Suwerenność Rzeczypospolitej czy suwerenność „państw” magnackich? (z doświadczeń bezkrólewia 1733 roku)
The sovereignty of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or the sovereignty of magnate “states”? (From the experiences of the interregnum of 1733 – some discussion remarks)

Summary/Abstract: The article indicates, thanks to the analysis of the sources from the period of the interregnum of 1733, that the issue of sovereignty of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, did not find a wider resonance among the noble masses, and especially among the magnates, despite being emphasized by Stanisław Konarski’s journalistic writings. To a large extent, this was due to the specific “autonomy” of individual provinces and lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as the existence of vast magnate estates that is latifundia. Individual magnates felt more and more sovereign on their property and successfully conducted their own internal and even foreign policies. The facts discussed in the article confirm the thesis presented recently by a cultural anthropologist Jan Sowa. He attempted to explain the phenomenon of the functioning of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a specific, amorphous aristocratic community, different from the then-emerging modern, absolutist European states. In line with this theses, it can be said that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th and 18th centuries can hardly be regarded as a modern, sovereign state. It was rather a federation of selfgoverning units (voivodeships) and territorial governments (Polish władztwo terytorialne) of individual magnates. To some extent, therefore, the Res Publica of that time can indeed be treated as an unrealistic entity (imaginary, phantom).

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