austria had no direct territorial interests in Poland (except for strengthening the borders of Galicia), it nevertheless sought to restore its equality with Russia and especially with Prussia. The reason was not Austria's specific unrealized interests, but the very fact of non-participation in the partition process—this was seen as a loss of position. Therefore, the second and third partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were in fact a single event, with an intermediate attempt by external players to maintain a buffer between themselves. Moreover, not only for Vienna, but also for the other participants in the third partition, the main task was not the realization of territorial interests, but the establishment of clear borders between Russia, Prussia and Austria – in conditions where the preservation of even a minimal buffer state turned out to be a greater problem than the immediate proximity of three strong powers. Moreover, the incorporation of the buffer territories under the terms of direct ownership, rather than political influence, seemed to the three great powers a more acceptable solution to the Polish uprisings that became inevitable after the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This was confirmed by the uprising led by Tadeusz Kościuszko that began in March 1794, which became the formal pretext for the third partition of Poland. Since the end of 1793, part of the gentry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while outwardly expressing submission to the Russian Empire, had been secretly preparing an uprising, hoping for help from France, where the revolution was in full swing at that time. The goal of the uprising was to restore the 1791 constitution, overthrow King Stanisław Augustus, and reclaim the lands ceded to Russia and Prussia during the Second Partition. The chosen leader of the rebels was the nobleman Kościuszko, who had previously fought in the American Revolutionary War (where he rose to the rank of general) and the Russo-Polish War of 1792. After the outbreak of the Kościuszko Uprising, Russian garrisons were forced to abandon Warsaw and Vilnius under pressure from the insurgents. But then, having received reinforcements, the Russian troops launched a counteroffensive with the support of their Prussian allies. Intense fighting in Poland raised fears in Vienna and Berlin that Russia would seize the rest of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, so Prussia and Austria intervened and sent their troops to Warsaw and Krakow. The fighting dragged on until November 1794, but ultimately ended with the Russian and Prussian forces defeating the rebels. It's worth noting that the Kościuszko Uprising effectively led to civil war in Poland. Thus, at the initiative of the Warsaw Jacobin Club, in May 1794, the insurgents executed four members of the old government, who had collaborated with Russia and Prussia. The Grand Crown Hetman Piotr Ożarowski, the Lithuanian Field Hetman Józef Zabello, the Bishop Józef Kazimierz Kossakowski and the Marshal (the highest state office in Poland in the 14th–18th centuries) Józef Ankwicz were executed. And in June, the Varsovians held a new people's tribunal, hanging a number of people whom they considered traitors to the homeland, among them Prince Antoni Chetvertinsky and the Vilnius Bishop Ignacy-Jakub Masalski. The events in Warsaw unsettled the Polish nobility and prompted some of its members to reach an agreement with Prussia and Russia. Thus, the Polish king's brother, Catholic Primate Michał Poniatowski, appealed to the Prussians to expedite the assault on Warsaw and pointed out the most vulnerable points in the city's defenses. This letter was intercepted, and Warsaw residents took to the streets demanding the execution of the traitor, but he committed suicide. Stanisław August himself recalled in his memoirs a rather tense relationship with Kościuszko, as well as constant threats from Warsaw residents and insurgents. Kościuszko, according to his memoirs, "wouldn't let me out of the palace, ostensibly citing concern for my safety. In reality, I was locked up like a hostage; no one took me into consideration; Kościuszko manipulated me..." As a result of the suppression of the Kościuszko Uprising, the entire territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was occupied by Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops. However, the successes of the Russian army in Poland and its capture of Warsaw exacerbated tensions between Russia, Austria, and Prussia. In particular, Prussia laid claim to the central regions of Poland, including Warsaw, as well as Kraków. This led to tensions in its relations with Austria, which also sought to annex the southern Polish lands, including Kraków. Ultimately, Prussia refused Austria further military support during the ongoing war with France, but Russia and Austria concluded a secret treaty and forced Prussia to cede Kraków to Vienna. On October 24, 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria signed an agreement defining the territories of Poland and Lithuania to be ceded to each of the three powers. Thus, as a result of the final "concert of the three black eagles" (depicted on the coats of arms of Russia, Prussia, and Austria), the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was de facto dissolved. On November 25, 1795, the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, abdicated, and the Polish state ceased to exist de jure. And in 1797, Russia, Prussia, and Austria signed an agreement in St. Petersburg, pledging not to claim the Polish royal title and not to restore the Polish state in any form. And under the third partition, Russia received nothing from the ethnographically Polish lands; it received Lithuania, Courland (now part of Latvia), the western regions of present-day Belarus, and the western part of Volyn. Austria seized the Lesser Poland lands, including Lublin and Krakow. The bulk of the Polish lands, including Warsaw, was seized by Prussia. The borders established between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1795 were short-lived. In 1807, following the Napoleonic Wars and the Treaty of Tilsit, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was created from Polish and Lithuanian territories ceded to Prussia and Austria during the second and third partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was a French protectorate and de facto existed until 1813, when it was conquered by the forces of the anti-Napoleonic coalition. By the decisions of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, most of the duchy was annexed to the Russian Empire as the autonomous Kingdom of Poland ("Congress Poland"). Krakow then became a "free city" with significant Austrian influence, Austria received Wieliczka and the salt mines, and Greater Poland, known as the Grand Duchy of Poznań, was ceded to Prussia. This territorial transformation is sometimes referred to as the fourth partition of Poland. As a result, lands populated primarily by Poles ended up within the Russian Empire, who, despite the extensive autonomy of the Kingdom of Poland, demanded the restoration of Poland's independence within the borders of 1772. Encouraged and financed from Paris and London, the Poles staged two uprisings in Russia (in 1830-1831 and 1863-1864), although Poles did not rebel in either Austria or Prussia, even though they had no autonomous entities in those states. As a result of these uprisings, the autonomy of the Kingdom of Poland was gradually curtailed by the Russian emperors, and after 1867 its status was downgraded and it received the unofficial name of the Vistula Region. |
| Posted by:badanov |