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Catherine II as a Mediaevalist. A Contribution to the Origin of the Second Partition

100%
Kriegseisen W.
Kwartalnik Historyczny
|
2004
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vol. 111
|
issue 3
127-140
EN
The file entitled 'The Studio of Catherine II' in the Russian State Archive of Old Acts in Moscow contains 'Les anciennes frontieres de la Russie a l'Occident', a document which up to now has not been published and apparently was never the object of interest of historians studying 18th-century Polish-Russian relations. A description of the document indicates that this is a handwritten note by Catherine II, an annex to a protocol from a session of the so-called Council of State (5/16 February 1792). The document (published as an appendix to this article) refers to historical sources printed during the 18th century (including the chronicles by Gallus Anonymous, Kadlubek and Stryjkowski) in order to prove the historical rights of Russia to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Ukraine, at that time part of the Commonwealth. The article discusses the contents and analyses the circumstances in which a document of this sort could have originated in the cabinet of Catherine II. A separate analysis concerns the significance of this text for our knowledge about the partition decisions made in the entourage of Catherine II and the preparations made during the first half of 1772.
2
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The Beginnings of the Opposition Activity of Franciszek Ksawery Branicki

80%
Michalski J.
Kwartalnik Historyczny
|
2006
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vol. 113
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issue 2
75-132
EN
A presentation of the growing conflict between King Stanislaw August and his long–term favourite and zealous collaborator, F. K. Branicki, a royal protege who in 1774 was appointed the grand hetman of the Crown. The career pursued by Branicki was also affected by the protection of the court in St. Petersburg. From 1774 in particular Branicki enjoyed the protection and friendship of Grigorii Potemkin, an influential favourite of Catherine II, thanks to whom he increased the prerogatives of his office.The first misunderstandings between Stanislaw August and Branicki went back to his mission to France, where he was dispatched by the king (November 1772) but did not adhere to the royal instructions. Nonetheless, in the course of the next two years the king and Branicki continued to cooperate, with the latter becoming a member of a full fledged parliamentary Delegation in which he fulfilled the function of the head of the regalists. In 1774 Branicki travelled to St. Petersburg upon the request of the king, and in the latter's interests; the objectives of the trip included preventing the establishment of the Permanent Council which could limit the king's prerogatives. Ultimately, Stanislaw August came to terms with the Council, established in April 1775, and even perceived in it a core of future executive power in the state; Branicki, however, became its fervent opponent and envisaged the Council as a factor limiting the license of the ministers. He also joined the so–called magnate opposition which remained hostile towards the Council and the monarch. In time, he befriended two leaders of the magnate opposition: Adam Kazimierz Czatoryski and Ignacy Potocki. The fact that the protector of the Council was Otto Stackelberg, the Russian ambassador to Warsaw, produced growing antagonism between him and Branicki. Stackelberg could not bear the fact that Branicki was boasting of his relations in St. Petersburg. In the middle of 1775, Branicki heeded a request made by Potemkin and set off for Moscow. Upon his return, he made it obvious that he enjoyed the great support of the Russian ruler. Stackelberg decided to tackle Branicki in St. Petersburg where he arrived in January 1776. A month later he was followed by Branicki, together with I. Potocki, who intended to counter the campaign conducted by the ambassador. The latter, however, proved capable of winning the support of Catherine II. Once in Poland, they announced, however, that Russia would not intervene in domestic Polish questions by resorting to force, and thus encouraged the magnate opposition to actively participate at the deputy dietines in July 1776. The conflict between Branicki and Stackelberg influenced the ambassador's decision to draw closer to Stanislaw August as regards the question of the future Seym. The discord between Branicki and the king grew, with the latter determined to considerably limit the authority enjoyed by the hetman. This policy was carried out at the confederate Parliament of 1776, when the magnate opposition, i. a. due to Russian pressure, was overcome and the hetmans lost their rights in favour of the Military Department of the Permanent Council.
3
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“ANTIQUISING IMAGINATION” IN THE SERVICE OF POLITICAL EXPANSION: ON THE EVE OF THE “GREAT GREEK PROJECT” OF CATHERINE II

61%
Kamenskikh A.
Konštantínove listy
|
2023
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vol. 16
|
issue 2
91 - 101
EN
The paper explores the materials of the correspondence of Voltaire and Catherine II for examination the schemes of Enlightenment historical imagination and arguments to history used for conceptualizing and legitimation of current political events and actions during the Russian-Ottoman war of 1768 – 1774. Tropological analysis reveals, among the series of sustained historical arguments having been developed by the “patriarch of the Enlightenment” in his aspirations to persuade the Russian empress to become the “queen of the Greeks” and European countries to support Catherine in her struggle against the Ottoman Empire, an especial type of classicist imaginative schemes (schemes of “antiquising imagination”) which were emerging in the correspondence during the discussion of the Balkan issues. The paper demonstrates how in these schemes, the territories of the Northern Pontic, the Balkans and the Archipelago were imagined and described by the participants of the correspondence in terms of the language which goes back to the texts by Greek classical authors included in the circle of classicist modern European education; analyses the political functions of this language in the texts of the French philosopher and the Russian empress; describes the first outlines of the future “Byzantine idea” in Russian political imagination.
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