The Partition of Poland

1. The First Partition, 1772.

The end of the Russo-Turkish War freed Catherine II to move against Poland. The First Partition, carried out in 1772, was the result of 3 factors: (a) the territorial ambitions of Frederick II and Catherine II; (b) The Austrian Empress Maria Theresa's (ruled 1740-80) decision to seize part of Poland to balance the expansion of Russia and Prussia; and (c)Polish military weakness. However, it is unlikely that even a strong Polish army could have defeated any two, let alone all three powers, at the same time. At best, it might have postponed or reduced territorial losses for a time.

For Catherine II, the decisive factor against allowing a weak Poland to continue to exist with all her territories under Russian oversight  was the state of the Russian imperial treasury, which had been emptied by the Russo-Turkish war. Therefore, she eyed  part of eastern Poland and agreed to the proposals of Frederick II who wanted to seize Polish Pomerania for Brandenburg Prussia, thus uniting the latter with East Prussia. The Austrian Empress, Maria Theresa, who had already taken a small bite of Poland (Zips) decided to seize southern Poland, which she called "Galicia-Lodomeria," claiming it on the grounds that it had once belonged to the Hungarian crown. (In fact, it had been claimed by Hungarian kings in the 12^th and 13^th centuries, but ruled in name only by Lazslo [Louis] the Great of Hungary, 1370-82).

Thus, by a secret partition treaty signed by the three rulers on Feb. 6 1772, the three powers seized about 28% of Polish territory. Russia took the largest piece: eastern Livonia, and and part of today's Belorussia; Austria took "Galicia-Lodomeria;" Prussia acquired Polish Pomerania and Warmia ( pron. Varmya, German: Ermland), but not Danzig (Polish: Gdansk), which the Prussians took in 1793. On September 18, 1773, the Polish Seym, surrounded by Russian troops, approved the loss of these Polish lands.
 

2. The Era of Revival and Reform, 1772-1793.

King Stanislas Augustus, together with some enlightened Polish nobles and churchmen, pressed for reform of the government in order to strengthen Poland and preserve its independence. They were much influenced by the ideas of the "Enlightenment" as developed in western Europe, particularly in France. The King had spent some time in France and England as a young man. He was impressed by the English system of government, that is, constitutional monarchy.

The men who exercised the greatest influence on the King, his advisers, and other reform minded Poles were three well educated, enlightened, Catholic churchmen and one layman: (1) Hugo Kollataj (pron. Kohwontay,1750-1812) a Piarist, but an enlightened thinker; Stanislaw Konarski ( 1700-1773 pron. Konarskee ), a priest and well known educator, who died in 1773 but provided a blueprint for the educational reform that followed ; and (3) Stanislaw Staszic (pron. Stashyts, 1755-1825 ), a learned clergyman;  and (4) Stanislaw Malachowski, who was to be the co-author with the King of the Polish Constitution of May 3 1791.

All of them wanted to reform the Polish political system. They worked out plans with the King  in the years 1775-89, when the country was governed by a Russian-inspired "Permanent Council," under the watchful eye of the Russian ambassador. Catherine II had imposed the Council to control the King and his officials. However, the Council helped to order and strengthen the central administration, though it was hated as a Russian imposition.

Reforms.

Reforms began with education. The National Commission of Education was established in 1773. The reformers used the landed wealth of the recently abolished Jesuit Order, and many of the teachers were former Jesuits. As the first Ministry of Education in Europe, it followed the lines of educational reform established by Konarski in his Collegium Nobilium or College of Nobles, founded in Warsaw in 1740. The curriculum included not only Latin and Greek, the staples of the old system, but also modern languages, geography, history and mathematics.

Much was published at this time on the need to reform the Polish political system. Ideas were discussed and reforms worked out in the "Four Year Parliament," which sat in the years 1788-1792. It proclaimed itself a "Confederation," so it worked by majority vote.  One important reform was passed on March 24, 1791; this was the Law on Dietines (provincial parliaments; the name comes from the Latin "die" = day). It deprived about 50% of the landless gentry of their right to vote, and thus deprived the magnates of the ability to manipulate voting in local assemblies, electing deputies to the central parliament, and voting for the election of a King. On April 4, the Parliament passed the Law on Cities, giving rights to burghers in Royal Cities.

The deputies' work culminated in the Constitution of May 3, 1791,drafted by the King himself and co-authored by St.Malachowski. It was the first written constitution in Europe to be voted by a parliament. True,  it was voted in the absence of most of the opposition, who did not know of the upcoming vote, so only 110 deputies were there out of 504. The vote was by acclamation: 100 for and 72 against. Despite the small number of deputies voting, it was approved later by large majorities in the Dietines, and became law on September 3, 1791. 

Key features of the Constitution of May 3, 1791

1. The Elective Monarchy was abolished, and replaced by a Hereditary Monarchy Since Stanislas Augustus had no legal male heir, the crown was to go the Frederick Augustus, the Elector of Saxony (1750-1827). He was known as an enlightened ruler and was expected to have the support of Austria, ruled at that time by another enlightened monarch, Leopold II, who supported Polish reforms.

(However, Frederick Augustus dared not agree, because Catherine II of Russia opposed his succession, while Leopold II died soon after the Polish constitution was voted).

2. The Liberum Veto was abolished and replaced by majority rule.

3. A Constitutional Monarchy was established on the English model. Thus, the King was to rule with a Council (Cabinet), whose members were answerable to Parliament, and there was a constitutional separation of powers.

4. There was to be a standing army with appropriate funding. The King was to be commander-in-chief.

5. Royal cities * were granted their own municipal governments and could send deputies to parliament.

*(cities owned by the Crown)

6. The Peasants were promised the protection of the law. This meant they could appeal their landlords' judgment to the royal courts.

7. The Catholic religion was proclaimed as the state religion. However, all religions had the right to exist, provided they did not call for the overthrow of the monarchy.

Of course, the May 3 Constitution was not as radical as the French one of August 1791, which sanctioned the abolition of serfdom. (It had already been abolished in 1789 in face of the great peasant revolt that swept France). But serfdom was the rule all over Eastern Europe, and serf labor was the capital on most landed estates. Thus, if the constitution had abolished serfdom , this would have ruined most of the Polish nobility. (Here, we should bear in mind that the American Constitution did not abolish slavery, because this was opposed by the southern states).
 

2. The Second Partition, 1793.

Russia and Prussia were frightened by the May 3 Constitution. They feared that if a strong Polish government came into being, it would try to regain the territories lost in 1772. Catherine II called the reformers "Jacobins," (French revolutionary radicals) and feared they would infect the Russian nobles.

The enlightened Austrian Emperor Leopold II (ruled 1790-92) supported the Polish reforms, but he died in 1792. That year, Catherine the Great ended another Russo-Turkish war, so she could turn her attention to Poland. She found some Polish nobles who opposed the May 3 Constitution, fearing that it would lead to absolute royal power. They formed a Confederation in the town of Targowica ( pron: Targoveetsaa, now in western Ukraine). Their manifesto was printed in St. Petersburg, but they did not expect a second partition. Ever since then, Poles have called any Russian-supported Polish movement "Targowica".

The Polish army put a good fight, but could not prevail against both the Russian and Prussian armies. The Austrians stayed out this time, hoping to get some German land, but failed to get it. The Prussians, who had, in 1772, taken Polish Pomerania (called the Polish Corridor by the Germans after it returned to Poland in 1919), besieged Danzig/Gdansk for seven weeks in 1793. The German-speaking burghers of this city resisted because they did not want to belong to Prussia, but were finally defeated. Prussia also took the city of Torun (G. Thorn), and annexed Wielkopolska ( pron. Vyelkopolskaa, Great Poland), which was now called South Prussia (later the Duchy of Posen, P. Poznan).

Catherine II seized a very large piece of eastern Poland: most of Lithuania, western Belorussia, Volhynia, and most of Ukraine except for Eastern Galicia, taken by Austria in 1772. The Polish Seym was forced by the Russians to ratify the Second Partition in September 1793. King Stanislas Augustus accepted it, believing that such a step would at least save the existence of a rump Polish state with hopes of regaining some of the territory in the future. The Polish state now consisted of only one third of its pre-1772 territory.

But the Poland partitioned in 1793 was no longer the country it had been in 1772. It had a modern constitution supported by most of the noble class. This constitution gave it a good central government, and a standing army, while it already had an excellent educational system. It was partitioned precisely because these reforms were meant to make it a strong state - which Russia and Prussia wanted to prevent.

The Kosciuszko Uprising of 1794 and the Third Partition, 1795-97.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko (pron: Taadeywoosh Kostyushkoh, 1746-1817) had been educated in the Collegium Nobilium, Warsaw, and then studied in France to become an artillery/fortifications expert. After an unhappy love affair (he wanted to marry the daughter of the commander of Polish armies, a wealthy nobleman, who refused permission and prevented an elopment), he sought service in German lands and France. In 1776, he sailed for America to fight for the Americans in the War of Independence. His major contribution to the final American victory was to build gun emplacements on Bemis Heights , which played an important role in the Battle of Saratoga. The American victory there was a turning point in the war, for now France began to aid the Americans. Kosciuszko also selected and fortified West Point, which was strategically important to the Americans. (His Manual of Horse of Artillery was used by the American army for most of the 19^th century).

The other important Polish soldier on the American side was Kazimierz Pulaski (pron. Kazeemyezh Poolaskii, 1740-1779), who organized the first American cavalry unit. He died of wounds sustained in the Battle of Savannah. Polish Americans celebrate "Pulaski Day" with parades in early October every year, with the biggest parade in New York.

Kosciuszko returned to Poland in 1784, much influenced by his experiences in America, especially American democratic ideas. He was appointed a Major General in the Polish army in 1789. Like many Poles, he refused to accept the abolition of the May 3 constitution and the second partition of Poland, and fought in the war against Russia in 1792. On March 14 1794, he took an oath "To the Polish Nation," in the market place in Krakow (pron. Kraakoof; English: Cracow). He very much hoped for French help, but revolutionary France was having a hard time to defend herself, so it was the Poles who indirectly helped the French by forcing the Russians and the Prussians to fight in them instead of revolutionary France.

Meanwhile, Kosciuszko issued The Polaniec (pron.Pohlaanyets) Manifesto calling on all Poles to fight for their country. He promised land and freedom to the peasants who joined the Polish army. (See: K.Olszer, pp. 61-62). Though many had to stay behind to till the land, there were peasant infantry units in his army, who were armed with scythes attached to pikes. They were quite effective in some battles, especially at Raclawice (pron. Rahtslaveetseh), where they overran Russian artillery positions. Their weapon was a scythe fixed to the top of a long stave. It was effective a close quarters, but no match for massed infantry fire.

The Polish forces were outnumbered by the Russians, who were joined by the Prussians. The Third Partition of Poland was carried out in 1795, though the final treaty was signed by the three partitioning powers, Russia, Austria and Prussia in St. Petersburg on January 27, 1797.

Kosciuszko was gravely wounded at the Battle of Maciejowice (pron. Matsyeyoveetseh) and was taken prisoner by the Russians. He was imprisoned with a few companions for two years in the Petropavlovsk Fortress, St. Petersburg. However, on the death of Catherine II the Great in 1796, he was released by Tsar Paul I (who hated his mother, ruled 1796-1801) on the promise that he would never fight against Russia again.

Kosciuszko traveled through Sweden and England to America, where he was welcomed as a hero. He  left in 1798 for France, hoping to secure French help for Poland. However, he was unsuccessful. Later, he refused to lead the Polish Legions in Napoleon's army. Indeed, he soon came to view Napoleon I (Emperor of the French, 1802-1815) as a dictator. After Napoleon's defeat, he refused the invitation of Tsar Alexander I (ruled 1801-1825) - who was also King of Poland - to live in the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland) created in 1815). Instead, Kosciuszko settled in Solothern (Fr. Soloure), Switzerland, where he died on October 15, 1817. (His house there is now a museum. There is also a Kosciuszko museum in Phildelphia, PA., U.S.A).

Note: On sailing from America to Europe in 1798, Kosciuszko left a will, of which his friend Thomas Jefferson, was named the executor. In this will, Kosciuszko stipulated that after his death the property he had been given by Congress for his service in the War of Independence was to be used to free and educate black slaves. (He had freed his own slave). * However, the will was contested by his relatives, and finally very little if anything was left for the slaves.

The Significance of the Third Partition of Poland.

1. It marked the disappearance of independent Poland from the map of Europe until November 1918. (However, there was a Kingdom of Poland, called Congress Poland, created at the Congress of Vienna, 1815; this was a small. theoretically autonomous state under the rule of Tsar Alexander I, then Nicholas I, as King of Poland. It existed for 15 years, until the Polish revolt against Russia, 1830-31. 

2. It marked the beginning of the rise of Prussia as the strongest of the German states. The territories of former western Poland gave Prussia some rich agricultural land. During the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia lost her gains in the 3^rd partition which included Warsaw, but recovered western Poland in 1815, see Lecture 5b).

3. Russia gained a firm foothold in Europe and became a European power. Also, after the Napoleonic invasion of 1812, Russian rulers and politicians, later Russian public opinion, considered the Polish lands as vital for the defense of the Russian Empire.

4. In 1795, Austria added some territory in central Poland to Galicia, which she had taken in 1772. However, after 1815 she held  just  Austrian Poland, that is, Galicia-Lodomeria. This province had poor agricultural land, but also two great cities Cracow (Krakow) in the West and Lwow (pron. Lvoof; Ukrainian name: L'viv (pron. Lveef) in the East. (The official name in Austrian times, was Lemberg).

5. The Third Partition cemented the alliance of the three partitioning powers, Russia, Austria and Prussia, which were bound together by their interest in keeping their Polish lands. Except for the interlude of the Napoleonic Wars, when Austria and Prussia were defeated by Napoleon I and had to obey him, the alliance of the three powers lasted until 1894 when Russia allied herself with France. A few years later, in 1907, Russia, France and Britain formed the "Triple Entente" against the Central Powers: Austria, Germany, and Italy, and this created the lineup for World War I.

6.   King Stanislas Augustus * and the great magnates accepted the partitions, including the third one which wiped Poland off the map of Europe. However, many lesser Polish nobles refused to accept the loss of Polish independence and immediately began the fight to regain it, along with the lands of old Poland. This fight began with the formation of the lst Polish Legion in the French Army of Lombardy, Italy.

Since any kind of independent Poland would mean territorial losses by the partitioning powers, the issue of Polish independence came to be known as "The Polish Question".

The Constitution of 3 May 1791 continued to inspire generations of Poles until a new constitution  was passed in reborn Poland in March 1921. Indeed, Lech Walesa (b. 1946) -who was to be the leader of the workers' movement "Solidarity" in 1980-81 and first President of independent Poland 1990-95 -  illegally distributed leaflets with the text of the 1791 constitution in the 1970s as a gesture of defiance against the communist government of Poland.
 

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* Note on King Stanislas Augustus.

He accepted Catherine's offer to pay off all his debts (mainly to architects, artists, and writers whom he patronized), and moved to Grodno (now in Belarus) where he abdicated the Polish throne in November 1795. He had hoped to live with a small court in Grodno, but Catherine forced him move to St. Petersburg. There, he lived the last three years of his life as a pensioner of hers, a sad figure forced to appear at court ceremonies and balls at her bidding, to be gawked at as a curiosity. He was buried there.

The story of Stanislas Augustus' remains is also sad. His coffin suffered great damage in a 19th century St.Petersburg flood. In 1938, the Soviet government returned his remains to Poland, but the Polish government of the time decided not to have him buried with other kings at the Wawel (Pron. Vahvehl) Castle, Krakow, because he was considered to have disgraced the crown by agreeing to the partitions and living the last years of his life in St. Petersburg as a pensioner of Empress Catherine II. Therefore, he was quietly buried in his family church in eastern Poland. During World War II, his grave was plundered along with the church. Many years later, the tatters of the royal robe and a few other items were brought back to Warsaw, stored in the Royal Castle, and finally buried in the Church of Christ the Savior in the Polish capital.

Polish historians and public opinion have always been divided on the place of Stanislas Augustus in Polish history. While most agreed that he did a great deal for Polish culture, especially the arts, and that he was a guiding light in drawing up the May 3 Constitution, many condemned his acceptance of the partitions and his status during his last years in Russia. Today, however, some historians point out that he accepted the first two partitions because he saw this as the only way of preserving the Polish state, and that he abdicated the throne after the third one. A recent English lang. biography is sympathetic to the King (See: Adam Zamoyski, The Last King of Poland, London, 1992, reprinted New York, 1997). See also Richard Butterwick, "The Enlightened Monarchy of Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1764-1795) in Richard Butterwick, ed., The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, c. 1500-1795), Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, and New York, 2001. (This book has contains interesting studies of the Polish monarchy in the period listed in the title).

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Source: Anna M. Cienciala, https://acienciala.ku.edu/hist557/lect3-4.htm
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