The
Great Sejm, also known as the
Four-Year Sejm (
Polish: respectively,
Sejm Wielki or
Sejm Czteroletni;
Belarusian:
Вялікі Сойм or
Чатырохгадовы Сойм;
Lithuanian:
Didysis seimas or
Ketverių metų seimas) was a
Sejm of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in
Warsaw, beginning in 1788. Its goal became to restore sovereignty to, and reform of, the Commonwealth, politically and economically. Its greatest achievement was the adoption in 1791 of the
May 3rd Constitution. The reforms instituted by the Great Sejm were annulled by the
Targowica Confederation and the intervention of the
Russian Empire.
History
The intention of
Catherine II of Russia, who treated the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a
vassal state, was for the Sejm to raise a 100,000 strong military force to aid
Russian Empire in their
recent war with the
Ottoman Empire. Because of that, the Sejm was a
confederated sejm– immune to
liberum veto.
However, as Russia became distracted with the wars (against the Ottomans and
a later one against the Swedes), the Sejm became dominated by reform-minded politicians. In 1790, Poland signed
an alliance with
Prussia, obliging the members to come to mutual aid in case either country was invaded by the Russian Empire.
Since the beginning of its deliberations in
Warsaw, the Sejm was accompanied by increasing publicity and interest of the general population, one of the most famous being the "black...
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