The “Magnificent Age” - Catherine II TL
- Thread starter alexmilman
- Start date
If I remember correctly, crown princes of the Reddy kingdom( one of the many Telugu kingdoms) had to travel throughout the kingdom to see the lives of the common folk, though with significantly less pomps as Ekatherina here, oft with just a few guards and what they could carry on their backs
19. A nice try but…
19. A nice try but …
Russia 1767
As was already said, Catherine came to a correct conclusion that the old, not properly codified, laws do not fit status of the Russian Empire as a major European power. So she ordered to assemble the “Code Commission” (Уложенная Комиссия), an elective body which would discuss the present situation (each deputy had to be supplied with the instructions from his electorate) and develop the new Russian laws. To provide commission with a right direction in their work, Catherine composed instruction (Наказ) to the deputies (painting above shows her at this work), a document consisting of 565 items, which contained pretty much everything that Catherine (and Montesquieu) thought on a subject of the properly organized state. Taking into an account that neither an author nor her “inspiration” (can Montesquieu be defined as a “muse” in this specific case?) had a clue about economy, agriculture, manufacturing and, this being strictly Catherine, a very vague notion regarding specifics of life in the Russian Empire, the resulting document hardly was much more than a list some general good intentions than something truly practical.
The deputies, elected by the social groups, assembled in Moscow and, after the solemn opening ceremony and prayer in one of the Kremlin’s cathedrals, proceeded with their work. Immediately, Count Zakhar Chernyshev asked to be excused referencing to his numerous duties in the Military Collegium. The history is silent on the question why he bothered to get elected knowing of these duties but, this question aside, his excuse was valid and Catherine supported it. His brother, who was in charge of the Russian Navy, also asked to be excused but his appeal was rejected. Probably Catherine was under the impression that everything was fine with the Russian navy even if her personal inspection of the Baltic Fleet produced rather depressing results… Anyway, after these issues had been settled, the Commission proceeded with its work and within few days presented Catherine with the first fruit of their labor: decision to officially name her “the Wisest One, the Great and Mother of the Country.” Probably, if the commission was fully on its own, it would stop right there reporting that its mission is accomplished. Actually, this would save everybody a lot of time and aggravation but, unfortunately, the Imperial Graphomaniac wanted her opus to be taken seriously and acted upon.
To understand the further developments a historical background is necessary and, hopefully, it would be interesting enough to read.
Intermission. Situation with the social classes was somewhat tricky.
Nobility. Historically, equivalent of the European “noble” as a single term embracing all ranks of the noble class did not exist in pre-Petrian Russia and the term “дворянин” later used for that purpose was applicable only to the lower level of the noble class and would be taken as an offense by its upper levels. The noble groups had been defined and referenced based upon their court positions (боярин, окольничий, …, стольник, … дворянин) or perhaps these positions of their families. For example, not all members of a “boyar family” could be “boyars” but they could expect appointments to certain court positions with a chance to grow or, if unlucky, eventually descend into an obscurity. Something like “cursus honorum”. The titles, or rather a single title “prince” (князь) were pretty much meaningless outside the court hierarchy: boyarin, like Sheremetev, may not have a princely title at all but he would be at the top level of that hierarchy. OTOH, with the title transferred to all family members, and the title easily given to the Tatar and other nomadic nobles coming to the Russian service, the number of princes was huge their social position varying from somebody like Golytsins on the top and complete social nobodies on the bottom.
Peter I broke the system substituting it with a new one, looking more Western-like. The nobility became a single class to which the service people could raise by obtaining an officer rank or its equivalent in the civic service. The title of “count” had been added and given (especially in post-Petrian times) rather freely and few new princes (often with the HRE patent) had been created as well. The name of that, now unified, class was initially borrowed from the PLC, “szlachta”, but later switched to the Russian «дворянин». To simplify things, they will be called just “nobles”. So, by Catherine’s time there were:
However, as a class the nobility had an exclusive right to own the serfs. With some exceptions. Which were an “issue”.
Merchants. The merchants were divided into the guilds (3 by 1767) based upon the declared income. Merchants were subject to a single 40-altin (1 ruble 20 kopecks) per capita tax and were not obliged to pay guild taxes, the amount of which depended on belonging to a particular guild. Many of the merchants even of the higher guilds did not trade due to lack of capital, and merchants of the third guild were engaged in crafts, small trade or worked for hire. However, a number of them had been manufacturers and, by the earlier decrees had workers “assigned” to their factories. Formally, they had (since 1760) an exclusive right of trading and this also required all types of workers. Reality was, as always, somewhat different from the law causing numerous “issues”.
Burghers (мещане) were personally free dwellers of the cities and “suburbs” who were neither nobles nor merchants. They were allowed to conduct a minor trade, could work as the artisans, own workshops (but not the manufactures), drinking places, etc. Of course, in practice a precise separation in the trading activities between them and merchants was somewhat of a grey area because its precise size was not easy to discover.
State peasants were formally free people and had the same issues as in the burghers - merchants conflict: what they are and aren’t permitted besides being peasants?
Small wonders that discussions in the Code Commission deteriorated into the quarrels along the lines of the “class interests”. In the terms of a pure blabbing and demagoguery the “old nobility” had a clear advantage of having in its ranks Prince M.M. Scherbatov, representative of an old but not very prominent Rurikid family (counted a single boyarin) and an eloquent speaker. He was talking at length about the merits and, presumably genetic, virtues of the old nobility in the state service. Somehow nobody pointed out to him that he personally did not demonstrate any of these virtues, being enlisted (as was a habit among the well-connected families) in Semionovsky (but not Preobrazensky, the connections were not good enough) Guards regiment at the age of 13, not distinguishing himself in any way and retiring at the age of 29 as captain-lieutenant as soon as Peter III issued Decree of Nobility’s Freedom. Which, of course, did not prevent him from declaring, in the parliamentarian language, that the new nobility (except those personally elevated by the rulers) are just a bunch of the greedy bastards interested not in a service but in a personal enrichment, which they are using to crowd the real estate market and prevent the old nobility from buying the estates cheap. Which was a very interesting point to which nobody reacted: buying from whom? The most probable sellers were financially pressed members of the old nobility who would be actually gaining from the higher prices (was Scherbatov himself prevented from buying somebody’s estate cheap? The people talking too much about the virtues quite often are scumbags). The remedy was not quite clear beyond closing this practice for a future and introducing various limitations for the undeserving category, like a ban on estates purchase.
The “newbies” objected that if the “oldies” are referencing to the virtues of their ancestors, who said that nowadays the people are lacking the same virtues? There was a proposal, the logical extension of Scherbatov’s argument, to make all nobility conditional, subject to the merits and their rank (the higher rank the more generations of the descendants have a guaranteed nobility).
This part of a legislative process was going nowhere but both “oldies” and “newbies” presented united from on the issue of serf-ownership insisting that it is their exclusive privilege. Their main opponent were merchants/manufacturers class who wanted a free access to the labor market, which meant having a right to own the serfs. It was a consensus among the merchants class that the serfs are much more reliable than a hired help on all levels, up to the clerks, and the law on that subject was a grey area. The numerous examples were quoted about the unreliability of the hired personnel and a need to retain the qualified workers knowing technological secrets or financial situation of a business.
On one hand only the nobles had a right to have serfs but OTOH during the previous reigns the government had been issuing regulations pretty much tying workers to the manufactures or making some specific arrangements like allowing to have few skilled serf workers while the rest should be hired. Existing market of the free labor for hire was quite limited and the serfs on “obrok” were not a solution because they’d have to go home for the seasonal agricultural work.
The reasonable argument from the merchants was that due to the exclusive right of the serf ownership only the nobles will be able to have the manufactures to which the nobles answered that this is just fine: they are quite willing to be the manufacturers. To which the merchants politely explained that the nobles usually have no clue how to do this and don’t have a capital but this argument was ignored [2].
Rather silly and minor part was a request from the 1st Guild merchants to give them a right of wearing the dress swords because their foreign counterparts tend to see the people without the swords as their inferiors. This request caused a tempest of indignation.
Second part of the conflict was one with the lower social levels. The merchants had been insisting on their exclusive right of conducting trade (except for the goods they personally produced) demanding that it has to be absolutely forbidden to the burghers and peasants who, of course, wanted the opposite.
These disputations were continuing in the evil circles without going anywhere throughout 1767. In 1768 Commission moved to St.Petersburg where it continued its activities with the same productivity.
Somewhere in a process Catherine figured out that this is going to be a massive waste of everybody’s time and money but she could not just close the ongoing circus without a loss of a face unless there is some very serious reason. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the “reason” was seemingly becoming a not too far away reality in anticipation of which Catherine, on Chernyshev advice, ordered a new round of recruitment, 1 recruit from 300 men, which should give her at least 50 - 60,000 new soldiers.
___________
[1] Here CII is bitching about a new “obrok” system under which the serfs had some freedom to chose their occupation and pay owner certain sums in cash. She supports the traditional system, “barschina”, under which the peasant has to work certain amount of time on owner’s estate. In her opinion the old system was more productive in the terms of both breeding (by staying home peasant definitely has more time to attend to this social function) and increase of agricultural production (which she considers a top priority).
[2] Experiments in that area started during the reign of Peter I and continued well into the XIX century. The results usually were not too good by the obvious reasons of inadequate knowledge and capital.
“The Christian Law teaches us to do each other as much good as possible.”
“The Russian state of possession extends over 32 degrees of latitude and 165 degrees of longitude around the globe.”
“The sovereign is autocratic; for no other power, other than united in his person, can act similarly to the space of such a great state.”
“It is better to obey the laws under one master than to please many.”
“It is a great well-being for a person to be in such circumstances that when his passions turn his thoughts of being evil, he, however, considers it more useful not to be evil.”
“State freedom in a citizen is the peace of mind derived from the opinion that each of them enjoys security on their own; and for people to have this freedom, it must be such a law that one citizen cannot be afraid of the other, but are afraid of all of the same laws.”
“Laws that transient measure for good are the reason why immeasurable evil is born from them.”
“Russia not only does not have enough inhabitants, but also has an excessive space of land, which is not inhabited, and is not cultivated. So, you can't find enough encouragement for the reproduction of the people in the state.”
“It also seems that the newly introduced way from the nobles - to collect their income - in Russia reduces the people and agriculture. All the villages are almost on the line. The owners, not being at all or little in their villages, will charge each soul a ruble, two or even up to five rubles, regardless of the way their peasants get this money.” [1]
“There can be neither skillful labor nor solid-based trade, where agriculture is destroyed or improductively produced.”
“Agriculture is the greatest work for man.”
“Machines, which serve to reduce manual work, are not always useful. If something done by hands is worth a mediocre price, which is equally similar to both the merchant and the one who made it, then the machines that reduce manual work, that is, reduce the number of workers, will be harmful in a big state.”
“Virtue deservedly raises people to the degree of nobility.”
Catherine II, from “Nakaz” (the instructions to Code Commission)
“The Russian state of possession extends over 32 degrees of latitude and 165 degrees of longitude around the globe.”
“The sovereign is autocratic; for no other power, other than united in his person, can act similarly to the space of such a great state.”
“It is better to obey the laws under one master than to please many.”
“It is a great well-being for a person to be in such circumstances that when his passions turn his thoughts of being evil, he, however, considers it more useful not to be evil.”
“State freedom in a citizen is the peace of mind derived from the opinion that each of them enjoys security on their own; and for people to have this freedom, it must be such a law that one citizen cannot be afraid of the other, but are afraid of all of the same laws.”
“Laws that transient measure for good are the reason why immeasurable evil is born from them.”
“Russia not only does not have enough inhabitants, but also has an excessive space of land, which is not inhabited, and is not cultivated. So, you can't find enough encouragement for the reproduction of the people in the state.”
“It also seems that the newly introduced way from the nobles - to collect their income - in Russia reduces the people and agriculture. All the villages are almost on the line. The owners, not being at all or little in their villages, will charge each soul a ruble, two or even up to five rubles, regardless of the way their peasants get this money.” [1]
“There can be neither skillful labor nor solid-based trade, where agriculture is destroyed or improductively produced.”
“Agriculture is the greatest work for man.”
“Machines, which serve to reduce manual work, are not always useful. If something done by hands is worth a mediocre price, which is equally similar to both the merchant and the one who made it, then the machines that reduce manual work, that is, reduce the number of workers, will be harmful in a big state.”
“Virtue deservedly raises people to the degree of nobility.”
Catherine II, from “Nakaz” (the instructions to Code Commission)
Russia 1767
As was already said, Catherine came to a correct conclusion that the old, not properly codified, laws do not fit status of the Russian Empire as a major European power. So she ordered to assemble the “Code Commission” (Уложенная Комиссия), an elective body which would discuss the present situation (each deputy had to be supplied with the instructions from his electorate) and develop the new Russian laws. To provide commission with a right direction in their work, Catherine composed instruction (Наказ) to the deputies (painting above shows her at this work), a document consisting of 565 items, which contained pretty much everything that Catherine (and Montesquieu) thought on a subject of the properly organized state. Taking into an account that neither an author nor her “inspiration” (can Montesquieu be defined as a “muse” in this specific case?) had a clue about economy, agriculture, manufacturing and, this being strictly Catherine, a very vague notion regarding specifics of life in the Russian Empire, the resulting document hardly was much more than a list some general good intentions than something truly practical.
The deputies, elected by the social groups, assembled in Moscow and, after the solemn opening ceremony and prayer in one of the Kremlin’s cathedrals, proceeded with their work. Immediately, Count Zakhar Chernyshev asked to be excused referencing to his numerous duties in the Military Collegium. The history is silent on the question why he bothered to get elected knowing of these duties but, this question aside, his excuse was valid and Catherine supported it. His brother, who was in charge of the Russian Navy, also asked to be excused but his appeal was rejected. Probably Catherine was under the impression that everything was fine with the Russian navy even if her personal inspection of the Baltic Fleet produced rather depressing results… Anyway, after these issues had been settled, the Commission proceeded with its work and within few days presented Catherine with the first fruit of their labor: decision to officially name her “the Wisest One, the Great and Mother of the Country.” Probably, if the commission was fully on its own, it would stop right there reporting that its mission is accomplished. Actually, this would save everybody a lot of time and aggravation but, unfortunately, the Imperial Graphomaniac wanted her opus to be taken seriously and acted upon.
To understand the further developments a historical background is necessary and, hopefully, it would be interesting enough to read.
Intermission. Situation with the social classes was somewhat tricky.
Nobility. Historically, equivalent of the European “noble” as a single term embracing all ranks of the noble class did not exist in pre-Petrian Russia and the term “дворянин” later used for that purpose was applicable only to the lower level of the noble class and would be taken as an offense by its upper levels. The noble groups had been defined and referenced based upon their court positions (боярин, окольничий, …, стольник, … дворянин) or perhaps these positions of their families. For example, not all members of a “boyar family” could be “boyars” but they could expect appointments to certain court positions with a chance to grow or, if unlucky, eventually descend into an obscurity. Something like “cursus honorum”. The titles, or rather a single title “prince” (князь) were pretty much meaningless outside the court hierarchy: boyarin, like Sheremetev, may not have a princely title at all but he would be at the top level of that hierarchy. OTOH, with the title transferred to all family members, and the title easily given to the Tatar and other nomadic nobles coming to the Russian service, the number of princes was huge their social position varying from somebody like Golytsins on the top and complete social nobodies on the bottom.
Peter I broke the system substituting it with a new one, looking more Western-like. The nobility became a single class to which the service people could raise by obtaining an officer rank or its equivalent in the civic service. The title of “count” had been added and given (especially in post-Petrian times) rather freely and few new princes (often with the HRE patent) had been created as well. The name of that, now unified, class was initially borrowed from the PLC, “szlachta”, but later switched to the Russian «дворянин». To simplify things, they will be called just “nobles”. So, by Catherine’s time there were:
- “old nobility” - historical noble families of various levels of prominence or obscurity
- “new nobility” - persons raised from the lower classes, who also were divided into two subgroups:
- those raised personally by the imperial decree;
- those who raised according to the law by reaching certain class in a service. For the military it was XIVth, the lowest rank in Table of the Ranks, praporschik in infantry and cornet in cavalry, for civilian service it was a much higher VIIIs class, Kollezhsky assessor (corresponding to captain in infantry).
However, as a class the nobility had an exclusive right to own the serfs. With some exceptions. Which were an “issue”.
Merchants. The merchants were divided into the guilds (3 by 1767) based upon the declared income. Merchants were subject to a single 40-altin (1 ruble 20 kopecks) per capita tax and were not obliged to pay guild taxes, the amount of which depended on belonging to a particular guild. Many of the merchants even of the higher guilds did not trade due to lack of capital, and merchants of the third guild were engaged in crafts, small trade or worked for hire. However, a number of them had been manufacturers and, by the earlier decrees had workers “assigned” to their factories. Formally, they had (since 1760) an exclusive right of trading and this also required all types of workers. Reality was, as always, somewhat different from the law causing numerous “issues”.
Burghers (мещане) were personally free dwellers of the cities and “suburbs” who were neither nobles nor merchants. They were allowed to conduct a minor trade, could work as the artisans, own workshops (but not the manufactures), drinking places, etc. Of course, in practice a precise separation in the trading activities between them and merchants was somewhat of a grey area because its precise size was not easy to discover.
State peasants were formally free people and had the same issues as in the burghers - merchants conflict: what they are and aren’t permitted besides being peasants?
Small wonders that discussions in the Code Commission deteriorated into the quarrels along the lines of the “class interests”. In the terms of a pure blabbing and demagoguery the “old nobility” had a clear advantage of having in its ranks Prince M.M. Scherbatov, representative of an old but not very prominent Rurikid family (counted a single boyarin) and an eloquent speaker. He was talking at length about the merits and, presumably genetic, virtues of the old nobility in the state service. Somehow nobody pointed out to him that he personally did not demonstrate any of these virtues, being enlisted (as was a habit among the well-connected families) in Semionovsky (but not Preobrazensky, the connections were not good enough) Guards regiment at the age of 13, not distinguishing himself in any way and retiring at the age of 29 as captain-lieutenant as soon as Peter III issued Decree of Nobility’s Freedom. Which, of course, did not prevent him from declaring, in the parliamentarian language, that the new nobility (except those personally elevated by the rulers) are just a bunch of the greedy bastards interested not in a service but in a personal enrichment, which they are using to crowd the real estate market and prevent the old nobility from buying the estates cheap. Which was a very interesting point to which nobody reacted: buying from whom? The most probable sellers were financially pressed members of the old nobility who would be actually gaining from the higher prices (was Scherbatov himself prevented from buying somebody’s estate cheap? The people talking too much about the virtues quite often are scumbags). The remedy was not quite clear beyond closing this practice for a future and introducing various limitations for the undeserving category, like a ban on estates purchase.
The “newbies” objected that if the “oldies” are referencing to the virtues of their ancestors, who said that nowadays the people are lacking the same virtues? There was a proposal, the logical extension of Scherbatov’s argument, to make all nobility conditional, subject to the merits and their rank (the higher rank the more generations of the descendants have a guaranteed nobility).
This part of a legislative process was going nowhere but both “oldies” and “newbies” presented united from on the issue of serf-ownership insisting that it is their exclusive privilege. Their main opponent were merchants/manufacturers class who wanted a free access to the labor market, which meant having a right to own the serfs. It was a consensus among the merchants class that the serfs are much more reliable than a hired help on all levels, up to the clerks, and the law on that subject was a grey area. The numerous examples were quoted about the unreliability of the hired personnel and a need to retain the qualified workers knowing technological secrets or financial situation of a business.
On one hand only the nobles had a right to have serfs but OTOH during the previous reigns the government had been issuing regulations pretty much tying workers to the manufactures or making some specific arrangements like allowing to have few skilled serf workers while the rest should be hired. Existing market of the free labor for hire was quite limited and the serfs on “obrok” were not a solution because they’d have to go home for the seasonal agricultural work.
The reasonable argument from the merchants was that due to the exclusive right of the serf ownership only the nobles will be able to have the manufactures to which the nobles answered that this is just fine: they are quite willing to be the manufacturers. To which the merchants politely explained that the nobles usually have no clue how to do this and don’t have a capital but this argument was ignored [2].
Rather silly and minor part was a request from the 1st Guild merchants to give them a right of wearing the dress swords because their foreign counterparts tend to see the people without the swords as their inferiors. This request caused a tempest of indignation.
Second part of the conflict was one with the lower social levels. The merchants had been insisting on their exclusive right of conducting trade (except for the goods they personally produced) demanding that it has to be absolutely forbidden to the burghers and peasants who, of course, wanted the opposite.
These disputations were continuing in the evil circles without going anywhere throughout 1767. In 1768 Commission moved to St.Petersburg where it continued its activities with the same productivity.
Somewhere in a process Catherine figured out that this is going to be a massive waste of everybody’s time and money but she could not just close the ongoing circus without a loss of a face unless there is some very serious reason. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the “reason” was seemingly becoming a not too far away reality in anticipation of which Catherine, on Chernyshev advice, ordered a new round of recruitment, 1 recruit from 300 men, which should give her at least 50 - 60,000 new soldiers.
___________
[1] Here CII is bitching about a new “obrok” system under which the serfs had some freedom to chose their occupation and pay owner certain sums in cash. She supports the traditional system, “barschina”, under which the peasant has to work certain amount of time on owner’s estate. In her opinion the old system was more productive in the terms of both breeding (by staying home peasant definitely has more time to attend to this social function) and increase of agricultural production (which she considers a top priority).
[2] Experiments in that area started during the reign of Peter I and continued well into the XIX century. The results usually were not too good by the obvious reasons of inadequate knowledge and capital.
20. The Great Circus
20. The Great Circus
Background. In 1764 Czartoryskie managed to pass an important reform which was addressing 4 extremely important issues:
Already at the first Sejms during the reign of Stanislav August, it was decided to seize old counterfeit coins and, by founding a mint, to mint new ones with a higher content of silver or gold, corresponding to the rate of foreign thalers and ducats. As a result, in new money, trade, industry and agriculture have received reliable support for their development. Private banks appeared, and lending revived. Weapons and foundries were founded, and the so-called "cadet school", opened in Warsaw in 1765.
Was szclahta happy? Generally, not because in a present situation any change meant infringement upon their “Golden liberties”. The same applied to the clergy, at least in the areas of the custom dues and exemption from the cities control. So the domestic opposition had been big and rather vocal and so far only the fact that Czartoryskie and Stanislaw-August had been backed by the Russian military presence and money helped to keep things under control. But, while the money were always greatly appreciated by all competing parties, the military presence was frowned upon. The general idea of both the reformers and counter-reformers was that Catherine must order her troops out, give to all members of the circus as much money as they request and keep her nose out of the Polish affairs. There were some underlying problems with this idea but they were routinely shrugged off because a consensus was that the Russians are stupid and can be cheated forever.
The Old Fritz also was openly unhappy but Catherine was, for a while, supportive of these activities because she, with a good reason, assumed that ongoing anarchy in Poland would make it an easy target for Prussia and Austria and at that time she considered a relatively strong Poland more convenient for her interests as a potential substitute of Austria in anti-Ottoman scheme. She was even OK with the expansion of the PLC standing army up to 50,000 providing there is a Russian-Polish military alliance and official confirmation of the Russian dominance in the Polish affairs, aka Russia (or Catherine personally) being declared a guarantor of the Polish constitution. But both of these items were unpopular among the “defenders of the liberties” because increasing of the royal army could change balance of power within the country and, the potential benefits of the Russian guarantees, like prevention of the annexations by Hpsburgs and Prussa, were noting comparing to a hurt national pride. An idea that perhaps having a strong state may prevent annexations was not quite there because to create such a state you’d need to drop the “Golden liberties” and this was an anathema to the true Polish patriots.
On the top of all of the above there was a “dissident issue”. It involved a considerable amount of the demagoguery on the Russian side and a national-wide hysteria on the Polish but, on the Russian side the underlying reasons were quite jpragmatic and cynical. As Panin put it “It is necessary to commit a dissident case not to spread our and Protestant faiths in Poland, but to acquire, through our co-religionists and Protestants, a firm and reliable party with the legitimate right to participate in all Polish affairs. As the weakest part in the future Polish government, dissidents will be able to stay in it only with our help.” He was then pointing out that an excessive strengthening of the Protestants “Can easily unnecessary …lead Poles out of ignorance, in which they are now mostly immersed” and, by strengthening the Polish nation, be eventually against the Russian interests because gratitude does not exists in the politics. While this consideration is not applicable to the Orthodox christians, their excessive strengthening is also not to the Russian advantage both because this may be conductive to increase of the number of peasants fleeing to the PLC. So he recommended Repnin to be quite restrained in the practical help to the Russian dissident allies and limit Russian demands in that area to a bare minimum of just guaranteeing security of the churches and confessional rights. However, even these minimal requests had been producing a huge negative reaction and Czartoryskie freaked out refusing to support any Russian demands, especially the guarantor part and military alliance. For a while they were able to maneuver inventing various excuses but this did not last for long and they went into the list of Catherine’s personal enemies. Even before that happened the support formula changed from “money for the promises” to “first service, then money”.
Which immediately brought the question whom to support. Taking into an account that Stanislaw was clearly good for nothing as a political figure and readily disassociated himself from his uncles, it was decided not to attack him but the only remaining force were the same people against whom Russia was supporting Czartoryskie. Rather predictably, both sides demonstrated extreme flexibility. As the first step, Radziwill, who after elections had been sitting in Saxony. In February 1767, he was negotiating with Russian representatives in Dresden, and on February 28 he signed a declaration in which he declared full obedience to Russia and asked for assistance in the cancellation of the decision of the confederation, as well as in the return of all possessions. On April 8, Panin sent Carol a letter stating his acceptance under the protection of Catherine II. This was done in order to demonstrate a break with Czartoryski and the king. Radziwill was awarded Orders of St. Andrew and St. Alexander Nevsky and for a (short) while, indeed, behaved as promised. Not that Panin or Repnin had any illusions regarding reliability of other coalition members but they were actually out of options. Sejm of 1766 cancelled most of the reforms introduced in 1764. Then the General Confederation in Radom (led by Radziwill), seeking help from Russia, decided to deprive the king of the throne and defend the freedom threatened by him and Czartoryski.
“And why will Prince Radzivil be the marshal of the confederation?" the king asked. "Because," Repnin replied, "that I am more confident in his dependence on us than in the dependence of any other; I want to have people obedient, and not to wait out of the wrong hands to do my own affairs, while I have already been deceived so many times by false promises.” An additional consideration was that Radziwill was ready to work just for return of his property and that this was phased out to stimulate his enthusiasm.
Repnin presented a manifesto to the Radom confederation, which recognized the king and invited him to join the confederation. At the same time, the document recognized the fairness of the demands of the dissidents and transferred Poland under the patronage of the Empress. At that point the coalition fell apart and the former opposition started making noises, especially Soltyk who was using dozens clerks to copy his messages to the faithful [1]. However, it was rather difficult to organize something meaningful while preaching an anarchy as your ideal so not too much came of these efforts. All that political circus made Repnin completely pissed off and he kept reporting to Panin that the only way to do something is to use a military force and to deport the most vocal opponents, Bishop Soltyk of Kraków, Bishop of Zalu of Kiev and Voyevoda of Krakov Rzewuski.
But at that point Panin finally managed to sort out the Russian priorities and Repnin got an instruction to drop the dissidents issue altogether and limit the Russian demands strictly to the guarantor item. As a result, the delegation elected by the Sejm under the leadership of Primate Gabriel Podoski [2] developed a treatise guaranteeing by the Empress of Poland her possessions, forms of government, as well as fundamental freedoms.
A separate act spelled out cardinal laws that could not be changed, which included the legislative power in three classes - royal, senatorial and knightly. The Roman Catholic faith was defined as ruling, the principle of free unanimous election of the ruler was enshrined, except for the transfer of power by inheritance, the principle of neminem captivabi-mus [3], the rights and privileges of provinces and individuals were guaranteed, full power of nobles over property and their serfs, except for the imposition of the death sentence. At the same time, the death penalty was established for nobles who committed the deliberate murder of a slave. Pacta conventa, liberum veto and the right to refuse obedience were also confirmed. Provisions that could only be changed by unanimous decision were also listed separately. These included mainly issues of raising and changing taxes, increasing the size of the army, concluding allied and trade treaties, declaring war and concluding peace, issues related to money, changing the procedure for holding the Sejm and Seimas, changing and creating new institutions, as well as convening a people's militia.
"Golden noble freedom" was waiting for its codification (because at that point none of its defenders could tell for sure what it amounts to), and the Russian empress and her heirs were determined as the guarantor of coups and confederations.
The confirmation of the "golden liberty", which was until recently threatened Czartoryski's reforms, could not but please the majority of the gentry. Nevertheless, some felt in the guarantee of the Russian empress signs of violence against the independence of the country and were feeling themselves quite eager to undermine the achieved balance.
__________
[1] The PLC circa 1760s was technologically backward so there were no copying devices even on xerox level. What is strange is that Bishop of Krakov did not have in his disposal a printing press (as CII had to print her coup manifest). It is hard to believe that there was none in Krakov so was he plain dumb?
[2] Timely delivery of the orders (in this case a sable fur) always good for the business reputation. As a side note, in OTL due to the dissident issue the Russian troops were brought to Warsaw and three persons mentioned above deported to Russia. ITTL the offenses to the patriotic feelings do not include the religious component.
[3] One of the szlachta's privileges, stating that the king could neither punish nor imprison any member of the szlachta without a viable court verdict.
“Poland survives by disorder.”
A contemporary saying
“The Confederates would be very hard pressed or ashamed if they were forced to accurately complicate what they are dissatisfied with.”
King Stanislaw-August
“From morning to evening, I either lie or swear; worst of all, there are a lot of words, and it's not done.”
Colonel Kar to Prince Repnin about organizing Radom Confederacy
“Knowing that the new primate wants to find a good sable fur, please send it to me, if you please, so that I can give it to him on behalf of our court.”
Count Repnin
Actually, the chapter’s name is unjust to the circus because any good circus, especially the “Great” one, is a well-organized enterprise with the highly skilled performers acting within a rehearsed scenario. So I’m referencing to something like the depiction below but slightly more messy and less professional. Repnin’s equivalent is a creature in black with a mike. You can propose candidates for other players. 😂A contemporary saying
“The Confederates would be very hard pressed or ashamed if they were forced to accurately complicate what they are dissatisfied with.”
King Stanislaw-August
“From morning to evening, I either lie or swear; worst of all, there are a lot of words, and it's not done.”
Colonel Kar to Prince Repnin about organizing Radom Confederacy
“Knowing that the new primate wants to find a good sable fur, please send it to me, if you please, so that I can give it to him on behalf of our court.”
Count Repnin
Background. In 1764 Czartoryskie managed to pass an important reform which was addressing 4 extremely important issues:
- To get the cities out of the obvious decline, their old self-government тwas returned to them. Had been eliminated administratively and judicially independent parts of the towns and suburbs illegally created by szclahta and clergy. At the same time, in the interests of the cities, the assessor's courts were reformed, which were the last court for citizens, and in royal estates for serfs.
- Was improved work of the tribunals dealing with the nobility’s judicial cases. In addition, a special commission was tasked with developing draft reforms in judicial proceedings and codification for consideration at the next Sejm.
- Was accepted the first formal procedure for meetings of the Sejm, due to the absence of which the Sejms often could not make decisions.
- The most important reform approved by the convocation Sejm was the introduction of government power in the form of two commissions - financial and military. Each of them consisted of the relevant ministers (Podskarbies and Hetmans), four senators and twelve nobles elected at each Sejm by a majority vote. The commissions also decided cases by a majority of votes and represented the highest executive power on military and treasury issues within the limits determined by the decisions of the Sejm. At the same time, each commission had paid officials at its disposal. Instead of the various customs duties that existed up to that time, a single duty was introduced, the amount of which depended on the number of imported goods, and, most importantly, the former customs privileges of the nobility and clergy were abolished. A new property census was conducted to determine the true amount of payment of quarterly taxes.
Already at the first Sejms during the reign of Stanislav August, it was decided to seize old counterfeit coins and, by founding a mint, to mint new ones with a higher content of silver or gold, corresponding to the rate of foreign thalers and ducats. As a result, in new money, trade, industry and agriculture have received reliable support for their development. Private banks appeared, and lending revived. Weapons and foundries were founded, and the so-called "cadet school", opened in Warsaw in 1765.
Was szclahta happy? Generally, not because in a present situation any change meant infringement upon their “Golden liberties”. The same applied to the clergy, at least in the areas of the custom dues and exemption from the cities control. So the domestic opposition had been big and rather vocal and so far only the fact that Czartoryskie and Stanislaw-August had been backed by the Russian military presence and money helped to keep things under control. But, while the money were always greatly appreciated by all competing parties, the military presence was frowned upon. The general idea of both the reformers and counter-reformers was that Catherine must order her troops out, give to all members of the circus as much money as they request and keep her nose out of the Polish affairs. There were some underlying problems with this idea but they were routinely shrugged off because a consensus was that the Russians are stupid and can be cheated forever.
The Old Fritz also was openly unhappy but Catherine was, for a while, supportive of these activities because she, with a good reason, assumed that ongoing anarchy in Poland would make it an easy target for Prussia and Austria and at that time she considered a relatively strong Poland more convenient for her interests as a potential substitute of Austria in anti-Ottoman scheme. She was even OK with the expansion of the PLC standing army up to 50,000 providing there is a Russian-Polish military alliance and official confirmation of the Russian dominance in the Polish affairs, aka Russia (or Catherine personally) being declared a guarantor of the Polish constitution. But both of these items were unpopular among the “defenders of the liberties” because increasing of the royal army could change balance of power within the country and, the potential benefits of the Russian guarantees, like prevention of the annexations by Hpsburgs and Prussa, were noting comparing to a hurt national pride. An idea that perhaps having a strong state may prevent annexations was not quite there because to create such a state you’d need to drop the “Golden liberties” and this was an anathema to the true Polish patriots.
On the top of all of the above there was a “dissident issue”. It involved a considerable amount of the demagoguery on the Russian side and a national-wide hysteria on the Polish but, on the Russian side the underlying reasons were quite jpragmatic and cynical. As Panin put it “It is necessary to commit a dissident case not to spread our and Protestant faiths in Poland, but to acquire, through our co-religionists and Protestants, a firm and reliable party with the legitimate right to participate in all Polish affairs. As the weakest part in the future Polish government, dissidents will be able to stay in it only with our help.” He was then pointing out that an excessive strengthening of the Protestants “Can easily unnecessary …lead Poles out of ignorance, in which they are now mostly immersed” and, by strengthening the Polish nation, be eventually against the Russian interests because gratitude does not exists in the politics. While this consideration is not applicable to the Orthodox christians, their excessive strengthening is also not to the Russian advantage both because this may be conductive to increase of the number of peasants fleeing to the PLC. So he recommended Repnin to be quite restrained in the practical help to the Russian dissident allies and limit Russian demands in that area to a bare minimum of just guaranteeing security of the churches and confessional rights. However, even these minimal requests had been producing a huge negative reaction and Czartoryskie freaked out refusing to support any Russian demands, especially the guarantor part and military alliance. For a while they were able to maneuver inventing various excuses but this did not last for long and they went into the list of Catherine’s personal enemies. Even before that happened the support formula changed from “money for the promises” to “first service, then money”.
Which immediately brought the question whom to support. Taking into an account that Stanislaw was clearly good for nothing as a political figure and readily disassociated himself from his uncles, it was decided not to attack him but the only remaining force were the same people against whom Russia was supporting Czartoryskie. Rather predictably, both sides demonstrated extreme flexibility. As the first step, Radziwill, who after elections had been sitting in Saxony. In February 1767, he was negotiating with Russian representatives in Dresden, and on February 28 he signed a declaration in which he declared full obedience to Russia and asked for assistance in the cancellation of the decision of the confederation, as well as in the return of all possessions. On April 8, Panin sent Carol a letter stating his acceptance under the protection of Catherine II. This was done in order to demonstrate a break with Czartoryski and the king. Radziwill was awarded Orders of St. Andrew and St. Alexander Nevsky and for a (short) while, indeed, behaved as promised. Not that Panin or Repnin had any illusions regarding reliability of other coalition members but they were actually out of options. Sejm of 1766 cancelled most of the reforms introduced in 1764. Then the General Confederation in Radom (led by Radziwill), seeking help from Russia, decided to deprive the king of the throne and defend the freedom threatened by him and Czartoryski.
“And why will Prince Radzivil be the marshal of the confederation?" the king asked. "Because," Repnin replied, "that I am more confident in his dependence on us than in the dependence of any other; I want to have people obedient, and not to wait out of the wrong hands to do my own affairs, while I have already been deceived so many times by false promises.” An additional consideration was that Radziwill was ready to work just for return of his property and that this was phased out to stimulate his enthusiasm.
Repnin presented a manifesto to the Radom confederation, which recognized the king and invited him to join the confederation. At the same time, the document recognized the fairness of the demands of the dissidents and transferred Poland under the patronage of the Empress. At that point the coalition fell apart and the former opposition started making noises, especially Soltyk who was using dozens clerks to copy his messages to the faithful [1]. However, it was rather difficult to organize something meaningful while preaching an anarchy as your ideal so not too much came of these efforts. All that political circus made Repnin completely pissed off and he kept reporting to Panin that the only way to do something is to use a military force and to deport the most vocal opponents, Bishop Soltyk of Kraków, Bishop of Zalu of Kiev and Voyevoda of Krakov Rzewuski.
But at that point Panin finally managed to sort out the Russian priorities and Repnin got an instruction to drop the dissidents issue altogether and limit the Russian demands strictly to the guarantor item. As a result, the delegation elected by the Sejm under the leadership of Primate Gabriel Podoski [2] developed a treatise guaranteeing by the Empress of Poland her possessions, forms of government, as well as fundamental freedoms.
A separate act spelled out cardinal laws that could not be changed, which included the legislative power in three classes - royal, senatorial and knightly. The Roman Catholic faith was defined as ruling, the principle of free unanimous election of the ruler was enshrined, except for the transfer of power by inheritance, the principle of neminem captivabi-mus [3], the rights and privileges of provinces and individuals were guaranteed, full power of nobles over property and their serfs, except for the imposition of the death sentence. At the same time, the death penalty was established for nobles who committed the deliberate murder of a slave. Pacta conventa, liberum veto and the right to refuse obedience were also confirmed. Provisions that could only be changed by unanimous decision were also listed separately. These included mainly issues of raising and changing taxes, increasing the size of the army, concluding allied and trade treaties, declaring war and concluding peace, issues related to money, changing the procedure for holding the Sejm and Seimas, changing and creating new institutions, as well as convening a people's militia.
"Golden noble freedom" was waiting for its codification (because at that point none of its defenders could tell for sure what it amounts to), and the Russian empress and her heirs were determined as the guarantor of coups and confederations.
The confirmation of the "golden liberty", which was until recently threatened Czartoryski's reforms, could not but please the majority of the gentry. Nevertheless, some felt in the guarantee of the Russian empress signs of violence against the independence of the country and were feeling themselves quite eager to undermine the achieved balance.
__________
[1] The PLC circa 1760s was technologically backward so there were no copying devices even on xerox level. What is strange is that Bishop of Krakov did not have in his disposal a printing press (as CII had to print her coup manifest). It is hard to believe that there was none in Krakov so was he plain dumb?
[2] Timely delivery of the orders (in this case a sable fur) always good for the business reputation. As a side note, in OTL due to the dissident issue the Russian troops were brought to Warsaw and three persons mentioned above deported to Russia. ITTL the offenses to the patriotic feelings do not include the religious component.
[3] One of the szlachta's privileges, stating that the king could neither punish nor imprison any member of the szlachta without a viable court verdict.
Thats one way of saying the poles thrive on chaos
Im more weirded out that xerox existed at that point
Like sure we know of the printing press in Germany, but still funny to imagine pre 1900 peeps with a printer
But there was a downside to it, which, as Yogurt the Great said, “will be revealed to you in a proper time”. 😜
There were printing presses in the PLC at that time and Krakow was a big city so perhaps the clerks were cheaper? If they were monks, they cost nothing. 😜
Probably someone was being obstructive.
I mean, the calendars, cooking and prayer books had to been printed somewhere
Exactly. So I’m curious who could be obstructive when both the Bishop and Voievoda of Krakow were in the same boat?
Its actually remarkable how long Poland lasted with the libertum veto. The 1600s is just one unending story of Poland being horrendously, absurdly dysfunctional and somehow walking away with nearly as many wins as losses. Then that mess survives for nearly another century occupying a huge swath of Europe and being a ‘puppet’ whose main virtue is being an easy place to march an army through, a thing it makes sure you have to do again and again. As well as spark one broader European war and try to start several more.
I guess it is just a sad story of the lack of trust and cooperation between great powers that it took them over100 years from first proposals to actually get around to equitably partitioning Poland…
I guess it is just a sad story of the lack of trust and cooperation between great powers that it took them over100 years from first proposals to actually get around to equitably partitioning Poland…
The whole thing looks somewhat weird. They despised and hated the Russians but at the same time were ready to humiliate themselves begging for money and other benefits.
Quite agree. Perhaps the last century of survival was to a great degree due to the fact that the great powers had been either busy fighting elsewhere or watching that other power would not grab it. In this equation RE was for a while something of a protecting force but it could not keep ignoring hostility of its protege forever.
Poland was a nation ruled by petty nobility who loved liberty for themselves and above all wanted a sugar daddy.
And a choice of a sugar daddy was usually on a peculiar side: either someone whom they hated or someone who kept screwing them one way or another…. oops, at least the second option would fit the definition. 😉
Petty (and at this point absolutely degenerate) in the moral sense, because Poland was ruled by great houses magnates