THE END OF THE RUSSIAN PROTECTORATE 387Map 22. The Partitions of Poland, (1773-95)the promise of French gold or by the threat of Russian coercion. For nearly fifty
years, Poland—Lithuania had been ruled as a Russian Protectorate, by methods
which in civilian life would have been described as a protection-racket.
Everything was quiet so long as the Russian gangsters received their dues, and
the Polish mugs and gulls accepted their protection. As soon as the protected
tried to shake off their unwanted protectors, trouble was bound to occur.
The confusing developments of the Partition period can never be properly
understood unless it is realized that Poland's internal troubles were systemati-
cally promoted by her more powerful neighbours. Russia had been interfering
in the internal affairs of state for over a century. It was Peter I who had insisted
on appointing himself as the 'patron' of the Orthodox minority; who had suc-
cessfully schemed to put the House of Wettin on the Polish throne; and who had
forced a silent Sejm to pass the strictures on finance, army, and reform which
blighted public life thereafter. Not only Russia, but Sweden, Prussia, France,
and Austria, used Poland as a battleground on which to settle their quarrels