Litwa i Konfederacja Generalna Królestwa Polskiego w 1812 roku

Abstract

The article discusses the attitude of the new Lithuanian authorities in 1812 to the idea of the General Confederation of the Kingdom of Poland that was established when Napoleon started the war with Russia. The confederation was supposed to stir a great uprising movement on the lands of the Russian Partition. In that way the Emperor of the French wanted to achieve a quick settlement of the war on the territory of Lithuania. After the fiasco of those plans, Napoleon created a separate administration of Lithuania headed by the Provisional Government Commission. In addition, he agreed for the state liberated from the Russians to join the General Confederation. It provoked a problem of cooperation of these authorities with the Confederation Councils and the government of the Duchy of Warsaw. Mutual relations of these organs formed a new Napoleon’s approach to the issue of the confederation connected with the necessity of the advance of the Great Army to the east. There was also no convocation of one Sejm, but the form of Lithuanian accession to the General Confederation was a rejection of historical Lithuanian separatism in the name of creation one Polish Kingdom what became impossible because the lost war against Russia.