Bar Confederation
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Image:ChelmonskiJozef.1875.KazimierzPulaskiPodCzestochowa.jpg
The Bar Confederation (Polish: Konfederacja barska; 1768–1776) was an association of Polish szlachta formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against aggression by the Russian Empire and against King Stanisław August Poniatowski and Polish reformers who were attempting to limit the power of the Commonwealth's magnates (wealthy szlachta). The founders of the Bar Confederation included the magnates Adam Krasiński, Bishop of Kamenets, Kazimierz Puławski, his father Jozef Pulawski, and Michał Krasiński. Despite several victories against the Russians, the Confederation only succeeded in helping precipitate the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
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History
King Stanisław August was at first inclined to mediate between the Confederates and Russia, the latter represented by the Russian envoy to Warsaw, Prince Nikolai Repnin; but finding this impossible, he sent a force against them under Grand Hetman Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and two generals, who captured Bar. However, the simultaneous outbreak of the Koliyivschyna in Ukraine stimulated the extension of the Confederation throughout the eastern provinces of Poland and even into Lithuania. The Confederates appealed for help from abroad and contributed to bringing about war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire (Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774). So serious did the situation become that King Frederick II of Prussia advised Tsarina Catherine II of Russia to come to terms with the Confederates. Image:Artur Grottger Modlitwa Konfederatow Barskich.jpg
Confederation bands under Ignacy Malczewski, Michał Pac and Prince Karol Radziwiłł ravaged the land in every direction, won several engagements with the Russians, and at last, utterly ignoring the King, sent envoys on their own account to the principal European powers. In 1770 the Council of Bar Confederation transferred from its original seat in Silesia to Hungary, whence it conducted diplomatic negotiations with France, Austria and Turkey with a view to forming a league against Russia. Council proclaimed the king dethroned October22 1770.The court of Versailles sent Charles François Dumouriez to act as commander-in-chief of the Confederates, but neither as a soldier nor as a politician did this adroit adventurer particularly distinguish himself, and his account of his experiences does great injustice to the Confederates. Among other blunders, he pronounced King Stanisław August a tyrant and traitor at the very moment when he was about to accede to the Confederation. King was kidnapped in not clear circumstances for a few days by confederates in Warsaw 1771. The king thereupon reverted to the Russian faction, and the Confederation lost the confidence of Europe. Nevertheless its army, thoroughly reorganized by Dumouriez, gallantly maintained the hopeless struggle for some years; the last traces of it did not disappear until 1776.
See also
References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition{{#if:{{{article|}}}| article {{#if:{{{url|}}}|[{{{url|}}}}} "{{{article}}}"{{#if:{{{url|}}}|]}}{{#if:{{{author|}}}| by {{{author}}}}}}}, a publication now in the public domain.
- Aleksander Kraushar, Książę Repnin i Polska w pierwszem czteroleciu panowania Stanisława Augusta (1764-1768), (Prince Repin and Poland in the first four years of rule of Stanislaw August (1764-1768))
- 2nd edition, corrected and expanded. vols. 1-2, Kraków 1898, G. Gebethner i Sp.
- Revised edition, Warszawa: Gebethner i Wolff; Kraków: G. Gebethner i Spółka, 1900.
- F. A. Thesby de Belcour, The Confederates of Bar (in Polish) (Cracow, 1895)
- Charles Francois Dumouriez, Mémoires et correspondance (Paris, 1834).