18
AGONIA:
The End of the Russian Protectorate (1764-1795)
The partitioning of Poland, effected in three stages in 1773,1793, and 1795, was
without precedent in modern European History. Although victorious powers
habitually stripped their defeated rivals of territorial possessions and were not
averse to dividing the spoils of India, America, or Africa, there is no other
instance when they deliberately annihilated one of Europe's historic states in
cold blood. Poland was the victim of political vivisection — by mutilation, ampu-
tation, and in the end total dismemberment; and the only excuse given was that
the patient had not been feeling well. The death-throes of the Republic coin-
cided exactly with the reign of its last King, Stanislaw-August Poniatowski
(1732—98), from 1764 to 1795.^1 (See Map 22.)
The wags of the Enlightenment sharpened their wits on Poland's misfortunes.
Frederick II of Prussia, a Protestant prince and one of the principal meddlers,
boasted that he 'partook eucharistically of Poland's body'. Voltaire uttered his
famous wisecrack: 'One Pole - a charmer, two Poles — a brawl; three Poles — ah,
that's the Polish Question.' Their audience tittered elegantly, believing that
Poland had somehow deserved her fate. As Vorontsov, the Russian Chancellor,
declared in 1763, 'Poland is constantly plunged in disorder; as long as she keeps
her present constitution, she does not deserve to be considered among the
European powers.'
It is undeniable, of course, that Poland's label as 'The Republic of Anarchy'
did not entirely lack foundation. For nearly fifty years since the silent Sejm of
1717, the politicians had been powerless to repair a number of grave weak-
nesses. The state was still a dual Republic in which the conflicting interests of
the two constituent parts, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, nicely obstructed all attempts of reform. The monarchy was still elec-
tive, and a plaything of international diplomacy. The Sejm was still hamstrung
by the Liberum Veto. The unreformed constitution still permitted the formation
of Confederations. Despite a population of n million and a territory of 282,000
square miles - which was larger than either France or Spain - there was still no
central treasury, and in practice a royal army of only 12,000 men. The 'Golden
Freedom' which most of the noble citizens were taught to regard as the glory of
their Republic, had lost its meaning in a land where nine-tenths of the popula-
tion lived in poverty and servitude, and where all was customarily arranged by