The “Magnificent Age” - Catherine II TL
- Thread starter alexmilman
- Start date
A list of the items on which these money could be usefully spend will be quite long. And the list of the items on which they were misspent in OTL probably was much longer. 😉
The army needed them, providing they’d be spent properly. The Baltic fleet was falling apart literally, the canals built during the reign of PI were dilapidating, the roads and bridges … (Nicholas I: “two major problems of the Russian Empire are the morons and the roads), at least slightly more money can be spent on education, there was a need of (more than one) commercial bank, the state-owned manufactures could benefit from a new equipment, etc.
The OTL priority items: insane gifts to Orlov family and various high-ranking officials. Imperial palaces, extremely luxurious court.
Indeed. And there are also in OTL expenses related to the Polish elections, which mostly fall into category “wasted money” and, taking into an account the unintended consequences, “huge amounts of wasted money”. I’ll try to work a little bit on that item later. 😉
Of course, some “fool’s luck” will come into the picture as well.
11. The Big Items or Show of Ingratitude #2
11. The Big Items or Show of Ingratitude #2
In 1750, at the age of 22, on the Cossack council in Glukhov K. Razumovsky was elected hetman of Ukraine. Especially for this purpose, Elizabeth Petrovna lifted the ban on the election of Ukrainian hetmans, which had been in force since the death of D. Apostle.
Being an active participant of the coup of 1762, Razumovsky fully expected Catherine’s support of his ambitious plan to make hetmanship hereditary and to turn Hetmanate in a de facto vassal state of the Russian Empire. Part of the Hetmanate’s administrative elite (those with the IQ low enough not to see the obvious results of their action) signed petition to this effect but the rest (those with more brains) either abstained or simply reused. Even if prior to receiving that document Catherine may entertain an idea of preserving status quo in the “Little Russia” or at least delaying an action, now the hesitations were gone.
Of course, Hetman Razumovsky, officially, “Her Imperial Majesty Hetman of All Little Russia, both sides of the Dnieper and the Zaporozhye troops, a real chamberlain, President of the Academy of Sciences, the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel”, was a well-educated and quite pleasant person who spent most of his time at the court (being married to Naryshkina, he was linked to the Romanov family and this type of relations was important) but he was working too hard on turning his residence, first in Glukhov and then in Baturin, into something of a real capital with a palace in which he kept an extensive staff.
Of course, the letter was just the last straw because the problems (at least from the imperial perspective) with the Hetmanate kept growing:
The bottom line was simple: while in the past decades population of the Hetmanate almost doubled, amount of the taxes collected by the central government remained the same or even decreased, the local elite formed a closed corporation and was not controlled by the central government and quality and numbers of the troops raised from the Hetmanate decreased. Hetman Razumovsky had been contemplating reforms but did little or nothing while displaying the unhealthy ambitions.
Situation could not be allowed to keep deteriorating and the first step was obvious: the Hetman must be removed but, this being the civilized time, he must ask for it. Razumovsky was hinted but pretended to be dumb. This forced Catherine to be more explicit: he was banned from the court. Playing dumb any longer would be idiotic and he had also to think about the future of his big family so he wrote Catherine a letter begging her to relieve him of the heavy duties which he can’t carry anymore due to ill health….
He was immediately forgiven, allowed to get back to the court, made fieldmarhal, got some cookies allowing him to maintain his palaces in St.Petersburg and Baturin and old life style.
The second step was to appoint a replacement (without Hetman’s title) capable of put the affairs into a proper order. Collegium of the Little Russia was restored and Catherine appointed as its chairman and supreme commander of the Ukrainian Cossack regiments and Ukrainian Division a disliked but nonetheless appreciated Peter Rumyantsev.
He was provided with a long and detailed instruction regarding expected activities from a need to provide a thorough map of the territory and all the way to launch an effective campaign against the drunkenness [4]. At first, it was not quite clear to Rumyantsev if this appointment is an award or a honorable exile but then he got into the taste of it and conducted his mission with an efficient combination of the stick and carrot.
____________
[1] A popular joke in the Soviet Union. The full text is
«Отчизне посвятим/Души прекрасные порывы» - “Let’s dedicate the good intentions of our souls to the Motherland”. When quoted as above the noun «души» turns into a completely unrelated verb and the meaning is “strangle the good intentions”. 😜
[2] The regiments had been raised from the assigned territories ruled by the military-administrative hierarchy (colonel, commanders of hundreds, regimental scribes, treasurers, etc.).
[3] “Commander of the hundred”, one more military-administrative position.
[4] The reason for this was purely practical: Catherine wanted increase productivity of the region both for the domestic market and export.
“Manage to make people proud. And pride will make them stupid. And then you'll take them.”
Genghis Khan
“Each and every Hetman is a traitor”
Peter I
“Little Russia, Livonia and Finland are the provinces that rule by the privileges that had been confirmed: it would be very obscene to violate them at suddenly, but to call them foreign, and to treat them on the same basis is more than a mistake, but can be called with certainty stupidity. These provinces, as well as Smolensk province, should be led in the easiest ways to make them russified and stop looking like wolves to the forest... when there is no hetman in Little Russia, we should try to make the name of the hetmans disappear forever.”
“You need to act slowly, with caution and with reason.”
“About the art of government: the first rule is to make people think they want it themselves.”
Catherine II
«Души прекрасные порывы» [1]
A.S. Pushkin
Genghis Khan
“Each and every Hetman is a traitor”
Peter I
“Little Russia, Livonia and Finland are the provinces that rule by the privileges that had been confirmed: it would be very obscene to violate them at suddenly, but to call them foreign, and to treat them on the same basis is more than a mistake, but can be called with certainty stupidity. These provinces, as well as Smolensk province, should be led in the easiest ways to make them russified and stop looking like wolves to the forest... when there is no hetman in Little Russia, we should try to make the name of the hetmans disappear forever.”
“You need to act slowly, with caution and with reason.”
“About the art of government: the first rule is to make people think they want it themselves.”
Catherine II
«Души прекрасные порывы» [1]
A.S. Pushkin
In 1750, at the age of 22, on the Cossack council in Glukhov K. Razumovsky was elected hetman of Ukraine. Especially for this purpose, Elizabeth Petrovna lifted the ban on the election of Ukrainian hetmans, which had been in force since the death of D. Apostle.
Being an active participant of the coup of 1762, Razumovsky fully expected Catherine’s support of his ambitious plan to make hetmanship hereditary and to turn Hetmanate in a de facto vassal state of the Russian Empire. Part of the Hetmanate’s administrative elite (those with the IQ low enough not to see the obvious results of their action) signed petition to this effect but the rest (those with more brains) either abstained or simply reused. Even if prior to receiving that document Catherine may entertain an idea of preserving status quo in the “Little Russia” or at least delaying an action, now the hesitations were gone.
Of course, Hetman Razumovsky, officially, “Her Imperial Majesty Hetman of All Little Russia, both sides of the Dnieper and the Zaporozhye troops, a real chamberlain, President of the Academy of Sciences, the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel”, was a well-educated and quite pleasant person who spent most of his time at the court (being married to Naryshkina, he was linked to the Romanov family and this type of relations was important) but he was working too hard on turning his residence, first in Glukhov and then in Baturin, into something of a real capital with a palace in which he kept an extensive staff.
Of course, the letter was just the last straw because the problems (at least from the imperial perspective) with the Hetmanate kept growing:
- Being, in theory, “Cossak state”, Hetmanate was expected to provide considerable numbers of the irregular troops to protect the Southern border against the Tatar raids and to participate in the Empire’s wars. For this service the Cossacks had been tax free but had to come to the service with their own horses and weapons and, potentially, remain on active duty for a considerable time. By the mid-XVIII this arrangement became a serious financial burden and quite often the poorest Cossacks preferred to change voluntarily their social status to one of somebody’s peasants (being taxable by the state and working part time for the owner still was a lesser burden and definitely a lesser risk). Which, of course, made them unfree but OTOH improved their financial situation. Quite often they were turned into the peasant due to inability to repay debts to a local landlord. As a result, the real number of the Cossack troops kept shrinking [2] with no clear accounting because the regimental leadership, being the biggest landowners in the area, were the most interested party in the schema. As a result, the Empire was losing the troops while not receiving the taxes.
- Unlike Russia proper where the peasants’ migration had been forbidden in the late XVI, in Ukraine there was a big and growing class of the agricultural workers migrating from one landowner to another. Their numbers were not known and, as a result, they could not be taxed.
- The military-administrative elite, “starshina”, kept a tight control over the the big and small cities and while in theory many cities were subjects to the Magdeburg Law (inherited from the PLC times), in a reality these rights were too often ignored. As was formulated by one of the “starshina” members, “The interests of the burghers are completely contrary to the interests of the military people.” Initially autonomous in administrative affairs, elected magistrates now were dependent on Cossack regimental offices. In some cases, even the heads of city self-government ceased to be elected, and were appointed by starshina. In addition, contrary to the principles of Magdeburg Law, the starshina and Cossacks actively conducted business activities on the territory of urban communes without paying the fees required by the burghers. An increasing amount of land previously owned by urban municipalities passed into the hands of the serving nobility. The situation of burghers was also negatively affected by the loss of the judicial monopoly of magistrates in urban communities. The Starshina and the Cossacks were under a different judicial jurisdiction, which negatively affected the state of justice in the cities.
- “Significant confusion and disorder among the people comes from the fact that the Cossacks, who have special privileges from men and carry special work, namely: they send the Sovereign's service from their lands on campaigns, have their settlement throughout Little Russia in the villages, belonging to both spiritual and secular landlords” and are mixed with the peasants. “The damage of Your Imperial Majesty of Interest is the main one that the Cossacks live in a great disorder, as scattered in different places from their Sotnik [3], and in the hands of different landlords, as peasants; while the Sotnik, having their settlements scattered at a great distance, cannot maintain them; for, although to every landlord in the universals of the Hetman's, when granting the village, it was written before and now, that the landlords and his peasants have no business to the Cossacks and their lands located in that village; however, how is possible, that the poor and helpless Cossack would resist the Sotnik, and the strong landlord in that village, or people of the village where he's in the Cossacks? When Sotnik, comes to live in his hundred, then the Cossacks are the first builders of the house, the first haymakers for his cattle and the first liners, without mentioning other burdens.”
- Then, there was an endemic problem with a moonshining, massive drinking and resulting poverty “For the cossack, having become drunk, does not think much about the farm, and sows, and reaps bread no more than it would become for him for the winter with the children.”
- Borders of the lands belonging to the cities, villages, suburbs and farms are not clearly defined and the estate owners are mostly busy raiding each other over the territorial disputes while the litigations are dragging out for the decades enriching the judges and financially destroying the litigating sides.
- “Starshina” was, in theory, elective but in practice became pretty much ancestral and mostly out of the imperial control, which could and did provide ground for the dangerous ideas like one regarding the Hetmanship. Taking into an account its geographic position, Hetmanate area was too important strategically to take any risks.
The bottom line was simple: while in the past decades population of the Hetmanate almost doubled, amount of the taxes collected by the central government remained the same or even decreased, the local elite formed a closed corporation and was not controlled by the central government and quality and numbers of the troops raised from the Hetmanate decreased. Hetman Razumovsky had been contemplating reforms but did little or nothing while displaying the unhealthy ambitions.
Situation could not be allowed to keep deteriorating and the first step was obvious: the Hetman must be removed but, this being the civilized time, he must ask for it. Razumovsky was hinted but pretended to be dumb. This forced Catherine to be more explicit: he was banned from the court. Playing dumb any longer would be idiotic and he had also to think about the future of his big family so he wrote Catherine a letter begging her to relieve him of the heavy duties which he can’t carry anymore due to ill health….
He was immediately forgiven, allowed to get back to the court, made fieldmarhal, got some cookies allowing him to maintain his palaces in St.Petersburg and Baturin and old life style.
The second step was to appoint a replacement (without Hetman’s title) capable of put the affairs into a proper order. Collegium of the Little Russia was restored and Catherine appointed as its chairman and supreme commander of the Ukrainian Cossack regiments and Ukrainian Division a disliked but nonetheless appreciated Peter Rumyantsev.
He was provided with a long and detailed instruction regarding expected activities from a need to provide a thorough map of the territory and all the way to launch an effective campaign against the drunkenness [4]. At first, it was not quite clear to Rumyantsev if this appointment is an award or a honorable exile but then he got into the taste of it and conducted his mission with an efficient combination of the stick and carrot.
- Starshina had to accept loss of its autonomy with an award being official conversion into the hereditary serf-owners fully incorporated into the Russian Empire with the resulting career opportunities.
- Peasants migration had been clamped upon (it took many years). Of course, there were unrests some of which had to be suppressed by a military force but the process kept going on.
- The census was conducted to separate cossacks from a taxable population and increase state income. The officials recorded not only people, but also property - down to the pigs. The inventory contained information about diseases, the spread of crafts, fire safety, and beggars.
- Very serious attention had been paid to improving the fighting abilities of the Cossack units. Unlike the adherents of the “classic” military system, Rumyantsev well understood potential usefulness of the light troops, especially when and if it will come to the wars with the opponents like PLC or the Ottoman Empire. He understood quite well that turning the Cossacks into a regular army is pretty much impossible and that existing military-administrative structure will not be practical for the strictly military purposes (who would be left to conduct the administrative duties at home?) but, with the proper war-time appointments, the Cossacks could be quite useful for the scouting and patrolling duties. He also (later) insisted on providing them with a regular salary, as the Cossacks of Don.
____________
[1] A popular joke in the Soviet Union. The full text is
«Отчизне посвятим/Души прекрасные порывы» - “Let’s dedicate the good intentions of our souls to the Motherland”. When quoted as above the noun «души» turns into a completely unrelated verb and the meaning is “strangle the good intentions”. 😜
[2] The regiments had been raised from the assigned territories ruled by the military-administrative hierarchy (colonel, commanders of hundreds, regimental scribes, treasurers, etc.).
[3] “Commander of the hundred”, one more military-administrative position.
[4] The reason for this was purely practical: Catherine wanted increase productivity of the region both for the domestic market and export.
Well Cathy II did the equivalent of cutting the Gordian knot I guess.
Or rather she tried: disentanglement of the whole mess proved to be a long process and the numbers of Ukrainian cossacks proved to be rather unimpressive but the integration kept going on and the state revenues kept growing.
12. Polish Circus
12. Polish Circus
The Saxon candidate, Frederick Christian, older son of August III, dying month after his father and the second son, Frederick August, being only 13 years old and, as a result, not considered eligible for the 1764 election, the realistic field of the candidates was narrowed to two: Poniatowski and Branicki. Actually, at some moment Prince Lubomirski, one of the richest and more powerful magnates, also considered a run but drooped off fast enough. At the news about his candidacy Catherine commented “saddle does not suit a cow”.
The Great Crown Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki, was one of the wealthiest Polish magnates in the 18th century, owner of 12 towns (including Białystok [2]) , 257 villages and 17 palaces. Leader of the conservative magnates party and political opponent of the “Familia” (Czartoryski). Speaking of the families, his wife, Countess Izabella Poniatowska, was sister of Stanislav Poniatowski so one can say that the rivalry was just a family (not to be confused with “Familia” 😉 ) affair.
If by that time Catherine’s actions were already fully controlled by her head, she would be probably support old and rich Hetman rather than his young and penniless brother-in-law. Of course, she was right in an assumption that Count Stanislaw is going to be financially dependent upon her but this was more than “compensated” by his and Czartoryski’s ideas regarding reforms, which were going against her (and Old Fritz) idea of keeping the PLC weak. And his financial and military dependency may easily turn from an asset to liability getting Russia entangled in something it should keep away from. OTOH, Branicki, besides his huge wealth and popularity had under his command a Crown Army, which on paper amounted to 12,000. Its real size and battle-worthiness were another issue but it is reasonable to assume that these troops were bigger and better than the magnates’ “private armies”.
He also had as an ally Prince Karol Stanisław, “Panie Kochanku” Radziwiłł, reputedly, the wealthiest magnate in Poland-Lithuania, who had a personal army of at least 3 - 4,000. Carol owned many cities, towns and villages, and his income was equal to the annual revenues to the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Well, actually, nobody could tell this for sure because the estimates varied from 40,000,000 to 200,000,000 zloty. By all accounts, he was more than a little bit eccentric, especially when drunk, which meant, shall we say, quite often. While he, of course, never was Russian hussar, the song of Aeksandriisky regiment (written in the XIX century after his death) would fit him well:
For Catherine this was her first major international affair so it would be rather unrealistic to expect that she was going to handle it without making grave mistakes, especially taking into an account that, instead of clearly formulating what exactly she wants and then choosing a candidate best fitting her political platform, she started with choosing a candidate based exclusively upon the emotions and then convinced herself, contrary to the available evidence, that he fits her platform. Even worse, she was not getting a proper advice from the available experienced diplomats. Bestuzev kept blabbing about the Austria-backed candidate and Panin was so obsessed with the idea of Prussian alliance that he would advocate anyone acceptable to Frederick fully ignoring the growing evidence that the Old Fritz was playing his own game and that game is not to the Russian advantage. Catherine was listening to Panin because he was saying what she was to hear about Poniatowski candidacy thus getting herself into a mess.
The first “alarm bell” sounded when Poniatowski sent a list of conditions on which he is ready to became a candidate to the throne. Who was doing favor to whom? The list was anything but innocent:
To Catherine’s credit, her instruction to the Russian ambassador in Warsaw, Prince N. Repnin, were to stress on the need to get Stanislav elected avoiding the definite commitments. However, at that point she felt herself too deeply involved to change her course abruptly, especially taking into an account that there was a continued flow of a flattery coming both from Prussia and Poland. Well, as far as Prussia was concerned, flattery from the Old Fritz amounted to delegating all activities to her: he was providing “a moral support” while refusing any financial or military involvement. Flattery coming from the “Familia” soon enough became mixed with the requests for money and military intervention. Of course, intervention part was done cleverly in the form of request to save Poland from the illegal activities of Branicki and Radziwill.
Count Panin supported this idea in a long-winded “remark” to Catherine in which he did not just advocated a military intervention but was recommending to let the “Familia” to take charge of these troops and define their number. In this “remark” he was still clinging to a notion of a joined action with the King of Prussia even if Frederick was already quite open that, as far as he is concerned, “the whole thing will be defined in St.-Petersburg”.
Rather unfortunately, Prince Repnin was a person, both by the character and military background, prone to recommending and executing the “iron fist” measures rather than being engaged in the diplomatic games and, after arrival to Poland in 1763 and getting familiar with the local customs, he came to a conclusion that this is the only method applicable there. As a result, he also backed up the requests coming from the “Russian party” even if he was rather skeptical regarding the needed vs. requested numbers.
Catherine, so to speak, went with a flow and sanctioned the intervention. However, she demonstrated a better understanding of the situation than Panin and rejected request to send 1,000 Cossacks: while the military result of the Cossacks activities was unclear, the political impact of their appearance was going to be strictly negative, taking into an account their reputation for the looting and general dislike of the Polish nobility. [4]
Fortunately, surprise, surprise, there still was Russian contingent in the Polish Prussia guarding the warehouses left from the 7YW.
Intermission: Why these warehouses and the troops still were there is anybody’s guess. I’d bet on a general ineptitude of the Military Collegium which could easily “forget” about their existence. An option that they were still there due to a brilliant strategic foresight that anticipated the PLC domestic problems couple years in advance is, of course, a non-zero probability so you can chose whatever explanation you want or invent one of your own and let it be known. 😉
This contingent, commanded by general Khomutov, was small but there was something of a consensus, shared both by the Poles and Russians, that even small Russian regular force would defeat any Polish resistance: “True," Repnin wrote to Panin, "that this unit is not big, but it is enough for Poland; I am sure that five or six thousand Poles not only cannot master Khomutov's detachment, but they will not dare to think about it.” Khomutov was ordered to march toward Warsaw at stop in Zakrochim, 50 miles from it.
Encouraged by this action 26 Polish magnates wrote a collective letter to Catherine in which they denounced protests of the “false patriots” and thanked her for sending the troops to support their liberties:
“…We see with sorrow that the laws of our fatherland are not enough to keep these false patriots within the proper limits. With danger to us, we experienced the oppression of our freedom on their part, namely at the last Sejms, where military force constrained the supply of votes in many places. We were threatened with the same abuse of force at the future Sejms, convocation and electoral, where we would not have troops to oppose it to the state army…”
To increase Poniatowski’s (so far negligible) prestige among the Poles, Catherine sent him Order of St. Andrew and convinced Frederick to sent him Order of the Black Eagle.
In the end of April the senators, delegates and everybody else who wanted to be there, started arriving to Warsaw for the convocation Sejm and each of them had been bringing his armed supporters. Radziwill brought 3,000 troops, Branicki also brought a big army contingent and so did Czartoryski family. Opening of the sejm was scheduled for May 7 and Warsaw looked as a potential battlefield but the Branicki party did not appear at the sejm opening. Instead they sent a written protest against violation of the rules due to the presence of the Russian troops. However, the sejm was not broken. An idea to declare a confederation in Warsaw also failed: Branicki declared that Warsaw is too dangerous and retreated to look for a safer place followed by the Russian contingent. There was a small rearguard skirmish about which Repnin, present at it, wrote “The enemy's flight was so fast, that is was impossible to catch up with him.”
Convocation sejm closed in June with the established ritual: A general confederation was established, which was united with the Lithuanian confederation, and Prince Czartoryski was elected marshal of the crown confederation, it was decided that only a Pole on both father’s and mother’s side can be elected, and were established two Commissions - military and financial; these commissions reduced the power of hetmans and chief financial managers who became just their chairmen. This would allow the future king to establish a better order in both areas and the military commission was ordered to start implementing the decision of 1717 regarding increasing real size of the regiments to a prescribed by the regulations.
As a token of its gratitude, the sejm finally acknowledged the imperial title of the Russian rulers so at least on one item from her wish list Catherine got what she wanted.
In a meantime, Radziwill separated from Branicki and went to Lithuania but was caught by the Russians at Slonim and defeated. With 1,200 cavalry he crossed the Dniester and reached Moldavia but infantry and artillery was captured. From Moldavia he went to Hungary and then to Dresden. Branicki also went to Hungary.
Everything was going just fine but at this cheerful moment Repnin informed Panin that now Poniatowski has a new rival, his uncle Prince Augustus Czartoryski, who, started working actively upon his own election camppaign using money he got for promoting his nephew. Catherine was reluctant to openly insist on Poniatowski, stating that she wants free elections, but Repnin did not suffer from her scruples and told the Primate and assembly of the Polish magnates that Poniatowski is Empress’ choice whom he is going to “recommend” on the election sejm. This ended the whole circus.
The election sejm started on August 16, went smoothly and was closed on 26th with a quite democratic election from a pool of one candidate.
Catherine wrote to Panin: “Congratulation with the king we made.”
She was excessively optimistic.
________________
[1]
Drinking Song of the 5th Aleksandriisky Hussar regiment
Let me die irretrievably
Forever, friends, forever, friends,
But in a meantime
I will drink, I will drink!
(photo above is incorrect: the regimental horses were black) 😂
[2] For the geographically challenged but otherwise advanced, it is NOT “Bialystock and Bloom” from “The Producers”
[3] “When I’m drunk, and I’m always drunk,/Nothing will scare me.”
[4] At that point TL deviates from OTL where Catherine did sent the Cossacks and then more troops which had been marching from Lithuania to Warsaw.
“Internal turmoils are very boring, but, if not supported by any state, they will certainly stop by themselves.”
Prince Repnin, Russian ambassador in the PLC, about elections of 1764
“You can make any promises you think necessary. I’m not going to honor them, anyway.”
‘The Tudors’
“In fact, I will not be upset if the dissident case fails. You don't find it in front of the Russians, pretend that I'm very angry that all the work used for the success of this case is wasted.”
Frederick II to his ambassador in Warsaw
“You are already too deeply in…”
‘Operation “Petticoat”’
«Пускай погибну безвозвратно
Навѣкъ, друзья, навѣкъ, друзья,
Но всё жъ покамѣсть аккуратно
Пить буду я, пить буду я!»
Застольная песня 5го Александрийского гусарского полка [1]
Prince Repnin, Russian ambassador in the PLC, about elections of 1764
“You can make any promises you think necessary. I’m not going to honor them, anyway.”
‘The Tudors’
“In fact, I will not be upset if the dissident case fails. You don't find it in front of the Russians, pretend that I'm very angry that all the work used for the success of this case is wasted.”
Frederick II to his ambassador in Warsaw
“You are already too deeply in…”
‘Operation “Petticoat”’
«Пускай погибну безвозвратно
Навѣкъ, друзья, навѣкъ, друзья,
Но всё жъ покамѣсть аккуратно
Пить буду я, пить буду я!»
Застольная песня 5го Александрийского гусарского полка [1]
The Saxon candidate, Frederick Christian, older son of August III, dying month after his father and the second son, Frederick August, being only 13 years old and, as a result, not considered eligible for the 1764 election, the realistic field of the candidates was narrowed to two: Poniatowski and Branicki. Actually, at some moment Prince Lubomirski, one of the richest and more powerful magnates, also considered a run but drooped off fast enough. At the news about his candidacy Catherine commented “saddle does not suit a cow”.
The Great Crown Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki, was one of the wealthiest Polish magnates in the 18th century, owner of 12 towns (including Białystok [2]) , 257 villages and 17 palaces. Leader of the conservative magnates party and political opponent of the “Familia” (Czartoryski). Speaking of the families, his wife, Countess Izabella Poniatowska, was sister of Stanislav Poniatowski so one can say that the rivalry was just a family (not to be confused with “Familia” 😉 ) affair.
If by that time Catherine’s actions were already fully controlled by her head, she would be probably support old and rich Hetman rather than his young and penniless brother-in-law. Of course, she was right in an assumption that Count Stanislaw is going to be financially dependent upon her but this was more than “compensated” by his and Czartoryski’s ideas regarding reforms, which were going against her (and Old Fritz) idea of keeping the PLC weak. And his financial and military dependency may easily turn from an asset to liability getting Russia entangled in something it should keep away from. OTOH, Branicki, besides his huge wealth and popularity had under his command a Crown Army, which on paper amounted to 12,000. Its real size and battle-worthiness were another issue but it is reasonable to assume that these troops were bigger and better than the magnates’ “private armies”.
He also had as an ally Prince Karol Stanisław, “Panie Kochanku” Radziwiłł, reputedly, the wealthiest magnate in Poland-Lithuania, who had a personal army of at least 3 - 4,000. Carol owned many cities, towns and villages, and his income was equal to the annual revenues to the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Well, actually, nobody could tell this for sure because the estimates varied from 40,000,000 to 200,000,000 zloty. By all accounts, he was more than a little bit eccentric, especially when drunk, which meant, shall we say, quite often. While he, of course, never was Russian hussar, the song of Aeksandriisky regiment (written in the XIX century after his death) would fit him well:
“Когда я пьянъ, а пьянъ всегда я,
Ничто меня не устрашитъ.” [3]
Estimates of his personality varied from a “staunch patriot” to “drunken imbecile” with “Belorussian Munchausen” somewhere in between. To make a long story short, he was a mighty ally and, in an absence of the external intervention, the two of them were probably possessing an overwhelming military force within the PLC. For a while the competing sides were on their own and Branicki with Radziwill were actively using their troops to intimidate the local sejms appointing the candidates for the royal election. The results were somewhat mixed because intervention into the “sacrosanct procedure” had been causing a considerable resentment on all levels, including the magnates who felt better a direction in which the political wind was blowing.Ничто меня не устрашитъ.” [3]
For Catherine this was her first major international affair so it would be rather unrealistic to expect that she was going to handle it without making grave mistakes, especially taking into an account that, instead of clearly formulating what exactly she wants and then choosing a candidate best fitting her political platform, she started with choosing a candidate based exclusively upon the emotions and then convinced herself, contrary to the available evidence, that he fits her platform. Even worse, she was not getting a proper advice from the available experienced diplomats. Bestuzev kept blabbing about the Austria-backed candidate and Panin was so obsessed with the idea of Prussian alliance that he would advocate anyone acceptable to Frederick fully ignoring the growing evidence that the Old Fritz was playing his own game and that game is not to the Russian advantage. Catherine was listening to Panin because he was saying what she was to hear about Poniatowski candidacy thus getting herself into a mess.
The first “alarm bell” sounded when Poniatowski sent a list of conditions on which he is ready to became a candidate to the throne. Who was doing favor to whom? The list was anything but innocent:
- Annual money subsidies to him.
- Guarantee of him remaining on the throne. Which will put Russia under obligation to unconditionally support him militarily causing alienation of the Polish nobility.
- Transfer command of the Guards and light troops from Hetman to the King. Which will strengthen the royal power thus going against the Russian interests.
- King’s unrestricted right of assignments and awards. Which would further strengthen the royal power and violate the existing rule by which many types of appointments and royal grants had to be approved by the Sejm.
To Catherine’s credit, her instruction to the Russian ambassador in Warsaw, Prince N. Repnin, were to stress on the need to get Stanislav elected avoiding the definite commitments. However, at that point she felt herself too deeply involved to change her course abruptly, especially taking into an account that there was a continued flow of a flattery coming both from Prussia and Poland. Well, as far as Prussia was concerned, flattery from the Old Fritz amounted to delegating all activities to her: he was providing “a moral support” while refusing any financial or military involvement. Flattery coming from the “Familia” soon enough became mixed with the requests for money and military intervention. Of course, intervention part was done cleverly in the form of request to save Poland from the illegal activities of Branicki and Radziwill.
Count Panin supported this idea in a long-winded “remark” to Catherine in which he did not just advocated a military intervention but was recommending to let the “Familia” to take charge of these troops and define their number. In this “remark” he was still clinging to a notion of a joined action with the King of Prussia even if Frederick was already quite open that, as far as he is concerned, “the whole thing will be defined in St.-Petersburg”.
Rather unfortunately, Prince Repnin was a person, both by the character and military background, prone to recommending and executing the “iron fist” measures rather than being engaged in the diplomatic games and, after arrival to Poland in 1763 and getting familiar with the local customs, he came to a conclusion that this is the only method applicable there. As a result, he also backed up the requests coming from the “Russian party” even if he was rather skeptical regarding the needed vs. requested numbers.
Catherine, so to speak, went with a flow and sanctioned the intervention. However, she demonstrated a better understanding of the situation than Panin and rejected request to send 1,000 Cossacks: while the military result of the Cossacks activities was unclear, the political impact of their appearance was going to be strictly negative, taking into an account their reputation for the looting and general dislike of the Polish nobility. [4]
Fortunately, surprise, surprise, there still was Russian contingent in the Polish Prussia guarding the warehouses left from the 7YW.
Intermission: Why these warehouses and the troops still were there is anybody’s guess. I’d bet on a general ineptitude of the Military Collegium which could easily “forget” about their existence. An option that they were still there due to a brilliant strategic foresight that anticipated the PLC domestic problems couple years in advance is, of course, a non-zero probability so you can chose whatever explanation you want or invent one of your own and let it be known. 😉
This contingent, commanded by general Khomutov, was small but there was something of a consensus, shared both by the Poles and Russians, that even small Russian regular force would defeat any Polish resistance: “True," Repnin wrote to Panin, "that this unit is not big, but it is enough for Poland; I am sure that five or six thousand Poles not only cannot master Khomutov's detachment, but they will not dare to think about it.” Khomutov was ordered to march toward Warsaw at stop in Zakrochim, 50 miles from it.
Encouraged by this action 26 Polish magnates wrote a collective letter to Catherine in which they denounced protests of the “false patriots” and thanked her for sending the troops to support their liberties:
“…We see with sorrow that the laws of our fatherland are not enough to keep these false patriots within the proper limits. With danger to us, we experienced the oppression of our freedom on their part, namely at the last Sejms, where military force constrained the supply of votes in many places. We were threatened with the same abuse of force at the future Sejms, convocation and electoral, where we would not have troops to oppose it to the state army…”
To increase Poniatowski’s (so far negligible) prestige among the Poles, Catherine sent him Order of St. Andrew and convinced Frederick to sent him Order of the Black Eagle.
In the end of April the senators, delegates and everybody else who wanted to be there, started arriving to Warsaw for the convocation Sejm and each of them had been bringing his armed supporters. Radziwill brought 3,000 troops, Branicki also brought a big army contingent and so did Czartoryski family. Opening of the sejm was scheduled for May 7 and Warsaw looked as a potential battlefield but the Branicki party did not appear at the sejm opening. Instead they sent a written protest against violation of the rules due to the presence of the Russian troops. However, the sejm was not broken. An idea to declare a confederation in Warsaw also failed: Branicki declared that Warsaw is too dangerous and retreated to look for a safer place followed by the Russian contingent. There was a small rearguard skirmish about which Repnin, present at it, wrote “The enemy's flight was so fast, that is was impossible to catch up with him.”
Convocation sejm closed in June with the established ritual: A general confederation was established, which was united with the Lithuanian confederation, and Prince Czartoryski was elected marshal of the crown confederation, it was decided that only a Pole on both father’s and mother’s side can be elected, and were established two Commissions - military and financial; these commissions reduced the power of hetmans and chief financial managers who became just their chairmen. This would allow the future king to establish a better order in both areas and the military commission was ordered to start implementing the decision of 1717 regarding increasing real size of the regiments to a prescribed by the regulations.
As a token of its gratitude, the sejm finally acknowledged the imperial title of the Russian rulers so at least on one item from her wish list Catherine got what she wanted.
In a meantime, Radziwill separated from Branicki and went to Lithuania but was caught by the Russians at Slonim and defeated. With 1,200 cavalry he crossed the Dniester and reached Moldavia but infantry and artillery was captured. From Moldavia he went to Hungary and then to Dresden. Branicki also went to Hungary.
Everything was going just fine but at this cheerful moment Repnin informed Panin that now Poniatowski has a new rival, his uncle Prince Augustus Czartoryski, who, started working actively upon his own election camppaign using money he got for promoting his nephew. Catherine was reluctant to openly insist on Poniatowski, stating that she wants free elections, but Repnin did not suffer from her scruples and told the Primate and assembly of the Polish magnates that Poniatowski is Empress’ choice whom he is going to “recommend” on the election sejm. This ended the whole circus.
The election sejm started on August 16, went smoothly and was closed on 26th with a quite democratic election from a pool of one candidate.
Catherine wrote to Panin: “Congratulation with the king we made.”
She was excessively optimistic.
________________
[1]
Drinking Song of the 5th Aleksandriisky Hussar regiment
Let me die irretrievably
Forever, friends, forever, friends,
But in a meantime
I will drink, I will drink!
(photo above is incorrect: the regimental horses were black) 😂
[2] For the geographically challenged but otherwise advanced, it is NOT “Bialystock and Bloom” from “The Producers”
[3] “When I’m drunk, and I’m always drunk,/Nothing will scare me.”
[4] At that point TL deviates from OTL where Catherine did sent the Cossacks and then more troops which had been marching from Lithuania to Warsaw.
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Yes. In OTL she stuck to the chosen course and, while being visibly successful, had been marching from problem to a greater problem accumulating huge debt and buying loyalty by the enormous gifts to the people needed and not needed. ITTL there is/going to be a learning curve but the goal is one you just described.
Oh I know! A TL about Peter the Great!
Hm, no, even better, a TL about Catherine the Great!
