The return to power of the same parties, the same people and even the same faces in exactly the same positions may seem like more than just the rule of 2007-2015. It is strikingly reminiscent of the Grodno Sejm of 1793, i.e. the Sejm that sealed the defeat of the Great Sejm reforms and the May 3 Constitution War. Then the attempt to elevate the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the role of a vassal to the rank of a modern state failed in the alliance of Polish treachery and Russian power, and after a period of intense, sometimes almost extra-legal rule by the Grand Sejm, the Poles lost and the perpetuators of the previous system returned to power. – Potocki, Rzewuski, Malczewscy and Kossakowski. With some wild passion they first began to take revenge on the reformers, because they dared to dream of political independence and did not grant them favors and positions.
Poland must be “like soft wax”.
The Russian ambassador, Jakob Seviers, then worked on the same thing that the EU bureaucracy is doing to us today: “do with Poland what we want. Like soft wax, it can take any shape. What more did the neighboring empire want? Potemkin had a plan in the drawer to criticize the Poles with the Cossacks, because this force would be too dangerous for the existing powers. Seviers promised careers to Polish elites at the Tsar’s court, and Targowica himself boasted that “the courts are in his hands.” Targowica announced a reduction in the number of troops, a closer approach to Brussels… sorry – Saint Petersburg, and also – calm the country and restore the old rights. I promise you that this is not an excerpt from “Die Welt” or TVN24 about the overthrow of the rule of the United Right, but a summary of the writings of the Russian ambassador who pushed through all the new and old orders to the Grodno Sejm. from 1793.
Games instead of debate
Moreover, to entertain the supporters of Targowica, they organized balls and shows of their wealth, there was no tiktok then, but there were salons where people showed their faces and fun activities, there were no “sejmfliks”, but no worse spectacles Ripostes were offered to those who came to Grodno. Since the conditions for the second partition were established at this Sejm, the partition document included a diagnosis of “the absolute inability of the Republic of Poland to establish such authority and live in peace while preserving rights.” Oh, those pesky Poles! Under the pretext of this intolerable, the Swedes entered the country, then the Russians and the Prussians, and finally, under the same explanation of the brevity, instability and intolerance of Poland, they entered many times – the accusation of Jacobinism and the undemocratic character of the Grand Sejm was not much different from the accusation of ‘populism’ and the undemocratic character of PiS.
Surprised Targowica
Perhaps this is only an apparent agreement, perhaps more will remain of the achievements of the 2015-2023 reforms than of the 1788-1791 reforms, and perhaps they will not divide the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth today as they did then did with the kings. . But there is no doubt that the rule of vindictive dilettantes and losers, whose political fate is so often based on foreign support, and finally, these games, balls, smiles of servile people, in very turbulent times, do not bode well. We know what the people of Targowicze thought when their games and revenge ended with another divorce. “But God, who determines the end of nations, made our efforts in vain, the hope of saving the homeland disappeared,” wrote Szczęsny Potocki. In other words, they shrugged their shoulders and said this was how it had to be, there was nothing they could do about it.
The Grodno Sejm is nothing, the villains are really the same.
Source: wPolityce