The Partitions and the Constitution of 3 May
Russia, Prussia and Austria divide Poland in three partitions; a reforming constitution in 1791 and Kościuszko's rising in 1794 come too late, and Poland vanishes from the map for 123 years.
- God's Playground: A History of Poland (2 vols, revised edition) — Norman Davies, Oxford University Press (2005)
- A Concise History of Poland (3rd edition) — Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, Cambridge University Press (2019)
- Russia: People and Empire, 1552–1917 — Geoffrey Hosking, Harvard University Press (1997)
In 1772 Russia, Prussia and Austria each took a slice of the weakened Commonwealth, together about 30% of its territory. The shock spurred reform. On 3 May 1791 the Sejm adopted a constitution, often called the first modern written constitution in Europe and the second in the world after the United States’. It abolished the liberum veto, made the monarchy hereditary, gave townspeople more rights and placed peasants under the protection of the law.
- God's Playground: A History of Poland (2 vols, revised edition) — Norman Davies, Oxford University Press (2005)
- A Concise History of Poland (3rd edition) — Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, Cambridge University Press (2019)
Catherine the Great of Russia would not tolerate a reformed Poland. Backed by conservative magnates, Russian troops invaded in 1792, and in 1793 Russia and Prussia took a second partition. In 1794 Tadeusz Kościuszko led a national uprising, joined by peasant volunteers armed with scythes, who won a famous victory at Racławice. It was crushed, and Russian troops under Suvorov massacred civilians in Warsaw’s Praga district. In 1795 the three powers divided what was left. Poland had disappeared.
- God's Playground: A History of Poland (2 vols, revised edition) — Norman Davies, Oxford University Press (2005)
- A Concise History of Poland (3rd edition) — Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, Cambridge University Press (2019)
A nation without a state
For the next 123 years, Poles lived in three different empires. Under Prussia (later Germany) they faced Germanisation and, under Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, pressure on the Catholic Church. Under Russia they faced the harshest repression after each rising, as well as Russification of schools. Austrian Galicia, poor but allowed autonomy from the 1860s, became a haven for Polish universities and culture in Kraków and Lviv (Lwów).
- God's Playground: A History of Poland (2 vols, revised edition) — Norman Davies, Oxford University Press (2005)
- Poland in the Modern World: Beyond Martyrdom — Brian Porter-Szűcs, Wiley-Blackwell (2014)
In these years the nation was kept alive by language, the Catholic Church, literature, music and the family. Chopin’s mazurkas and polonaises, Mickiewicz’s poetry and Matejko’s vast history paintings became ways of being Polish without a state. The anthem, Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, written in 1797 for Polish legions fighting alongside Napoleon, begins “Poland has not yet perished, so long as we still live.”
- The Polish Way: A Thousand-Year History of the Poles and Their Culture — Adam Zamoyski, John Murray (1987)
- Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present — Norman Davies, Oxford University Press (2001)
Why it still matters
The partitions explain why Poles are so alert to deals made over their heads by bigger powers, and why the borders of their country feel less permanent to them than they might to others. Historians note that Poles living under the three empires developed different habits, economies and even voting patterns, and the old partition lines still show up on maps of Polish election results today.
- Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present — Norman Davies, Oxford University Press (2001)
- Poland in the Modern World: Beyond Martyrdom — Brian Porter-Szűcs, Wiley-Blackwell (2014)
Why it matters today
The partitions are the founding trauma of modern Poland: proof, as many Poles see it, that powerful neighbours, above all Russia and Germany, will divide their country when they can. 3 May remains a national holiday, and the sense of being a nation without a state shaped Polish culture for good.