History of Poland. What role did the Union of Lublin play in the history of Poland? External Intervention: Prelude to Section
The first reliable information about Poland dates back to the second half of the 10th century. Poland was already a relatively large state at that time, created by the Piast dynasty by uniting several tribal principalities. The first historically reliable ruler of Poland was Mieszko I (ruled 960–992) from the Piast dynasty, whose possessions, Great Poland, were located between the Odra and Vistula rivers. During the reign of Mieszko I, who fought against German expansion to the east, the Poles were converted to Christianity in the Latin rite in 966. In 988 Mieszko annexed Silesia and Pomerania to his principality, and in 990 - Moravia. His eldest son Boleslaw I the Brave (reigned 992-1025) became one of the most prominent rulers of Poland. He established his power in the territory from the Odra and Nysa to the Dnieper and from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians. Having strengthened the independence of Poland in the wars with the Holy Roman Empire, Boleslav took the title of king (1025). After the death of Boleslav, the growing feudal nobility opposed the central government, which led to the separation of Mazovia and Pomorie from Poland.
Feudal fragmentation
Boleslav III (reigned 1102-1138) returned Pomorie, but after his death the territory of Poland was divided between his sons. The eldest, Vladislav II, gained power over the capital Krakow, Greater Poland and Pomorie. In the second half of the 12th century. Poland, like its neighbors Germany and Kievan Rus, disintegrated. The breakup led to political chaos; the vassals soon refused to recognize the king's sovereignty and, with the help of the church, significantly limited his power.
Teutonic Knights
In the middle of the 13th century. The Mongol-Tatar invasion from the east devastated most of Poland. No less dangerous for the country were the incessant raids of pagan Lithuanians and Prussians from the north. In order to protect his possessions, Prince of Mazovia Konrad in 1226 invited Teutonic knights from the military-religious order of the crusaders to the country. For a short time, the Teutonic knights conquered part of the Baltic lands, which later became known as East Prussia. This land was settled by German colonists. In 1308 the state, created by the Teutonic knights, cut off Poland's access to the Baltic Sea.
Decline of central government
As a result of the fragmentation of Poland, the state's dependence on the upper aristocracy and the small landed nobility began to grow, whose support it needed to defend against external enemies. The extermination of the population by the Mongol-Tatars and Lithuanian tribes led to an influx of German settlers to the Polish lands, who either created cities themselves, governed by the laws of Magdeburg law, or received land as free peasants. In contrast, the Polish peasants, like the peasants of almost all of Europe at that time, gradually began to fall into serfdom.
The reunification of most of Poland was carried out by Vladislav Loketok (Ladislav Korotkiy) from Kuyavia, a principality in the north-central part of the country. In 1320 he was crowned Vladislav I. However, the national revival is largely due to the successful reign of his son, Casimir III the Great (reigned 1333-1370). Casimir strengthened the royal power, reformed the administration, legal and monetary systems according to the Western model, promulgated a code of laws called the Vislice Statutes (1347), eased the situation of peasants and allowed Jews - victims of religious persecution in Western Europe to settle in Poland. He failed to return access to the Baltic Sea; he also lost Silesia (ceded to the Czech Republic), but captured Galicia, Volhynia and Podolia in the east. In 1364 Casimir founded the first Polish university in Krakow - one of the oldest in Europe. Lacking a son, Casimir bequeathed the kingdom to his nephew Louis I the Great (Louis of Hungary), then one of the most influential monarchs in Europe. Under Louis (reign 1370-1382), the Polish noblemen (gentry) received the so-called. Kosice privilege (1374), according to which they were exempted from almost all taxes, having received the right not to pay taxes above a certain amount. In return, the nobles promised to transfer the throne to one of the daughters of King Louis.
Jagiellonian dynasty
After the death of Louis, the Poles turned to his youngest daughter Jadwiga with a request to become their queen. Jadwiga married Jagiello (Jogaila, or Jagiello), the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who ruled in Poland under the name of Vladislav II (reigned 1386-1434). Vladislav II adopted Christianity himself and converted the Lithuanian people to it, founding one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe. The vast territories of Poland and Lithuania were united into a powerful state union. Lithuania became the last pagan people in Europe to adopt Christianity, so the Teutonic Order of the Crusaders lost its meaning here. However, the crusaders were no longer going to leave. In 1410, Poles and Lithuanians defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald. In 1413, they approved the Polish-Lithuanian union in Gorodlo, and public institutions of the Polish model appeared in Lithuania. Casimir IV (reigned 1447-1492) tried to limit the power of the nobles and the church, but was forced to confirm their privileges and the rights of the Diet, which included the higher clergy, aristocracy and the small nobility. In 1454 he granted the nobles Neshava statutes, analogous to the English Charter of Liberties. The Thirteen Years' War with the Teutonic Order (1454-1466) ended with the victory of Poland, and under the treaty in Torun on October 19, 1466, Pomorie and Gdansk were returned to Poland. The order recognized itself as a vassal of Poland.
Poland's golden age
16th century became the golden age of Polish history. At this time, Poland was one of the largest countries in Europe, it prevailed in Eastern Europe, and its culture reached its zenith. However, the emergence of a centralized Russian state, which claimed the lands of the former Kievan Rus, the unification and strengthening of Brandenburg and Prussia in the west and north, and the threat of the warlike Ottoman Empire in the south posed a great danger to the country. In 1505 in Radom, King Alexander (reigned 1501-1506) was forced to adopt a constitution "nothing new" (lat. Nihil novi), according to which the parliament received the right of an equal vote with the monarch in making state decisions and the right of veto on all issues. concerning the nobility. According to this constitution, the parliament consisted of two chambers - the Diet, in which the small local nobility was represented, and the Senate, which represented the highest aristocracy and the highest clergy. Poland's long and open borders, as well as frequent wars, made it necessary to have a powerful trained army in order to ensure the security of the kingdom. The monarchs lacked the funds needed to maintain such an army. Therefore, they were forced to obtain parliamentary approval for any major expenses. The aristocracy (mozhnovolstvo) and the small landed nobility (gentry) demanded privileges for their loyalty. As a result, a system of "small-scale noble democracy" was formed in Poland, with a gradual expansion of the influence of the richest and most powerful magnates.
Rzeczpospolita
In 1525, Albrecht of Brandenburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, converted to Lutheranism, and the Polish King Sigismund I (reigned 1506-1548) allowed him to transform the Teutonic Order into the hereditary Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. During the reign of Sigismund II Augustus (1548–1572), the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Poland reached its greatest power. Krakow became one of the largest European centers of the humanities, architecture and Renaissance art, Polish poetry and prose, and over the years - the center of the Reformation. In 1561 Poland annexed Livonia, and on July 1, 1569, at the height of the Livonian War with Russia, the personal royal Polish-Lithuanian union was replaced by the Lublin Union. The united Polish-Lithuanian state began to be called Rzeczpospolita (Polish "common cause"). From that time on, the same king was to be elected by the aristocracy in Lithuania and Poland; there was one parliament (seim) and general laws; general money was introduced into circulation; religious tolerance has become generally accepted in both parts of the country. The last question was of particular importance, since significant territories conquered in the past by the Lithuanian princes were inhabited by Orthodox Christians.
Elected Kings: The Decline of the Polish State.
After the death of the childless Sigismund II, the central power in the huge Polish-Lithuanian state began to weaken. At a stormy meeting of the Diet, a new king, Henry (Henry) of Valois (reigned 1573-1574; later he became Henry III of France), was elected. At the same time, he was forced to accept the principle of "free elections" (election of the king by the gentry), as well as the "pact of consent", which each new monarch had to swear to. The right of the king to choose his heir was transferred to the Diet. The king was also forbidden to declare war or increase taxes without the consent of parliament. He should have been neutral in religious matters, he had to marry on the recommendation of the Senate. The council, which consisted of 16 senators appointed by the Sejm, constantly gave him recommendations. If the king did not fulfill any of the articles, the people could refuse to obey him. Thus, Henryk's articles changed the status of the state - from a limited monarchy, Poland passed to an aristocratic parliamentary republic; the head of the executive branch, who was elected for life, did not have sufficient powers to govern the state.
Stefan Batory (reigned 1575-1586). The weakening of the supreme power in Poland, which had long and poorly defended borders, but aggressive neighbors whose power was based on centralization and military force, largely predetermined the future collapse of the Polish state. Henry of Valois ruled for only 13 months, and then left for France, where he received the throne, vacated after the death of his brother Charles IX. The Senate and the Diet could not agree on the candidacy of the next king, and the gentry finally elected the prince of Transylvania Stephen Batory (reigned 1575-1586) as king, giving him a princess from the Jagiellonian dynasty as his wife. Batory strengthened Polish power over Gdansk, ousted Ivan the Terrible from the Baltic States and returned Livonia. Domestically, he won loyalty and help in the struggle against the Ottoman Empire from the Cossacks - runaway serfs who organized a military republic on the vast plains of Ukraine - a kind of "border strip" that stretches from the southeast of Poland to the Black Sea along the Dnieper. Batory gave privileges to Jews who were allowed to have their own parliament. He reformed the judicial system, and in 1579 founded a university in Vilna (Vilnius), which became an outpost of Catholicism and European culture in the east.
Sigismund III Vase. A zealous Catholic, Sigismund III Vasa (reigned 1587-1632), son of Johan III of Sweden and Catherine, daughter of Sigismund I, decided to create a Polish-Swedish coalition to fight Russia and return Sweden to the fold of Catholicism. In 1592 he became king of Sweden.
To spread Catholicism among the Orthodox population, at a council in Brest in 1596, the Uniate Church was established, which recognized the supremacy of the Pope, but continued to use Orthodox rituals. The opportunity to seize the Moscow throne after the suppression of the Rurik dynasty involved the Rzeczpospolita in the war with Russia. In 1610, Polish troops occupied Moscow. The vacant royal throne was offered by the Moscow boyars to Sigismund's son, Vladislav. However, Muscovites rebelled, and with the help of the people's militia led by Minin and Pozharsky, the Poles were expelled from Moscow. Sigismund's attempts to introduce absolutism in Poland, which at that time already dominated the rest of Europe, led to a revolt of the gentry and the loss of the prestige of the king.
After the death of Albrecht II of Prussia in 1618, the Elector of Brandenburg became the ruler of the Duchy of Prussia. Since that time, the possessions of Poland on the coast of the Baltic Sea have turned into a corridor between two provinces of the same German state.
Decline
During the reign of Sigismund's son, Vladislav IV (1632-1648), Ukrainian Cossacks revolted against Poland, wars with Russia and Turkey weakened the country, and the gentry received new privileges in the form of political rights and exemption from income taxes. During the reign of Vladislav's brother Jan Kazimierz (1648-1668), the Cossack freemen began to behave even more belligerent, the Swedes occupied most of Poland, including the capital - Warsaw, and the king, abandoned by his subjects, was forced to flee to Silesia. In 1657, Poland renounced its sovereign rights to East Prussia. As a result of unsuccessful wars with Russia, Poland lost Kiev and all areas east of the Dnieper by the Andrusiv armistice (1667). The process of disintegration began in the country. The tycoons, creating alliances with neighboring states, pursued their own goals; the rebellion of Prince Jerzy Lubomirski shook the foundations of the monarchy; The gentry continued to engage in self-destructive defense of their own "freedoms" for the state. From 1652, she began to abuse the harmful practice of the "liberum veto", which allowed any deputy to block a decision he did not like, demand the dissolution of the Diet and put forward any proposals that were to be considered by its next composition. Taking advantage of this, the neighboring powers, through bribery and other means, repeatedly thwarted the implementation of decisions of the Diet that were undesirable for them. King Jan Kazimierz was broken and abdicated from the Polish throne in 1668, in the midst of internal anarchy and strife.
External Intervention: Prelude to Section
Mikhail Vishnevetsky (reigned 1669-1673) turned out to be an unprincipled and inactive monarch who played up to the Hapsburgs and ceded Podolia to the Turks. His successor, Jan III Sobieski (reigned 1674-1696), waged successful wars with the Ottoman Empire, saved Vienna from the Turks (1683), but was forced to cede some lands to Russia under the Treaty of Eternal Peace in exchange for her promises of assistance in the fight against the Crimean Tatars and Turks. After the death of Sobieski, the Polish throne in the new capital of the country, Warsaw, was occupied for 70 years by foreigners: the Elector of Saxony August II (reigned 1697–1704, 1709–1733) and his son August III (1734–1763). August II actually bribed the electors. Having united in an alliance with Peter I, he returned Podillia and Volhynia back and stopped the exhausting Polish-Turkish wars, concluding the Karlovytsky Peace with the Ottoman Empire in 1699. The Polish king unsuccessfully tried to recapture the Baltic coast from the King of Sweden Charles XII, who in 1701 invaded Poland. and in 1703 he took Warsaw and Krakow. August II was forced to cede the throne in 1704-1709 to Stanislav Leshchinsky, who was supported by Sweden, but returned to the throne when Peter I defeated Charles XII in the battle of Poltava (1709). In 1733, the Poles, supported by the French, elected Stanislav as king for the second time, but Russian troops again removed him from power.
Stanislaw II: the last Polish king. August III was nothing more than a puppet of Russia; patriotic Poles tried with all their might to save the state. One of the factions of the Diet, led by Prince Czartoryski, tried to cancel the disastrous "liberum veto", while the other, headed by the powerful Potocki family, opposed any restriction of "freedoms." Desperate, Czartoryski's party began to cooperate with the Russians, and in 1764 Catherine II, Empress of Russia, won the election of her favorite Stanislaw August Poniatowski as King of Poland (1764–1795). Poniatowski turned out to be the last king of Poland. Russian control became especially evident under Prince NV Repnin, who, being ambassador to Poland, in 1767 forced the Polish Seim to accept his demands for equality of confessions and preservation of the "liberum veto." This led in 1768 to a Catholic uprising (Bar Confederation) and even to a war between Russia and Turkey.
Partitions of Poland. First section
In the midst of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, Prussia, Russia and Austria carried out the first partition of Poland. It was produced in 1772 and ratified by the Sejm under pressure from the occupiers in 1773. Poland ceded to Austria a part of Pomorie and Kuyavia (excluding Gdansk and Torun) to Prussia; Galicia, Western Podillia and part of Lesser Poland; eastern Belarus and all the lands north of the Western Dvina and east of the Dnieper went to Russia. The winners established a new constitution for Poland, which retained the "liberum veto" and an elected monarchy, and created a Council of State of 36 elected members of the Diet. The division of the country awakened a social movement for reform and national revival. In 1773, the Order of the Jesuits was dissolved and a commission on public education was created, the purpose of which was to reorganize the system of schools and colleges. The four-year Diet (1788-1792), headed by the enlightened patriots Stanislav Malakhovsky, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kollontai, adopted a new constitution on May 3, 1791. Under this constitution, Poland became a hereditary monarchy with a ministerial system of executive power and a parliament elected every two years. The principle of "liberum veto" and other pernicious orders were abolished; the cities received administrative and judicial autonomy, as well as representation in parliament; peasants, the power of the gentry over whom remained, were considered as an estate under state protection; measures were taken to prepare the abolition of serfdom and the organization of a regular army. Normal parliamentary work and reforms became possible only because Russia was involved in a protracted war with Sweden, and Turkey supported Poland. However, the constitution was opposed by the magnates who formed the Targovitsky Confederation, at whose call the troops of Russia and Prussia entered Poland.
Second and third sections
On January 23, 1793, Prussia and Russia carried out the second partition of Poland. Prussia captured Gdansk, Torun, Greater Poland and Mazovia, and Russia - most of Lithuania and Belarus, almost all of Volhynia and Podolia. The Poles fought but were defeated, the reforms of the Four-Year Diet were canceled, and the rest of Poland became a puppet state. In 1794, Tadeusz Kosciuszko led a massive popular uprising that ended in defeat. The third partition of Poland, in which Austria participated, was carried out on October 24, 1795; after that, Poland as an independent state disappeared from the map of Europe.
Foreign rule. Grand Duchy of Warsaw
Although the Polish state ceased to exist, the Poles did not give up hope of restoring their independence. Each new generation fought, either joining the opponents of the powers that divided Poland, or raising uprisings. As soon as Napoleon I began his military campaigns against monarchist Europe, Polish legions were formed in France. Having defeated Prussia, Napoleon created in 1807 from the territories captured by Prussia during the second and third partitions, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815). Two years later, the territories that became part of Austria after the third partition were added to it. Miniature Poland, politically dependent on France, had an area of \u200b\u200b160 thousand square meters. km and 4350 thousand inhabitants. The creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was viewed by the Poles as the beginning of their complete liberation.
The territory that was part of Russia. After Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna (1815) approved the partitions of Poland with the following changes: Krakow was declared a free city-republic under the auspices of the three powers that divided Poland (1815-1848); the western part of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was transferred to Prussia and became known as the Grand Duchy of Poznan (1815–1846); another part of it was declared a monarchy (the so-called Kingdom of Poland) and annexed to the Russian Empire. In November 1830, the Poles raised an uprising against Russia, but were defeated. Emperor Nicholas I abolished the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland and began repressions. In 1846 and 1848, the Poles tried to organize uprisings, but failed. In 1863, a second uprising against Russia broke out, and after two years of partisan war, the Poles were again defeated. With the development of capitalism in Russia, the Russification of Polish society also intensified. The situation improved somewhat after the 1905 revolution in Russia. Polish deputies sat in all four Russian Dumas (1905-1917), seeking autonomy for Poland.
Territories controlled by Prussia. In the territory under the rule of Prussia, intensive Germanization of the former Polish regions was carried out, the farms of Polish peasants were expropriated, and Polish schools were closed. Russia helped Prussia suppress the Poznan uprising of 1848. In 1863, both powers signed the Alvensleben Convention on Mutual Assistance in the Fight against the Polish National Movement. Despite all the efforts of the authorities, at the end of the 19th century. the Poles of Prussia were still a strong, organized national community.
Polish lands within Austria
In the Austrian Polish lands, the situation was somewhat better. After the Krakow Uprising of 1846, the regime was liberalized, and Galicia received local administration; schools, institutions and courts used the Polish language; Jagiellonian (in Krakow) and Lviv universities have become nationwide cultural centers; by the beginning of the 20th century. Polish political parties arose (National Democratic, Polish Socialist and Peasants). In all three parts of divided Poland, Polish society actively opposed assimilation. The preservation of the Polish language and Polish culture became the main task of the struggle waged by the intelligentsia, primarily poets and writers, as well as the clergy of the Catholic Church.
World War I
New opportunities for achieving independence. The first world War divided the powers that liquidated Poland: Russia fought with Germany and Austria-Hungary. This situation opened up fateful opportunities for the Poles, but also created new difficulties. First, the Poles had to fight in the opposing armies; secondly, Poland became the arena of battles between the belligerent powers; thirdly, disagreements between Polish political groups intensified. The conservative national democrats led by Roman Dmovsky (1864–1939) considered Germany their main enemy and wished the Entente victory. Their goal was to unite all Polish lands under Russian control and obtain autonomy status. On the contrary, the radical elements led by the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) viewed the defeat of Russia as the most important condition for achieving Polish independence. They believed that the Poles should create their own armed forces. Several years before the outbreak of World War I, Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935), the radical leader of this group, began military training for Polish youth in Galicia. During the war, he formed Polish legions and fought on the side of Austria-Hungary.
Polish question
On August 14, 1914, Nicholas I, in an official declaration, promised after the war to unite the three parts of Poland into an autonomous state within the Russian Empire. However, in the fall of 1915, most of Russian Poland was occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary, and on November 5, 1916, the monarchs of the two powers announced a manifesto on the creation of an independent Polish Kingdom in the Russian part of Poland. On March 30, 1917, after the February Revolution in Russia, the Provisional Government of Prince Lvov recognized Poland's right to self-determination. On July 22, 1917, Pilsudski, who fought on the side of the Central Powers, was interned, and his legions were disbanded for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the emperors of Austria-Hungary and Germany. In France, with the support of the Entente powers, in August 1917, the Polish National Committee (PNK) was created, headed by Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski; the Polish army was also formed with the commander-in-chief Józef Haller. On January 8, 1918, US President Wilson demanded the creation of an independent Polish state with access to the Baltic Sea. In June 1918 Poland was officially recognized as a country fighting on the side of the Entente. On October 6, during the disintegration and collapse of the Central Powers, the Regency Council of Poland announced the creation of an independent Polish state, and on November 14 transferred Pilsudski all power in the country. By this time Germany had already surrendered, Austria-Hungary had disintegrated, and a civil war was raging in Russia.
State formation
The new country faced great difficulties. Cities and villages lay in ruins; there were no connections in the economy, which developed for a long time within the framework of three different states; Poland had neither its own currency nor government institutions; finally, its borders were not defined and agreed with the neighbors. Nevertheless, state building and economic recovery proceeded at a rapid pace. After a transitional period, when a socialist cabinet was in power, Paderewski was appointed prime minister on January 17, 1919, and Dmowski was appointed head of the Polish delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. On January 26, 1919, elections were held to the Seimas, the new composition of which approved Pilsudski as the head of state.
The question of boundaries
The western and northern borders of the country were determined at the Versailles Conference, by the decision of which a part of Pomorie and access to the Baltic Sea were transferred to Poland; Danzig (Gdansk) received the status of a "free city". At the conference of ambassadors on July 28, 1920, the southern border was agreed. The city of Cieszyn and its suburb Cesky Tesin were divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Fierce disputes between Poland and Lithuania over Vilna (Vilnius), an ethnically Polish but historically Lithuanian city, ended with its occupation by the Poles on October 9, 1920; accession to Poland was approved on February 10, 1922 by a democratically elected regional assembly.
On April 21, 1920, Pilsudski concluded an alliance with the Ukrainian leader Petliura and launched an offensive with the aim of liberating Ukraine from the Bolsheviks. On May 7, the Poles took Kiev, but on June 8, pressed by the Red Army, they began to retreat. At the end of July, the Bolsheviks were on the outskirts of Warsaw. However, the Poles managed to defend the capital and drive back the enemy; the war ended there. The subsequent Treaty of Riga (March 18, 1921) represented a territorial compromise for both sides and was officially recognized by the conference of ambassadors on March 15, 1923.
Foreign policy
The leaders of the new Polish republic tried to secure their state by pursuing a policy of non-alignment. Poland did not join the Little Entente, which included Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. On January 25, 1932, a non-aggression pact was signed with the USSR.
After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933, Poland failed to establish allied relations with France, while Great Britain and France entered into a "pact of accord and cooperation" with Germany and Italy. After that, on January 26, 1934, Poland and Germany signed a non-aggression pact for a period of 10 years, and soon the term of a similar agreement with the USSR was extended. In March 1936, after the military occupation of the Rhineland by Germany, Poland again unsuccessfully tried to conclude an agreement with France and Belgium to support them by Poland in the event of a war with Germany. In October 1938, simultaneously with the annexation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia by Hitlerite Germany, Poland occupied the Czechoslovak part of the Cieszyn region. In March 1939 Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia and made territorial claims to Poland. Great Britain on March 31 and France on April 13 guaranteed the territorial integrity of Poland; in the summer of 1939, Franco-Anglo-Soviet negotiations began in Moscow aimed at curbing German expansion. Soviet Union in these negotiations, he demanded the right to occupy the eastern part of Poland and at the same time entered into secret negotiations with the Nazis. On August 23, 1939, the German-Soviet non-aggression pact was signed, the secret protocols of which provided for the partition of Poland between Germany and the USSR. Having secured Soviet neutrality, Hitler untied his hands. On September 1, 1939, the Second World War began with an attack on Poland.
The Russians played a fatal role in the fate of the imperial ambitions of several of their restless neighbors, who laid claim to the lands of Russia itself and influence in a significant part of the Old World. The fate of Poland is a vivid example of this.
The ancient Polish state, which arose shortly after Russia, almost synchronously with its eastern neighbor, experienced an era of feudal fragmentation, which the Poles also endured very hard - having lost part of their lands and found themselves dependent on the German Empire for a whole century. Poland was beaten at this time by the Teutons, Prussians, Lithuanians, Czechs and southwestern Russian principalities. Mongol troops marched through its lands.
In the XIV century, Poland united again, and itself had already begun expansion, capturing Galicia and Volyn from 1349 to 1366. For some time Poland was the "junior" ally of Hungary, but the Kreva union dramatically strengthened its international positions.
During the events of the Livonian War, Poland entered into the Lublin Union with Lithuania (playing the "first violin" in it) and dramatically expanded its possessions in the Baltic. Rzeczpospolita, led by de facto Poles, became a powerful state stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
In 1596 in Brest, the Poles forced part of the Orthodox bishoprics located on the territory of modern Belarus and Ukraine to come under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Repressions unfolded against the population that remained faithful to Orthodoxy. Taking advantage of the Time of Troubles in Russia and the suppression of the Rurik dynasty, the Poles first tried to put False Dmitry on the Russian throne, and then, with the help of the Seven Boyarshchyna, imposed on Russia as tsar their prince Vladislav. A Polish garrison entered Moscow and soon afterwards staged a massacre in the capital. But in 1612, the Poles were expelled from the capital by the people's militia led by Minin and Pozharsky. After that, Rzeczpospolita made several more attempts to break through to Moscow, but all of them were unsuccessful.
Soon after the defeat in Russia, the Poles were haunted by setbacks. The Swedes recaptured part of the Baltic states. And then, in response to the oppression of the Orthodox, a large-scale uprising of the Cossacks and peasants began under the leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (according to some sources, supported by Moscow). The Zaporozhian Army, which played the main role in it, defeated the Polish troops in a significant part of the territories of modern Ukraine and Belarus, and, according to the results of the Pereyaslav Rada in 1654, became part of Russia. Taking advantage of the situation, Russia launched an offensive against Poland, regaining Smolensk, Mogilev and Gomel, and the Swedes attacked the Rzeczpospolita from the Baltic, occupying even Warsaw, and forcing it to abandon a number of lands under its control. In 1658-1662, the Poles, using the death of Khmelnitsky and the betrayal of a part of the Cossack foreman, in turn attacked the Russian and Zaporozhye troops, pushing them beyond the Dnieper. However, the setbacks that followed forced the Rzeczpospolita to sign peace treaties with Russia, returning to it all the lands that had been torn away as a result of the Time of Troubles, plus the Left-Bank Little Russia and Kiev. This was the beginning of the end of Polish power.
In the 18th century, a struggle broke out between Russia and Sweden for influence over Poland. Gradually Warsaw became completely dependent on Moscow. The uprisings of the Poles dissatisfied with this state of affairs led, in the end, to three divisions of the country between Russia, Austria and Prussia, and the performance on the side of Napoleon - to the final division of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Vienna Congress.
During the Civil War in Russia, Warsaw tried to restore “Polska from Moz to Mozha”, having gained independence from the hands of the Bolsheviks. However, this ended for her with Soviet troops near Warsaw. And only a miracle and the support of Western states allowed Poland to get out of that war, capturing the territories of Western Ukraine and Belarus. In the 1930s, Warsaw had high hopes for joint actions with Adolf Hitler and even managed to take part in the partition of Czechoslovakia in alliance with the Germans, but the Nazis, as you know, deceived the hopes of the Poles. As a result, Poland remained within the borders that allowed it to establish the victorious countries of the Second World War. Today in Warsaw, voices are again heard from the right-wing camp, demanding expansion to the east, but so far Poland is still far from the power of the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
LUBLIN UNION
At the end of the 60s of the 16th century, the movement of the Polish lords for the creation of a single state with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania intensified. Now "independent" Belarusian historians claim that the creation of the Polish-Lithuanian state was the reaction of the peoples of these countries to the aggression of Ivan the Terrible. There is no doubt that the war with Moscow played a certain role in this. But the Moscow vector of the Union of Lublin was not decisive. The Poles started the war, not Ivan the Terrible. The Russian-Lithuanian war was waged sluggishly for several years, and four years before the union itself was not fought at all.
The army of Ivan the Terrible lagged behind the armies of Western states in field battle tactics and in armament. During the Livonian War, Moscow had to simultaneously act against the Swedes in Estonia, the Crimean Tatars in the south, the Turks in Astrakhan, etc. Finally, the terror of the mentally unhealthy tsar, including the destruction of dozens of the best Russian commanders, seriously weakened the Russian army. So neither Russia nor the terrible Ivan threatened Poland or Lithuania in 1568. By the way, we now know about Ivan's monstrous reprisals against his subjects. And the Polish and Lithuanian lords, a few years after the union, will wish to see Ivan the Terrible ... their king.
Much closer to the truth is the same S.M. Soloviev: "The childlessness of Sigismund-Augustus forced us to speed up the solution of the question of the eternal unification of Lithuania with Poland, because until now only the Jagiellonian dynasty served as a link between them."
In January 1569, the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus convened a Polish-Lithuanian Diet in the city of Lublin to adopt a new union. During the debate, opponents of the merger with Poland, the Lithuanian Protestant prince Krishtov Radziwill and the Orthodox Russian prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky, with their supporters, left the Diet. However, the Poles, supported by the small Lithuanian gentry, threatened the departed with the confiscation of their lands. In the end, the "dissidents" returned. On July 1, 1569, the Union of Lublin was signed.
According to the Act of the Union of Lublin, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were united into a single state - the Rzeczpospolita (republic) with an elected king at its head, a single Sejm and a Senate. Henceforth, the conclusion of treaties with foreign states and diplomatic relations with them were carried out on behalf of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a single monetary system was introduced throughout its territory, and the customs borders between Poland and Lithuania were eliminated. The Polish gentry received the right to own estates in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Lithuanian one in the Kingdom of Poland. At the same time, Lithuania retained a certain autonomy: its law and court, administration, army, treasury, official Russian language.
According to the 9th paragraph of the union, the king promised to provide positions in the annexed lands only to local natives who have settled there. "We promise not to reduce posts and orders in this Podlaskie land, and if any of them becomes vacant, we will provide and give to the gentry - local natives who have real estate here."
At the request of the Poles, the Kiev principality was "returned" to Poland, as if long before the reign of Jagiello belonged to the Polish crown. The Poles said: “Kiev was and is the head and capital of the Russian land, and the entire Russian land from ancient times, among other wonderful members and parts, was annexed by the previous Polish kings to the Polish crown, annexed partly by conquest, partly by voluntary concession and inheritance from some feudal princes ". From Poland, “as from its own body,” it was torn away and annexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by Vladislav Jagiello, who did this because he ruled both Poland and Lithuania at the same time.
In fact, the acts of the Lublin Diet of 1569 were the constitution of the new state - the Commonwealth. As V.A. Bednov: these acts, “on the one hand, confirm to all regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania all those laws, rights, freedoms and estate privileges, which previously determined their legal status, and on the other hand, they equated them with the crown regions in all that these the former did not have in comparison with the latter before the Union of Lublin. The spirit of religious tolerance that prevailed in the era among the Polish-Lithuanian society, and then the political calculations to firmly connect the rich and vast regions inhabited by Orthodox-Russian philistines with Poland, did not allow the Roman Catholic clergy to put any restrictions on the religious freedom of the Russian population; the government stood for religious freedom and showed its religious tolerance, but this religious tolerance was not so much voluntary as forced. It stemmed not so much from respect for the religious beliefs of the population, but from a simple calculation to preserve the inner peace and tranquility of the state, since with the diversity of religious beliefs that reigned under Sigismund Augustus in Poland and Lithuania, such a violation of this peace of religious communities could lead to terrible disorders and confusion dangerous for the state ”.
Perhaps to some, the words of an Orthodox priest and professor of theology at Warsaw University about religious tolerance in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 16th century will seem strange, if not harsher. In fact, he is right. Here are two fairly typical examples from the life of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at that time. Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky was not only one of the richest magnates, but also one of the secular ideologues of Orthodoxy in the Commonwealth. However, he was married to a Catholic Sofia Tarnowska, the daughter of a Krakow Kastelian. His son Janusz also became a Catholic. But one daughter married the Calvinist Krishtof Radziwill, and the other married Jan Kisha, a supporter of the Socialists.
Finally, I will try to summarize. To begin with, what did the union give to the Russian population? Precisely Russian, since by 1569 there were no Belarusians or Ukrainians in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There was one language, one culture, one religion, one metropolitan, one customs, etc. So for the Russian population, there was nothing wrong with the texts of the Union of Lublin. On the contrary, she confirmed their previous rights. And it is difficult to say in which direction the history of Eastern Europe would have gone if the Polish kings strictly followed all the paragraphs of the Lublin Acts of 1569. But the Polish lords were distinguished by the fact that they liked to pass good laws, but organically did not want to comply with either good or bad laws.
As a result, the Union of Lublin, in spite of all its acts, became the beginning of the Catholic aggression against the Russian lands, which were previously part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Alas, the Russian people could not have foreseen this even in a nightmare, therefore the princes, the gentry, and the clergy were passive in accepting the union.
Catholics began their attack on the Orthodox and Protestants even before the adoption of the union. But while the offensive was in the field of ideology and education. An attempt to forcefully impose Catholicism, of course, would lead to bloody civil strife and the death of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Bishop Valerian Protashevich of Vilna, one of the ideologists of the fight against dissidents, turned for advice to Cardinal Gosiusz, Bishop of Warmia in Prussia, the famous chairman of the Council of Tridentine, considered one of the main pillars of Catholicism throughout Europe. Goziusz, advising all Polish bishops to introduce Jesuits into their dioceses, advised Protashevich to do the same. He followed the advice, and in 1568 a Jesuit collegium was founded in Vilna under the direction of Stanislav Varshevitsky.
Dozens of Jesuit schools soon sprang up in Poland and Lithuania. The younger generation has undergone harsh indoctrination. In response, Orthodox hierarchs were unable to create schools that would be attractive to the children of the gentry, not to mention the magnates. From the end of the 16th century, a massive Catholicization and polonization of Russian noble youth began. Often, Orthodox parents saw nothing wrong with this: reading Italian and French books, Western fashion, Western dancing - why not? The dire consequences of the polonization of the western and southern Russian lands will begin to affect only 100 years later.
Although formally Lithuania and Poland became a single state, the annexation of the Kiev land to Poland created the conditions for its faster polonization. Moreover, if in White Russia most of the landowners were descendants of Russian princes and boyars, then hundreds of Polish lords rushed to the Kiev lands, who began the enslavement of previously free peasants. All this led to the emergence of linguistic and cultural differences, which later gave the nationalists a reason to talk about two peoples - Belarusian (aka Lithuanian, etc.) and Ukrainian (that is, Ukrainian, etc.).
The story of Vladislav Grabensky about the spread of the Russian language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is curious: “The laws established in the Seimas before Sigismund-Augustus were published in Latin and were called statutes; later they began to appear in Polish, under the name of constitutions. On behalf of the Radom Diet under King Alexander, Chancellor Jan Laski collected in chronological order all the crown laws, starting from the Vislice Statute, and published them in 1506. After the statute of Laski, they tried to codify laws: Tashitsky under Sigismund I, Pshilusky and Herburt under Sigismund-Augustus, Sarnitsky, Yanushovsky and Shcherbich under Sigismund III. However, these attempts did not receive the approval of the estates. The complete collection of statutes and constitutions in chronological order (1347-1780) was published (thanks to the diligence of PR) in eight volumes under the title "Volumina Legim". Some parts of the Commonwealth had separate laws. In Lithuania, the Statute of 1528 was binding, approved by Sigismund I in 1530, amended and expanded in 1566 and 1588. It was compiled in Russian, the third edition, thanks to the great Lithuanian Chancellor Lev Sapega, was translated into Polish. In addition to the Lithuanian province, he had power for parts of Lesser Poland, Ukraine and Volhynia. "
So, the “Lithuanian statute” until 1588 (!) Was in Russian. It is clear that where he acted, including part of the "part of Lesser Poland", the proceedings were conducted in Russian.
For the Moscow state, the conclusion of the Union of Lublin meant the transfer of all Lithuanian claims to Poland. Note that official direct contacts of Poland with the Grand Duke of Vladimir, and then with Moscow, were interrupted in 1239. And later, if the Polish kings negotiated with Moscow, then formally they represented only the Grand Duke of Lithuania. As the historian and diplomat William Pokhlebkin wrote: "... having become neighbors again in 330 years, Poland and Russia discovered that they represent completely alien, hostile states with diametrically opposed state interests in relation to each other."
On July 7, 1572, Sigismund II Augustus died, whom Polish historians call the last of the Jagiellons, although he was a descendant of Jagiello only in the female line.
Immediately after the death of King Sigismund, the Polish and Lithuanian lords developed a stormy activity in search of a new king. The contenders for the throne were the Swedish king John, the Semigrad governor Stefan Batory, Prince Ernst (son of the German emperor Maximilian II), etc. Unexpectedly, Tsarevich Fyodor, the son of Ivan the Terrible, was among the contenders for the Polish throne. The prince was then 15 years old, and his elder brother Ivan was listed as the heir to the throne (he would only be killed in 1581).
The movement in favor of the Moscow tsarevich arose both from above and below, independently of each other. A number of sources say that this was desired by the Orthodox population of Little and White Russia. The argument of the lords - Fedor's supporters - was the similarity of the Polish and Russian languages \u200b\u200band customs. Let me remind you that at that time the languages \u200b\u200bdiffered very little.
Another argument was the existence of common enemies of Poland and Moscow - Germans, Swedes, Crimean Tatars and Turks. Fedor's supporters constantly cited the example of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello, who, having been elected king, from an enemy of Poland and a pagan, became a friend and a Christian. The example of the same Jagiello made one hope that the new king would live more in Poland than in Moscow, since the northern inhabitants always strive for the southern countries. The desire to expand and preserve their possessions in the southwest, towards Turkey or the German Empire, will also force the king to live in Poland. Jagiello at one time swore an oath not to violate the laws of the Polish gentry, and the Moscow prince could have done the same.
The Catholic pans hoped that Fedor would accept Catholicism, and the Protestant pans generally preferred the Orthodox king to the Catholic king.
The main argument in favor of the tsarevich was, of course, money. The greed of the gentry both then and during the Time of Troubles was pathological. Fantastic rumors circulated about the wealth of the Moscow Grand Dukes in Poland and throughout Europe.
Having let Tsar Ivan know through the messenger Voropai about the death of Sigismund II Augustus, the Polish and Lithuanian Rada immediately announced to him their desire to see Tsarevich Fyodor King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Ivan answered Voropay with a long speech in which he offered himself ... himself as king.
Many problems immediately arose, for example, how to divide Livonia. The Lyakhs did not want to have the Terrible Tsar king, but preferred the teenager Fedor. In Poland and Lithuania leaked information about the dementia of the prince, etc. The main reason for the failure of Fyodor Ivanovich's election campaign was, of course, money. The happy gentlemen demanded huge sums from Ivan IV, without giving any guarantees. The tsar and the clerks offered on such conditions an amount several times less. In short, we did not agree on the price.
Then the happy gentlemen decided to elect Henry of Anjou, brother of the French king Charles IX and son of Catherine de Medici to the Polish throne. Quite quickly, a French party was formed, led by the headman of Belsk, Jan Zamoyski. When the votes were counted at the Diet, the majority was for Henry.
Arriving in Krakow, the new king declared: “I, Henry, by the grace of God, elected king of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russia, Prussia, Mazovia, etc. ... by all the ranks of the state of both peoples, both Poland and Lithuania and other regions , chosen by common consent and freely, I promise and sacredly swear by the almighty God, before this St. the gospel of Jesus Christ, in the fact that all rights, liberties, immunities, public and private privileges that are not contrary to the common law and liberties of both peoples, church and secular, to churches, princes, pans, gentry, burghers, villagers and all people in general, what whatever their titles and states, my glorious predecessors, kings and all princes ... I will preserve and keep peace and tranquility between those who disagree in religion, and in no way will I allow that from our jurisdiction or from the authority of our courts and any ranks anyone suffered and was oppressed because of religion, and I myself will not oppress or grieve myself. "
At the same time, the king renounced the hereditary power, promised not to solve any issues without the consent of a permanent commission of sixteen senators, not to declare war and not to conclude peace without a Senate, not to break up the "political crush", to convene the Diet every two years for no more than six weeks ... In case of failure to fulfill any of these obligations, the gentry was freed from obedience to the king. So the armed uprising of the gentry against the king, the so-called rokosh, was legalized.
The new twenty-three-year-old king completed the proper formalities and went on a spree. No, I'm quite serious. Even in France he did not have to deal with any state affairs, he did not know either Polish or even Latin. The new king spent his nights in drunken parties and playing cards with the French from his retinue.
Suddenly a messenger arrived from Paris, informing the king about the death of his brother Charles IX on May 31, 1574 and about the demand of his mother (Marie de Medici) to urgently return to France. The Poles learned about what had happened in a timely manner and suggested that Heinrich apply to the Diet to give his consent to leave. Heinrich already had some idea of \u200b\u200bwhat the Polish Diet was and considered it best to flee from Krakow at night.
Everyone has long been accustomed to the mess in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but this has never happened before for the king to flee from the throne. The happy gentlemen were scratching their fat heads: should they declare the Kingdomless or not? They decided not to declare the kinglessness, but to let Henry know that if he did not return to Poland in nine months, the Sejm would proceed to elect a new king. Finally, in December 1575, the Semigrad prince Stefan Batory was elected king.
After the death of Batory in 1586, the "competition" for the title of king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began again. Again the candidacy of Fyodor Ivanovich was considered, now not a tsarevich, but a tsar. The happy gentlemen officially demanded a bribe of 200 thousand rubles from the Russian ambassadors. The ambassadors offered 60 thousand. Finally, after a long skirmish, the Duma nobleman Elizar Rzhevsky named the last figure - 100 thousand, and not a penny more. The indignant gentlemen rejected Fedor's candidacy.
The rivals of Tsar Fyodor were Archduke Maximilian of Austria and Crown Prince Sigismund, son of the Swedish king John III. Both candidates hastened to send their troops to Poland on a "limited contingent". Maximilian with the Austrians besieged Krakow, but the assault was repulsed. Meanwhile, Sigismund was already marching from the north with the Swedish army. The population of the capital preferred to open the gates to the Swedes. Sigismund peacefully occupied Krakow and immediately was crowned there (December 27, 1587).
I will note that, in swearing an oath, Sigismund III repeated all the obligations of previous kings towards dissidents.
Meanwhile, crown hetman Jan Zamoyski with his supporters gave battle to Maximilian at Bychik in Silesia. The Austrians were defeated, and the Archduke himself was taken prisoner. At the beginning of 1590, the Poles freed Maximilian with the obligation not to claim the Polish crown anymore. His brother, the Holy Roman Emperor, vouched for him.
Unlike the previous kings of Poland, Sigismund was a fanatical Catholic. His beliefs were influenced by his mother, a staunch Catholic, and the reformation in Sweden.
Having ascended the throne, Sigismund III immediately began persecuting dissidents (that is, non-Catholics). In 1577 the famous Jesuit Peter Skarga published the book "On the unity of the Church of God and the Greek apostasy from this unity." The first two parts of the book were devoted to dogmatic and historical research on the division of the church, the third part contained denunciations of the Russian clergy and specific recommendations to the Polish authorities on the fight against Orthodoxy. It is curious that in his book Skarga calls all Orthodox subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth simply “Russians”.
Skarga proposed introducing a union, for which only three things are needed: first, that the Metropolitan of Kiev should accept the blessing not from the patriarch, but from the pope; secondly, that every Russian in all articles of faith should agree with the Roman Church; and thirdly, that every Russian should recognize the supreme power of Rome. As for the church rites, they remain the same. Skarga reprinted this book in 1590 with a dedication to King Sigismund III. Moreover, both Skarga and other Jesuits pointed to union as "a transitional state necessary for Russians who are stubborn in their faith."
In the book of Skargi and in other writings of the Jesuits, decisive actions of the secular authorities against the Russians were proposed as a means for introducing union.
Sigismund III strongly supported the idea of \u200b\u200bunion. The Orthodox Churches in the Commonwealth were organizationally weakened. A number of Orthodox hierarchs succumbed to the promises of the king and the Catholic Church.
On June 24, 1594, an Orthodox Church Council was convened in Brest, which was to resolve the issue of union with the Catholic Church. By hook or by crook, supporters of the union managed to adopt the act of union on December 2, 1594. The union split the Russian population of the Rzeczpospolita into two unequal parts. The majority of Russians, including the gentry and the magnates, refused to accept the union.
On May 29, 1596 Sigismund III issued a manifesto for his Orthodox subjects about the unification of the churches, and he took full responsibility in this matter: “Ruling happily in our states and thinking about their improvement, we, among other things, had a desire that our subjects our Greek faith was brought into the original and ancient unity with the universal Roman church under the obedience of one spiritual shepherd. Bishops [Uniates who visited the Pope. - A, Sh.] Did not bring anything new from Rome and your opposite salvation, no changes in your ancient church rites: all the dogmas and rituals of your Orthodox Church are preserved intact, in accordance with the decrees of the holy apostolic councils and with the ancient teachings of the holy Greek fathers, whom you glorify names and celebrate holidays. "
Persecution of Russians who remained faithful to Orthodoxy began everywhere. Orthodox priests were expelled, and churches were handed over to the Uniates.
Orthodox gentry headed by Prince K.K. Ostrozhsky and the Protestants, led by the Vilna governor Krishtof Radziwill, decided to fight the union in the old legal way - through the Diet. But the Catholic majority, with strong support from the king in the Seimas of 1596 and 1597, thwarted all attempts by dissidents to abolish the union. As a result, the conflict between the Uniates and the Orthodox was added to the already existing sectarian strife. Anyway, Sigismund was a man from another world, alien not only to his Russian subjects, but also to the Polish masters. He wore a wedge beard, like his contemporary, the cruel and suspicious Spanish king Philip, from whom Sigismund largely took an example. Instead of a simple caftan and high boots worn by Bathory and other Polish kings, Sigismund dressed in sophisticated Western clothes, stockings and shoes.
The election of Sigismund III to the throne was the first step towards the death of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Religious repression caused continuous uprisings of Orthodox Christians inside the country, and territorial claims against all neighbors without exception - long wars.
Let's pay attention to the coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the reign of Sigismund III. Along the edges it is framed by the coats of arms of the lands that were part of the Commonwealth. Among them are Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lithuania. But that's understandable. But then there are Sweden, Russia, and not in pieces, but as a whole, Pomerania, Prussia, Moldavia, Wallachia, etc.
This text is an introductory fragment.
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The ancient Polish state, which arose shortly after Russia, almost synchronously with its eastern neighbor, experienced an era of feudal fragmentation, which the Poles also endured very hard - having lost part of their lands and found themselves dependent on the German Empire for a whole century. Poland was beaten at this time by the Teutons, Prussians, Lithuanians, Czechs and southwestern Russian principalities. Mongol troops marched through its lands.
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In 1596 in Brest, the Poles forced part of the Orthodox bishoprics located on the territory of modern Belarus and Ukraine to come under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Repressions unfolded against the population that remained faithful to Orthodoxy. Taking advantage of the Time of Troubles in Russia and the suppression of the Rurik dynasty, the Poles first tried to put False Dmitry on the Russian throne, and then, with the help of the Seven Boyarshchyna, imposed on Russia as tsar their prince Vladislav. A Polish garrison entered Moscow and soon afterwards staged a massacre in the capital. But in 1612, the Poles were expelled from the capital by the people's militia led by Minin and Pozharsky. After that, Rzeczpospolita made several more attempts to break through to Moscow, but all of them were unsuccessful.
Soon after the defeat in Russia, the Poles were haunted by setbacks. The Swedes recaptured part of the Baltic states. And then, in response to the oppression of the Orthodox, a large-scale uprising of the Cossacks and peasants began under the leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (according to some sources, supported by Moscow). The Zaporozhian Army, which played the main role in it, defeated the Polish troops in a significant part of the territories of modern Ukraine and Belarus, and, according to the results of the Pereyaslav Rada in 1654, became part of Russia. Taking advantage of the situation, Russia launched an offensive against Poland, regaining Smolensk, Mogilev and Gomel, and the Swedes attacked the Rzeczpospolita from the Baltic, occupying even Warsaw, and forcing it to abandon a number of lands under its control. In 1658-1662, the Poles, using the death of Khmelnitsky and the betrayal of a part of the Cossack foreman, in turn attacked the Russian and Zaporozhye troops, pushing them beyond the Dnieper. However, the setbacks that followed forced the Rzeczpospolita to sign peace treaties with Russia, returning to it all the lands that had been torn away as a result of the Time of Troubles, plus the Left-Bank Little Russia and Kiev. This was the beginning of the end of Polish power.
In the 18th century, a struggle broke out between Russia and Sweden for influence over Poland. Gradually Warsaw became completely dependent on Moscow. The uprisings of the Poles dissatisfied with this state of affairs led, in the end, to three divisions of the country between Russia, Austria and Prussia, and the performance on the side of Napoleon - to the final division of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Vienna Congress.
During the Civil War in Russia, Warsaw tried to restore “Polska from Moz to Mozha”, having gained independence from the hands of the Bolsheviks. However, this ended for her with Soviet troops near Warsaw. And only a miracle and the support of Western states allowed Poland to get out of that war, capturing the territories of Western Ukraine and Belarus. In the 1930s, Warsaw had high hopes for joint actions with Adolf Hitler and even managed to take part in the partition of Czechoslovakia in alliance with the Germans, but the Nazis, as you know, deceived the hopes of the Poles. As a result, Poland remained within the borders that allowed it to establish the victorious countries of the Second World War. Today in Warsaw, voices are again heard from the right-wing camp, demanding expansion to the east, but so far Poland is still far from the power of the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
On the same topic:
What role did the Kalmyks play in Russian history?
Kalmyks: what role they played in Russian history What role did the Old Believers play in the life of Isaac Levitan?what role did the Union of Lublin play in the history of Poland?
Answer (s):
Answered by the Guest:
The union in Lublin is viewed by Polish and Lithuanian historians as both the greatest achievement and the greatest loss. The most positive aspects highlighted by Polish historians were the introduction of Catholicism and the Polish language, the fusion of all cultures into a single (Polish) one. The creation of the Commonwealth is often viewed as the unification of the two parts of an already created union state, that is, in fact, the elimination of the last obstacles to the creation of a single country, much stronger than Poland and Lithuania. In addition, a state was created that played a significant role in the world arena for the next 200 years. There are also many negative aspects of this Union. Sigismund II sought not only to unite states, but also to carry out the political reform that Poland so much needed. In reality, the Union did not so much strengthen the power of the monarch (which Sigismund wanted), but strengthened the influence of the gentry, at the same time increasing its numbers. The formation of absolutism, so necessary for all countries in the 16th century, was stopped with the beginning of the union. The powers of local authorities were seriously consolidated, which led to a strong increase in corruption within the newly formed Rzeczpospolita. In addition to everything, the principle of "liberum veto" was legislatively enshrined, which allowed the Seimas to make decisions only unanimously. This rule practically paralyzed the work of the Diet, blocking the adoption of almost any decision. The result was anarchy, which subsequently actively destroyed the Rzeczpospolita.
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