Partition Sejm - Partition Treaty

Partition Treaty

The Sejm begun on 19 April (although some preliminary discussions took place days before). It took place in Warsaw and the deputies and senators in service of foreign powers declared it a confederated sejm (with decisions decided by the majority) to prevent liberum veto being used to stop it. The marshals of the Sejm were for the Crown of Poland, Adam Poniński, one of the nobles in Russian service, and for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł. At least half of the deputies were bribed by the foreign powers, others threatened. Some deputies tried to protest (notably, Tadeusz Rejtan, Samuel Korsak and Stanisław Bohuszewicz, also Franciszek Jerzmanowski, Stanisław Kożuchowski, Rupert Dunin, Jan Tymowski, J. Zaremba, Michał Radoszewski, Ignacy Suchecki, Tadeusz Wołodkowicz), which caused delays. By 24 April the few vocal opponents, such as Rejtan, have lost, the confederation was joined by the King, and the Sejm elected a committee of thirty to deal with the various matters presented (primarily the partitioners demands, but also some reforms to the government). The committee was to deliberate until September, and the rest of the Sejm was adjourned meanwhile.

Despite some protests, on September 18, 1773, the Committee formally signed the treaty of cession, renouncing all claims of the Commonwealth to the occupied territories. The Sejm on 30 September 1773 accepted the partition treaty. By the first partition the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 211,000 km² (30% of its territory, amounting at that time to about 733,000 km²), with a population of over four to five million people (about a third of its population of 14 million before the partitions). The treaty was a major success for Frederick II of Prussia: Prussia's share might have been the smallest, but it was also significantly developed and strategically important. Russia received the largest, but economically least-important area, in the northeast.

Notable supporters of the partition, in addition to Poniński, included Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł and the bishops Andrzej Młodziejowski, Ignacy Jakub Massalski, and Primate of Poland Antoni Kazimierz Ostrowski, who occupied high positions in the Senate of Poland.

The senators who protested were threatened by the Russians (represented by Ambassador Otto von Stackelberg), who declared that in the face of refusal the whole capital of Warsaw will be destroyed; other threats included executions, confiscation of estates, and increase of territory subjected to partition. Some were arrested and exiled to Siberia.