He witnessed the country’s turbulent history in the second half of the 18th century. This active politician, great patriot, and distinguished reformer is considered one of the fathers of the Constitution of 3 May 1791. by Piotr Abryszeński Stanisław Małachowski was born in Końskie, an estate that had belonged to the family for generations,...
The Constitution was the dawn of a better future. After 3 May 1791, there was time for supplementary laws to be passed, institutions to get to work, and for a new kind of politics to bed down during the last year of the Great Sejm. On the whole, the indications are very promising. On the...
The black legend of the ‘god of war’, who died aged just 51, had even fewer supporters in partitioned Poland than in France. Only in the Polish anthem does his name appear: ‘Bonaparte has given us the example of how we should prevail’. by Wiesław Chełminiak Was it stomach cancer or poison that killed...
The 18th century was a time of enormous cultural, political and societal upheaval for the West. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was a period of decline that was completed by the partitions. However, reducing the 18th-century history of the Polish-Lithuanian state to a mere falling into political non-existence would be a simplified and thus false...
