The “Magnificent Age” - Catherine II TL
- Thread starter alexmilman
- Start date
But I don´t feel bad anymore, the PLC dying as the mess it was is probably for the best(now if it had reformed then that is different)
Sometimes this thread feels like Alexmilman's Social Thread. (it doesn't exist but it may as well in effect)
I also apologise, but I am unfamiliar with that last phrase, could you please tell me what it means
He refers to a certain California bear who is moderator. We do get carried away... sometimes...this was too much.
I rolled with it because OP has been fine with our little banterings before and I figured so long it wasnt bothering anyone it was fine, but seeing your concern I get it must have gotten carried away
Well thats one suggestion for grandpa Alex, I think he'd enjoy a test thread
Potentially...I couldn't rule that out.
At least it would never get as broken as the PLC even in the worst case scenario.
35. Piece of cake #2
35. Piece of cake #2
Shares of a pie. Conventions of July 25, 1772 finally defined who is going to get what.
Prussia was going to get the bishopric of Warmia, the voivodeships of Pomorie (without Danzig), Malborg, Chelmin (without Torun), part of Inovratslav, Gniezno and Poznan. ~600k subjects. Frederick II, who was called "King in Prussia" before the partition, assumed the title of "King of Prussia".
Austrian acquisitions - Eastern Galicia with Lwow and Przemysl, but without Krakow. ~2.65 million.
[Credit for the great map and population numbers goes to @Hastings].
Russian “modest” acquisitions included voiovodeship of Witebsk, most of the voiovodeship Mstislawskoe with border by the Dnieper, part of the voiovodeship Brest-Litowsk to the South of Pripyat River, and voiovodeships of Wolyn, Kiev, Podol and Braclaw. ~ 3.5 million.
There were few valid reasons for Catherine to change the initially agreed upon schema which included only the northern part of a new deal plus a border by the Dvina (voiovodship of Polock and Inflanty Polskie). First, as a sum total, these were relatively poor areas. Second, Inflanty was a predominantly Protestant area. A presumed advantage of having borders by the rivers was rather a theory than something meaningful. The new southern acquisitions included good agricultural lands of the right bank Ukraine, were bordering on the North and West with the marginally passable Pripyat Marches and on the South would allow, in the case of a new war with the Turks, to avoid a nightmare of having supply base and logistics on the Polish territory (as was the case in the last war when the Russian troops had to occupy Kamenec fortress to establish supply base in it). Very important for the domestic consumption was the fact that most of the Orthodox population of the PLC now became the Russian subjects (even if not all of them had been excessively cheerful of that fact) and this, together with the agreement regarding the Ottoman Christians, was quite important in projecting Catherine’s image as a Defender of the Faith.
The understandable objections raised by the Prussian and Austrian representatives regarding what they considered as a clear inequality of the shares got a comprehensive explanation:
To somewhat compensate themselves for a moral damage, the Austrians occupied Bukowina, which was promised by the Ottomans as an award for the military and diplomatic help neither of which really were received. When the Ottomans sent the inquiry to Rumyantsev regarding move of the Austrian troops into their territory, the answer was that Russia had nothing to do with it. The Austrian envoy in Constantinople had to explain to the Ottomans the obvious things (what do you expect from these barbarians, they are too backward to comprehend even simplest things) that Austria promised to help with making a peace acceptable to the Porte. The peace is signed, so it was acceptable and Austria is entitled to its compensation. At the moment the Turks were not in a position to raise the serious objections or even to ask the money back so they caved to the reality. The powers participating in the partition agreed at the same time to deliver to the Polish king a joint declaration demanding the convening of the Sejm to approve territorial concessions and introduced their troops in the areas stipulated by the St. Petersburg Convention.
In September 1772, the new Russian ambassador Otto Magnus Stackelberg arrived in Warsaw, replacing von Saldern who was asking for quite a while to relieve him from dealing with the ongoing mess. On September 8, he, together with the Prussian Ambassador Benois, officially informed Stanislav August about the agreement between Russia, Prussia and Austria on the division of Poland on July 25, 1772.
Stanislaw-Augustus appealed to Paris and London for support, but the French could not, and the British did not want to get involved in Polish affairs. To the report of the representatives of the three powers made to the English representative in October 1772, the following answer was given: "His Majesty the King is very willing to think that the three courts based their claims on justice, although His Majesty is not aware of the grounds on which they acted." This left Stanislaw-August with the only option of making speeches for the domestic consumption, which he was doing with more enthusiasm than sense of a reality. On October 14, Stackelberg reported from Warsaw that "while the king makes, as usual, statements discrediting Russia, he is trying to convince the representatives of the szlachta, whom he gathered from the vicinity of Warsaw, that the Empress agrees to support the confederation against the partition." Of course, the royal speeches had only limited effect upon szlachta: there were much more pleasant ways to spend time than being engaged in the politics.
The problem for the three powers was not in the occupation of the chosen pieces of the territory but in forcing the PLC to recognize this fact officially. Which meant that the traditional convoluted procedure has to be followed. There must be the local little sejms to elect the delegates to Chamber of Deputies (izba poselska) of the Sejm. Which meant that election of the proper people had to be guaranteed by the bribery and the threats. Then proper behavior of the Senate had to be guaranteed and this was a separate task, and not an easy one because many bishops tended to tie pretty much any question to the Catholic Faith and arouse the szlachta many members of which were understanding little beyond the catchy slogans. Then, even with the properly chosen “cadres”, there was no guarantee that the Sejm will not be disrupted and that the follow-ups will be implemented properly, that the “government” will implement them in a timely fashion, and so on. The PLC could not resist militarily but it could easily turn the process into a prolonged and frustrating mess. There was practically no chance that the process will take less than a year.
The result of the noice raised in the PLC was the appearance of a new Russian-Prussian-Austrian declaration of January 16 (30), 1773, which stated that if, after the expiration of the established terms, the claims made against Poland were not fulfilled, Russia, Austria and Prussia themselves "will resort to the means that they consider valid and appropriate for the full exercise of their rights." On December 3, 1772 in St. Petersburg and on January 9, 1773 in Vienna, Catherine II, Joseph II, Joseph II and Maria Theresa signed an act of obligations to comply with the provisions of the convention on July 25, 1772.
Stanislaw-August kept appealing to Catherine in the prolonged letters asking for her sympathy and appealing to her promises to protect the PLC but she was fed up with the whole history of Stanislaw and his uncles not fulfilling their promises, sabotaging her efforts to save them and practically openly supporting the confederates and fanatics like Soltyk who, after being released from his exile in Kaluga, was now appearing in in the explicitly shabby clothes, walked to the church services, had been giving money to the poor, was crossing himself all the time and was appearing in the society accompanied by the numerous monks and incessantly blabbing about his readiness to suffer an exile or even imprisonment for the sake of the True Faith as foundation of the PLC (which, with most of the non-catholics going to be on the other side of the border was not actually in danger of being corrupted by the fifth column of those with the wrong religious affiliations). Stupid as they were, his speeches were energizing szlachta and could easily result in an election of the deputies who will be protesting for the sake of protesting without bothering to think things through: if the Protestants and Orthodox were such a dangerous disease for the Republic, then giving away the territories were they lived should be beneficial for the said Republic while keeping these territories would be a never ending source of the problems. You simply can’t to have your cake and eat it. Especially when the cake is going to seriously shrink in size.
Anyway, upon meeting Soltyk, Stackelberg told him that the public will think ever higher about his sanctity if he stayed home. After this, Soltyk noticeably quietened and after some additional persuasions began to repeat that he would not take a single step, would not say a single public word without consulting Stackelberg. H even wrote a very respectful letter to the empress asking forgiveness for the past.
Stanislaw-August to Catherine: “…. Before I am subjected to the blows of fate, I beg you not to deny me consolation, let me know what you want to do for us, what reward your justice assigns to us, and if any hope of saving Poland becomes impossible, accept the request for what I consider necessary in the situation in which Poland will be, and what can at least somewhat mitigate its disasters.”
Catherine to Stanislav-August, February 27, 1773: "Your frankness makes me pay you with the same frankness. … Brought to the extreme by the intrigues and parties of your people, I had to enter into an agreement with Poland's two other neighbors in order to put a end to its turmoil and disasters in our own states…
The circumstances have changed, and now they are such that it is impossible for me alone, without my allies, to decide on certain steps concerning the state of your kingdom... Despite all the difficulties that the Poles imposed on my plans, I did not stop thinking about their common good. As for you personally, Your Majesty, my plans are to continue to ensure the integrity of your crown and your state. As for the Polish nation - complete peace, free, better managed and calmer, more reliable government for it and its neighbors."
In early November 1772, Stackelberg, Benois (Prussian Ambassador) and Revitsky (Austrian Ambassador) demanded that Stanislav August convene a Sejm that would recognize the partition. In response, the king, protesting, pronounced eloquent tirades, which Stackelberg, after being subjected to one of those, compared to "the best pages of Plutarch" but offered to concentrate on history of the count Poniatowski and his place in the ongoing events.
In December, Stackelberg was instructed to obtain from Stanisław August an agreement to convene a Confederated Sejm before February 1, 1773, which was to recognize the St. Petersburg Conventions, and work out a plan for the appeasement of Poland within two months, by the end of March 1773. The Confederated Sejm was needed because it will be impossible to achieve any results in a free Sejm with its liberum veto.
On January 29 (February 8), 1773, the king convened the Senate (only 36 senators took part in it instead of the 150), which decided to convene the Sejm on April 8 (19). The detailed "Action Plan of the Three Ambassadors" for the convening and holding of the Sejm, submitted to the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and edited by Catherine, was sent to Stackelberg on February 24. The ambassador was prescribed to achieve the goals expected from the Sejm in close co-ordination with representatives of Prussia and Austria, using "either military force, or exhortation, or bribery". To bribe the deputies, Stackelberg had to create a general cash register, the contribution to which for each of the countries participating in the section was 150 - 200 thousand thalers. Agreement of all three ambassadors was required for any expenditures. They would have to chose the agents not connected to the Warsaw court or Saxon party and send them to the local sejms and these agents will be informing the ambassadors which means have to be used in each specific case.
When the Sejm begins its activities, the ambassadors will require it to appoint a delegation to negotiate with them; during these negotiations, the ambassadors will not allow any dispute over the rights of their courts to the areas designated for division, no restriction or reduction of the territories assigned to each court, and should insist on a full and decisive concession by the republic.
“As for the constitution of the republic, electoral rule must be renewed and approved forever; from now on, it must be elected kings. Only a Polish nobleman born in Poland and a landowner there can be elected; foreign princes are excluded forever. The sons and grandchildren of the last king cannot be elected directly after the father or grandfather, they can be elected after at least two reigns. Liberum veto remains unchanged by law. Ministers should first of all bear in mind the preservation of the king on the throne. All transformations should tend to restore the balance between the power of the king, the Senate and the nobility (ordre equestre). To do this, the king should not, through his relatives, increase his power at the expense of the other two forces in the state, therefore, royal relatives should not occupy any positions in a government; but, since it is impossible to deprive them of their rights belonging to every nobleman, it is necessary to decide that uncles, brothers, relatives and cousins of the king and queen, cannot be ministers and hetmans, cannot be senators, voivodes, castellans and occupy any smaller position. The Privy Royal Council can only consist of senators appointed by the Sejm. Since the king's influence on the commissions, military and financial, has aroused alarm among the people, these commissions should be destroyed and the posts of hetmans and sub-scarbians should be restored to their previous meaning, if the majority wishes. Only old abuses should be prevented, and the Hetmans should be deprived of the right of life and death over the military, and the subscarbsians should not arbitrarily use the money of the republic; for this, there should be councils under the hetmans and subscarbsians, the members of which are appointed not by the king, but they are elected by the voivodeships every two years. The troops now under the command of the king will pass under the command of the great hetmans, and in the future the Polish king should have neither troops belonging to him nor the troops of the republic under his command. Since the influence of the nobles, and namely the royal family, in the courts serves to oppress the people and disturbs the balance of power, the presidents and members of the courts will be elected by voivodeships and Laws should be issued that would free the courts from any dependence on the king and nobles. Since the nobility, which constitutes the third power, concedes with respect to the other two authorities, the king and the Senate, and is only periodically present at the Sejms, while the other two other authorities have permanent activities, it would be good to decide that several noble deputies should sit in the Senate between the Sejms with the right to protest against all decisions that disagree with the constitution or the privileges of their estate. Since the royal estates have decreased due to the division, it is necessary to add several starostvas to them so that the king's income is at least 400,000 ducats. The distribution of the remaining starostvs remains with the king; but it should be decided that one house (maison) cannot be getting more than two starostvs, which together should not give more than 8,000 ducats of annual income .... There will be no inconvenience to the neighboring powers if the army of the republic increases by 6,000 people."
In other words, position of the King of Poland was going to be truly pathetic. After some consideration it was decided that, for the personal protection, the King should have his own Guards consisting of two battalions of the foreign mercenaries for which money must be allocated.
Of course, preparations to the elections were not going smoothly. After playing a good boy for a while Soltyk became active again, declaring that he is ready to cooperate but not on the issues involving his consciousness and a Pole, approving the division of his state, sins against God's commandments, which prohibit the to touch property of his neighbor, and whoever approves such a case will be his accomplice. Not limiting himself to the words, he managed to introduce his numerous relatives as the future deputies. When Stackelberg accused him in cheating, he answered that he was educated by the Jesuits.
As a result, instead of considering partition as the unavoidable evil, the talks started about breaking the congress and negotiated conditions of a treaty.
Sejm did opened on April 8 1773 as a Confederation Sejm and it promised to be stormy …
______________
[1] “Pompadour” (as in “can do whatever pleases him”) is a local administrator who must have a mistress (goes with the position) and she is obviously a “pompadouress” («помпадурша»). 😂
[2] “Now, let's share it! Look, friends:
This part is mine
According to the contract;
This one belongs to me, like a lion, without dispute;
This one is for me because I'm stronger then you ;
And to this part any of you who will stretch out the paw,
He won't get up alive.”
[3] Neither Krylov’s fable nor “Animal farm”, explaining an issue of the unequal equality, had been written, yet, so the direct references to these important international documents was not possible and certain things, obvious in the following two centuries, needed a detailed answer.
“You can do whatever you wish by simply ignoring the law. You just can’t do it while abiding the law.”
Saltykov-Schedrin, ‘Pompadours and pompadouresses’ [1]
“The energy of action they had been, with a great inventiveness, opposing with an energy of inaction while stubbornly continuing staying kneeled.”
Saltykov-Schedrin, ‘History of a city’
“- Do you like a plain pie or one with a butter?
- It does not make a difference, perhaps one with a butter.”
A.I. Kuprin, ‘The cantaloupes’
“- Money in the morning, chairs in the evening…
- And what about chairs in morning, money in the evening?
- Possible. But the money first.”
I. Ilf, E.Petrov, ‘12 chairs’
“The genius invented the wheel, and the bureaucrat invented how to put stick into it.”
“Bureaucracy has a personal interest in creating the chaos in which it exists.”
Unknown authors
“You can never meet a fox that would reveal any humane intentions towards a goose, as we will never meet a cat prone to friendship with mice.”
Well-known (unfortunately) obscure painter
«Теперь, давай делить! Смотрите же, друзья:
Вот эта часть моя
По договору;
Вот эта мне, как Льву, принадлежит без спору;
Вот эта мне за то, что всех сильнее я;
А к этой чуть из вас лишь лапу кто протянет,
Тот с места жив не встанет.» [2]
I.A.Krylov, ‘Lion at the hunt’
Saltykov-Schedrin, ‘Pompadours and pompadouresses’ [1]
“The energy of action they had been, with a great inventiveness, opposing with an energy of inaction while stubbornly continuing staying kneeled.”
Saltykov-Schedrin, ‘History of a city’
“- Do you like a plain pie or one with a butter?
- It does not make a difference, perhaps one with a butter.”
A.I. Kuprin, ‘The cantaloupes’
“- Money in the morning, chairs in the evening…
- And what about chairs in morning, money in the evening?
- Possible. But the money first.”
I. Ilf, E.Petrov, ‘12 chairs’
“The genius invented the wheel, and the bureaucrat invented how to put stick into it.”
“Bureaucracy has a personal interest in creating the chaos in which it exists.”
Unknown authors
“You can never meet a fox that would reveal any humane intentions towards a goose, as we will never meet a cat prone to friendship with mice.”
Well-known (unfortunately) obscure painter
«Теперь, давай делить! Смотрите же, друзья:
Вот эта часть моя
По договору;
Вот эта мне, как Льву, принадлежит без спору;
Вот эта мне за то, что всех сильнее я;
А к этой чуть из вас лишь лапу кто протянет,
Тот с места жив не встанет.» [2]
I.A.Krylov, ‘Lion at the hunt’
Shares of a pie. Conventions of July 25, 1772 finally defined who is going to get what.
Prussia was going to get the bishopric of Warmia, the voivodeships of Pomorie (without Danzig), Malborg, Chelmin (without Torun), part of Inovratslav, Gniezno and Poznan. ~600k subjects. Frederick II, who was called "King in Prussia" before the partition, assumed the title of "King of Prussia".
Austrian acquisitions - Eastern Galicia with Lwow and Przemysl, but without Krakow. ~2.65 million.
[Credit for the great map and population numbers goes to @Hastings].
Russian “modest” acquisitions included voiovodeship of Witebsk, most of the voiovodeship Mstislawskoe with border by the Dnieper, part of the voiovodeship Brest-Litowsk to the South of Pripyat River, and voiovodeships of Wolyn, Kiev, Podol and Braclaw. ~ 3.5 million.
There were few valid reasons for Catherine to change the initially agreed upon schema which included only the northern part of a new deal plus a border by the Dvina (voiovodship of Polock and Inflanty Polskie). First, as a sum total, these were relatively poor areas. Second, Inflanty was a predominantly Protestant area. A presumed advantage of having borders by the rivers was rather a theory than something meaningful. The new southern acquisitions included good agricultural lands of the right bank Ukraine, were bordering on the North and West with the marginally passable Pripyat Marches and on the South would allow, in the case of a new war with the Turks, to avoid a nightmare of having supply base and logistics on the Polish territory (as was the case in the last war when the Russian troops had to occupy Kamenec fortress to establish supply base in it). Very important for the domestic consumption was the fact that most of the Orthodox population of the PLC now became the Russian subjects (even if not all of them had been excessively cheerful of that fact) and this, together with the agreement regarding the Ottoman Christians, was quite important in projecting Catherine’s image as a Defender of the Faith.
The understandable objections raised by the Prussian and Austrian representatives regarding what they considered as a clear inequality of the shares got a comprehensive explanation:
- These are the ancient Russian lands, which are being returned to where they belong.
- Her Majesty, the Empress of Russia, can’t continue letting the Polish Catholics to oppress the Orthodox Christians in a violation of the existing promises.
- Russia spent a considerable military effort and big sums of money to deal with unrest in the PLC and entitled to a compensation that goes on a top of the equal share, comparable to those which Austria and Prussia are getting without any effort and expenses.
- If somebody feels otherwise, Her Majesty has plenty of the means to backup her well-justified demands.
To somewhat compensate themselves for a moral damage, the Austrians occupied Bukowina, which was promised by the Ottomans as an award for the military and diplomatic help neither of which really were received. When the Ottomans sent the inquiry to Rumyantsev regarding move of the Austrian troops into their territory, the answer was that Russia had nothing to do with it. The Austrian envoy in Constantinople had to explain to the Ottomans the obvious things (what do you expect from these barbarians, they are too backward to comprehend even simplest things) that Austria promised to help with making a peace acceptable to the Porte. The peace is signed, so it was acceptable and Austria is entitled to its compensation. At the moment the Turks were not in a position to raise the serious objections or even to ask the money back so they caved to the reality. The powers participating in the partition agreed at the same time to deliver to the Polish king a joint declaration demanding the convening of the Sejm to approve territorial concessions and introduced their troops in the areas stipulated by the St. Petersburg Convention.
In September 1772, the new Russian ambassador Otto Magnus Stackelberg arrived in Warsaw, replacing von Saldern who was asking for quite a while to relieve him from dealing with the ongoing mess. On September 8, he, together with the Prussian Ambassador Benois, officially informed Stanislav August about the agreement between Russia, Prussia and Austria on the division of Poland on July 25, 1772.
Stanislaw-Augustus appealed to Paris and London for support, but the French could not, and the British did not want to get involved in Polish affairs. To the report of the representatives of the three powers made to the English representative in October 1772, the following answer was given: "His Majesty the King is very willing to think that the three courts based their claims on justice, although His Majesty is not aware of the grounds on which they acted." This left Stanislaw-August with the only option of making speeches for the domestic consumption, which he was doing with more enthusiasm than sense of a reality. On October 14, Stackelberg reported from Warsaw that "while the king makes, as usual, statements discrediting Russia, he is trying to convince the representatives of the szlachta, whom he gathered from the vicinity of Warsaw, that the Empress agrees to support the confederation against the partition." Of course, the royal speeches had only limited effect upon szlachta: there were much more pleasant ways to spend time than being engaged in the politics.
The problem for the three powers was not in the occupation of the chosen pieces of the territory but in forcing the PLC to recognize this fact officially. Which meant that the traditional convoluted procedure has to be followed. There must be the local little sejms to elect the delegates to Chamber of Deputies (izba poselska) of the Sejm. Which meant that election of the proper people had to be guaranteed by the bribery and the threats. Then proper behavior of the Senate had to be guaranteed and this was a separate task, and not an easy one because many bishops tended to tie pretty much any question to the Catholic Faith and arouse the szlachta many members of which were understanding little beyond the catchy slogans. Then, even with the properly chosen “cadres”, there was no guarantee that the Sejm will not be disrupted and that the follow-ups will be implemented properly, that the “government” will implement them in a timely fashion, and so on. The PLC could not resist militarily but it could easily turn the process into a prolonged and frustrating mess. There was practically no chance that the process will take less than a year.
The result of the noice raised in the PLC was the appearance of a new Russian-Prussian-Austrian declaration of January 16 (30), 1773, which stated that if, after the expiration of the established terms, the claims made against Poland were not fulfilled, Russia, Austria and Prussia themselves "will resort to the means that they consider valid and appropriate for the full exercise of their rights." On December 3, 1772 in St. Petersburg and on January 9, 1773 in Vienna, Catherine II, Joseph II, Joseph II and Maria Theresa signed an act of obligations to comply with the provisions of the convention on July 25, 1772.
Stanislaw-August kept appealing to Catherine in the prolonged letters asking for her sympathy and appealing to her promises to protect the PLC but she was fed up with the whole history of Stanislaw and his uncles not fulfilling their promises, sabotaging her efforts to save them and practically openly supporting the confederates and fanatics like Soltyk who, after being released from his exile in Kaluga, was now appearing in in the explicitly shabby clothes, walked to the church services, had been giving money to the poor, was crossing himself all the time and was appearing in the society accompanied by the numerous monks and incessantly blabbing about his readiness to suffer an exile or even imprisonment for the sake of the True Faith as foundation of the PLC (which, with most of the non-catholics going to be on the other side of the border was not actually in danger of being corrupted by the fifth column of those with the wrong religious affiliations). Stupid as they were, his speeches were energizing szlachta and could easily result in an election of the deputies who will be protesting for the sake of protesting without bothering to think things through: if the Protestants and Orthodox were such a dangerous disease for the Republic, then giving away the territories were they lived should be beneficial for the said Republic while keeping these territories would be a never ending source of the problems. You simply can’t to have your cake and eat it. Especially when the cake is going to seriously shrink in size.
Anyway, upon meeting Soltyk, Stackelberg told him that the public will think ever higher about his sanctity if he stayed home. After this, Soltyk noticeably quietened and after some additional persuasions began to repeat that he would not take a single step, would not say a single public word without consulting Stackelberg. H even wrote a very respectful letter to the empress asking forgiveness for the past.
Stanislaw-August to Catherine: “…. Before I am subjected to the blows of fate, I beg you not to deny me consolation, let me know what you want to do for us, what reward your justice assigns to us, and if any hope of saving Poland becomes impossible, accept the request for what I consider necessary in the situation in which Poland will be, and what can at least somewhat mitigate its disasters.”
Catherine to Stanislav-August, February 27, 1773: "Your frankness makes me pay you with the same frankness. … Brought to the extreme by the intrigues and parties of your people, I had to enter into an agreement with Poland's two other neighbors in order to put a end to its turmoil and disasters in our own states…
The circumstances have changed, and now they are such that it is impossible for me alone, without my allies, to decide on certain steps concerning the state of your kingdom... Despite all the difficulties that the Poles imposed on my plans, I did not stop thinking about their common good. As for you personally, Your Majesty, my plans are to continue to ensure the integrity of your crown and your state. As for the Polish nation - complete peace, free, better managed and calmer, more reliable government for it and its neighbors."
In early November 1772, Stackelberg, Benois (Prussian Ambassador) and Revitsky (Austrian Ambassador) demanded that Stanislav August convene a Sejm that would recognize the partition. In response, the king, protesting, pronounced eloquent tirades, which Stackelberg, after being subjected to one of those, compared to "the best pages of Plutarch" but offered to concentrate on history of the count Poniatowski and his place in the ongoing events.
In December, Stackelberg was instructed to obtain from Stanisław August an agreement to convene a Confederated Sejm before February 1, 1773, which was to recognize the St. Petersburg Conventions, and work out a plan for the appeasement of Poland within two months, by the end of March 1773. The Confederated Sejm was needed because it will be impossible to achieve any results in a free Sejm with its liberum veto.
On January 29 (February 8), 1773, the king convened the Senate (only 36 senators took part in it instead of the 150), which decided to convene the Sejm on April 8 (19). The detailed "Action Plan of the Three Ambassadors" for the convening and holding of the Sejm, submitted to the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and edited by Catherine, was sent to Stackelberg on February 24. The ambassador was prescribed to achieve the goals expected from the Sejm in close co-ordination with representatives of Prussia and Austria, using "either military force, or exhortation, or bribery". To bribe the deputies, Stackelberg had to create a general cash register, the contribution to which for each of the countries participating in the section was 150 - 200 thousand thalers. Agreement of all three ambassadors was required for any expenditures. They would have to chose the agents not connected to the Warsaw court or Saxon party and send them to the local sejms and these agents will be informing the ambassadors which means have to be used in each specific case.
When the Sejm begins its activities, the ambassadors will require it to appoint a delegation to negotiate with them; during these negotiations, the ambassadors will not allow any dispute over the rights of their courts to the areas designated for division, no restriction or reduction of the territories assigned to each court, and should insist on a full and decisive concession by the republic.
“As for the constitution of the republic, electoral rule must be renewed and approved forever; from now on, it must be elected kings. Only a Polish nobleman born in Poland and a landowner there can be elected; foreign princes are excluded forever. The sons and grandchildren of the last king cannot be elected directly after the father or grandfather, they can be elected after at least two reigns. Liberum veto remains unchanged by law. Ministers should first of all bear in mind the preservation of the king on the throne. All transformations should tend to restore the balance between the power of the king, the Senate and the nobility (ordre equestre). To do this, the king should not, through his relatives, increase his power at the expense of the other two forces in the state, therefore, royal relatives should not occupy any positions in a government; but, since it is impossible to deprive them of their rights belonging to every nobleman, it is necessary to decide that uncles, brothers, relatives and cousins of the king and queen, cannot be ministers and hetmans, cannot be senators, voivodes, castellans and occupy any smaller position. The Privy Royal Council can only consist of senators appointed by the Sejm. Since the king's influence on the commissions, military and financial, has aroused alarm among the people, these commissions should be destroyed and the posts of hetmans and sub-scarbians should be restored to their previous meaning, if the majority wishes. Only old abuses should be prevented, and the Hetmans should be deprived of the right of life and death over the military, and the subscarbsians should not arbitrarily use the money of the republic; for this, there should be councils under the hetmans and subscarbsians, the members of which are appointed not by the king, but they are elected by the voivodeships every two years. The troops now under the command of the king will pass under the command of the great hetmans, and in the future the Polish king should have neither troops belonging to him nor the troops of the republic under his command. Since the influence of the nobles, and namely the royal family, in the courts serves to oppress the people and disturbs the balance of power, the presidents and members of the courts will be elected by voivodeships and Laws should be issued that would free the courts from any dependence on the king and nobles. Since the nobility, which constitutes the third power, concedes with respect to the other two authorities, the king and the Senate, and is only periodically present at the Sejms, while the other two other authorities have permanent activities, it would be good to decide that several noble deputies should sit in the Senate between the Sejms with the right to protest against all decisions that disagree with the constitution or the privileges of their estate. Since the royal estates have decreased due to the division, it is necessary to add several starostvas to them so that the king's income is at least 400,000 ducats. The distribution of the remaining starostvs remains with the king; but it should be decided that one house (maison) cannot be getting more than two starostvs, which together should not give more than 8,000 ducats of annual income .... There will be no inconvenience to the neighboring powers if the army of the republic increases by 6,000 people."
In other words, position of the King of Poland was going to be truly pathetic. After some consideration it was decided that, for the personal protection, the King should have his own Guards consisting of two battalions of the foreign mercenaries for which money must be allocated.
Of course, preparations to the elections were not going smoothly. After playing a good boy for a while Soltyk became active again, declaring that he is ready to cooperate but not on the issues involving his consciousness and a Pole, approving the division of his state, sins against God's commandments, which prohibit the to touch property of his neighbor, and whoever approves such a case will be his accomplice. Not limiting himself to the words, he managed to introduce his numerous relatives as the future deputies. When Stackelberg accused him in cheating, he answered that he was educated by the Jesuits.
As a result, instead of considering partition as the unavoidable evil, the talks started about breaking the congress and negotiated conditions of a treaty.
Sejm did opened on April 8 1773 as a Confederation Sejm and it promised to be stormy …
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[1] “Pompadour” (as in “can do whatever pleases him”) is a local administrator who must have a mistress (goes with the position) and she is obviously a “pompadouress” («помпадурша»). 😂
[2] “Now, let's share it! Look, friends:
This part is mine
According to the contract;
This one belongs to me, like a lion, without dispute;
This one is for me because I'm stronger then you ;
And to this part any of you who will stretch out the paw,
He won't get up alive.”
[3] Neither Krylov’s fable nor “Animal farm”, explaining an issue of the unequal equality, had been written, yet, so the direct references to these important international documents was not possible and certain things, obvious in the following two centuries, needed a detailed answer.
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To quote Russian censor of the 1900s, “… permitted is a freedom of speech but not licentiousness.” 😂 No, I’m not bothered but somebody else may be.
I would not. 😜