Historical calendar: anniversary of the Russian invasion of the Republic of Poland. The action was coordinated with the release of a peculiar anti-Polish manifesto by the Tsaric.
Today in our calendar we will look at the circumstances of this event.
On 9 January 1792, Russia signed a peace agreement with Turkey in the Jassach Mountains and began concentrating the troops over the border with Poland. Although Caryca had complete freedom to decide on the attack, the 18th century as an enlightened age required the creation of a pretext for specified actions. It was given by 3 Polish magnates – Franciszek Branicki, Seweryn Rzewuski and Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, who did not agree to part of the improvement of the large Sejm, especially the state The Assembly of Friends of the Constitution.
They came to St. Petersburg, where they held urgent conferences with the Tsarist general on restoring order and old laws in Poland, and even bribed influential Russian courtiers to support their intervention plans. Interestingly, they attacked reforms from a Republican point of view, and Jęsny Potocki, while on a journey to Paris, joined the club of Jacobins on December 24, 1790.
It was decided to carry out an invasion of the Russian troops which were expected to enter the Republic of Poland allegedly at the request of the afraid patriots, against the despotism of the Warsaw clique. On 27 April 1792, an armed confederation was established in St. Petersburg under the auspices of Catherine II. The act of Confederacy was prepared by Tsar general Vasily Popov, and its announcement took place on 14 May in the border town of Targowice at Polish limits.
Poles were not peculiarly active in Targowice, but that was not what the conspirators meant. The contents of the confederation requested the Tsaric to show assistance in restoring the strategy before 1788. That was enough.
On May 18, Catherine II issued a manifesto in which she accused the Republic of the persecution of Orthodox Russians, pact with Turkey in order to jointly invade Russia and insult the Tsarica by the Four-Year Sejm. The action was coordinated, due to the fact that on the same day the Tsar army in the strength of 98,000 soldiers entered Poland. At the same time, Ambassador Bulhakov gave the Warsaw authorities a diplomatic note, in which he called the intervention "friendly, neighbourly assistance to defend freedom and reconstruct legal power."
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here..
