398 AGONIAaccidents of foreign policy whose chance occurrence interrupted the progress of
internal reform. The Partitions were a necessary part of the process whereby
reform had to be obstructed if Russian supremacy was to be maintained. The
Republic of Poland-Lithuania was not destroyed because of its internal anar-
chy. It was destroyed because it repeatedly tried to reform itself.
The lines of conflict were clearly drawn. The main protagonists were on the
one hand, the Empress of Russia, who sought to defend the status quo, and on
the other hand, the Polish reformers, who demanded change. The Empress
could count on the constant support of the leading Polish magnates, whose priv-
ileges she had sworn to uphold; on the religious dissidents, whose indignation
she kept inflamed; of the Polish Army, which was under the magnates' com-
mand; of the Polish Church, whose bishops were in Russian pay; and of the
majority of the Polish Sejm, which was packed with magnatial pensioners and
Russian agents. The reformers in contrast could only count On the intermittent
support of a vacillating King, on a handful of noblemen who opposed the main
magnatial Opposition; on the sporadic interest of Russia's foreign adversaries,
such as France, Sweden, and Turkey; on a minority of the Sejm; and on the
incipient patriotism of the country at large. The contest was heavily weighted
from the start. The Russian Party, though lacking in popular support, enjoyed
the advantages of the Law, of superior numbers, of the professional armies, and
of a unified policy directed from St. Petersburg. The Reformers had little but
their wits, their powers of improvisation, and their sense of superior moral pur-
pose.
For more than a decade after the First Partition, the rival parties observed an
uneasy truce. The Russian Party had proved the strength of its hand, and could
afford to make a number of concessions. The Reformers, conscious of the lim-
its within which they had to work, were content with piecemeal innovations.
The King, grateful for an end to the preceding turbulence, managed the country
amicably enough in conjunction with a new series of Russian ambassadors
hand-picked for their tact and restraint. Limited reforms, which did not contra-
vene the principles of the protectorate, were positively encouraged. In 1773, the
Commission of National Education was created by the very Sejm which had just
passed the Partition. In 1775, the establishment of a Permanent Council greatly
strengthened the executive government, whose five departments formed the
core of a modern administrative system. In the 1780s, Stanislaw-August began
to edge his way towards an independent foreign policy. Catherine preoccupied
by her disputes with Sweden and Turkey, was losing the sympathy of Prussia
and Austria. After the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, there were distinct
signs that his successor, Frederick-William III, might be willing to support the
Polish reformers as a way of embarrassing Catherine.
Yet the utter helplessness of Poland-Lithuania in this period could not be eas-
ily disguised. The King and his circle could not escape from the web of external
coercion and internal disloyalty in which they were trapped. Indeed, their
renewed efforts to extricate themselves were the direct cause of their downfall.