Accession of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR (according to the official Soviet propaganda- the reunification of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus with the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR), in essence, represented the annexation of the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus by the USSR from Poland, in accordance with the adoption by the Extraordinary V session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the USSR Law "On the inclusion of Western Ukraine in USSR with its reunification with the Ukrainian SSR "(November 1, 1939) and the USSR Law" On the incorporation of Western Belarus into the USSR with its reunification with the Byelorussian SSR "(November 2, 1939) on the basis of requests from the Plenipotentiary Commissions of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine and People's Assembly of Western Belarus. The decision to submit petitions was stipulated in the Declaration "On the entry of Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" adopted by the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine in Lvov on October 27, 1939 and the Declaration "On the entry of Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic" adopted by the People's Assembly Western Belarus in Bialystok on October 29, 1939, respectively.
The annexation of the territories was a direct consequence of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with a secret protocol to it, the outbreak of World War II and the partition of Poland between Germany and the USSR. The annexation led to an increase in the territory and population of the Byelorussian SSR and, especially, the Ukrainian SSR, including at the expense of those territories (Galicia) that had never previously been part of either the Soviet Union or Russian Empire.
On November 12, 1939, the third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR decided: "Adopt Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the Belarusian people in a single Belarusian state."
On November 14, 1939, the third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR decided: “To accept Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the great Ukrainian people in a single Ukrainian state ”.
Until September 28, 1939, both territories were part of the Polish state according to the results of the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, their western border was almost completely east of the "Curzon Line", recommended by the Entente as the eastern border of Poland in 1918. In March 1923 g. Paris Conference allied ambassadors approved eastern borders Poland.
With the adoption and publication of the Laws of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR on the incorporation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus into the USSR with their reunification with the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR, the Stalin Constitution of 1936 and the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR extended to the territory of the former Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and the BSSR in 1937, as the Basic Laws, as well as all other laws of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR. In these territories, various transformations began, accompanied by massive repression in relation to the "class-alien" and "enemies of Soviet power" and affected a significant number of ethnic Poles who lived in these territories.
After the conclusion on July 30, 1941 of the Sikorsky-Maisky Agreement, the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, at that time occupied by Nazi Germany, received an undefined status. The issue of territories discussed at the Tehran Conference was resolved in favor of the USSR at the Yalta Conference and consolidated at the Potsdam Conference. Treaty of August 16, 1945 between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish Republic "On the Soviet-Polish state border"These territories (with minor deviations in favor of Poland (Bialystok and the surrounding area, Przemysl and the surrounding area) were assigned to the USSR. In the second half of the 1940s - the first half of the 1950s, there was a slight correction of the borders.
The territory of the USSR was truly enormous. Despite the impressive scale of the Soviet possessions, in 1939 the current leadership of the country sent forces to annex the regions of Western Ukraine, some of them, after the complete German defeat, were part of Poland.
First of all, Stalin was interested in these territories as new possessions of a mighty power. No less important factor for him there was also security from the western borders.
Taking advantage of favorable moment after the defeat by the Germans, the Red Army occupied part of Eastern Poland, as well as practically the entire territory of Galicia, without any particular difficulties. There were no particular difficulties, since after the defeat, the Polish troops did not particularly try to defend themselves, retreating to the Romanian or Hungarian borders. Therefore, there were practically no serious battles. On the part of the Soviet government, all actions related to the occupation of the lands of Western Ukraine were interpreted as a “sacred duty” to help the fraternal peoples who inhabited Poland at that time. Although the entry of Soviet forces into Poland was not entirely unambiguous. Among local population met and hot support, and complete dislike.
Exodus was noted among Polish officers and government officials. Not wanting to put up with the "occupation" policy, they fled to the West. But the bulk of the population hoped for the support of the Soviet regime, so many residents of defeated Poland took a wait-and-see attitude. Especially during that period, Soviet troops supported socially unprotected segments of the population. And on the part of the USSR, all actions were taken to "beautifully" present their coming to power. Loud slogans about social justice have paid off, making it easy to customize local residents in their own ideological way. But, according to modern historians, the Soviet government did not take into account that at that time Western Ukraine was a completely alien region for the USSR in terms of social and ideological aspects.
The role of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in the annexation of Western Ukrainian lands
Many historians today assign the decisive role in the distribution of the lands of Western Ukraine to the Germans. Thus, after the conclusion of the Pact, the Ukrainian lands, which are part of Poland, in the fall of 1939, safely became part of the mighty Soviet state. Already on September 28, the agreement concluded between Germany and the USSR completely erased the Polish lands from the map.
In addition to the non-aggression obligations between the USSR and Germany, the pact included a separate protocol, which clearly spelled out the territorial structure of states. According to the agreement most of lands that were part of Poland was supposed to become part of the Soviet Union. Then, having annexed the territory, the Soviet Union significantly expanded its territorial boundaries in westward by 250 - 350 km, respectively, increasing the population in the western regions of Ukraine, which were later assigned to the Soviet Union. Today these territories are already part of Belarus and Ukraine.
The history of the entry of the Belarusian lands into Russia.
Throughout the 19th-20th centuries, the history of Belarus was closely linked with the history of Russia. The Belarusian lands were first in the Russian Empire, and then in the Soviet Union. But the history of the annexation of the Belarusian lands by Russia covers much longer period than the previous two centuries. The article is devoted to the description of the main stages of the entry of the lands of Belarus into Russia.
After the collapse of Russia, many independent principalities were formed. On the territory of modern Belarus, the largest were Polotsk and Turovs. In the XIII century, while most of the lands former Russia fell into the sphere of influence of the Golden Horde, most of the lands of Belarus became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Moscow principality was freed from Mongol yoke, its rulers begin to claim the status of "collectors of Russian lands." The Lithuanian-Moscow wars begin, the most famous of which took place in 1512-1522. In 1514, the Belarusian-Ukrainian prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky defeated the Moscow army near Orsha, thereby stopping the advance of the troops of Tsar Vasily 3. The Moscow principality won the war, but was unable to seize the territory of Belarus, but at the same time regaining Smolensk and capturing Chernigov. After the unification of Lithuania and Poland into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Belarusian lands are included in it, as result - start Polish-Russian troops. After the alliance of Alexei Mikhailovich with the Cossacks represented by Bogdan Khmelnitsky in 1654, Russia made another attempt to annex Belarus. But to late XVII century, Russia was able to include in its composition only a small part of modern eastern Belarus.
A new stage in the entry of Belarusian lands into Russia begins with the second half of XVIII centuries, when the weakened Rzeczpospolita began to be divided by its neighbors: Prussia, Austria and Russia. During the first partition in 1772, Catherine annexed Vitebsk and Polotsk, in 1793 Minsk became part of the Russian Empire. The final annexation of the lands of Belarus took place in 1795 during the third partition of Poland: Russia annexes the lands up to Brest. This is how all ethnic Belarusian lands end up in the Russian Empire. The Belarusian General Governorship was created, consisting of three provinces: the North-Western Territory, Vitebsk and Mogilev.
The next stage of the Belarusian-Russian history of relations begins in 1917 after the abdication of Nicholas II and the fall of the Russian Empire. Some Belarusians are trying to create an independent Belarusian People's Republic, some sympathize with the Bolsheviks who are trying to create a socialist republic. Added to this conflict is the revived Poland, which considers the Belarusian territories to be its own. In 1919, through the efforts of the Red Army, the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Republic was created. But in 1921, in Riga, Poland and the representatives of the Bolsheviks signed a peace, as a result of which Western Belarus became part of Poland, and in the rest of the territory the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was created. In 1922, all Soviet republics unite in the USSR.
In 1939, after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on Soviet-German non-aggression, the parties divided Poland. As a result, on September 17, 1939, Stalin gave the command to enter troops into the territory of eastern Poland, which means he was adding western lands Belarus. After the end of World War II, these lands finally became part of the USSR as part of the BSSR.
Thus, the history of the unification of the Belarusian and Russian lands has long history... It all started in the 15th century with the Lithuanian-Russian wars, then there were wars with Poland. Then, as a result of the partitions of Poland, Russia was able to annex all Belarusian lands, but after the war with the Poles in 1921, they lost western part... The re-unification of all Belarusian lands with Russia took place in 1945 in the form of the USSR.
The myth of the voluntary annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR
The main myth associated with the so-called "liberation campaign" of the Red Army in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in September 1939 was undertaken to save the Ukrainians and Belarusians of Poland from German occupation after the defeat of the Polish army. At the same time, it was denied that Soviet troops entered Poland in pursuance of a secret additional protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, according to which the eastern provinces of Poland were withdrawn into the Soviet sphere of interests. It was also argued that Soviet troops crossed the Soviet-Polish border on September 17 precisely because on that day the Polish government and the main command of the army left the country. In fact, on that day, the Polish government and the commander-in-chief, Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly, were still on Polish territory, although they had left Warsaw.
According to the Soviet propaganda myth, the overwhelming majority of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus welcomed the arrival of the Red Army and unanimously spoke in favor of joining the USSR.
In reality National composition the population of the annexed territories was such that it excluded the possibility that the majority of the inhabitants would speak in favor of joining the USSR. In 1938, in Poland, according to official statistics, out of 35 million inhabitants there were 24 million Poles, 5 Ukrainians, and 1.4 million Belarusians. However, at Stalin's instructions, Pravda wrote about 8 million Ukrainians and 3 million Belarusians employed by Red The army of the Ukrainian and Belarusian provinces. There, elections were held to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. The elections were held according to the principle: one person for one seat. Only communists and their allies were nominated for deputies, and any agitation against them was prohibited. In October 1939, the People's Assemblies proclaimed Soviet power and turned to The Supreme Council USSR with a request for reunification with Ukraine and Belarus, which was granted in November.
Stalin did not hold a plebiscite on joining the USSR in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. There was no certainty that the majority of the population of the liberated territories would vote for joining the USSR, and the obviously falsified results in the world would hardly be recognized by anyone. According to the 1931 census, 5.6 million Poles, 4.3 million Ukrainians, 1.7 million Belarusians, 1.1 million Jews, 126 thousand Russians, 87 thousand Germans and 136 thousand people lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. representatives of other nationalities. In Western Belarus, Poles prevailed in Bialystok (66.9%), Vilensk (59.7%) and Novogrudok (52.4%) provinces, Belarusians - only in Polessk (69.2%). Western Belarus was home to 2.3 million Poles, 1.7 million Belarusians and 452 thousand Jews. In the Western Ukrainian voivodeships, Poles prevailed in Lvov (57.7%) and Tarnopil (49.7%) voivodeships (in Tarnopil voivodeship, Ukrainians accounted for 45.5%), Ukrainians - in Volyn (68.4%) and Stanislavovsky (68.9 %). Western Ukraine was home to 3.3 million Poles, 4.3 million Ukrainians and 628 thousand Jews.
In Western Ukraine, the illegal Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which advocated the independence of Ukraine, was popular. The OUN members fought against the Polish authorities, including using terrorist methods. They also attacked Soviet representatives. Ukrainian nationalists were no less hostile to the Soviet regime than they were to the Poles. In Western Belarus, there was no noticeable Belarusian national movement... But a significant part of the Belarusian population of Western Belarus was made up of Belarusian Catholics, who in the cultural and politically focused on the Poles. And the Poles made up about half of the population of Western Belarus.
The Ukrainian and Belarusian population in Poland (mostly peasants) fought for their national rights, but they were not going to join the USSR, having heard about terror and famine. And the Ukrainians and Belarusians lived in Poland more prosperous than the poor Soviet collective farmers. Nevertheless, the invasion of the Red Army was received calmly, and even with enthusiasm by the Jews, who were threatened with Hitler's genocide. However, the measures of the Soviet power quickly led to the fact that in 1941, Ukrainians and Belarusians greeted the Germans with bread and salt, as liberators from the Bolsheviks.
Polish general Vladislav Anders cited in his memoirs the stories of Lviv residents about how the Bolsheviks "robbed not only private property, but also state property," how the NKVD penetrated all spheres of life, about crowds of refugees who, having learned what it was like to live under the Bolsheviks, despite what, they want to go to the lands occupied by the Germans.
There were many facts of looting and arbitrary shootings by the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army.
The commanders who were guilty of the arbitrary executions did not suffer any serious punishment. People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov just reprimanded them, pointing out that there was no deliberate ill will in the actions of those guilty of illegal actions, that all this happened “in an atmosphere of hostilities and an acute class and national struggle local Ukrainian and Jewish population with former Polish gendarmes and officers. "
Quite often the murders of Poles were committed by the local Ukrainian and Belarusian population. Secretary of the Brest Regional Committee of the Communist Party (b) B. Kiselev said in April 1940: “Such murders sworn enemies there were a lot of people committed in the people's anger in the first days of the arrival of the Red Army. We justify them, we are on the side of those who, having come out of captivity, dealt with their enemy. "
On the Western Ukrainian and Western Belarusian lands, even before June 22, 1941, massive forced collectivization began. The intelligentsia was accused of "bourgeois nationalism" and repressed. Before the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, 108 thousand people, mostly Poles, were arrested. Most of them were shot on the eve and in the first weeks of the Great Patriotic War. According to the verdicts of the tribunals and the Special Council alone, 930 people were shot. About 6 thousand more prisoners were shot at the beginning of the war during the evacuation of prisons in Western Ukraine and more than 600 people in Western Belarus.
In December 1939, a predatory monetary reform... Zloty on the accounts and deposits of the population were exchanged for rubles at the rate of 1: 1, but for an amount not exceeding 300 zlotys.
The behavior of many representatives of the new government did not arouse sympathy among the population. So, as noted in party documents, in the Drohobych region "the head of the NKVD RO of the Novostreletsk region, Kochetov, on November 7, 1940, getting drunk, in a village club in the presence of the head of the RO of militia Psekha, he severely beat the farm laborer Tsaritsa with a revolver, who was taken to the hospital in a difficult situation." ... In the Bogorodchansky district of Stanislavskaya oblast, the communist Syrovatsky "summoned the peasants on the tax issue at night, threatened them, forced the girls to cohabit." In the Obertyn district of the same region, "there were massive violations of revolutionary legality."
In a letter addressed to Stalin, the assistant to the Rivne regional prosecutor Sergeev noted: “It would seem that with the liberation of Western Ukraine, best forces countries, crystal-clear and unshakable Bolsheviks, but the opposite happened. Most of them were big and small crooks, whom they tried to get rid of at home ”.
The Soviet cadres who replaced the Polish administration were often unable to establish the economy. One of the delegates of the Volyn regional party conference in April 1940 was indignant: "Why were they watered the streets every day under the Poles, swept them with brooms, and now there is nothing?"
In 1939-1940, about 280 thousand Poles were deported from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus to the eastern regions of the USSR, including 78 thousand refugees from the German-occupied regions of Poland. About 6 thousand people died on the way. In June 1941, just before the start of the Great Patriotic War, 11 thousand "Ukrainian nationalists and counter-revolutionaries" were also deported from Western Ukraine. With the outbreak of World War II, many natives of the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus deserted from the Red Army or evaded mobilization.
The issue of international legal recognition of the Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus was finally resolved by the Treaty on the Soviet-Polish state border, which the USSR signed on August 16, 1945 with the pro-communist government of Poland. The Soviet-Polish border passed mainly along the Curzon line, but with the return to Poland of the cities of Bialystok and Przemysl (Przemysl).
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Concern for the improvement of the state, for the contentment and happiness of the people was in the eyes of Empress Catherine the main of her royal duties. In her youth it even seemed to her that good laws can completely destroy all evil and untruth, inseparable from human nature, create "bliss for everyone." Her heart lay most of all for this great cause.
But the position of Russia in Europe was then such that from the very first years of her reign, Catherine also had to devote a lot of effort and a lot of attention to worthy protection of the rights and benefits of Russia and the Russian people before foreign states. Russia already aroused fear and envy to itself, and a whole web of clever intrigues was woven around it, with the aim either to undermine the power of Russia, or to use Russian force to protect other people's needs and benefits. Any oversight on the part of the Russian state people threatened with grave consequences, which, first of all, would be reflected in disaster on the well-being and life of the people themselves, about whose happiness the empress was so concerned.
These external matters, very complex, requiring great knowledge and a subtle mind, Catherine was engaged in herself. Good helper it was her minister - the educated and intelligent Count Panin. In her relations and negotiations with foreign powers, Catherine was always guided by one simple and clear rule: to spend Russia's funds exclusively on those matters that could bring indisputable benefit to Russia itself. But in such matters, she defended the benefit of Russia, not succumbing to either requests or threats, with courage and perseverance, which drove the foreign ambassadors to despair.
Once British ambassador, trying to conclude a trade agreement beneficial for the British, but shy for the Russians, reached the point that he knelt before the Empress, begging her to respect the needs and requests of the English people, friendly to Russia. It was all in vain: the empress did not allow even the slightest embarrassment of her people.
it hard rule helped Empress Catherine with honor and benefit for Russia to understand major events, advancing from the very first years of her reign.
At the celebration of the coronation of the empress, the Belarusian Orthodox Bishop Georgy Konissky who arrived from Poland turned to her with a fervent prayer - to protect the Orthodox population of Belarus from constant violence from Catholics and Uniates. Despite all the treaties with Russia and the repeated demands of the Russian government, the Orthodox population of the Russian lands, which were still under Polish rule, still endured gross insults and oppression, sometimes reaching the level of forcible conversion to Catholicism or union.
Every year, long lists of such grievances and violence were sent to St. Petersburg. Persistent inattention Polish government it was all the more offensive to the legal demands of Russia because Poland itself, without the support of Russia, could no longer hold on. And in the early years of Catherine's reign, as before, the Poles continued to bother with requests for money, then for weapons, then for military support for the organization of their internal affairs.
The character of Catherine did not allow her to put up with this state of affairs. She did not want to repeat for the hundredth time the fruitless reminders of the old treaties and decided to take drastic measures this time. This was demanded not only by the protection of the Russian population in Poland, but also by the direct benefit of the Russian Empire. Poland could not be allowed to withdraw from the subordination of Russia, which had been established since the time of Peter the Great: then it would have fallen under the authority or influence of other neighboring powers, which, through this, would become more dangerous for Russia.
It was at this time, in 1763, that the Polish king August the Third died.
Again, as in 1733, civil strife, common in Poland, began. A strong party that wished to elevate Pan Stanislav Poniatovsky to the throne asked Catherine for support against the armed violence that the opponents resorted to. The empress took advantage of this opportunity: she promised her support to Ponyatovsky on the condition that he and his supporters, having received power, would establish new law, according to which Orthodox citizens of Poland, on an equal basis with Catholics, will have the right to participate in the Sejm and hold all sorts of positions on public service: then, of course, any oppression for the faith would have become unthinkable.
By virtue of this agreement with Poniatowski, the Cossack regiments were moved to Poland, easily dispersed the detachments of rioters who interfered with correct choices, and Stanislav-Augustus was elected king.
However, this attempt - to achieve just rights for the Russian population of Poland - ended in failure. King Stanislav, however, proposed to the Diet to issue a law on equality with Orthodox Catholics. But the Diet, which consisted exclusively of Catholics, decisively rejected the proposed law. The king himself was showered with harsh abuse; members of the Diet brandished their naked sabers, shouting that even a traitor could propose such a law. Strong hatred Poles-Catholics to the infidels frightened both the king himself and his supporters, who had previously promised Catherine to achieve equality for the Orthodox. The king informed the empress that he could not fulfill his promise. But it was dangerous to joke with Catherine in this way. Once deciding to bring the important work started to the end, she was ready to go to extreme measures.
At her call, the Orthodox population of the Russian regions of Poland took up arms and threatened an uprising if they were not given equal rights with the Catholics. A whole army gathered in the city of Slutsk (now the Minsk province). A similar armed congress was convened in Thorn (now in Prussia) by Polish Lutherans, to whom the Catholics also did not want to give rights. In Poland, such armed congresses of dissatisfied gentry with something, called confederations, have long become a custom and were even considered permissible, as it were; such amazing orders were in Poland. Catherine promised the Confederates armed support: Cossack regiments were stationed near Warsaw and in a short time could occupy her.
A threat internecine war and the military intervention of Russia finally broke the stubbornness of the Catholics - and the Seimas in 1768 approved a law on equality of Orthodox Christians and Lutherans with Catholics. At the same time, the Sejm concluded an agreement with Russia that gave Russia the right to monitor order and compliance with laws in Poland. The Polish government already realized that it was unable to maintain order in the country. Events very soon made me remember this treaty.
Poles-Catholics, who in their hatred of the Orthodox reached the level of savagery, in turn declared an armed confederation in the city of Bar (now Podolsk province), demanding the abolition of the newly issued law on equality and the deposition of King Stanislav-Augustus, whom they called a traitor and apostate from faith.
Confederate Catholics fought badly, but with merciless cruelty they tortured and killed every Orthodox who fell into their hands, burned villages and villages, leaving everywhere traces of destruction and the corpses of tortured and hanged Orthodox peasants. Then the peasant and Cossack population of Polish Little Russia (Turkey had returned it to Poland by this time), in turn, raised a bloody uprising against the king and against the lords. By terrible power and the brutality of this uprising resembled the times of Khmelnitsky: in the city of Uman, the Haidamaks (as the insurgent Cossacks were now called) slaughtered over 10 thousand Poles and Jews, sparing neither women nor children.
A terrible civil strife engulfed all of Poland. The king, on whom the uprising was approaching from two sides, asked for help from Catherine, and the empress, in accordance with the treaty of 1768, again moved her troops to Poland. The Gaidamaks immediately laid down their arms: they did not want to fight against the troops of the Orthodox Empress. And before, starting the massacre, they innocently thought that with this cruelty they were doing what was pleasing to Catherine. But with the Confederate Poles they had to wage a real war. In the open field, the Confederates could not resist the regular army, but they hid in small parties in the forests, made quick raids on Russian troops or peaceful villages, and this petty, tiresome war dragged on for a long time. The leaders of the Confederates were trying to gain time, hoping to await help from someone from strong enemies Russia. They especially counted on Turkey. The ambassadors of the confederation, together with the French ambassador, persistently urged the Turkish ministers not to allow Russia to further increase its influence on Polish affairs.
Under the influence of these slanders, Turkey turned to Catherine with a bold demand - to abandon the support of the Orthodox in Poland and withdraw its troops from there.
Catherine avoided unnecessary wars, but where the benefit of the people and the honor of the state demanded this, she was not afraid to accept the challenge. Simultaneously with the Polish unrest, a difficult turkish war, which lasted for 6 years. There were moments when Austria also threatened Russia with war. Despite all these complications, Russian troops in Poland continued their stubborn struggle against the Confederates.
With great difficulty, it was finally possible to disperse and overfit their gangs. But King Stanislav-Augustus, throughout this war, behaved hypocritically and hypocritically: in his heart sympathizing with the Confederates, he did not help our troops who fought for him in anything, and he himself constantly and persistently demanded from Catherine that she renounce the treaty of 1768 about the equality of the Orthodox. The more difficult it was for Russia in the difficult Turkish war, the more insistent the demands of the king became. At the same time, he stubbornly refused any, even the most just, demands of Catherine in border disputes, in complaints of violence against Russian subjects. He even started secret negotiations with France and Austria, asking them for help against Russia.
Catherine, learning about these negotiations, warned the king that she considered his behavior equal to the declaration of war.
In the midst of the Polish turmoil, the Austrians, seeing the complete impotence of Poland, occupied the Polish lands bordering with Austria with their troops. Only war could push them out of there. But Catherine, who had already endured the difficult Turkish war through the fault of the Poles, did not want to shed the blood of her soldiers again because of the Poles. All means have already been tried to achieve good fair rights for the Orthodox subjects of Poland. The king and the gentry responded to the peacefulness of Russia with open hostility and attempts to raise new enemies against her, just not to fulfill the simple and legitimate demands of the empress. All this gave Catherine the right to treat Poland as an obvious enemy. Without objection, she left the Polish regions occupied by them to the Austrians; She also did not prevent her permanent ally, the Prussian king, from annexing part of the Polish possessions to Prussia; itself, in compensation for the countless insults and losses caused to Russia by the Poles, annexed to Russia the ancient Russian region - Eastern Belarus (present-day Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces). Once upon a time, before its annexation to Lithuania, the descendants of St. Prince Vladimir Equal of the Apostles reigned in this land. The relics of St. Princess Euphrosyne of his glorious family now rest in ancient city Belarus - Polotsk. During the annexation of Eastern Belarus to the Russian Empire, all rural and urban population it was Russian. One part of it was Orthodox, and the other was Uniate by faith. But as soon as the Belarusian Uniates came under the rule of Russia, many of them immediately returned to Orthodoxy.
The Prussian king Frederick frankly admitted that of the three powers that seized the Polish regions, Russia alone had the moral right to do so. Prussia and Austria, indeed, took advantage of Poland's weakness for seizures: the Prussians pounced on the Polish-Slavic lands, and Austria took possession of even Galicia, which was Russian in terms of population, an ancient heritage of the Russian princes. This Galician Rus with its capital Lvov, as well as Rus Ugorsk and Rus Bukovina, Austria still owns. In this dear to us foreign Russia, until now, the union has not succeeded in completely ruining the Orthodox faith, no matter how much the Austrians, Poles and Ugrians, or Hungarians aspired to this.
The Polish Sejm, fearing to incur war on Poland, obediently signed an agreement in 1772 on the cession of lands occupied by them to Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Weakened by the loss of vast outskirts, Poland was now completely subordinate to Russia. The Russian ambassador to Warsaw had more power and importance than the king himself. Anyone who wanted to achieve something turned to him or went with his request to Petersburg. But Poland itself did not have much trouble from this. Even Russia's enemies admitted that, under her supervision, Poland began to recover from the calamities and devastation of years of turmoil; in it a certain order was established in the affairs of administration.
But the world was fragile this time too. Prussia and Austria, fearing a combination of two strong Slavic peoples, did not spare money and tried, through bribed agitators (instigators), to arouse resentment and hostility towards Russia among the Poles. Their efforts were not fruitless. While Russia was scary, Poland was quiet. But in 1787 a new heavy Turkish war began in Russia. False rumors about the failures of the Russian troops and the false hope of an alliance and aid against Russia of the European powers inspired the Poles with the idea that there was nothing more to fear from Russia. The peacefulness of Catherine, who ignored the first actions of the Polish government that were offensive to Russia, gave even more courage to the Poles.
The Diet announced that all previous treaties with Russia had been destroyed, and sought an alliance against her in Prussia. At the Diet, publicly, with unprecedented audacity, they abused both Russia and the Empress with gross abuse. A number of grave insults were inflicted on Russian subjects in Poland; several high Orthodox clergymen, including the only Orthodox bishop in Poland, Viktor, were imprisoned in a fortress or thrown into prison in 1789; the courts did not give any protection to Orthodox churches when they were robbed by drunken soldiers and the mob. The Orthodox population of the right-bank Ukraine and Volhynia again, as in 1786, began to worry. They were waiting for help from the empress. Many whole families fled across the Russian border. The Poles were afraid of a new Haidamak uprising and pulled together troops to the Ukraine. To prevent an uprising, some proposed to devastate the entire region, as the Poles did in the old days.
It is clear that the Russian Empress could have one answer to these actions: war.
In 1792, Russian troops entered Poland again. The Orthodox population of Ukraine greeted the Russian regiments as their deliverers, providing them with any assistance: the Poles, however, could not get a single spy. In a densely populated country, they could not gather information about the movement of the entire Russian army; the Russian generals knew every movement of any Polish detachment. Among the Poles themselves, according to custom, there were many enemies of the king; they declared a confederation and, armed, joined the empress's troops.
The war did not last long. The Polish troops, quite numerous, but discordant, self-willed and not accustomed to battle, did not show either military art or real courage, and were beaten at every clash with the Russians. The hope for help for Prussia did not come true: the Prussians had already achieved their goal - they caused a new turmoil in Poland and now they themselves treacherously seized several more rich trading cities from the Poles they had deceived.
After several months of war, the Poles asked for peace. The chief commanders of the troops moved against Russia fled abroad. The king tried to humiliate himself in front of his Polish enemies - the Confederates - and to buy forgiveness in front of Catherine. But Catherine, who never wasted the blood of her soldiers, dictated the harsh conditions of peace: not wanting to leave the lands that were once the legitimate legacy of the Russian sovereigns in the power of the Polish turmoil and violence, the empress in 1793 forever annexed the Minsk, Volyn and Podolsk regions to the Russian Empire and right-bank Ukraine. This Ukraine, together with Kiev, annexed to Russia during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, constituted the present Kiev province.
The acquisitions made by Catherine in 1772 and 1793 were especially dear for Russia in that these were not foreign lands, conquered only by force of arms: these were the original Russian regions, different time enemies, and now returned under the ski Peter of the Russian sovereigns. Alien to the Russian people in these areas were only the Polish landowners and the Jews who lived in cities and towns, who were allowed access here and in all Western Russian regions by the Poles. The indigenous population of these lands - all the peasants and most of the bourgeoisie - were Russian by blood and language: Belarusians in Minsk, Mogilev and Vitebsk regions, Little Russians in Volyn, in Podolia and Kiev land. When Empress Catherine visited the Russian lands connected with Russia, the Bishop of Konissk, on whose complaint the empress stood up for the Orthodox subjects of Poland in 1763, greeted her in Mogilev with a speech remarkable for the Little Russian peasants in her speech. This speech vividly expressed the nationwide joy of the Belarusian population, who finally found peace and freedom under the rule of the Orthodox empress. In memory of the long-awaited reunification with Russia of the ancient Russian regions, Catherine ordered to knock out a medal with the inscription in Slavic language: "Torn away return."
