Liberation and Annexation 441
hundred miles south of Kiev, on the Polish- Russian frontier as it then was, but
within Poland.
The Act of Targowica is one of the more interesting declarations of the Euro-
pean counter- revolution, if only because of its purely nobili tarian and agrarian-
gentry character.^26 The fact that it was immediately translated into German and
Dutch and issued as a pamphlet under the title of The Spirit of a Truly Free Govern-
ment, suggests that there were elements in Western Europe that found its doctrine
relevant and congenial.^27
The Act opposes those twin enemies of effectual aristocracy: monarchy and de-
mocracy. It reaffirms as an ancient Polish principle the “liberty and equality of all
nobles,” demands that gentilhommes non- possessionés, i.e., the “barefoot” golota, be
restored to their former dignity, denounces the institution of hereditary monarchy
as despotic, and declares that ambitious men have “everywhere sown the seeds of
democratic ideas.” To have brought “the hitherto peaceful towns” into the political
order is “to drag the whole nation into slavery.” The constitution of 1791 is due to
a “plot.” It is an “audacious crime” against the spirit of our ancestors, presenting the
“fatal examples of Paris as models to our Polish cities.” The new order arouses “ha-
tred against the rich,” because it deprives the great lords of “the support of gentle-
men.” The signers solemnly swear to destroy the new constitution, and express
their confidence that the great Catherine will preserve the liberties, independence,
and territory of the Republic of Poland intact.
The Russian invasion met with little resistance. With the rural population in a
state of serfdom, and the burghers only barely and timidly emerging into public
life, the leaders of the Polish revolution could not rally an adequate following.
There was no levée en masse in Poland in 1792. King Stanislas, the leader of the
patriot group—in an action that has been much criticized, since his emigration,
flight, or death would have preserved his dignity and served the new order bet-
ter—capitulated to the Russians, made his peace with the dissident Poles, and ad-
hered to the Act of Targowica. He signed his acceptance on July 24, as the Rus-
sians approached Warsaw. It was the day before the Brunswick Manifesto against
the city of Paris.
The constitution which the king now repudiated was notable for its moderation
and intricate compromise. It had even been lauded by Edmund Burke. Compro-
mise, however, was no more palatable to the Targowicans and the Russians than
26 The text of the Act of Targowica was published in French in Comte d’Angeberg (pseud, for L.
Chodzko), Recueil des traités, conventions et actes diplomatiques concernant la Pologne, 1762–1862 (Paris,
1863), 262–74. The issue for interpretation is between the view expressed by Lord, Second Partition,
274–76, that the Targowicans were a small and insignificant handful of Poles whom Catherine II was
able to exploit for the aggrandizement of Russia, and the view set forth in the French summary of
Wasick i, Konfederacja targowicka, 185–92, that the Targowicans were those among magnates and
lesser gentry, significantly numerous but by no means “all” of these classes, who were willing forcibly
to oppose the Polish revolution and constitution of 1791. The latter view is followed here; it is favored
by recent Polish and French writers, and coincides with what one expects to find in revolutionary
situations.
27 Der Geist einer wahrhaft freien Regierung, gegründet auf der Targowiczer Conföderation, Hamburg,
n.d.; De Geest eener waarlijk vrije regeering, door de tegen- confederatie von Targowitz, naar eene Hoog-
duitsche overzetting uit het Poolsch vertaldd, “in Vriesland,” n.d.