Der russische General und Gesandte Otto Heinrich von Igelström, die preußische Besetzung polnischen Gebiets und der Beginn des Kościuszko-Aufstands (1793–1794)

The Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was presented by the Russian Empress Catherine II as an involuntary concession to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II and proof of her pursuit of a lasting alliance with the Kingdom of Prussia. The falsehood of these claims, which also appear in historical scholarly publications, is exposed by the correspondence of Otto Igelström, the last Russian ambassador and, at the same time, chief commander of the Russian army in the pre-partition Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This source material, previously unknown, was collected in Moscow at the Archives of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire and the Russian State Archives of Ancient Documents and is the key to understanding relations between the neighbouring states that partitioned the Commonwealth. Igelström’s correspondence, in passages revealing both his own military projects and orders received from St Petersburg, demonstrates that Russia, contrary to its diplomatic rhetoric, saw the Second Partition as a step on the road to the expected armed conflict with Prussia. The Russians wanted to make the remaining territory of the Commonwealth, treated as a buffer zone, the theatre of this war. Since Prussia was regarded as a military rival, the partition was carried out so that the Russian Empire, rather than the Kingdom of Prussia, would be more prepared in case of a prospective war between the two countries. Igelström’s main objective was the immediate transfer of the majority of Polish-Lithuanian soldiers under the Russian command. These plans also demonstrate the Russian authorities’ disregard for the political costs of achieving their military objectives, including the threat of an outbreak of uprising in Poland.