Connections between the Kossakowski brothers and Palton Zubov in the context of russian intervention and the second partition of the Polish–Lithuanian commonwealth

Abstract

The article attempts to analyse how the connections between the Lithuanian nobles, Bishop of Livonia Józef Kazimierz Kossakowski and Lieutenant-General of the Lithuanian and Russian Armies Szymon Marcin Kossakowski, and Platon Zubov, the favorite of Catherine II of Russia, evolved in the context of the Russian military intervention in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the legitimation of the second partition. With reference to archival sources and the research on the activities of the 1792–1793 Confederation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the article elaborates on how and when the contacts between the Lithuanian nobles and Platon Zubov were first made, what objectives the Kossakowski brothers sought to accomplish by virtue of the system of favouritism practised by the ruler of the Russian Empire and what Zubov aimed for in providing his protection to the Kossakowski family members. The article ends with the negative political outcomes that followed from the Kossakowski-Zubov collaboration.