Confederation of Slutsk
The Confederation of Slutsk was an association of representatives of the Lithuanian part of Poland-Lithuania in 1767. They met in Slutsk (now in Belarus ) and demanded equal rights for Orthodox and Protestants as Catholics in the aristocratic republic were entitled to .
prehistory
The Polish constitution of 1717 discriminated against all residents of the aristocratic republic who were not Catholics. They were not allowed to own churches or hold services, nor could they hold any public office and had no right to vote.
Since her enthronement in 1762, the Russian Tsarina Catherine II has been very committed to the rights of the Orthodox in Poland-Lithuania. In 1766 she appealed to the Sejm to guarantee equal rights for all non-Catholic Christians. After this request was denied, she sent troops to the northeastern part of the country. The Russian ambassador in Warsaw Nikolai Repnin encouraged the nobility in Lithuania and Polish-Prussia to form confederations and formulate their demands.
Confederation of Slutsk
On March 20, 1767, Reformed (Calvinist) and Orthodox nobles met in the Trinity Monastery in Sluzk to discuss their ideas. The chairman was the Calvinist general Jan Jerzy Grabowski. Another important participant was the only Orthodox bishop of Poland-Lithuania Georgi von Mogilev. The Tsarina sent an army of 20,000 soldiers to protect her. The meeting kept in contact with the Polish-Prussian Protestants who were meeting at the same time .
The Slutsk Confederation was also joined by a number of Greek Catholic and Critical Roman Catholic nobles. On April 25, the participants presented their demands to the Polish king. In May the Duke and the nobility of Courland joined the union.
Other events
In July, the Radom Confederation was formed as an association of Roman Catholic nobles who supported the demands of Slutsk and Thorn. On October 5th, the Sejm ( Repnin-Sejm ) began to deal with the demands. After considerable pressure from the Russian ambassador Repnin and the presence of Russian troops in Warsaw on February 24, 1768, a Polish-Russian treaty stipulated that non-Catholics in Poland-Lithuania and Catholics in Poland-Lithuania were approximately equal.
As a protest against the agreement, the Catholic Confederation of Bar was formed , which resulted in the First Partition of Poland . Several historians are of the opinion that Catherine II's commitment to the religious minorities in Poland-Lithuania was an excellent gateway to ultimately assert their territorial and political interests.
literature
- Continued new genealogical-historical news of the noblest events which take place in the European courts. 79th volume. Leipzig 1768. p. 474
- Носов Б. В .: Польские конфедерации 1767 г. и политика России в «диссидентском вопросе» . In: Религия и политика в Европе XVI – XX вв. Смоленск, 1998.