Editing Partitions of Poland (section)

== Reasons, legality and justifications ==
More recent studies claim that partitions happened when the Commonwealth had been showing the beginning signs of a slow recovery and see the last two partitions as an answer to strengthening reforms in the Commonwealth and the potential threat they represented to its power-hungry neighbours.<ref name="Wandycz" /><ref name="Davies:Europe" /><ref name="NowakSarmatia" /><ref name="Army_Duchy">[http://web2.airmail.net/napoleon/polish_army.html The Army of Grand Duchy of Warsaw] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051214183008/http://web2.airmail.net/napoleon/polish_army.html |date=2005-12-14 }}</ref><ref name="Buffalohist3May">{{cite web |first=Carl L. |last=Bucki |publisher=University of Buffalo |series=History of Poland |url=http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/constitution.html |title=The Constitution of May 3, 1791 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205130036/http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/constitution.html |archive-date=December 5, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Schroeder">{{cite book |first=Paul W. |last=Schroeder |author-link=Paul W. Schroeder |title=The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-19-820654-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BS2z3iGPCigC&dq=Poland+%22constitutional+monarchy%22&pg=PA84 |page=84}}</ref><ref name="GRussell">{{cite book |first=Geoffrey |last=Russell |title=The Making of Modern Europe, 1648–1780 |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=0-415-30155-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxi8h67Siy4C&dq=justifications+for+the+partitions+of+Poland&pg=RA1-PA548 |page=548}}</ref>

As historian [[Norman Davies]] stated, because the [[balance of power (international relations)|balance of power equilibrium]] was observed, many contemporary observers accepted explanations of the "enlightened apologists" of the partitioning state.<ref name="Dav283">{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Davies |title=God's Playground: A History of Poland in Two Volumes |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-19-925339-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b912JnKpYTkC&q=the+coincidence+of+view&pg=RA1-PA283 |page=283}}</ref><ref name="Davies:Europe" /> 19th-century historians from countries that carried out the partitions, such as 19th-century Russian scholar [[Sergey Solovyov (historian)|Sergey Solovyov]], and their 20th century followers, argued that partitions were justified, as the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] had degenerated to the point of being partitioned because the counterproductive principle of {{lang|la|[[liberum veto]]}} made decision-making on divisive issues, such as a wide-scale social reform, virtually impossible. Solovyov specified the cultural, language and religious break between the supreme and lowest layers of the society in the east regions of the Commonwealth, where the [[Belarusians|Belarusian]] and [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] [[serfdom|serf]] peasantry was Orthodox. Russian authors emphasized the historical connections between Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, as former parts of the medieval old Russian state where dynasty of [[Rurik dynasty|Rurikids]] reigned ([[Kievan Rus']]).<ref>E.g., [[Sergey Solovyov (historian)|Sergey Solovyov]]'s ''History of the Downfall of Poland'' (Moscow, 1863).</ref> Thus, [[Nikolay Karamzin]] wrote: "Let the foreigners denounce the partition of Poland: we took what was ours."<ref>N. M. Karamzin. {{lang|ru|italic=no|[http://rys-arhipelag.ucoz.ru/publ/6-1-0-133 "Записка о древней и новой России в ее политическом и гражданском отношениях"]}} [Notes on old and new Russia in its political and civil relations].{{fcn|date=November 2023}}</ref> Russian historians often stressed that Russia annexed primarily Ukrainian and Belarusian provinces with Eastern Slavic inhabitants,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Nicholas V. |last=Riasanovsky |title=Old Russia, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe |journal=American Slavic and East European Review |volume=11 |issue=3 |year=1952 |pages=171–188|doi=10.2307/2491975 |jstor=2491975 }}</ref> although many [[Ruthenians]] were no more enthusiastic about Russia than about Poland, and ignoring ethnically Polish and Lithuanian territories also being annexed later. A new justification for partitions arose with the [[Russian Enlightenment]], as Russian writers such as [[Gavrila Derzhavin]], [[Denis Fonvizin]], and [[Alexander Pushkin]] stressed degeneration of Catholic Poland and the need to "civilize" it by its neighbors.<ref name="NowakSarmatia">{{cite journal |author-link=Andrzej Nowak (historian) |first=Andrzej |last=Nowak |url=http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/197/Nowak.html |title=The Russo-Polish Historical Confrontation |journal=[[Sarmatian Review]] |year=1997 |volume=XVII |issue=1}}</ref>

Nonetheless, other 19th century contemporaries were much more skeptical; for example, British jurist Sir [[Robert Phillimore]] discussed the partition as a violation of [[international law]];<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Phillimore |author-link=Robert Phillimore |title=Commentaries Upon International Law |year=1854 |publisher=T. & J. W. Johnson |url=https://archive.org/details/commentariesupo05philgoog/page/n324 <!-- pg=319 quote=justification "partitions of Poland". --> |page=819}}</ref> German jurist [[Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim]] presented similar views.<ref name="Oppen">{{cite book |first=Sharon |last=Korman |author-link=Sharon Korman |title=The Right of Conquest: The Acquisition of Territory by Force in International Law and Practice |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-19-828007-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueDO1dJyjrUC&dq=justification+%22partitions+of+Poland%22&pg=PA101 |page=101}}</ref> Other older historians who challenged such justifications for the Partitions included French historian [[Jules Michelet]], British historian and politician [[Thomas Babington Macaulay]], and [[Edmund Burke]], who criticized the immorality of the partitions.<ref name="Davies:Europe">{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Davies |author-link=Norman Davies |title=Europe: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-19-820171-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0/page/842 <!-- quote="partitions of Poland". --> |page=661}}</ref><ref>[http://original.britannica.com/eb/article-28200/Poland Poland The First Partition]{{fcn|date=November 2023}}</ref> Nonetheless, most governments accepted the event as a [[fait acompli]]. The [[Ottoman Empire]] was either the only,<ref>{{cite book|first=Radosław Żurawski vel|last=Grajewski|date=2015|title=Poland. History, Culture and Society. Selected Readings|chapter=Poland in the Period of Partitions 1795–1914|isbn=978-8392310945 |location=[[Łódź]]|page=110|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/944107388|editor=Eleonora Bielawska-Batorowicz|publisher=[[University of Łódź]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Paulina D.|last=Dominik|title=History Takes Place: Istanbul. Dynamics of Urban Change|chapter=From the Polish Times of Pera: Late Ottoman Istanbul through the Lens of Polish emigration|isbn=978-3868593686 |location=[[Berlin]]|page=94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1AXswEACAAJ|editor1-first=Ayşe |editor1-last=Öncü|editor2-first=Anna |editor2-last=Hofmann|publisher=Jovis |date=2016}}</ref> or one of only two countries in the world that refused to accept the partitions,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prazmowska |first=Anita |title=Poland: A Modern History |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2010 |page=25}}</ref> (the other being the [[Afsharid dynasty|Persian Empire]]),<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Polish-Iranian relations |url=https://tehran.mfa.gov.pl/en/bilateral_cooperation/history/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122045901/https://tehran.mfa.gov.pl/en/bilateral_cooperation/history/ |archive-date=2019-01-22 |access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref> and reserved a place in its diplomatic corps for an Ambassador of [[Lehistan]] (Poland).

Several scholars focused on the economic motivations of the partitioning powers. [[Hajo Holborn]] noted that Prussia aimed to take control of the lucrative Baltic [[grain trade]] through [[Gdańsk]].<ref name="Holborn1982">{{cite book |first=Hajo |last=Holborn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yeXYMV3CZ0IC&pg=PA256 |title=A History of Modern Germany: 1648–1840 |date=1 December 1982 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-00796-0 |page=256 |access-date=16 February 2012}}</ref> In the 18th century the Russian peasants were escaping from Russia to the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] (where the [[Serfdom in Poland|once dire conditions]] had improved, [[Serfdom in Russia|unlike in Russia]]<ref name="Wagner">{{cite journal |last=Wagner |first=W. J. |date=1992 |title=May 3, 1791, and the Polish constitutional tradition |journal=The Polish Review |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=383–395 |jstor=25778591}}</ref>) in significant enough numbers to become a major concern for the Russian Government sufficient to play a role in its decision to partition the Commonwealth (one of the reasons [[Catherine the Great|Catherine II]] gave for the [[partition of Poland]] was that thousands of peasants escaped from Russia to Poland to seek a better fate").<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last=Czajewski |first=Jerzy |date=October 2004 |title=Zbiegostwo ludności Rosji w granice Rzeczypospolitej |trans-title=Russian population exodus into the Rzeczpospolita |url=http://www.promemoria.pl/arch/2004_15/2004_15.html |url-status=dead |journal=Promemoria |issue=6/15 |issn=1509-9091 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050103164508/http://www.promemoria.pl/arch/2004_15/2004_15.html |archive-date=3 January 2005}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Kimla |first=Piotr |date=2011 |title=Przywary niewolników pańszczyźnianych w XVIII-wiecznej Rzeczypospolitej w relacji Huberta Vautrina |url=http://bazekon.icm.edu.pl/bazekon/element/bwmeta1.element.ekon-element-000171365797 |journal=Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. Sectio G. Ius |language=pl |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=87–97 |issn=0458-4317}}</ref> Jerzy Czajewski and Piotr Kimla assert that in the 18th century until the partitions solved this problem, Russian armies increasingly raided territories of the Commonwealth, officially to recover the escapees, but in fact kidnapping many locals;<ref name=":03" /> Piotr Kimla noted that the Russian government spread international propaganda, mainly in France, which falsely exaggerated serfdom conditions in Poland, while ignoring worse conditions in Russia, as one of the justification for the partitions.<ref name=":0" />