Targovitsa Confederation

The constitution of May 3, 1791 intended to overcome long-term political instability in the country and create a solid state order that would give strength to a declining state and protect it from the claims of strong neighbors - Prussia , Russia and Austria . For these states, as well as for that part of the gentry party, which was able to benefit from the weakness of the state, the new constitution was unprofitable.

Between those who were dissatisfied with the constitution on May 3, Shchensky (Felix) Pototsky and Severin Rzhevusky were especially prominent. At the time of the publication of the constitution, both of them were abroad, and both resolutely refused to swear allegiance to it. Already in July 1791, Potocki submitted to Potemkin a note on the plan to constitute a confederation against the constitution on May 3 and requested the help of the Russian empress.

Catherine II , who was busy at the time with the war with Turkey , did not dare to sharply and decisively oppose the constitution. The Russian envoy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Bulgakov was only charged with picking up among the Polish nobles, a party devoted to Russian interests. After the conclusion of peace between Catherine II and Turkey, Potocki and Rzhevuski arrived in St. Petersburg and had a secret meeting in March 1792 . It was decided that magnates dissatisfied with the constitution would constitute a confederation, and the empress would send her troops to the Commonwealth. The whole matter was conducted in deep secrecy: the Polish envoy in St. Petersburg Deboli only heard that something was being plotted against the constitution. Having received the authority from Catherine II to form a confederation, Pototsky and Rzhevusky left for Podillia .

On May 14, the magnates Pototsky, Branitsky , Rzhevusky and General Kossakovsky in Torgovitsa near Uman established a confederation against the constitution on May 3, 1791 and appealed to Catherine II to help restore the old order in the Commonwealth. The chief, or marshal, was elected Pototsky. At first, his advisers were the great hetman Francis-Xavier Branitsky and the full hetman Severin Rzhevusky, who, in accordance with their posts, had nominal leadership over the army. Non-subordinate confederations were declared enemies of the fatherland. The tribunals , commissions and all kinds of judicial institutions operating in the Commonwealth were considered repealed. Instead of them, the courts of the confederation were established to judge state crimes, that is, the reluctance to proceed with the confederation. Following the main confederation, provincial, voivodships, with voivodship marshals and advisers formed. The Sejm, which created the constitution on May 3, was declared violent and illegal, and the very act of drafting the constitution was called a conspiracy.

On May 18, 1792, Bulgakov presented the Polish government with a declaration stating the constitution on May 3, 1791 as a reason for a break between the Commonwealth and neighboring states, and “true patriots” were called on “to contribute to the empress’s generous efforts” - “to restore freedom and legality to the Commonwealth ". On the day of delivery of the declaration, according to a preliminary calculation, the Russian troops under the command of General-General Kakhovsky entered the borders of the Commonwealth in four columns from Bessarabia.

Generalists

The universal, addressed to the people, set forth the blessings that should come from the Targovitsa Confederation, which aims to protect the old, original state order in the Commonwealth and support the nobility, destroyed by the constitution on May 3. The second station wagon, dated May 30, justified the entry of the Russian army into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whose success was initially associated with the fate of the Targovitsa Confederation. On June 3, the confederation was transferred to Uman , and on June 9 to Tulchin . Here she published a station wagon, which obliged all printing houses in the Commonwealth not to print anything offensive to the confederation. A tradesman or a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who has said anything against the confederation must be seized and taken to a confederation court; all acts of the four-year Seimas, taxes imposed by him, etc. were canceled. In some places they acted by conviction, in others - by fear. When the confederation was empowered by the empress, gene. Baron Buhler. The Confederates thanked Catherine II for the help provided to them, just not suspecting that they were accelerating the fall of the Commonwealth.

Russian troops continued to move forward through Volyn into the depths of the Commonwealth. Polish-Lithuanian troops suffered defeats from them, especially since the Targovitsa Confederation paralyzed the economic forces of the adherents of the constitution on May 3, 1791: a lot of income went now to the treasury of the confederation. Opponents of the confederation and Russian intervention entered into negotiations for assistance with Turkey, Austria and Prussia, but these negotiations did not lead to anything. The most ardent enemies of Russia, Ignatius Potocki , Kollontai and others began to advocate a conciliatory policy with Russia.

King Stanislav Augustus Poniatowski entered into negotiations with Catherine II, proposing to appoint the grandson of Catherine Konstantin Pavlovich as heir to the Polish throne. The Empress ignored this proposal and demanded that the king join the Targovitsa Confederation. After much hesitation, Stanislav August fulfilled this requirement in July 1792. The advisers protesting against this accession (access) were to leave their homeland and settled in Dresden .

In the army, the news of recognition by the king of the confederation was received with indignation. When it was to begin the confederation, some of the officers and generals, like Ponyatovsky, Kostyushko, Zabello, Zionchek, Makranovsky and others, resigned. The crown army came under the authority of the former chiefs, Branitsky and Rzhevusky, the Lithuanian - under the rule of the newly appointed hetman Kossakovsky. On August 9, delegates were sent from Dubna, where the confederation was located, to Warsaw, who were supposed to swear the confederation of the entire population. The courts were restored in the form in which they existed until May 3, 1791 , the police were given to the Crown Marshals Office; The Narodova Newspaper was closed for constantly adhering to the constitution on May 3 and writing against the confederation.

The Confederation ruled despotically: its rulers and advisers, out of 89, were declared to be not subject to jurisdiction. People who said something not in praise of the confederation were brought to trial. The king was treated arrogantly, sometimes completely ignoring him.

Having chosen Brest-Litovsk as the place of his stay and having celebrated his connection with the Lithuanian Confederation, the General Confederation demanded that the Polish envoys to foreign courts return to their homeland and give a report to the confederation. There were minor misunderstandings with the Russian troops, but in essence the confederation relied on them, and they were masters in the Commonwealth. The patriotic party was quiet for the time being.

At this very time, negotiations were ongoing between Prussia, Russia and Austria on the second division of the Commonwealth. Although the negotiations were conducted in secret, rumors about the plans of the neighboring powers penetrated the newspapers. The Confederation was alarmed, but from Petersburg they reassured her. She did not take any measures to prevent the division even when the Prussian king sent his troops into the Commonwealth. Instead of Kokhovsky, Baron Igelström was appointed commander in chief in Poland, and General-General Chechetnikov in Lithuania and Ukraine . The Bulgakov envoy was recalled from Warsaw, and Y. E. Sivers was appointed in his place.

Igelström and Sievers were instructed to act decisively. Sivers ruled in the Commonwealth autocratically, exerting pressure on various aspects of internal governance. The confederation served as a great obstacle to him, and he proposed to destroy it; but Catherine found this still untimely and recommended that he only weaken the importance of the confederation by various measures. Sivers activity was the preparation of the declaration of Russia on the second section of the Commonwealth. This declaration was announced on March 27 ( April 7 ), 1793, by General Krechetnikov in the town of Polonnoy in the Volyn province. Following Russia, the Prussian king announced the same thing.

For the confederation, the announcement was a complete surprise. Some of the members of the confederation, like Severin Rzhevusky, became ardent opponents of Russia, but others meekly acknowledged the fact. On May 27, 1793, the nobility was convened for the Sejm , and on June 17 for the Sejm in Grodno , where, under the pressure of Sievers, the Polish recognized the second section of the Commonwealth.

Since the convocation of the Grodno Diet, Sivers began to actively prepare for the destruction of the Targovitsa Confederation. All management was gradually taken away from her, her meetings were banned, and the formation of new local confederations was stopped. The courts created by her, however, acted as before. It was decided to form a new confederation, the head of which was the king, the marshal - the Sejm marshal, advisers - members of the Grodno Seim, which is why the confederation was also called the Seym, or Grodno.

On September 15, 1793, the act on the dissolution of the Targovitsa Confederation, written by one of Sivers’s libels, Moshinsky, was read at the Sejm and approved unanimously. The courts that existed before 1792 were renewed; Decisions of the Targovitsa Confederation, although they did not lose force, but could be canceled by the Sejm; a special deputation was instituted to deal with complaints about the confederation. The new Grodno confederation was supposed to maintain the advantages and inviolability of the property of all citizens. Some of the members of the Sejm that signed it added reservations that they join the confederation in order to protect the limits and political freedom of the Commonwealth.

• Constitution of May 3, 1791
• Ignacy Zakshevsky

• Vasilenko N.P. Targovitskaya Confederation // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.