Part 8

ATTEMPTS AT REFORM

ENLIGHTENMENT & FALL OF THE STATE

The beginning of the 18th century brought the Republic's deepest crisis. Under Augustus II the Strong (1697-1733), during the Northern War, Poland was the submissive battleground for wars fought by foreign armies. The royal throne became the object of foreign power-plays. The centralized and absolute monarchies of the neighboring countries built up their armies, with Russia commanding 330,000 soldiers, and Prussia and Austria had 150,000 each.

Unaware of the gravity of the situation, the gentry rested, convinced that since the Republic with its 24,000-strong army was threatening no one, she was immune from any invasion. The noblemen stood by their "golden freedom" in internal politics, not comprehending that the system, in disrepair, could no longer secure them any freedoms.

Reforms ran against two obstacles, seemingly insurmountable. The first was the policy pursued by the neighboring powers, seeing their interest to be in maintaining the political inertia in the Republic. The other one laid in the narrow-mindedness of a large part of the gentry and their reluctance to agree to material and political sacrifices. For these reasons the preparation of reforms called for educating a selfless and enlightened generation of people, free from prejudice and illusions.

In 1740, Stanislaw Konarski founded a modern school for young noblemen, Collegium Nobilium, in Warsaw. The numerous schools later operated by the Piarists were patterned after that example. Bishop Jozef Zaluski set up the first public library in Warsaw consisting of some 300,000 volumes.

When King Augustus III died in 1763, the Czartoryski faction ruling Poland agreed with Russia on the candidacy of Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski for King of Poland (1764-1795). The first years of his rule were devoted to military and financial reforms. In 1765, the king founded the Knights School, which produced such graduates as Tadeusz Kosciuszko, J. Jasinski and J.U. Niemcewicz, each of whom later made their mark on the nation's history. A new periodical was founded, the "Monitor." The municipal economy was put into order and new and modern workshops were set up.

The reforms, however, were not appreciated by the Russian Empress Catherine II. Under Russian military pressure, the Sejm of 1768 passed the so-called Cardinal Rights, which amounted to free election, liberum veto, the right to mutiny against the king and the gentry's monopoly on political activity. Those rights were guaranteed by the Empress which meant that no future reforms were possible without Russia's consent.

The brutality of the Russian intervention provoked an armed resistance by the noblemen, who established the Confederation of Bar. The ensuing guerrilla-type fighting went on for four years, but the Confederation, being the first Polish uprising, suffered defeat. For the first time, thousands of Poles were transported to Siberia.

The Russian policy towards Poland then faced a dilemma--either maintain Russia's domination over the entire Poland or accept the repeated propositions by Prussia to partition Poland. Russia was the most powerful neighbor of the Republic and the choice was in the hands of Catherine II. She gave up the exclusive rule over Poland and Lithuania for fear of a reborn Republic. That fear was well founded. Before 1772, the Republic had a territory of 733.000 sq. km. with a population of some 14 million, the population density being 19.1 people per sq. km. Russia's population amounted to some 29 million which, given its enormous territory, resulted in a density of 5.5 people per sq. km. The population of Austria, together with that of Bohemia and Hungary, was some 18 million, while that of Prussia 2.5 million. So the Republic had a considerable potential and, given effectively implemented reforms, could play an independent role in Central-Eastern Europe.

An agreement between the three powers was achieved at the expense of the helpless Republic in 1772. The Republic lost 211,000 sq. km. of territory and 4.5 million people of its population.

The trauma of the first partition and the processes of economic and demographic development shook Polish society out of its lethargy. Moreover, the first results of the educational programs and political journalism started to appear. A better educated generation of Poles, capable of making sacrifices, came to the fore. Growing importance of towns and a good education for the "middle class" put that social group onto the stage of political life.

The Commission for National Education, called into being in 1773, introduced modern school textbooks and subordinated schools to universities, which were also newly reformed. The ideas of the Enlightenment, together with patriotic and reform-minded programs, were being promoted by the press, literature, theater, painting, music and historical geography.

Warsaw, with a population of 100,000, the National Theater under Wojciech Boguslawski, the editorial offices of periodicals, libraries and the royal court, became the center of the Enlightenment's culture. The wish for reforms became universal, but their realization depended on Russia, the guarantor of the political system in the Republic.

When war broke out between Russia and Turkey, King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski decided to call the Sejm as a confederation (that is, without the liberum veto) and beef up the armed forces. In an atmosphere of great political animation, the four-year Sejm [also called the Great Sejm] (1788-1792) resolved to increase the army up to 100,000 officers and men, passed the law on royal towns increasing the political rights of the bourgeoisie, annulled the Russian guarantees and concluded an alliance with Prussia, crowning its activities with the adoption of the Constitution of May 3, 1791. It was the second constitution (after the American) in the world and the first one in Europe. The Constitution's articles envisaged the consolidation of royal power, a reorganization of the government and improvement of the Sejm's work while the civil liberties of the gentry were to be preserved and extended onto a part of the bourgeoisie. The division of the state into the Crown and Lithuania was abolished and the political system made uniform.

The government, basted on the Constitution, stood every chance of pulling the country out of its political crisis, but the Constitution evoked fierce opposition from Russia. Incited by Russia, a group of magnates established the Confederation of Targowica to defend the old system. Russian troops entered Poland. Despite stout Polish resistance (commanders being Prince Jozef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko) the war of 1792 ended in defeat, abolishment of the Constitution of May 3rd and the second partition was made by Russia and Prussia. What was left to Poland's territories--some 200,000 sq. km. inhabited by four million people--became a Russian protectorate.

In 1794, Tadeusz Kosciuszko's uprising broke out, as an attempt to overcome the partitions. Krakow, Warsaw and Wilno [now called Vilnius] were liberated. Prussia joined Russia in the war. Prussian troops besieged Warsaw. Despite the enormous military and material effort, despite the heroism of the soldiers and civilians, including burghers and peasants, the uprising fell.

The fate of the uprising was sealed by the defeat suffered at Maciejowice. Praga (the right-bank district of Warsaw) was then taken by Suvorov and its population exterminated. Terrorized by the carnage, Warsaw surrendered. During the third partition (1795) Prussia seized Mazovia with Warsaw, as well as the lands all the way to the Niemen River; Austria took the lands between the Pilica, Wisla [Vistula] and Bug Rivers; while Russia took the territory between the Bug and Niemen Rivers. The Polish state was destroyed at a time when internal reforms and the state of education and economy were providing solid foundations for its existence and development.