Polish–Russian War of 1792
The Polish–Russian War of 1792 was fought between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on one side, and the Targowica Confederation and the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great on the other.
The war took place in two theaters: a northern in Lithuania and a southern in what is now Ukraine. In both, the Polish forces retreated before the numerically superior Russian forces, though they offered significantly more resistance in the south, thanks to the effective leadership of Polish commanders Prince Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko. During the three-month-long struggle several battles were fought, but no side scored a decisive victory. The largest success of the Polish forces was the defeat of one of the Russian formations at the Battle of Zieleńce on 18 June; in the aftermath of the battle the Polish highest military award, Virtuti Militari, was established. The Russians' greatest success in this war was the Battle of Mir on 11 June. The war ended when the Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski decided to seek a diplomatic solution, asked for a ceasefire with the Russians and joined the Targowica Confederation, as demanded by the Russian Empire.
Background
Decline of the Commonwealth
By the early 18th century, the magnates of Poland and Lithuania controlled the state – or rather, they managed to ensure that no reforms would be carried out that might weaken their privileged status. Through the abuse of the liberum veto rule which enabled any deputy to paralyze the Sejm proceedings, deputies bribed by magnates or foreign powers or those simply content to believe they were living in an unprecedented "Golden Age", paralysed the Commonwealth's government for over a century.The idea of reforming the Commonwealth gained traction from the mid-17th century; it was however viewed with suspicion not only by its magnates but also by neighboring countries, which had been content with the deterioration of the Commonwealth and abhorred the thought of a resurgent and democratic power on their borders. With the Commonwealth Army reduced to around 16,000, it was easy for its neighbors to intervene directly.
Attempts at reform
A major opportunity for reform presented itself during the "Great Sejm" of 1788–92. Poland's neighbors were preoccupied with wars and unable to intervene forcibly in Polish affairs. The Russian Empire and Archduchy of Austria were engaged in hostilities with the Ottoman Empire ; the Russians also found themselves simultaneously fighting in the Russo-Swedish War, 1788–1790. A new alliance between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussia seeming to provide security against Russian intervention, and on 3 May 1791 the new constitution was read and adopted to overwhelming popular support.With the wars between Turkey and Russia and Sweden and Russia having ended, Tsarina Catherine was furious over the adoption of the document, which she believed threatened Russian influence in Poland. Russia had viewed Poland as a de facto protectorate. "The worst possible news have arrived from Warsaw: the Polish king has become almost sovereign" was the reaction of one of Russia's chief foreign policy authors, Alexander Bezborodko, when he learned of the new constitution. The Kingdom of Prussia was also strongly opposed to the new Polish constitution, and Polish diplomats received a note that the new constitution changed the Polish state so much that Prussia did not consider its obligations binding. Just like Russia, Prussia was concerned that the newly strengthened Polish state could become a threat and the Prussian Foreign Minister, Friedrich Wilhelm von Schulenburg-Kehnert, clearly and with rare candor told Poles that Prussia did not support the constitution and refused to help the Commonwealth in any form, even as a mediator, as it was not in Prussia's interest to see the Commonwealth strengthened so that it could threaten Prussia in the future. The Prussian statesman Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg expressed the fears of European conservatives: "The Poles have given the coup de grâce to the Prussian monarchy by voting a constitution", elaborating that a strong Commonwealth would likely demand the return of the lands Prussia acquired in the First Partition.
The Constitution was not adopted without dissent in the Commonwealth itself, either. Magnates who had opposed the constitution draft from the start, namely Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Seweryn Rzewuski, and Szymon and Józef Kossakowski, asked Tsarina Catherine to intervene and restore their privileges such as the Russian-guaranteed Cardinal Laws abolished under the new statute. To that end these magnates formed the Targowica Confederation. The Confederation's proclamation, prepared in Saint Petersburg in January 1792, criticized the constitution for contributing to, in their own words, "contagion of democratic ideas" following "the fatal examples set in Paris". It asserted that "The parliament ... has broken all fundamental laws, swept away all liberties of the gentry and on the third of May 1791 turned into a revolution and a conspiracy." The Confederates declared an intention to overcome this revolution. We "can do nothing but turn trustingly to Tsarina Catherine, a distinguished and fair empress, our neighboring friend and ally", who "respects the nation's need for well-being and always offers it a helping hand", they wrote. The Confederates aligned with Tsarina Catherine and asked her for military intervention. On 18 May 1792, the Russian ambassador to Poland, Yakov Bulgakov, delivered a declaration of war to the Polish Foreign Minister Joachim Chreptowicz. Russian armies entered Poland and Lithuania on the same day, starting the war.
Opposing forces
The Russian army numbered nearly 98,000. It was commanded by generals-in-chief Mikhail Krechetnikov and Mikhail Kakhovsky. The Russians also had an advantage in combat experience. The Russian plan called for Kakhovsky to advance through Ukraine, taking Kamieniec Podolski, Chełm and Lublin, and approach Polish capital of Warsaw from the south. Krechetnikov was to advance through Minsk, Vilnius, Brześć Litewski and Białystok, and approach Warsaw from the north, where he was to link with Kakhovsky. Whereas the Russians had good intelligence network in Poland, and were mostly aware of Polish army distribution and strength; the Poles had much less intelligence, receiving contradictory and often erroneous reports, and unsure whether the war would even start up to the point the Russian troops crossed the border.Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was the commander-in-chief of the Polish forces, but in practice he delegated this position to his nephew, Prince Józef Poniatowski. Poniatowski had in theory at his disposal a 48,000 strong Crown army and the Lithuanian army more than half that size to confront them. In practice, Polish forces, still forming following the reforms of the Constitution of 3 May numbered only 37,000. The army was reorganizing, with key documents on unit numbers and composition passed as recently as in April; it was also short on equipment and experienced personnel.
In the southeast corner of the country – the Ukrainian lands – the Polish forces were initially concentrated separately in three regions of the expected front, under Tadeusz Kościuszko, Michał Wielhorski and Prince Poniatowski himself. The Polish Crown army in Ukraine, led by Prince Poniatowski, and supported by Kościuszko, was about 17,000, 21,000 or 24,000 strong. In the southeastern war theater, they faced a nearly four times larger enemy army under General Mikhail Kakhovsky, who had about 64,000 men under his command. Kakhovsky's forces were divided into four corps: 1st, 18,000 strong, under the command of General Mikhail Golenishchev-Kutuzov, 2nd, under General Ivan Dunin, 3rd, under General Wilhelm Derfelden, and 4th, under General Andrei Levanidov. The Targowica Confederates did not represent any real strength; and their attempts to gather popular support in Poland upon crossing borders failed miserably, with only few dozens joining at first; later the number would grow but not significantly, and even the Russians saw them as not having any military value, keeping them from the frontlines.
In Lithuania, the Commonwealth Lithuanian Army numbered about 15,000, with an additional Crown detachment of about 3,000. They were commanded by Duke Louis of Württemberg. Württemberg made no plans for the war, and the troops were not readied for action by the time the war started. The Russian army in that theatre under General Mikhail Krechetnikov was 33,700 strong or 38,000 strong. The Russian army was also divided into four corps: 1st under one of Targowica Confederate leaders, Szymon Kossakowski 7,300 strong, 2nd under General Boris Mellin, 7,000 strong, 3rd under General Yuri Dolgorukov, 15,400 strong, and 4th under General Ivan Fersen, 8,300 strong.
Additional Polish forces, about 8,000 strong, were to concentrate in Warsaw under the command of King Poniatowski as a reserve.
Tadeusz Kościuszko proposed a plan where the entire Polish army would be concentrated and would engage one of the Russian armies, to assure numerical parity and to boost the morale of mostly inexperienced Polish forces with a quick victory; this plan was however rejected by Prince Poniatowski.. Poniatowski also planned to avoid serious engagements in the first phase of the war, hoping to receive the expected Prussian reinforcements of 30,000 which would bring parity to the two sides.
War
Southern theater
The first Russian forces crossed the border in Ukraine on the night of 18/19 May 1792. The Russians in that theater would encounter significantly more resistance than they expected, as Commonwealth's top commanders, Prince Poniatowski and Kościuszko were stationed there. Kościuszko joined Prince Poniatowski near Janów on 29 May. The Crown Army was judged too weak to oppose the four columns of enemy armies advancing into West Ukraine and began a fighting withdrawal to the western side of the Southern Bug River, towards Lubar and Połonne, with Kośiuszko commanding the rear guard. Poniatowski, in the face of significant numerical inferiority of his forces, and promised reinforcements by King Poniatowski, decided to abandon Ukraine and move to Volhynia, where Połonne was to be fortified as a major defensive point, and where Lubomirski was tasked with gathering supplies.File:Wojciech Kossak po bitwie pod Zieleńcami.jpg|thumb|400px|After the Battle of Zieleńce, by Wojciech Kossak
On 14 June Wielhorski's unit was defeated at the Battle of Boruszkowce. On 17 June Poniatowski finally received awaited reinforcements, about 2,000 troops led by Michał Lubomirski. Next day the Poles, led by Prince Poniatowski, defeated one of the Russian formations of general Irakly Morkov at the Battle of Zieleńce on 18 June. The victory was celebrated by King Poniatowski, who sent the new Virtuti Militari medals for the campaign leaders and soldiers, as "the first since John III Sobieski".
The Russian forces, however, kept advancing. Under the command of Józef Poniatowski, the Polish army retreated in good order, yielding to the more powerful enemy as necessary to avoid annihilation. In early July, near Dubno, Prince Poniatowski and Kościuszko were betrayed by Michał Lubomirski, who was tasked with King Poniatowski with resupplying the troops; instead Lubomirski joined the Russian side and either hid the supplies for the Polish army, or outright passed them to the Russians. Lubomirski, however, was a powerful magnate, and it took until late May for the King officially to relieve him of his command. Within about a month of the Russian invasion, the Poles had mostly retreated from Ukraine. On 7 July Kościuszko's forces fought a delaying battle with the Russians at Volodymyr-Volynskyi. Meanwhile, Poniatowski's army retreated to the Bug River, where Kościuszko's units on 18 July fought the Battle of Dubienka, which was a draw. With about 5,300 troops Kościuszko defeated the attack of 25,000 Russians under General Mikhail Kakhovsky. Kośicuszko then had to retreat from Dubienka, as the Russians begun flanking his positions crossing the nearby Austrian border. Although the Poles had to retreat from the Bug River line, they were not defeated so far, and a decisive battle or battles at more favorable locations closer to Warsaw were expected.