1812 confederation briefly freed partitioned Poland
June 28 marks the 205th foundation anniversary of the 1812 General Confederation of the Kingdom of Poland established by Napoleon Bonaparte on the eve of his Russian campaign.
Officially founded on June 28 1812 by the parliament of the Duchy of Warsaw (see: NOTE 1), the confederation reintroduced a government model resembling the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (see: NOTE 2), dissolved after partitioning by Russia, Prussia and Austria at the close of the 18th century (see: NOTE 3)
The confederation's chief goal was to introduce Polish administration on Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian territories liberated from Russian domination by Napoleon's army. The marshal of the confederation's General Council was Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski.
The confederation, which briefly freed Poland from its then partitioners Russia, Prussia and Austria, survived only under a year, ceasing to exist on April 30 1813.
NOTE 1: The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established on Polish territories ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit, two agreements signed by Napoleon I in 1807 with Russia and Prussia. The treaties were made at the expense of the Prussian king who gave away about half of his pre-war territories.
From those territories Napoleon created, among others, the Duchy of Warsaw, a move which was to support the idea of the restoration of Poland's statehood and the rebuilding of the Kingdom of Poland in its pre-partition boundaries.
Following Napoleon's failed 1812 invasion of Russia, the Duchy, held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, was occupied by Prussian and Russian troops until 1815, when it was formally partitioned between the two countries at the congress. It covered central and eastern part of present Poland and minor parts of present Lithuania and Belarus.
On October 24, 1815, Russia received most of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw as a "Kingdom of Poland" (see: NOTE 4) with the tsar as king ruling it independently of Russia.
NOTE 2: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a 16th-18th-century Polish-Lithuanian state composed of the Crown - Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, considered a precursor to modern democratic system such as federation, constitutional monarchy. The Commonwealth was a dual state consisting of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ruled by one monarch, who was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
The Commonwealth was one of the biggest countries in 16th/17th-century Europe, at its peak spanning about 1.2 million km2 and with a multi-ethnic population of about 11 million. It was formally established by the Union of Lublin in July 1569. Considerably reduced in size by the First Partition of Poland in 1772 and the Second Partition in 1793, it disappeared from the European map after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.
NOTE 3: The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth towards the end of the 18th century which ended the existence of sovereign Poland for 123 years. The partitioning powers were the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Habsburg Austria, which divided the country among themselves progressively.
On Sept. 18, 1772, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Habsburg Austrian Empire notified Poland of the partition and demanded a Sejm (parliament) sitting to approve the cession. Opposition to the partition was broken by threats and the occupation of Poland by the troops of the three countries.
The 1772 partition of Poland led to further two partitions, in 1793 and 1795 ending the existence of a sovereign Poland for 123 years. Nevertheless, the nation itself did not cease to exist for over a century connecting the East with the West culturally, technologically and tradewise. The partitioned Poland also remained a robust base to anti-invader conspiracy movements and freedom fight bouts with four insurrections including the 1794 Kosciuszko Insurrection (see: NOTE 5), the 1830 November Uprising (see: NOTE 6), the 1846 Krakow Uprising (see: NOTE 7) and the 1863 January Uprising (see: NOTE 8).
NOTE 4: The Kingdom of Poland, also known as Congress Poland, was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw, a client state of France established in 1807 by Napoleon I from Polish territories ceded by Prussia under the Treaties of Tilsit, when the European powers of the day were reorganising Europe after the Napoleonic wars.
A sovereign state in the Russian-controlled part of partitioned Poland until 1832, the Kingdom was subsequently integrated into Russia and became a part of the Russian Empire in 1867. During World War I the Central Powers replaced it with the only theoretically existing Regency Kingdom of Poland.
Officially the Kingdom enjoyed broad political autonomy under a liberal constitution, however its Russian rulers rejected any limitations to their power, which made it a Russian puppet state. The Kingdom's autonomy was strongly curtailed after anti-Russian insurgencies in 1830–31 and 1863, and it was subsequently ruled by Russian "namestniks" (governors) and divided into Russian-patterned provinces (guberniya).
NOTE 5: The Kosciuszko Insurrection was a Polish revolt against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia and an unsuccessful attempt to free the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Russian domination after the Second Partition of Poland (1793). Led by Polish Military leader Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the insurgency's fall preceded the 1795 Third Partition of the Commonwealth.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko (February 4 or 12, 1746 – October 15, 1817) was a Polish–Lithuanian military leader who was proclaimed a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and the United States. Kosciuszko fought in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kosciuszko Uprising after which Poland was ultimately partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Numerous places worldwide are named after Kosciuszko, including the highest mountain in Australia and an island in Alaska, not to mention a New York bridge and several cities in the US.
NOTE 6: The 1830-1831 November Uprising was a Polish insurgency against the Russian Empire, one of the three powers holding Poland under partition at the time. The uprising launched on November 29, 1830 with a revolt by cadets from a Warsaw military academy, and was quickly joined by large Polish groups from Belarus, Right-bank Ukraine and Lithuania. Crassly outnumbered by the Imperial Russian Imperial Army, the insurgency fell in October 1831 and Russian Tsar Nicholas I decreed Poland a part of Russia and closed down Warsaw's university.
NOTE 7: The Krakow Uprising of February 1846 was a Polish insurgency against the Austrian Empire, with Russia and Prussia one of the three powers holding Poland under partition at the time. Centred in the southern-Polish city of Krakow, then capital of a small state known as the Free City of Cracow, it was mainly backed by the Polish nobility and middle class, who wanted to restore Poland as an independent state.
The uprising, whose initial successes included a brief seizure of Krakow, lasted about nine days before it was quenched by the Austrians.
NOTE 8: The January Uprising was a Polish revolt against Imperial Russia in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The insurgency launched on January 22, 1863 and continued until 1864.
Initially a protest by Polish cadets against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army, the uprising soon won the support of high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and politicians. Severely outnumbered by the Russians, the insurgents had to resolve to guerilla warfare in the fighting.
After the uprising's fall in 1864 many of its participants were executed or deported to Siberia. (PAP)
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