Formation of the territory of the Russian Empire in the Polish direction, features and patterns: controversial issues in modern historiography

Abstract

An objective study of the processes of formation of the territory of the Russian Empire at the expense of the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which ceased to exist in 1795, still remains a pressing historiographical problem. The relevance of the topic was clearly demonstrated by Ye. M. Boltunova in her 2022 monograph, dedicated to the coronation of Nicholas I in Warsaw in 1829 and at the same time covering a number of broader aspects of the Polish question in the politics of St. Petersburg. The book reflected common stereotypes characteristic of the analysis of the expansion of Russian territory during the imperial period, including an isolated consideration of the Western and all other directions of the empire’s policy, as well as a separate interpretation of the processes of the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century. and the legacy of military campaigns in the first decades of the 19th century. The content of the monograph emphasizes the need to develop an approach to the problems of registration of the territory of the Russian Empire that meets modern research realities, including taking into account territorial increments within the framework of a single process that can be traced from geopolitical changes, from the outcomes of the Great Northern War to the legal consequences of the final act Congress of Vienna 1815.