Repnin Sejm

This session followed the Sejms of 1764 to 1766, where the newly elected King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, attempted with some successes to push through reforms to strengthen the government of the Commonwealth.

[2] In his preparations Repnin fostered unrest among the religious minorities – Protestants (mostly in Royal Prussia and Greater Poland) and Eastern Orthodox (mostly in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), who wanted to have equal rights with the Roman Catholics.

[2] In order to further Russian goals, Repnin encouraged the formation of two Protestant konfederacjas of Słuck and Toruń and later, Catholic (Radom Confederation, led by Karol Stanisław "Panie Kochanku" Radziwiłł).

[5] The first act of the Radom Confederation was to send a delegation to Saint Petersburg, petitioning Catherine to guarantee the liberties of the Republic, and allow the proper legislation to be settled by the Russian ambassador at Warsaw.

[2] To break the opposition, Repnin ordered the arrest of four vocal opponents of his policies in the Polish capital,[1][6] namely bishops Józef Andrzej Załuski[7] and Kajetan Sołtyk[8] and hetman Wacław Rzewuski with his son Seweryn.

Through the Polish nobles that he bribed (like Gabriel Podoski, Primate of Poland)[10] or threatened by the presence of over 10,000 Russian soldiers in Warsaw[1] and even in the very chambers of the parliament,[2] Repnin, despite some misgivings about the methods he was ordered to employ,[11] de facto dictated the terms of that Sejm.

The liberum veto, wolna elekcja (free election), neminem captivabimus, rights to form the confederation and rokosz — in other words, all the important privileges of the Golden Liberty, which made the Commonwealth so ungovernable[4] — were guaranteed as unalterable parts in the Cardinal Laws.