Although the constitution was passed through a quasi-coup (1791–92), Stanisław gained for it the approval of most of the sejmiki. It was, however, unacceptable to Russia and Prussia, both of which were fearful lest a revived, strong Poland reclaim its lost lands. Driven by pride and doctrine, a number of die-hard conservatives—among them high dignitaries such as Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Seweryn Rzewuski, and Ksawery Branicki—formed the Confederation of Targowica (in St. Petersburg) to overthrow the May constitution. Acting as guarantor of the old Polish regime, Catherine ordered her armies to invade Poland in 1792. There they fought the outnumbered Polish troops under Prince Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko" class="md-crosslink">General Tadeusz Kościuszko, a hero of the American Revolution.
Józef Poniatowski, detail of a portrait by M. Bacciarelli; in the Lanckoronski collection.Courtesy of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.
The Second and Third Partitions
Intimidated, the king and the government capitulated; the May constitution was abolished; and leading patriots emigrated. All this did not prevent Russia and Prussia from further diminishing Poland’s territory with the Second Partition in 1793. In 1794 Kościuszko, returning from abroad, raised the banner of insurrection in the rump Commonwealth. It may have been a hopeless undertaking, but the Poles could not see their state destroyed without making a last stand. Kościuszko, assuming the title of chief (naczelnik), ignored the king, but crowds in Warsaw, inspired by the example of revolutionary France, summarily executed a number of Targowica leaders. Offering emancipation measures to the peasants, Kościuszko brought a large number of them under his banner. After winning the battle of Racławice and capturing Warsaw and Wilno, the insurrectionists were defeated by Russian and Prussian forces. The wounded Kościuszko was taken prisoner, and Aleksandr Suvorov’s Russian army carried out a wholesale massacre of the population in the Warsaw suburb of Praga.
The Third Partition followed in 1795, and, as in the preceding cases, the Polish Sejm was obliged to give its consent. Stanisław abdicated and left for St. Petersburg, where he died. In the final count Russia annexed 62 percent of Poland’s area and 45 percent of the population, Prussia 20 percent of the area and 23 percent of the population, and Austria 18 and 32 percent, respectively. The three monarchs engaged themselves not to include Poland in their respective titles and thus obliterated its very name. But, while Poland disappeared, the “Polish question,” as the controversy over Poland’s status was called, was born, affecting both European diplomacy and the growth of Polish nationalism. Partitioned Poland The legions and the Duchy of Warsaw
The 123 years during which Poland existed only as a partitioned land had a profound impact on the Polish psyche. Moreover, major 19th-century developments such as industrialization and modernization were uneven in Poland and proved to be a mixed blessing. Growing Polish nationalism was by necessity that of an oppressed nation and displayed the tendency of “all or nothing.” Compromise became a dirty word, for it implied collaboration with the partitioners; a distrust of authority grew. The tradition of the Polish nobles’ republic militated against submission and engendered an attitude of revolutionary defiance.
Beginning with the Kościuszko Insurrection, the Poles staged uprisings in 1806, 1830, 1846, 1848, and 1863 and a revolution in 1905. Defeats were followed by “organic work” that aimed at strengthening the society and its economy by peaceful means. This other major trend of nationalist aspiration was linked with Positivism, while the insurrectionary tradition became closely connected with Romanticism, but it is an oversimplification to identify the former with realism and the latter with idealism.
The survival of the Polish nation, which during the 19th century absorbed the peasant masses, was due in no small degree to a culture that continued to be all-Polish and dedicated to the Roman Catholic Church, whose role in maintaining “Polishness” was very important. Numerous writers, from the Romantic poets to Henryk Sienkiewicz, winner of the 1905 Nobel Prize for Literature, shaped the Polish mentality. For a stateless nation, ideas and imponderables acquired special importance. A rebirth of statehood, however, could be achieved only under the conditions of a major European upheaval, which would mean a collapse of the partitioning powers; this did not happen until 1918.
Henryk Sienkiewicz, detail of an oil painting by Kazimierz Pochwalski, 1890; in the National Museum of Warsaw.Courtesy of the Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw
Proud and politically conscious Poles never reconciled themselves to the loss of independence. Conspiracies and attempts to exploit the differences between the partitioning powers arose. Émigrés looked to Revolutionary France for assistance, and General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski succeeded in 1797 in persuading Napoleon Bonaparte, then waging his Italian campaign, to create auxiliary Polish legions. In their headquarters the future Polish national anthem—“Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła” (“Poland Has Not Yet Perished”)—was sung for the first time.
Hopes placed on a French victory over Austria that would open the Polish question were, however, quashed by the Treaty of Campo Formio. In subsequent struggles Polish legionnaires were employed to fight French battles in Germany and in Santo Domingo, but Poland gained no political commitments. Yet the Poles’ struggles did have a meaning in the long run, keeping a democratic Polish spirit alive and furnishing cadres to a future Polish army under Napoleon.
The pro-French military option had a counterpart in the ideas and policies of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski" class="md-crosslink">Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. Appointed Russian foreign minister by Alexander I" class="md-crosslink">Tsar Alexander I, the prince advocated redrawing the map of Europe to take into account national feelings and reconstitute Poland in union with Russia. This approach failed when Alexander committed himself to a struggle against France on the side of Prussia.
Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, detail of a painting by Ary Scheffer, 1850; in the Bibliothèque Polonaise, Paris.Courtesy of Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski; photograph, Bibliotheque Polonaise, Paris
After Napoleon’s victories over Prussia in 1806, French troops entered the Prussian part of Poland. Responding to somewhat vague promises by Napoleon, Dąbrowski called on the Poles to rise and organize armed units. In the campaigns that followed, Polish troops played a significant role, and Napoleon could not avoid making some gesture toward the Poles. In 1807, as a result of the compromise peace with Alexander at Tilsit, Prussia (now Sovetsk, Russia), a small state was created out of the Prussian shares in the First and Second Partitions and called the Duchy of Warsaw. Its ruler was the king of Saxony, Frederick Augustus I. Gdańsk was made a free city.
The Duchy of Warsaw, so named in order not to offend the partitioners, appeared to the Poles as a nucleus of a revived Poland. Doubled in size after a victorious war against Austria in 1809, it numbered more than four million people and had within its borders Warsaw, Kraków, and Poznań. The constitution imposed by Napoleon was comparable to his other authoritarian constitutions but took into account Polish traditions and customs. The ruler was absolute but used his powers with discretion and later delegated them to his ministers. The Napoleonic Code was introduced, and the constitution abolished “slavery.” But this was interpreted to imply only the personal emancipation of the peasants without transferring to them the land they cultivated. Hence, servile obligations for those who stayed on the land continued in practice.