РІЧ ПОСПОЛИТА В ПОЛІТИЦІ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИХ МОНАРХІВ ХVIII CТОЛІТТЯ

Abstract

In the XVIII century, the problems of solving national issues begin to play a special role on the international arena. Especially accute is the Polish issue, which was based on a kind of fusion of stereotypes established in society in combination with the correspondingly interpreted information about the past and present of the Polish people. The aim of the article is to study the evolution of the Polish question in European politics in the XVIII century. The article describes the prerequisites for the formation of the “Polish question” in the XVIII century. The evolution of the views of the leading states of the world at that time in relation to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is tracked. It is determined that the war for the “Polish inheritance” of 1733–1735 became the first serious European conflict after the two great wars of the first quarter of the XVIII century. The authors note that the Polish question is, first of all, a problem of the state status and borders of Polish lands in international relations in Europe. The article identifies the main political contradictions in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which became a catalyst for external intervention. The transformation of the relationship of Russia, France, Prussia and Austria to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the XVIII century is determined. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the coverage of the evolution of the Polish question from its formation in the middle of the XVIII century to the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The article clarifies the peculiarities of the political position of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the international arena in the first half of the XVIII century; the consequences of the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the specifics of the formation of the Polish question are highlighted. In the conclusions, the authors note that the loss of its own statehood by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was provoked by a number of foreign and national political conflicts. Indeed, if we carefully analyze the international situation on the eve of 1772, we can confidently say that the main role was played by an internal factor. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had neither a strong centralized government, nor a consistent foreign policy, nor a powerful regular army. As for the foreign policy factor, here the authors of the article point out one very important trend: Russia, whose interests were then directed in the southern direction, was not ready to dismember the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Austria and Prussia pushed it to participate in the divisions, hoping to weaken Russian pressure against the Ottoman Empire, and to gain territorial possessions for themselves. The authors make an attempt to determine the place of the “Polish question” in international relations of the XVIII century.