Polish-Lithuanian State Research Articles

“In the strong hands of the government”: Letters from I. P. Kornilov and A. D. Stolypin about the transformation of the Vilno Museum of Antiquities

This research was supported by the grant No. 19-18-00073 “National Identity in the Imperial Politics of Memory: History of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian State in Historiography and Social Thought of the 19th–20th Centuries” of the Russian Science Foundation.

The new Adventures of the Historian George Vernadsky

This research was supported by the grant No. 19-18-00073 “National Identity in the Imperial Politics of Memory: History of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian State in Historiography and Social Thought of the 19th — 20th Centuries” of the Russian Science Foundation.

The Polish Question Through the Eyes of Russian Liberal Constitutionalists on the Eve and During the January Uprising

This research was supported by the grant No. 19-18-00073 “National Identity in the Imperial Politics of Memory: History of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian State in Historiography and Social Thought of the 19th–20th centuries” of the Russian Science Foundation.

The Beginning of Congress Poland in the Discourse of the French Press

This research was supported by the grant No. 19-18-00073 “National Identity in the Imperial Politics of Memory: History of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian State in Historiography and Social Thought of the 19th–20th Centuries” of the Russian Science Foundation.

The Era of Book Smugglers in Lithuania in the Second Half of the 19th Century and Its Contribution to the Creation of the Modern Lithuanian Nation

The defeat of the Polish-Lithuanian uprising in 1863–1864 was followed by a new repressive policy. Its primary objectives were to suppress any ideas of the Polish-Lithuanian state and to establish the Russian system at any cost. The Russian government tried to remove Lithuanian and Polish languages from public life, limit the influence of the Catholic Church, spread Orthodoxy, support the Russian education system and prohibit the printing of Lithuanian publications. The Catholic Church, headed by the bishop of Samogitia, Motiejus Valančius, joined the quiet opposition to the Russian Empire. Valančius organised the printing of Lithuanian books in Prussia – he established a secret organisation that smuggled books to Lithuania and distributed them there. Thanks to him, the foundations of the new Lithuanian national movement were laid. It supported the creation of national literature, the establishment of secret Lithuanian schools and the strengthening of the position of the Lithuanian language in the Church. The Lithuanian national revival opposed not only Russification efforts but also Polonisation in both ethnic and political sense. The era of book smugglers in Lithuania between 1865 and 1904 played a crucial role in the process of the formation of the modern Lithuanian nation. This is the main reason why the national movement of the Lithuanians also became a subject of political discussions in the early 20th century.

The defense of Glukhov against the Polish army of king John Casimir in 1664

The decisive event of the military campaign of the Commonwealth at the final stage of the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667 became the unsuccessful siege of Glukhov. It ended in a heavy defeat for the Polish forces, which meant the failure of the last attempt by the Polish-Lithuanian state to regain the lands of the Left-bank Ukraine. Despite the considerable number of researches devoted to the campaign of King John Casimir, on the whole this campaign has been studied quite insufficiently. The source of the article were the materials of the Razryadny prikaz , which were fairly well preserved in the Russian State Archives of Ancient Acts (RGADA). A considerable part of the sources used for the first time were introduced into scientific circulation. Their comprehensive use made it possible to reconstruct the detailed course of the defense of Glukhov against the troops the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and to dispel a number of established misconceptions. In particular, those about the presence of the Russian garrison in the city. The actions of the Polish troops and the Ukrainian Cossacks in the struggle for this strategically important city of the Left-bank Ukraine are analyzed. The results of the research showed that the choice of defenders of Glukhov in favor of Moscow was an expression of the will not only of part of the Ukrainian Cossacks of the Left Bank, but also a reflection of the general mood of the Ukrainian masses.

Z dziejów seminariów warszawskich w dawnej diecezji poznańskiej. Biskupi oraz inni przedstawiciele znamienitych rodów doby staropolskiej w gronie wychowanków seminarium externum i seminarium internum Misjonarzy św. Wincentego à Paulo przy kościele Świętego Krzyża w Warszawie (1675/1676-1864/1865)

Until 1798 Warsaw remained in the diocese of Poznań despite taking over from Cracow numerous functions of a capital city in the 17th and 18th centuries (nominally it never became the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). During this time two seminaries ran by the Missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul functioned in Warsaw: Seminarium Internum and Seminarium Externum. They were founded in 1675-1676 and educated – especially the latter one – a large group of clergy who later held prominent positions in the structures of the Catholic Church on Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian soil. Among the seminary’s graduates were 66 future bishops (only eight of them underwent formation in Seminarium Internum), who were to minister as ordinaries or suffragans in a majority of dioceses then existing within the borders of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (and also on the territory of historical Greater Poland). Both of the above mentioned theological institutes located in Warsaw continued to function for some decades after the collapse of the pre-partition Polish-Lithuanian state (by then already within the Warsaw diocese and from 1818 in the Warsaw archdiocese). Their existence came to an end in 1864 as a result of repressions by Russian administration after the collapse of the January Uprising. In this second period of the seminaries’ operation the number of alumni who later filled episcopal offices was markedly lower, the last one being the future Gniezno-Poznań metropolitan and cardinal, Mieczysław Ledóchowski, whose name stands out illustriously in the history of the Church in Greater Poland.

Reformation as an Inspiration for Reforms of the Eastern Churches in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Reformation was a phenomenon influencing transformations of the Orthodox Church and the Uniate Church in the multi-denominational Polish-Lithuanian state. In response to a particularly severe lack of education compounded by the influence of the Reformation in the Easter Churches, certain educational initiatives were undertaken, translation of the Bible and liturgical texts into the Old Orthodox Church Slavonic language, acquainting people with new forms and ways of religious apologetics. Ideas initiated by the Reformation were developed in the 16th century by Piotr Mohyła. Under the influence of the Reformation a new quality of relationships and social bonds was created in the Orthodox Church society of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The activities of laymen and Orthodox Church fraternities became more intensified. The ideas of the Reformation on soteriological subjects became an inspiration for part of Orthodox Church elites to enter into union with the Papacy.

Чи належав Ніжин Московському царству до 1618 р.?

The article deals with the debatable question about the political affiliation of Nizhyn before the signing of the Truce of Deulino between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Muscovy in 1618. On the basis of factual and cartographic evidence, it is proved that the claim that Nizhyn at the beginning of the XVIIth century was wrong was invented belonged to the Tsardom of Muscovy and was transferred to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the terms of the Treaty of Deulino. The importance of this agreement for the socio-economic development of the city is revealed. Attention is drawn to the fact that under 1514 the "History of Ruthenians or Little Russia" mentions the creation of the Nizhyn Cossack Regiment by Hetman Evstafiy (Ostafiy)Ruzhinsky. Dmitry Nikolaevich Bantysh-Kamensky in his "History of Little Russia" mentions under 1579 the creation of the eldership of Nizhyn (or Starostwo of Nizhyn). Obviously, these entities could have arisen only in the administrative system of the Polish-Lithuanian state. On the maps of the XVIIth century, on which Nizhyn was marked, it is clearly visible that the city belongs to the Kyiv Voivodeship of the Commonwealth, is on the left (southern) bank of the Oster, and the border between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Chernigov principality runs along this river. The evidence of Polish historians that Nizhyn in the XVIth century was the property of the Polish kings. Thus, we can conclude that Nizhyn in the XVI – at the beginning of the XVIIth century was a small frontier fortress defending the possessions of Polish kings from the north. After the Polish-Moscow border was moved far to the north under the terms of the Truce of Deulino in 1618, this created an opportunity for rapid trade and economic development of the city, which already in 1625 received the right of Magdeburg Law from the Polish king Sigismund III.

Confrontation of nobles of Poland as a factor of exacerbating ethnosocial relations in Ukraine by the end of XVIth century – at the first half of XVIIth century

The author describes the main forms and manifestations of internal conflicts in the environment of noble families in the Ukrainian lands since their accession to Rzecz Pospolita as united Polish-Lithuanian state on the basis of the Union of Lublin in 1569 up to the War under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. According to author’s statements, permanent struggle among them was able to happen due to the specific of this state that garanted to reach Polish nobles the large rights. Long-time colonization of ‘Wild steppe’ was accompanied occasional ‘raider attacks’ of landowners against their neighbors. Particular emphasis is given to different situation of dependent peasants, which during these ‘local civil wars’ often did become ‘blind arms’ of their masters. The influence of these confrontations on the processes of the growth of protesting attitude among the Ukrainian gentry and peasantry and their influence on the rising of Cossack and peasant uprisings in Ukraine during abovementioned period are analyzed. The article contribute certainly to better understanding of disagreements in interests between often ethnically different social strata in Ukraine. Widespread of this confrontation provoked some anarchy of powerless inside the country as well as hostile situations between Polish and Ukrainian nobles. Cossack uprisings were results not only social conflicts between Polish gentry and Ukrainian peasantry, Orthodox Ukrainians and Rome-Catholic Poles, but also inter-strata conflicts among anti-Polish nobles and ‘loyal to Crown’ gentry of Poland. Conflicts after colonization of ‘Wild field’, as well as the value of personal insults of offended persons in provoking these conflicts are characterized. The accent is made that the assaults, violence and crimes were happened long time before Cossack-Polish conflicts. According to author’s conclusions, all these confrontations between different ethnic and social groups were transferred in a form the long-lasted wars of Cossacks and peasants against their former owners beginning from 1648. Keywords Rzeczpospolita, Ukraine, nobles, ethnosocial conflicts

Genesis and transformation of Polish-Lithuanian sovereigns’ protectorship right over the Livonian confederation lands

As known, from the end of the XV century Livonia became the object of close attention of the sovereigns As known, since the end of the XV century Livonia became the object of close attention of the sovereigns of Denmark, Sweden, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Crown of Poland and the Moscow State, who were attracted by its favorable strategic position, an important role in the international Baltic trade and rich land resources. However, the possibility of direct expansion by the Catholic states was limited by the status of Livonia as a crusading state, under the auspices of the two most influential political assemblies of Catholic Europe the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. An interesting way to bypass this obstacle was used by the rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian state, who applied a special form of political expansion that did not violate or at least created an appearance of preserving the papal and imperial prerogatives, and at the same time allowed them to postulate themselves as their legitimate implementers. That was promoted by the ancient political and legal concept according to which they acted as protectors and conservators of the states of the Livonian Confederation. It emerged in the XIV century, but, however, it was fully in demand by the rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian state only in the XVI century, when Livonia became the main object of the battle for the Baltic and a very interesting problem is the historical roots and the modification of this political concept from the time of its appearance to its finalization.

The Commonwealth of Poland towards Russia in the final stage of the Great Diet (1791–1792)

When the Constitution was ratified on May 3, 1791, establishing good relations with Russia was the most important issue for the security of the Commonwealth. As leaders of the Great Diet noticed that prosperous situation in the Polish-Lithuanian state’s international relations was ending, they suggested Stanisław August to turn to Russia. Because of their initiative, the king introduced several members of the St. Petersburg court to the Guardians of the Laws. Yet, it did not reorient Polish foreign policy. Having strengthened his position, Stanisław August was delaying direct talks with the empress. He was convinced, that to avoid Russian intervention in the Commonwealth’s internal affairs, one should not provoke Russians and appease any internal conflicts. That assumption turned to be wrong, though. Contrary to the views of the vast majority of Polish historians, who believed that Russian intervention in Poland was predetermined, the St. Petersburg court was divided, when it came to the policy on the Polish-Lithuanian state. Some advisers of Catherine II believed, that without a final agreement with German courts, one should not start a war with the Commonwealth, because it would be hard, long-lasting and costly. Yet, views of Polish malcontents and empress’s favorite, Platon A. Zubov, were taken into account, and a military operation was launched, without looking at Vienna and Berlin’s position. A passive diplomacy turned out to be a fatal mistake of the Polish king and his advisers. The concept of a limited warfare was equally wrong. The weak resistance of the Polish army strengthened the position of the empress’s favorite. When Stanisław August’s letter to Catherine II arrived at St. Petersburg, already in the course of war, at the Russian court a group of war opponents took a final attempt to stop hostilities, and start negotiations with the Commonwealth’s ruler. However, successes of empress’s troops, that rapidly moved towards Warsaw after the withdrawing Poles, favored supporters of an armed intervention. The king and his advisers ceased to believe in the possibility of victory too soon, and capitulated at the time, when there was still a chance to continue the war, a prolongation of which by several weeks might have prompted the empress to start peace negotiations. It was a great political mistake, which turned out to be the beginning of the end of the First Republic.

Rzeczpospolita wobec Rosji w ostatniej fazie obrad Sejmu Wielkiego (1791–1792)

Po uchwaleniu Konstytucji 3 maja ułożenie stosunków z Rosją było najważniejszą kwestią z punktu widzenia bezpieczeństwa Rzeczypospolitej. Widząc wygasanie pomyślnej dla państwa polsko-litewskiego koniunktury w stosunkach międzynarodowych, przywódcy Sejmu Wielkiego zasugerowali Stanisławowi Augustowi dokonanie zwrotu ku Rosji. To z ich inicjatywy król wprowadził do Straży Praw kilku stronników dworu petersburskiego. Nie pociągnęło to jednak za sobą reorientacji polskiej polityki zagranicznej. Umocniwszy swoją pozycję, Stanisław August zwlekał z nawiązaniem bezpośrednich rozmów z cesarzową. Był przekonany, że wystarczy nie prowokować Rosjan i łagodzić wszelkie konflikty wewnętrzne, żeby uniknąć rosyjskiej interwencji w wewnętrzne sprawy Rzeczypospolitej. Założenie to okazało się błędne. Wbrew twierdzeniu ogromnej większości historyków polskich, którzy uważali, że rosyjska interwencja w Polsce była z góry przesądzona, na dworze petersburskim do ostatniej chwili trwały spory i dyskusje dotyczące kształtu polityki wobec państwa polsko-litewskiego. Część doradców Katarzyny II była zdania, że bez ostatecznego porozumienia z dworami niemieckimi nie należy zaczynać wojny z Rzecząpospolitą, gdyż będzie ona ciężka, długotrwała i kosztowna. Namowy polskich malkontentów sprawiły jednak, że ostatecznie zwyciężyła, lansowana przez faworyta cesarzowej – Płatona A. Zubowa, koncepcja rozpoczęcia działań zbrojnych bez oglądania się na stanowisko Wiednia i Berlina. Bierność dyplomatyczna okazała się fatalnym błędem polskiego króla i jego doradców. Równie błędna była koncepcja prowadzenia wojny w ograniczonym tylko zakresie. Słaby opór polskich armii umacniał bowiem pozycję faworyta cesarzowej. Już w trakcie działań wojennych, po nadejściu do Petersburga listu Stanisława Augusta do Katarzyny II, grupa przeciwników wojny na dworze rosyjskim podjęła ostatnią próbę przerwania działań zbrojnych i rozpoczęcia rozmów z władcą Rzeczypospolitej. Sukcesy wojsk cesarzowej, które w ślad za wycofującymi się Polakami zmierzały szybko w kierunku Warszawy działały jednak na korzyść zwolenników zbrojnej interwencji. Król i jego doradcy zbyt szybko przestali wierzyć w możliwość odniesienia zwycięstwa i skapitulowali w chwili, kiedy wciąż istniały szanse na kontynuowanie wojny, której przedłużenie o kilka tygodni mogło skłonić cesarzową do wyrażenia zgody na rozpoczęcie negocjacji pokojowych. Był to fatalny błąd polityczny, który okazał się w konsekwencji początkiem końca pierwszej Rzeczypospolitej.

Reformy ceł i podatków w Rzeczypospolitej w latach 1764–1766

<p>W połowie XVIII w. sytuacja Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów była bardzo trudna. Rzeczpospolita traciła swoją pozycję w Europie i musiała zmierzyć się z problemami wewnętrznymi. Stąd też nie jest zaskoczeniem, że po śmierci króla Augusta III główna frakcja polityczna – Familia (Czartoryskich) – rozpoczęła ambitny program reformy państwa. Jednym z najpoważniejszych problemów Rzeczypospolitej było to, że rządy saskie pozostawiły skarb państwa polsko-litewskiego w opłakanym stanie, dochody skarbu wynosiły ok. 8,5 mln zł. Poziom podatków był niski, a stany uprzywilejowane były w dużej mierze zwolnione z płacenia podatków.</p><p>Przedelekcyjny Sejm konwokacyjny w 1764 r., kontrolowany przez zwolenników Familii, zreformował istniejące podatki oraz wprowadził nowe podatki i cła. Cło generalne, obejmujące również szlachtę i duchowieństwo, przyniosło w 1765 r. przychód rzędu 2,3 mln zł w Koronie. Niestety, król pruski Fryderyk II uznał, że cło generalne narusza postanowienia traktatu welawskiego z 1657 r. i zaczął pobierać własne nielegalne cła od polskich statków płynących Wisłą. W 1766 r. Rzeczpospolita musiała wycofać się z cła generalnego i przywrócić przywileje celne szlachty, ale jednocześnie wprowadziła nowy podatek od produkcji alkoholu (czopowe). Dokonanie lustracji królewszczyzn pozwoliło na zwiększenie wpływów z kwarty przeznaczonej na wojsko. Sejm zwiększył również wysokość pogłównego żydowskiego.</p><p>W rezultacie roczny dochód skarbu państwa polsko-litewskiego wzrósł do 13 mln zł. Oszczędności skarbowe wzrosły w ciągu roku z 19 000 złp do 1 800 000 złp. Reformy ceł i podatków z lat 1764–1766 miały istotny wpływ na wzmocnienie państwa polsko-litewskiego. Król Stanisław August Poniatowski i stronnictwo Familii chcieli kontynuować program reform państwa, lecz te plany zostały przerwane przez działania wojenne konfederacji barskiej i I rozbiór Rzeczypospolitej.</p>

ТОРГОВІ ТА ПРОМИСЛОВІ ПРИВІЛЕЇ ЯК ІСТОРИЧНІ ПРОТОТИПИ ПРАВ ЗА ДОКУМЕНТАМИ ДОЗВІЛЬНОГО ХАРАКТЕРУ

ТОРГОВІ ТА ПРОМИСЛОВІ ПРИВІЛЕЇ ЯК ІСТОРИЧНІ ПРОТОТИПИ ПРАВ ЗА ДОКУМЕНТАМИ ДОЗВІЛЬНОГО ХАРАКТЕРУ

Les Sujets Mixtes: The Problem of Double Subordination in the Period of the Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Case of Mykolas Kleopas Oginskis

The seizure of territory from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, and its incorporation into Russia, Prussia and Austria, was accompanied by many problems related to land ownership, population relocation, religious affairs and others, which treaties between the Commonwealth and the countries that had carried out the Partition had to regulate. Treaties made in 1775 in the Warsaw Sejm with Russia, Prussia and Austria set the conditions for the resettlement of the population, principles for the separation of holdings, the terms for trade and religious relations, as well as legalising the status of double subordination. Our topic is the status of the double subject as defined in the treaties between the Commonwealth and the Russian Empire, relying on examples of the practical application of this status disclosing the problems accompanying the double subject in the period between the First and Second partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian state. On the basis of new materials from sources, we come to the conclusion that the status of the double subject legalised in the 1775 treaties not only failed to ensure existing land ownership, as in the Russian Empire it could be sequestered and confiscated, but also restricted the landlord’s political freedom. The political choice of double subject was limited, and with extensive cross-border relationships, dual subordination was not possible.

Udział wojska litewskiego w wojnie polsko-tureckiej w latach 1684-1699

The article constitutes an attempt to describe the participation of Lithuanian forces in the warfare with Turks and Tatars from 1684 to 1699, i.e. from the formation of The Ho-ly League until the Karłowice Treaty. In particular, the author describes the campaigns in Podole, Ukraine, and Northern Moldavia and then analyzes them in a broader political and social context of Polish-Lithuanian State at the end of 17th century.

Review: King Sigismund Chapel at Cracow Cathedral (1515–1533), by Stanisław Mossakowski

Stanislaw Mossakowski King Sigismund Chapel at Cracow Cathedral (1515–1533) Cracow: IRSA, 2012, 376 pp., 277 b/w and 89 color illus. €120, ISBN 978838983114 The importance of Cracow as a center of Renaissance humanism during the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has long been recognized by Anglophone historians and linguists interested in the early modern achievements of scholars at the Jagiellonian University and their contacts with Italian counterparts. Among the more familiar figures are the humanist Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus (1437–1496), who served as tutor to the sons of King Casimir IV Jagiellon (r. 1447–92), and Nicolaus Copernicus, who studied ancient Greek, mathematics, and astronomy at the Jagiellonian. In spite of Cracow’s renown as a humanist center, there is a paucity of English-language scholarship dedicated to the architecture of Poland-Lithuania, which at its greatest extent, in the early seventeenth century, was the largest state in Europe. This lacuna is in part due to factors such as the linguistic inaccessibility of secondary scholarship written in Polish, as well as geopolitical circumstances between 1939 and 1989. Thus Stanislaw Mossakowski’s erudite monograph King Sigismund Chapel at Cracow Cathedral (1515–1533) , first issued in Polish in 2007, is a significant scholarly achievement. Mossakowski, the well-known and prolific former director of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, presents here the mausoleum that most clearly embodies some of the earliest Italian Renaissance visual forms to appear in the European borderlands of Poland-Lithuania. The study underlines the relevance of the Sigismund chapel to classically inspired architecture, and by extension to the rich traditions that inform East-Central European architectural history. In nine highly detailed chapters examining the monument’s site, patronage, ideology, and iconography, Mossakowski asserts the uniqueness of the commission and its significance to the broader history of early modern European, and particularly Italian, art and architecture. The centrally planned, elliptically domed monument, located on the south side of the Wawel cathedral nave, decorated and vaulted …

The Ottoman Age in Southern Central Europe as Represented in Secondary School History Textbooks in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia

Local populations in Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, and to a lesser degree in the Czech Republic, experienced much interaction with Muslims throughout the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Ottomans, as well as the Crimean Tatars, invaded the Kingdom of Hungary and waged wars against the Polish-Lithuanian state and the Habsburg Hereditary Lands. The Ottoman era has usually been reflected in the history textbooks of these four countries under the headings "Turkish Wars" or "Ottoman Expansion." Since the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, all four ex-communist states have been involved in rewriting textbooks, although the perception of the Ottomans and Muslims has not changed in all cases. Without claiming to map the entire historical presentation of the Ottomans, this article demonstrates the polyphony found in the textbooks of this region. By analyzing secondary school educational materials in all four languages, it is possible to identify stereotypes, prejudices, and distortions within the perception of the Ottoman Turks.

Dzieje fryderycjańskich Prus w XVIII w., czyli o wyższości absolutyzmu nad szlachecką wolnością

The History of Frederician Prussia in the Eighteenth Century, or on the Supremacy of Absolutism over Gentry Liberty The copious and detailed book: Prusy w okresie monarchii absolutnej (1701–1806) , ed. Bogdan Wachowiak, Poznan 2010 (series: Historia Prus. Narodziny – mocarstwowośc – obumieranie , vol. 2) is the work of five authors. Almost half of the text was written by Zygmunt Szultka (i.e. chapters on economic, social and systemic relations), and the author of one-quarter of the publication is Andrzej Kamienski, who discussed Prussian foreign policy in 1701–1786 and the development of architecture. Dariusz Łukasiewicz focused on widely comprehended culture and the conditions of daily life, while Grzegorz Kucharczyk considered foreign policy, symptoms of the domestic crisis during the reign of Frederick William II and Frederick William III, and the eighteenth-century publication movement. The book’s characteristic feature is the extremely thorough use of the existing literature on the subject, predominantly German but also English-language, French and Polish. Upon numerous occasions, the authors (in particular Z. Szultka) conducted additional archival surveys; hence the book is not so much a synthesis as a compendium of knowledge about the Prussian state. The overall impression is excellent, the publication is written lucidly (this holds true even for chapters about the economy) and provides a plethora of interesting information, with the authors remaining distinctly objective but without shying from personal opinions. The presented study inclines towards a comparison of the fate and the social, economic and administrative systems of eighteenth-century Prussia and the Commonwealth. The readers draw the obvious conclusion about the supremacy of the absolutist system (especially so-called enlightened absolutism) over the ideology of the golden liberty of the gentry prevalent in the Commonwealth and the suitable functioning of the state. Furthermore, they may arrive at the correct conviction about better living conditions in the orderly Prussian state (albeit under the constant control of the bureaucracy) than in the ostensibly free Commonwealth. In Polish historiography already the so-called Cracow school (second half of the nineteenth century) argued that the absence of strong royal authority resulted in the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian state.