Paulava Republic ( lt, Paulavos respublika, pl, Rzeczpospolita Pawłowska) was a farmer community and a

micro-state A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, usually both. However, the meanings of "state" and "very small" are not well-defined in international law.Warrington, E. (1994). "Lilliputs ...

in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with its own

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

s. Located around the Merkinė Manor (also Pavlovo Manor) in present-day

Šalčininkai District Municipality Šalčininkai District Municipality ( lt, Šalčininkų rajono savivaldybė; pl, Samorząd rejonu solecznickiego) is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It has one of biggest Polish minority populations in Lithuania, with 31,821 or 77,75% (2 ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, it covered an area of and had about 800 residents.

History

Paulava Republic was a small self-governing farmer community founded in 1769 by the Catholic priest Paweł Ksawery Brzostowski. The republic ceased to exist in 1795 when, due to the

Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...

, Brzostowski exchanged the manor with

Fryderyk Józef Moszyński Fryderyk Józef Jan Kanty Moszyński (1738 in Dresden – 21 January 1817 in Kiev) of Nałęcz coat of arms was a noble ('' szlachcic'') in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He held the offices of Referendary of Lithuania, Great Secreta ...

for properties in

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

and

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. Moszyński in turn sold the manor to Count de Choiseul-Gouffier in 1799. The new owners tolerated some of the freedoms until Brzostowski's death in 1827. The last freedoms were lost when farmers joined the failed

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

in 1830.

Government

The community was governed by Paweł Ksawery Brzostowski, who declared himself

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

, and Seimas (

), which was formed from the local peasants. The republic had its own constitution which was created before the

Constitution of 3 May 1791 The Constitution of 3 May 1791,; lt, Gegužės trečiosios konstitucija titled the Governance Act, was a constitution adopted by the Great Sejm ("Four-Year Sejm", meeting in 1788–1792) for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dual mo ...

Recognition

The state was recognized by the Grand Duke and King

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch ...

himself. The

Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm ( Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in War ...

(1788–1792) also recognized the republic and approved its statute. 44 rzeczpospolita pawlowska

Reforms

Brzostowski implemented various progressive policies – abolished

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

and granted personal freedoms to the peasants, replaced

corvée Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...

with a land tax paid in cash, established a school and a pharmacy, encouraged more profitable agricultural activities, e.g. fruit tree gardens and animal husbandry. Brzostowski's revenue from the manor more than doubled.

References

1769 establishments in Europe 1795 disestablishments in Europe History of Lithuania (1569–1795) {{Lithuania-geo-stub