In the 1750s the Polish Commonwealth was the most chaotic and backward state in Europe, the butt of universal raillery. Forty years later it was the most progressive, its king the toast of French revolutionaries, its constitution held up as an example by liberals at Westminster and Washington. Few people could have suspected the possibility of such a transformation during the last years of the fat Augustus's reign. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that by restating the cardinal principle of Polish sixteenth-century political thought - that the Commonwealth was a political fatherland, defined neither by its ruler nor its ethnic distinction nor its geographical frontiers - it introduced a novel concept into the thinking of the French political philosophers who were moving towards a new vision of patrie. The desire for reform was strong and the belief was that the electorate must be acquainted with the letter of the constitution before it could be persuaded to reform it. The Collegium Nobilium was founded, a public school to imbue the young noblemen with the ideals of the Enlightenment. The Jesuits perceived that this modernization might relegate their own colleges, so they altered their curriculum to include such subjects as physics and chemistry. Also the influence of a number of women started to be stronger.

In 1764, Stanislaw Antoni Poniatowski, supported by Russia, was elected King of Poland taking the name of Stanislaw II Augustus. He traveled a lot and at age twenty, was fluent in six languages. He was fascinated by England and its politics. He spent some time in Paris and St.Petersburg , where he became the official lover of future Russian Empress Catherine. With this election a new era dawned in Poland. Fiscal and military commissions were established. A national customs tariff was introduced and the project for municipal reform was commissioned. In addition, the king founded "College of Chivalry", the first entirely secular academy for the training of military and administrative cadres. The very first intake of pupils included names which were to shine later, most notably that of Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
When the project for constitutional reform was laid before the Seym, which included the abolition of the veto, Russia and Prussia threatened war if it were not withdrawn and if the Seym were not dissolved. Alarmed at the renewal taking place in Poland, Catherine and Frederick decided to start a hare which would embarrass Poland internationally, revive the conservative anarchist elements, and generally foul up the political scene. The king and his supporters had little room for maneuver. The Seym assembled in a capital full of Russian troops. The only course was to bow to Russian demands, which included the acceptance by the Seym of five principles which Catherine then solemnly vowed to'protect' in the name of Poland liberties. These principles (free election; absolute rule of the veto; the right to renounce allegiance to the king; the szlachta's right exclusively to hold office and land; the landowner's power of life and death over his peasants) were effective barricade against any possibility of reform. Polish society had awoken from the pacifist slumber of the Saxon era, and many refused to follow the 'reasonable' course favored by the king.
In 1768 a Confederation was formed. It lacked leadership of serious caliber and its program consisted of windy phrases about the faith and national freedom. The Russians put pressure on the king to declare himself against the Confederation. France intervened by sending money to the Confederates and encouraging Turkey to declare war on Russia. The king, who had been trying at all costs to avoid civil war, was left with no choice. The forces of the crown joined the Russian troops and defeated the Confederates. The magnates who had joined the Confederation went into exile, but over 5,000 captured szlachta were sent to Siberia. Russia wanted to keep Poland docile, but Prussia was interested in 'eating up' various Polish provinces. Frederick had already worked out a plan for weaning Austria away from France and for binding her to Russia and Prussia - by dragging her into a tripartite despoliation of Poland. On August 5-th, 1772 the first partition of Poland was agreed. Prussia took 36,000 square km with 580,000 inhabitants; Austria 83,000 square km with 2,650,000 inhabitants; and Russia 92,000 square km with 1,300,000 inhabitants.
The map of Central Europe had been redrawn, enlarging Prussia by an important fraction, and reducing Poland, which lost 30% of its territory and 35% of its population, to the same size as France. News of the partition caused alarm in many quarters. It also shocked public opinion throughout Europe. The three Powers determined to carry out some window-dressing, and insisted that the Polish Seym ratify the partition treaties. Prearranged deputies were elected, protected by foreign troops. Even so, many delegates raised havoc in the Seym, refusing to allow the ratification to proceed. Alarmed by the Prussian predominance in the Baltic, Britain protested strongly, but there was little that could be done. Russia and Prussia threatened to seize even more territory, so the Seym had no alternative but to ratify the treaties of partition on 30 September 1773.
The loss of territory would been a fair price to pay if it had bought freedom of action. But the five 'eternal principles' dictated to the Seym by Russia excluded all possibility of constitutional reform. Nevertheless, the next twenty years were to see a complete transformation. The country was ruled by a Permanent Council, in effect the first proper ministerial government in Poland. The Council had five departments, which managed to carry out far reaching improvements. The army, which could not be increased, was modernized. The Treasury began to function as a proper administrative body. The Police department enforced legislation, reorganized the administration of towns, and made its mark on everything from roads to prisons. The new legal code was prepared. It affirmed royal power, made all officials answerable to the Seym, placed the clergy and their finances under a measure of state supervision, shored up the rights of cities and of the peasants and, most controversially, deprived the landless szlachta of many of their legal immunities and political prerogatives. Its publication in 1778 induced sabre-rattling in the minor szlachta and apoplexy in the clergy.
An extraordinary renewal was taking place in public life, a second Renaissance. But it was not a natural evolution, it was the result of a concerted effort, a war on obscurantism declared by a relatively small group of people appointed by the king to the Commission for National Education, in effect a ministry of education, the first of its kind in Europe. It was endowed with a part of the wealth of the Jesuit order (abolished by the Pope), and was put in control of every single school in Poland, regardless of which religious order or institution owned and ran it. This was reflected in the remarkable resurgence of literary activity. It was a literature of national self-improvement, evidently political, which inspiration came from abroad (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot). The situation demanded commitment from writers, and their purpose suggested satire as the most effective weapon. On the other hand the king was very instrumental in reviving painting in Poland. Stanislaw August spent fortunes on arts but he believed passionately in the educational role of the arts, and hoped to improve those exposed to them. But he was also trying to put across a message and to leave a legacy. During the Renaissance the Poles had taken what they wanted from abroad, rejecting anything that did not suit them, and eventually created a synthesis which was quintessentially Polish. In the eighteenth century they woke up to what was happening in Europe relatively late and rather assimilated foreign influences.
In the 1780s a handful of people turned into a national movement. By then two generations had passed through the reformed schools, giving rise to a new phenomenon in Polish life, the intelligentsia. This term, only coined later, is used to describe an identifiable group which transcended class barriers and was united by a common educational background and political vision, which might differ in details but accepted the service of society as its fundamental moral obligation.
By the late 1780s there was a widespread feeling that the time had come to shrug off the protection and restrictions imposed by Russia, and to follow a more independent policy of reform. The Seym (Parliament) assembled in 1788 took matters into its own hands. It voted an increase of the army and vested control of it in a Seym Commission. It placed the conduct of foreign policy in the hands of another Seym Commission and imposed a tax on income from lands the first direct taxation. The opposition was split between Russian toadies and chauvinistic reactionaries. Neither could voice any coherent argument and both were taken aback by events. They were also unsettled by the ferment taking place in France, whose heady emanations could be felt in Poland. Debate on the question of reform had grown progressively more radical and the Seym had appointed a Commission to prepare a written constitution for the Polish Commonwealth. King Stanislaw Augustus, emerged from the isolation and started drawing up the new constitution. The ground for voting was prepared carefully, the allegiance of the Warsaw populace was assured, and date was chosen when many reactionary deputies were absent (see the article "Poland First Constitution" on this Website). On 3 May 1791 the proposed constitution passed overwhelmingly and became the law. It was the first written constitution in Europe. The opening clauses were purposely anodyne. Catholicism was enshrined as the religion of the state, although every citizen was free to practice another without prejudice; the szlachta was declared to be the backbone of the nation; the peasantry was piously acknowledged as its lifeblood; all the privileges bestowed by Piast and Jagiellon kings remained inviolate. Hidden deeper in the thicket of print lay the substance. The throne was to be dynastically elective as it was under the Jagiellons; the Seym became the chief legislative and executive power and voting was to be conducted by strict majority. The veto was abolished. The government of the country was vested in the King and a Royal Council. The king could direct policy, but nothing could leave his hands without the signature of at least one of the ministers, and the whole Council was answerable directly to the Seym. It was hardly revolutionary in itself; it was the commissions and other organs it set up which were to carry through the real reforms. The events in Poland were hailed all over the world. Poland in 1792 contained nine million inhabitants. If the country were allowed time to pull itself together, it would become a Power once more. Prussia would be cut down to size, Austria would eventually have to give back its polish provinces, and Russia'' rapidly increasing power would be checked. Events in Poland assumed alarming significance in the light of the political situation in Europe. The fall of the Bastille caused fear that a second beacon of revolution had ignited in Poland.
In 1792, Catherine of Russia sought out a number of her old placemen in Poland, and made them set up a Confederation in the town of Targowica, under the slogan of defense of Polish 'golden freedoms' against the monarchical and democratic revolution. The confederates crossed the border at the head of 97,000 Russian troops. Against these seasoned veterans of the Turkish wars, Poland could field only 37,000 untried recruits. The Polish forces went into action alone and acquitted themselves valiantly. One corps, under the king's nephew Jozef Poniatowski won a battle, another under the American revolutionary general Tadeusz Kosciuszko fought a fine rearguard action (see the article "U.S. Army Colonel Matthew S. Klimow about Kosciuszko" on this Website). But there could be no hope for victory. A second partition of Poland was agreed between Russia and Prussia, and signed in Petersburg in 1793. Catherine helped herself to 250,000 sq.km., and Frederick of Prussia to 58,000. The Polish Commonwealth now consisted of no more than 212,000 sq.km.
The king returned to Warsaw where he technically ruled. In fact, the Russian embassy was the source of all policy and a large Russian garrison policed the country. There was no possibility for action by patriots and most of them went into voluntary exile. Economic activity came to a virtual standstill and the six largest Warsaw banks declared insolvency. In 1794 in Krakow, Tadeusz Kosciuszko took command of what was left of Polish army and proclaimed the Act of Insurrection.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1817)

He assumed dictatorial powers and granted freedom to all peasants and ownership of land to all who fought in the mass levy. When the Insurrection was over all power was to be handed back to Seym.

After Raclawice battle

From Krakow Kosciuszko marched north. At Raclawice he defeated a Russian army with a force of 4,000 regulars and 2,000 peasants armed with scythes, than arrived to already liberated Warsaw. When the Russian troops retreated from the capital, the punch-drank mob which dragged out and hanged the handful of traitors never thought of raising a hand against the king. Some magnates joined the Insurrection and the king supported it, but majority of the szlachta were cautious. On the other hand, the Jewish community formed up and equipped a special regiment of its own, the first military formation since Biblical times. Unfortunately Kosciuszko was outnumbered and defeated by the Prussians who entered Krakow. Then a combined Russo-Prussian army of 40,000 besieged Warsaw but after two months they withdrew. While Polish armies could achieve minor successes, the situation was growing hopeless as Austrian forces joined those of Prussia and Russia and beat Kosciuszko, who was badly wounded and captured, along with some of the best Polish generals. Russian troops once again entered Warsaw, soon to be relieved by Prussians, as the three Powers had decided to divide what was left of Poland between them and the capital fell to the Prussian share. A new treaty of partition was signed in 1795, wiping what was left of Poland off the map. The king was forced to abdicate, bundled into a carriage and sent off to Petersburg, he died in 1798, and the foreign diplomats accredited to the Polish court were told to leave.


Excerpts from the book "The Polish Way" by Adam Zamojski
(John Murray-Publishers Ltd. London 1987)