Bar Confederation - Legacy

Legacy

Until the times of the Bar Confederation, confederates, especially operating with the aid of outside forces, were seen as unpatriotic antagonists. But in 1770, during the times that the Russian Army marched through the theoretically independent Commonwealth, and foreign powers forced the Sejm to agree to the First Partition of Poland, the confederates started to create an image of Polish exiled soldiers, the last of those who remained true to their Motherland, an image that would in the next two centuries lead to the creation of Polish Legions and other forces in exile.

The Confederation has generated varying assessments from the historians. While none deny its patriotic desire to rid the Commonwealth from the outside (primarily Russian) influence, some such as Jacek Jędruch, criticize it for its regressive stand on the civil rights issues, primarily with regards to the religious tolerance (Jędruch writes of "religious bigotry", "narrowly Catholic" stand) and assert it contributed to the First Partition while others such as Bohdan Urbankowski applaud it as the first serious national military effort trying to restore Polish independence.

The Bar Confederation has been described as the first Polish uprising, and the last mass movement of szlachta.