Poland, once one of the largest European states, had had a very weak central
administration. In the late 18th century (1772, 1793, 1795) it was gradually
divided between among three more modern centralized states- Prussia, Austria, and Russia.
Frederick II of Prussia: Memoirs
The new claims [of Catherine II] aroused all Poland. The nobles of the kingdom
appealed to the Turks for help. Soon a war broke out in which the Russians had only to
show themselves to vanquish the Turks at every encounter. This war changed the whole
political system of Europe. A new arena opened up and one would have had to be inept or
stupidly dull not to have profited by such an advantageous chance.... I seized opportunity
by the forelock and, by dint of negotiating and intriguing, I succeeded in indemnifying
our monarchy for its past losses by Incorporating Polish Prussia into my old provinces.
This acquisition was one of the most important we could make because it joined Pomerania
to East Prussia and, by making us masters of the Vistula, gained us the double advantage
of being able to defend that kingdom [East Prussia] and of drawing considerable tolls from
the Vistula, since all the trade of Poland goes by that river. This acquisition, which
appears to me to mark an epoch in the annals of Prussia, seems remarkable enough for me to
transmit the details of it to posterity, the more so as I was both witness and actor in
the affair.
From Oeuvres de Frederic le Grand (Berlin: Rodolphe Decker), Vol. 6, pp. 6-7.
***
Maria Theresa of Austria: Letter
... Firmian will receive a lengthy document with instructions in regard to our
present situation, our engagements toward Russia, Prussia, and the Turks, but particularly
in regard to this unfortunate partition of Poland, which is costing me ten years of my
life. It will make plain the whole unhappy history of that affair. How many times have I
refused to agree to it! But disaster after disaster heaped upon us by the Turks; misery,
famine, and pestilence at home; no hope of assistance either from France or England, and
the prospect of being left isolated and threatened with a war both with Russia and
Prussia,-it was all these considerations that finally forced me to accede to that unhappy
proposal, which will remain a blot on my whole reign. God grant that I be not held
responsible for it in the other world! I confess that I cannot keep from talking about
this affair. I have taken it so to heart that it poisons and imbitters all my days, which
even without that are sad enough. I must stop writing about it at once, or I shall worry
myself into the blackest melancholy....
From Readings in European History, J. H. Robinson, trans. (Boston: Ginn and Co.,
1906), Vol. 2.
***
Catherine II of Russia: Letter
That dolt Hertzberg [a Prussian statesman] deserves a thorough thrashing all by
himself; he has no more knowledge of history than my parrot. He has had the impudence to
say that Russia, in taking possession of Polotsk, could produce no title to it; he should
have said that Russia did not attach any importance to outdated titles. For Polotsk was
given by Vladimir I to his eldest son Iziaslav....
The fifth son of Olgerd, lagailo or
Jacob, in 1386 became king of Poland and a convert to the Latin faith under the name of
Wladyslaw, when he married Jadwiga, queen and heiress of Poland. Thus it was he who joined
Lithuania to Poland, but the stupid, ignorant minister of state [Hertzberg] does not know
this: arrogance makes him ignorant, stupid, and coarse like a Pomeranian ox. The under-fed
creature (the late king starved him, by his own admission) does not know that not only in
Polotsk but in all of Lithuania up to the seventeenth century all governmental affairs
were transacted in the Russian language; that all the Lithuanian archives are written in
Russian; that all state documents were written with Russian characters in the Russian
language; that all events since the creation of the world were dated according to the
usage of our Greek church and that in this matter even the Greek ecclesiastical indictions
were used as the authority-all this being proof that up to the seventeenth century the
Greek religion was dominant not only in Polotsk but in all of Lithuania and had been the
faith of the princes and grand dukes; that all the churches there, notably the cathedrals,
I have the altars placed eastward, according to the custom of the Eastern church. If you
need still more evidence you have only to ask for it; it is not difficult to prove what is
true. Moreover, Polotsk and Lithuania have been taken and retaken about twenty times, and
no treaty was ever concluded without one side or the other claiming part or all of it,
depending on circumstances. That fool of a minister of state deserves an even sounder
thrashing for his ignorance regarding the peoples he lays claim to on behalf of his stupid
master state [Herresswat]. The silly ass!
From A Source Book for Russian History, G. Vernadsky, trans. (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1972), Vol. 2, pp. 409-410.
Source: See above
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