The Bar Confederation (; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles (szlachta) formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia (now Ukraine), in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian political influence and against King Stanislaus II Augustus with Polish reformers, who were attempting to limit the power of the Commonwealth's wealthy magnates.) which the Repnin Sejm accepted without debate on 27 February 1768.

Creation of the Bar Confederation (29 February 1768)

In response to that, and particularly after Russian troops arrested and exiled several vocal opponents (namely bishop of Kyiv Józef Andrzej Załuski, bishop of Cracow Kajetan Sołtyk, and Field Crown Hetman Wacław Rzewuski with his son Seweryn), a group of Polish magnates decided to form a confederatio – a military association opposing the government

The Confederates began operating in Lithuania, although after early successes that direction too met with failures, with defeats at Białystok on 16 July and Orzechowo on 13 September 1769. Perhaps the last stronghold of the confederates was in the monastery in Zagórz, which fell only on 28 November 1772. In the end, the Bar Confederation was defeated, with its members either fleeing abroad or being deported to Siberia, Volga region, Urals by the Russians.

Further reading

  • Aleksander Kraushar, Książę Repnin i Polska w pierwszem czteroleciu panowania Stanisława Augusta (1764–1768), (Prince Repin and Poland in the first four years of rule of Stanislaw August (1764–1768))
  • 2nd edition, corrected and expanded. vols. 1–2, Kraków 1898, G. Gebethner i Sp.
  • Revised edition, Warszawa: Gebethner i Wolff; Kraków: G. Gebethner i Spółka, 1900.
  • F. A. Thesby de Belcour, The Confederates of Bar (in Polish) (Cracow, 1895)
  • Charles Francois Dumouriez, ' (Paris, 1834).
  • Radom i Bar 1767–1768: dziennik wojennych działań jenerał-majora Piotra Kreczetnikowa w Polsce w r. 1767 i 1768 korpusem dowodzącego i jego wojenno-polityczną korespondencyą z księciem Mikołajem Repninem Poznań 1874
  • Poland the Confederation of Bar, 1768-1772