The Polish Partitions That Erased a Nation

The Story of Poland: A Nation That Refused to Disappear — Fexingo History · Oct 26, 2026 · 7m · transcript

Between 1772 and 1795, three neighboring empires—Russia, Prussia, and Austria—carved up the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until it vanished from the map for over a century. This episode moves beyond the familiar narrative of military defeat to explore the diplomatic mechanisms and internal fractures that made partition possible. We examine the first partition of 1772, where Catherine the Great’s Russia and Frederick the Great’s Prussia used the pretext of protecting minorities to seize vast territories. We look at the tragic figure of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, whose attempts at…