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 p175  Chapter XVIII
The First Partitions

(The numbers link directly to the sections.)

With the death of Frederick Augustus III, the Republic of Poland-Lithuania entered the final phase of its existence as a Commonwealth of nations. And once again, it was the influence of a foreign power that established the King on the Polish-Lithuanian throne.

1. Election of Stanislas Poniatowski

The candidacy of the late King's son, his successor in Saxony, Frederick Christian, provoked little consideration, since he died some two months after his father. His uncle, Xavier, received adequate support neither from France nor Austria; and furthermore, was at odds with the Polish Primate, Lubienski. The Czartoryskis, of course, harbored hopes of gaining the crown for one of the members of their immediate family. They presented their strongest candidates in the persons of Adam, son of the Palatine of Galicia, and Michael Oginski, son-in‑law of Frederick Michael, the Chancellor of Lithuania. Their arch-rivals, the Radvilas of Nesvyzius (Nieswicz) in Lithuania, and the Potockis, opposed them with their favorite, the Polish Hetman, Branicki, who had previously fallen out with the Czartoryskis. However,  p176 neither of these factions succeeded in achieving their aims, due to the intervention of Russia.

On April 11, 1764, Frederick II, King of Prussia, and Catherine II entered into an agreement which summarized the intentions of both parties to support Stanislas Poniatowski for the Polish-Lithuanian throne; to prevent by armed force, if necessary, the introduction of amendments to the existing Constitution of the Republic; and to continue their unjustifiable role of protectors over the supposedly persecuted Protestant and Orthodox Christians, living in the territories of Poland and Lithuania. Consequently, due to the pressure brought to bear by the Russian representatives, Kayserling and Repnin, and by the presence of the Russian soldiers in Warsaw, as well as by the Prussian troops poised on the border, the Diet of Election acquiesced and elected Stanislas Poniatowski (1764‑1795).⁠1

In the meantime, the Czartoryskis, seeking the good will of Catherine, had cleverly and quickly transferred their support to their nephew, who had no political significance (aside from the Tsarina's approval) in the Republic without their influence and prestige. They also succeeded in expelling from the country their chief personal opponents, who were violent protesters against Russian interference; namely, Charles Radvila, Palatine of Vilnius, and Branicki, the Polish Hetman. The latter was soon reconciliated; the former returned some three years later.

2. Reforms at the Diet of Convocation

In spite of their continual search for absolute power, the Czartoryskis must, nevertheless, be credited with sincere efforts to introduce various reforms into the Constitution of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had made the dual state almost helpless  p177 before its neighbors. At the Diet of Convocation they engineered the acceptance of a few such intended changes.

At that time, a Commission of War and a Commission of Finance were created both in Lithuania and in Poland, each consisting of four senators and twelve boyars, to be elected to office during the sessions of every ordinary Diet. This act stripped the Grand Hetman and Grand Treasurers of all their powers and relegated them to the role of mere Chairmen for the respective Committees. The former, however, still retained the obligation and the right to command the armies.

Other limited reforms sought to consolidate and reorganize the activities of the General Diets. The opposition and disapproval manifested by Russian and Prussian representatives prevented the total suppression of the liberum veto, which in the past had created such chaos. Yet, as the only possible alternative in such circumstances, a more precise program of action was adopted, legislating that the principle of unanimity was no longer to prevail in the selection of the Marshal of the Diets; and that the members of the Diet were always to pursue the following order in their deliberations: the reports of the Commissions of Finance, the proposal of the King, the questions referred by the district dietines, and finally, all individual requests.

3. The Diet of 1766

And although the gentry of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic seemed to make a serious attempt to raise their state out of the difficult and embarrassing situation into which it had fallen, due to the internal disorder and the increasing imperialistic aims of neighbor Russia and Prussia, these reforms remained largely in the field of theory. Repnin continued to represent the actual authority, while numbers of the gentry, not favoring the rise of the Czartoryskis, proved uncooperative. Meanwhile, Stanislas Poniatowski gave indications that he preferred to act as a sovereign monarch; that he was willing to withdraw himself from Catherine's influence; and that he had even seriously considered entering into intimate  p178 relations with Austria, as suggested by the plan of Choiseul, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. Supported in these aims by the Czartoryskis, he hastened the day when the true purpose of Russia and Prussia was openly revealed. This occurred at the Diet of 1766.

On that occasion, both Poniatowski and the Czartoryskis proposed to the Diet that the principle of unanimity be abolished forever, at least in all financial and economic matters. The Russian and Prussian ambassadors protested against this move, and countered with the pretentious⁠2 demand that the Orthodox and Protestant subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic be granted equal rights with the Catholics. The Diet refused to accede, and consequently this first General Diet of Stanislas' reign failed to continue the reforms already begun at the Convocation.

But in 1767, Repnin encouraged the various federations formed by the lesser gentry in opposition to the Czartoryskis and the King, whom they looked upon as tending towards absolutism. With the assistance of Charles Radvila, who had returned from his three year exile and had gained through Russian influence the restoration of his confiscated estates, Repnin sponsored the organization of the Confederation of Radom. And at Radom this confederated Polish-Lithuanian gentry, surrounded by Russian forces, were compelled to issue an act, granting the Orthodox and Protestant elements of the Republic supposedly equal religious and political rights, and invoking Catherine II as the protectress of the Constitution of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic.

At the Diet of Warsaw, 1767‑68, this act of Radom was ratified under the moral pressure and intimidation of the Russian army. Repnin acted as the sole master. The opposition offered by the gentry availed nothing. It was quelled and subdued when Repnin ordered the arrest and exile to Kaluga of the Polish Hetman, the Bishops of Cracow and Kiev, and a deputy from a district dietine. The principle of unanimity in its unlimited and unrestricted form, the free election of kings, the equal political and religious rights of the dissidents, were declared irremovable and cardinal points of  p179 the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution whose guarantor was Catherine II, Empress of Russia.

Thus, the reforms initiated by the Czartoryskis proved to be short-lived. The ruler of Russia had obtained a juridical right, although in a very questionable manner, to interfere with the internal affairs of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic. The Czartoryskis ceased to be the intermediaries of Tsarina Catherine, from that moment being rather completely supplanted by Repnin and his successors.

4. The Confederation of Bar

Scarcely had the Diet of Warsaw been dismissed than a general reaction against the dictates of Russia followed. By his crude and dictatorial dealings with the gentry at Radom and Warsaw, Repnin laid naked the fact that the preservation of the ancient rights and privileges of the ruling class of the Republic was not of the slightest concern to Catherine. As a result, in the little town of Bar in Podolia, a member of the Polish nobility formed a Confederation, which vowed to fight against all reforms of absolutist tendencies attempted either by their fellow citizens or foreign powers; against all undue concessions to the Orthodox and Protestant minorities living within the Republic; and against any effort on the part of Russia to guarantee the ancient Constitution of the Republic.

The spirit of this Confederation spread rapidly among the gentry of Poland and Lithuania. Nevertheless, the Confederates failed to unite all the strength of the Republic's nobility, for the very principles which guided their actions, excluded those individuals who, although opposed to Russian interference, still favored internal reforms.

Having consulted the Senate, Stanislas Poniatowski dispatched his own forces, accompanied by Russian soldiers, against the Confederates. The power of the revolutionaries was quickly broken. Their leaders (Charles Radvila among them) fled. Only partisan groups remained to continue the hopeless four-year struggle against the Russian aggressor. A Russian-sponsored uprising in the Ukraine, meager assistance from France (consisting of some supplies and  p180 the persons of Choisy and Dumouriez), the failures of Turkey in its war against Russia, as well as the occupation of the area of Zips in Southern Poland by Austrian troops, all contributed to make the cause of the Confederates more desperate. Neither did the deposition of Poniatowski in 1770, at a point when the latter seemed inclined to cast his lot with the Confederates — and the later attempt to imprison him — assist the fortunes of the rebellion. Finally, Austria's attitude towards the Russian successes against the Turks and towards the seemingly inevitable Russian occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia, rendered the Confederation of Bar at least an indirect cause of the First Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic.

5. The First Partitions

To Frederick II of Prussia may be ascribed the dubious honor of acting as the pivotal figure in the political maneuvers, which immediately preceded the first partitions of Poland-Lithuania. In 1769, Frederick had already proposed to Panin, the Russian minister, a plan of partition in return for aid against the Turks. Although an ally of Russia, Frederick manifested his willingness (by two conferences with Joseph II, Maria Theresa's son) to consider the views of the Court of Vienna, which sought to prevent the expansion of Russian domains along the lower Danube at the expense of the Turks. This spurred Catherine to make a strenuous effort to reassure herself of the friendship of Prussia. She extended an invitation to Frederick's brother, Prince Henry, to visit the Russian Court at St. Petersburg in July, 1770. Some months after Henry's prolonged stay, Catherine agreed to abandon her pretensions to the territories of Wallachia and Moldavia and avoid a clash with Austria. Thereupon, in February, 1772, Prussia and Russia signed the first treaty of the partitioning of Poland-Lithuania. The compact was completed six months later, with the admission of a third partner, Austria.

As a result of these agreements, which at the moment served to avoid a serious European war at the expense of a neighboring sovereign state, Russia proceeded to occupy the palatinates of  p181 Polock, Vitebsk, and Mstislavl (the eastern border areas of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy), and the palatinate of Livonia (Latgale); Austria took possession of Galicia, the southern portion of Poland up to the Vistula; and Prussia acquired Polish West Prussia (with the exception of Thorn and Danzig), which lands served as a uniting link between Frederick's Kingdom of East Prussia and Brandenburg.

6. The Diet of Ratification

The partitioning powers annexed their new territorial domains without fa­cing any armed opposition. The Confederates of Bar merely witnessed the complete collapse of their organization. Their leaders, who had taken up residence in Austria, were compelled either to seek refuge elsewhere or submit to the existing state of affairs as an accomplished fact. Charles Radvila, who had been deceived by Repnin at Radom and therefore allied himself with the Confederates of Bar, had again fled into exile and sought to win the assistance of France and Turkey. His efforts, however, were in vain, and he returned in 1777 to be reconciled with Stanislas Poniatowski.

In April, 1773, a General Diet of the Republic was summoned by Stanislas upon the demand of the partitioning powers, who anxiously awaited the ratification of their deeds by the governing body of Poland-Lithuania. Many of the deputies from the district dietines refused to have any part in this undertaking and simply absented themselves. Russian and Prussian representatives once more resorted to bribery and intimidation on a grandiose scale. They threatened the Republic with seizure of other Polish and Lithuanian areas. Stackelberg, Catherine's ambassador and Repnin's successor, was the directing force during the entire procedure. Furthermore, only a committee of thirty deputies and senators (to prevent the dissolution of the Diet) were permitted to function under a semblance of legality, while the rest were called together only to approve the measures adopted. The Lithuanian deputy from Naugardukas (Nowogrodek), Thaddeus Reytan, became a kind of national hero by reason of his violent protests against such  p182 Russian tactics. And in this manner, not only were the first partitions of Poland-Lithuania ratified, but the government apparatus of the Republic was reorganized; two new institutions, a Permanent National Council and a Commission of National Education, were created. The bright possibilities for the future presented in these two newly-formed organs were, however, seriously compromised by the forced retention of the ancient Constitution's so‑called cardinal points, emphasized and guaranteed on this occasion by Russia, as well as by Austria and Prussia.

7. The Permanent National Council

The Permanent National Council was constituted of 18 senators and 18 deputies, two‑thirds Polish and one‑third Lithuanian. Each member was to be elected at the ordinary Diet for a term of two years. Eligible candidates, of course, were only those deemed fit by the Russian ambassador. The entire Council was divided into five departments; namely, war, finance, police, justice and foreign affairs. This Permanent National Council was the first centralized organization ever to assume authority both in Lithuania and in Poland. The Commissions of War and Finance, introduced by the Czartoryskis, and the various courts and ministries which existed previously, remained separate institutions for Lithuania and Poland with separate jurisdiction in each country. The chief function of this Permanent Council was to coordinate and super­vise the activities of these different organs.

The role of the Polish-Lithuanian King was reduced to that of chairman of the Permanent Council with rather restricted powers. He had no choice but to accept all decisions passed by a majority vote of the Council. He was deprived of the right to assign ducal or royal estates. And he was bound to bestow senatorial or ministerial posts upon one of the three nominees presented by the Council. Furthermore, he was permitted to summon the Diet only with the consent and approval of the Council.

 p183  8. The Commission of National Education

The Commission of National Education, among the first of its kind in Europe, was the second body with centralized authority to exercise jurisdiction both in Lithuania and in Poland at the same time. The suppression of the Jesuit Order by Pope Clement XIV was the immediate cause and occasion for its establishment, especially since in Lithuania and in Poland the majority of the schools had been conducted by the Jesuits.

The Diet of 1773‑75 intended that the Commission concern itself with the teaching program, the necessary textbooks and the actual administration of the expelled Society's funds for matters of education. Meanwhile, two sub-committees, one for Lithuania and one for Poland, were created for the purpose of obtaining these funds by leasing the various lands and proprietors of the Jesuits and collecting the interest due on loans made by the latter. All schools were subordinated to the Universities of Vilnius⁠3 and Cracow. Lithuania was divided into four provinces — Gardinas, Naugardukas, Kraziai and Brasta. These provinces were in turn subdivided into districts. Although the Commission of Education super­intended the curriculum for all schools, nevertheless it found no need to render financial support to those institutions maintained by parish churches or by monks, such as the Piarist Fathers.

Various disagreements and intrigues prevented the Commission from exhausting all the possibilities afforded by this new ideal. Thus, while Lithuania contributed as much as one‑third toward the support of the military school at Warsaw, previously established by Stanislas Augustus, yet the demands of the Lithuanian gentry for a similar school at Vilnius resulted only in the formation of a small cadet academy at Gardinas. Again, in 1776, it was necessary to abolish the sub-committees for Poland and Lithuania in an effort to prevent the misappropriation of monies. This vice had attained alarming proportions but even then, to the serious detriment of the educational system, it was never entirely eliminated.

 p184  Among the more prominent Lithuanian personalities participating in the work of the Commission of Education were Joachim Chreptavicius, Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania (1773‑1793), and Ignatius Masalskis, Bishop of Vilnius. The former was the originator of the plan. The latter was the first chairman of the newly formed Commission; and under his direction parochial schools were founded throughout the diocese of Vilnius, which (with the exception of the see of Samogitia) embraced all of the Lithuanian territories. Once relieved of the chairman­ship in favor of the King's brother, the Primate of Poland, Masalskis showed little further interest in the entire matter.

9. Attempted Social and Economic Reform

During this brief period following the first partitions and preceding the second, many attempts at social and economic reforms were made in Lithuania. The pathetic state of affairs, the sorry plight of which had been only emphasized by the constant presence of Russian troops, seemed finally to move some members of the gentry into action. It was a sincere expression of the Lithuanian state's desire to live. However, any improvement proposed and any advance made, affected only the interests of the landed gentry. The overwhelming masses of the people, the peasants, living in ignominious serfdom, existed as mere chattels of the upper classes, whose will prevailed rather completely on the numerous private estates and manors. And when the Diet of 1776 deprived all the smaller Lithuanian towns and cities⁠4 of the Magdeburg Code which had provided an amount of self-government, the townspeople were reduced practically to the level of the serfs; the sole difference between the two groups then was that the former, instead of performing certain work, made certain definitely prescribed payments. Likewise, they were subject to the jurisdiction of Elders (Captains) or individual magnates, accordingly as they resided in areas ascribed to Grand Ducal or privately owned territories.

 p185  The beginnings of a movement for the emancipation of the serfs was also set on foot at this time. Soon after the first partitions, the work of codifying all the laws of the Republic of Poland-Lithuania was begun by the Chancellor of Poland, Andrew Zamoyski, assisted very intimately by the Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania, Joachim Chreptavicius. In 1780, this new code was presented to the Diet for approval and ratification. But because it prepared the way for the liberation of the peasant-serfs and the oppressed townsfolk, it was rejected. The Lithuanian gentry found a special reason for opposing this new code in the fact that its acceptance would have automatically abolished the Lithuanian Statute, which had been maintained quite apart from Poland, in spite of the Union of Lublin.

Although under such circumstances no legal enactment could be effected which would have brought alleviation to the serfs, some Lithuanian leaders as Chreptavicius, Paul Bzostauskas, Bishop Masalskis, and several others, did introduce varying forms of emancipation for the peasants under their control. The serfs themselves had demonstrated their consciousness of the possibility of winning the abolition of serfdom; thus, in 1769, they rose in rebellion at Siauliai; and until suppressed, had even considered uniting with the revolting Ukrainian serfs in Polish territories.

Many efforts were also made to improve the economic welfare of the country, which had suffered a great deal from the Swedish wars, the numerous struggles of the Confederates, and the invasions of the Russian armies. The generous monetary and land awards granted to various individuals after the first partitions, by specific orders of Catherine's representatives, had merely further complicated the already dire problems of the Grand Duchy's treasury. Construction of means of communication and the establishment of industries characterized this movement towards economic rehabilitation.

Besides numerous bridges and roadways, a highway was built over the marshlands from Slanimas to Pinsk and from Pinsk into Volhynia, largely through the zeal of the boyar Butrimas and the Hetman of Lithuania, Oginski. Again, an inland waterway, via the Nemunas and the Dnieper, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, was made a reality by the completion of a 7½ mile canal, which  p186 connected the rivers Scara (Szczara) and Jaselda. A similar canal between the Bug and Pripet Rivers was built in Polish territory.

The organization of the first factories in Lithuania is generally attributed to the Lithuanian chancellor's, Charles Radvilas's⁠5 wife, Ann, who specialized in ceramics and the production of glassware. The Lithuanian Hetman, Michael Casimir Radvila, inaugurated the manufacturing of sashes at Slutsk, customary wearing apparel of the upper classes (1758). The Sapiegas undertook the production of woven fabrics; the Oginskis, rugs; and the Radvilas also interested themselves in various kinds of woodcrafts. In 1790, Chreptavicius greatly increased the activities of iron foundries, which until that date had been preoccupied only with the moulding of guns and bells.

All this rapid industrial advance took place chiefly in the eastern areas of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy. Although the Diets of 1776, 1778 and 1780 sought to promote this progress by forbidding unnecessary imports, nevertheless, no satisfactory sanctions to enforce this law were devised. Anthony Tizenhaus, in the last half of the eighteenth century, attempted to carry out a grandiose plan of high scale industrialization in Lithuania Proper, that is, the Nemunas and its tributaries. He leased a number of the Grand Ducal estates and proceeded to establish factories at Pastoviai, Siauliai, Brasta and especially at Gardinas, which town he sought to convert into a vast industrial center. He introduced to the country various specialists and experts from abroad. He formed an industrial school for the peasants. As one of the leading personalities in Lithuania, and a close associate of the King, he also sought to dominate Lithuanian politics, which tendency of his incurred the displeasure of the gentry. Finally, his bankruptcy abruptly halted his vast schemes, which no doubt, if success­ful, would have been a major contribution of incalculable value to the welfare of the Lithuanian people and the Lithuanian state.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 The Poniatowski family were descendants of an Italian, one Giuseppe Torelli, who married a Lithuanian heiress in the middle of the seventeenth century and assumed her name. The new king, however, was the second son of Stanislas Poniatowski, who was born in Lithuania whose father is believed to have been one of the Sapiegas, who was adopted by the Poniatowskis, and later became the ambassador of Charles XII of Sweden in the course of the Great Northern War.

2 cf. p114‑115.

3 Lectures here were mainly in Latin.

4 Exceptions were the following cities and towns: Vilnius, Trakai, Kaunas, Naugardukas, Volkoviskas, Pinsk, Minsk, Mozyr, Brasta, Gardinas.

5 He died in 1719.

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