Four-year Sejm

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Adoption of the constitution of May 3, 1791 (painting from 1806)

The four-year Sejm refers to the parliament of Poland-Lithuania in the session years 1788–1792. It was convened in Warsaw with the permission of the Russian Tsarina Catherine II . Initially, the topic was sending 100,000 soldiers to help in the Russian Turkish War . In March 1790, the Sejm concluded the Polish-Prussian Alliance , a defensive alliance in the event of a Russian attack on Poland, but later refused to cede Danzig and Thorn to Prussia, which was set out as a pricethe Agreement. The French Revolution , which endangered the absolutist monarchies of Europe with the slogans of freedom, equality and fraternity , also had a major influence on the work of the Sejm . Above all, Poland's neighbors Prussia, Austria and Russia, as well as the rich Polish-Lithuanian aristocracy , called for the "destruction of the Parisian vermin".

One of the most important works of the four-year-old Sejm was the adoption of a new constitution , the Constitution of May 3, 1791 . It was the first modern constitution in Europe, the second ever after the USA , and, in addition to the division and entanglement of powers, also envisaged the principle of popular sovereignty and the establishment of a parliamentary - constitutional monarchy with a hereditary monarch at the head of the state. The last meeting was on May 29, 1792. The constitution itself lasted 14 months and 3 weeks.

Marshal of the assembly was Stanisław Małachowski .

literature

  • Walerian Kalinka: Sejm Czteroletni t. I-II, Warszawa 1991, ISBN 83-85218-30-0 .
  • Bogusław Leśnodorski: Dzieło Sejmu Czteroletniego (1788–1792). Studied historyczno-prawne , Wrocław 1951.
  • Jerzy Michalski: Opozycja magnacka i jej cele w początkach Sejmu Czteroletniego , w: Sejm Czteroletni i jego tradycje : pod red. J. Koweckiego, Warszawa 1991.
  • Emanuel Rostworowski: Ostatni król Rzeczypospolitej. Geneza i upadek Konstytucji 3 Maja , Warszawa 1966.
  • Władysław Smoleński: Ostatni rok Sejmu Wielkiego , Kraków 1897.
  • Władysław Konopczyński : Chronologia sejmów polskich 1493–1793, Kraków 1948, p. 167.