2023-04-19 07:10:00
“There are figures in history who in human memory and imagination have been associated with loud, sad or glorious events that leave in the shadows all other activists in these cases. Tadeusz Rejtan is such a person against the background of the gloomy history of the first partition. There is no Polish heart for which this character would not be dear; from the world of history, it passed into the realm of legend, tradition, into the golden book of examples of patriotism and national virtue” – wrote in 1872 Józef Szujski, a Polish historian of the 19th century, in his publication “Tadeusz Rejtan na Sejmem 1773”.
On August 5, 1772, treaties concerning the First Partition of the Republic of Poland were signed in St. Petersburg. At the beginning of 1773, the king and the Senate sent notes to all European governments expressing their opposition to the violation of the rights of the Commonwealth and asking for intervention. On September 30, 1773, the partition treaties were ratified by the Partition Sejm convened in Warsaw by the partitioning powers (at the protest of three deputies: Tadeusz Rejtan, Samuel Korsak and Stanisław Bohuszewicz).
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Rejtan acted in accordance with the instructions he received when he was elected deputy at the sejmik held earlier in Nowogródek. This instruction was: “to defend the whole of Poland at the risk of life and property.” At the first session of the partition parliament, he opposed the establishment of a confederation led by Adam Poniński, which wanted to enable the first partition of Poland. His famous liberum veto is one of the last positive examples of this right.
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— Tadeusz Rejtan was a deputy to the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Nowogródek Land of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the first partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria, in 1773 the deputies were forced to ratify the act of partition. During the session of the Partition Sejm, the Partition Treaty was approved, but for it to become valid, the signatories had to leave the meeting room. Only then did the law come into force. Tadeusz Rejtan, as a sign of protest, fell to the ground in the doorway and blocked the exit from the room with his own body. He called on the deputies not to give up their homeland for destruction, because posterity would not forgive it. Nevertheless, the deputies did not heed his appeal and went to the exit, passing through the lying Rejtan – says Wiktor Łozowski, a history teacher from the Gimnazjum im. st. John Paul II in Vilnius.
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Rejtan’s resistance was supported only by Korsak and Bohuszewicz, who stayed in the middle. After 36 hours without food, Rejtan, exhausted physically and nervously, left the parliamentary hall. He obtained a written guarantee from the deputies of the partitioning powers that he would not be subject to repression.
— The slow decline of the Commonwealth began already in Saxon times. Let us recall the so-called the so-called “silent parliament”, when the Poles were forced to adopt a law on a drastic reduction of the number of the army of the Republic of Poland to only 24,000. soldiers: 18,000 for Korona and 6 thousand. for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At the same time, neighboring countries, including Russia, each had 200-300 thousand. soldiers. Reducing the size of the army was intended to facilitate control over the Commonwealth. Later, in 1732, the “three black eagles” – Russia, Prussia and Austria – signed a treaty in which they agreed on the maintenance of noble anarchy in the Commonwealth and the coordination of activities regarding the election of kings in the country. The dark times of the Saxons, the venality of deputies, wars, and above all the anarchy of the nobility, step by step led to the fall of the Commonwealth. Especially the nobility, which constituted only 10 percent. population and decided the fate of the state, treating the remaining 90 percent. inhabitants as a mob, led to internal disputes and ultimately to partitions, emphasizes the historian.
— Tadeusz Rejtan is a symbol of resistance and opposition to the injustices that took place in the Republic of Poland, as well as to disorder and disorder. The Poles often repeated that “the Republic is a prostitute” and that it poses no threat to anyone because it is weak. Rejtan’s desperate act of despair took place in circumstances when everything was already decided. In fact, he signed his own sentence. But he didn’t humble himself. After the Partition Sejm, he returned home to Lithuania. In various historical sources, the version is given that he fell into madness. He reportedly saw the Tsar’s Cossacks approaching through the window. He understood that they were coming for him and took his own life,” comments Wiktor Łozowski.
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“Rejtan – The Fall of Poland”
Tadeusz Rejtan’s protest was recorded on his canvas by Jan Matejko. The painter’s large-format work “Rejtan – The Fall of Poland”, depicting a deputy at the Partition Sejm in 1773, was also a synthesis of the era. The painting is an allegory of the fall of the Republic.
The artist presented a scene taking place during the Warsaw Sejm on April 21, 1773. The titular Rejtan is the figure on the right side of the painting. He is trying to keep Members in the Chamber who, after the announcement of the suspension of the session, were going to leave. Rejtan, lying on the threshold, tears his robe with a dramatic gesture, revealing his naked breast. The man is wearing a robe tied with a decorative belt. The image of a traditional nobleman is complemented by a shaved head and bushy mustache, as well as a karabela lying next to it. Rejtan’s religiosity is emphasized by the scapular hanging from his naked neck.
The rest of the picture is filled with crowded figures.
Matejko gave a particularly unfavorable portrayal of Poniński, who in 1773 presided over the establishment of the confederation: “the red uniform, on which the Moscow orders gleam, makes him more like an executioner than a marshal.” At his feet rolls a gold coin that fell out of a pouch lying on the floor. This is a clear symbol of bribery, as Poniński was paid by the Russian embassy.
The finished painting was exhibited for the first time in Kraków at the end of 1866. It immediately caught the attention of the public, but aroused very mixed feelings in Poles. Not everyone liked Matejko’s concept, according to which he wanted to simultaneously paint a specific historical scene and an allegory of the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This intention can be seen even in the two-part title of the work: “Rejtan – The Fall of Poland”. In order to include a broader historiosophical commentary in the work, the artist had to give up fidelity to facts and juxtapose characters who could not meet at the time.
The choice of a less glorious moment in the history of the Republic of Poland aroused further controversy. Matejko was accused of scratching national wounds, and even acting against Polish political interests – after all, the painting did not condemn the act of the invaders, but cynicism, thoughtlessness and betrayal of the Poles themselves.
Tadeusz Rejtan became a symbol of the liberum veto – the principle that every nobleman could break up the Sejm with his objection. While in earlier times liberum veto did not have a glorious history, in the case of Rejtan’s objection, it became a symbol of patriotism and the fight for independent Poland. According to Józef Szujski, he was “an MP who used a fatal veto to save the honor of his homeland.”
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