Why Poland was Partitioned: A Story of Recovery, Resistance, and Revenge

The Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795 are often considered the consequences of the anarchic abuse of liberty by a privileged and myopic nobility. Even some of America's Founding Fathers saw Poland as a lesson in how not to build a republic, as they framed the Constitution of the United States. They changed their minds as Poland's own Constitution - of May 3, 1791 - manifested its immense vitality and potential. The threat the rapid recovery of this free and inclusive Polish nation posed to the Russian and Prussian absolute monarchies explains the vengeful invasion and the partition of 1793. The insurrection led by Tadeusz Kościuszko prompted the final destruction of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 in a vain effort to extinguish the flame of freedom. Historian and author Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski will also reflect on the resonance of this story of recovery, resistance, and revenge in our times.

Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski is a Professor of Polish-Lithuanian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of University College London.

He studied history at the University of Cambridge, graduating with first-class honors in 1999, and gained his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1994. He taught at the University of Łódź in 1993–94, then held a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at Oxford. He became a lecturer in Modern European History at the Queen's University of Belfast in 1997. He joined the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in 2005, becoming a professor in 2013.

His book "The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1733-1795: Light and Flame" won the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America's Oskar Halecki Award in 2021 and the Polish Historical Society's Pro Historia Polonorum prize in 2022. The Polish edition is longer.

Professor Butterwick-Pawlikowski was awarded the bronze medal Gloria Artis in 2016 for his services to Polish culture. In March 2022, he became the principal historian of the Polish History Museum in Warsaw. In 2024, he received the title of professor of the humanities by the president of the Republic of Poland. MORE

Featured visual: The representatives of the nobility from every voivodship of Poland-Lithuania with their local clothes and emblems. Anonymous painting of the 18th century.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 65th Street, New York, United States