<P> Magnates who had opposed the constitution draft from the start, Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Seweryn Rzewuski, and Szymon and Józef Kossakowski, asked Tsarina Catherine to intervene and restore their privileges--the Cardinal Laws abolished under the new statute . To that end these magnates formed the Targowica Confederation . The Confederation's proclamation, prepared in St. Petersburg in January 1792, criticized the constitution for contributing to "contagion of democratic ideas" following "the fatal examples set in Paris ." It asserted that "The parliament...has broken all fundamental laws, swept away all liberties of the gentry and on the third of May 1791 turned into a revolution and a conspiracy ." The Confederates declared an intention to overcome this revolution . We "can do nothing but turn trustingly to Tsarina Catherine, a distinguished and fair empress, our neighboring friend and ally", who "respects the nation's need for well - being and always offers it a helping hand", they wrote . </P> <P> Russian armies entered Poland and Lithuania, starting the Polish--Russian War of 1792 . The Sejm voted to increase the army of the Commonwealth to 100,000 men, but owing to insufficient time and funds this number was never achieved and soon abandoned even as a goal . The Polish King and the reformers could field only a 37,000 - man army, many of them untested recruits . This army, under the command of Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko, defeated or fought to a draw the Russians on several occasions, but in the end, a defeat loomed inevitable . Despite Polish requests, Prussia refused to honor its alliance obligations . Stanisław August's attempts at negotiations with Russia proved futile . As the front lines kept shifting to the west and in July 1792 Warsaw was threatened with siege by the Russians, the King came to believe that victory was impossible against the numerically superior enemy, and that surrender was the only alternative to total defeat . Having received assurances from the Russian ambassador Yakov Bulgakov that no territorial changes will occur, the Guardians of the Laws cabinet voted 8: 4 to surrender . On 24 July 1792, King Stanisław August Poniatowski joined the Targowica Confederation, as the Empress had demanded . The Polish Army disintegrated . </P> <P> Many reform leaders, believing their cause was for now lost, went into self - imposed exile . Some hoped that Stanisław August would be able to negotiate an acceptable compromise with the Russians, as he had done in the past . But the King had not saved the Commonwealth and neither had the Targowica Confederates, who governed the country for a short while . To their surprise, the Grodno Sejm, bribed or intimidated by the Russian troops, enacted the Second Partition of Poland . On 23 November 1793, it concluded its deliberations under duress, annulling the constitution and acceding to the Second Partition . Russia took 250,000 square kilometres (97,000 sq mi), while Prussia took 58,000 square kilometres (22,000 sq mi). The Commonwealth now comprised no more than 215,000 square kilometres (83,000 sq mi). What was left of the Commonwealth was merely a small buffer state with a puppet king, and Russian garrisons keeping an eye on the reduced Polish army . </P> <P> For a year and a half, Polish patriots waited while planning an insurrection . On 24 March 1794 in Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko declared what has come to be known as the Kościuszko Uprising . On 7 May, he issued the Proclamation of Połaniec (Uniwersał Połaniecki), granting freedom to the peasants and ownership of land to all who fought in the insurrection . Revolutionary tribunals administered summary justice to those deemed traitors to the Commonwealth . After initial victories at the Battle of Racławice (April 4), the capture of Warsaw (18 April) and the Wilno (22 April)--the Uprising was crushed when the forces of Russia, Austria and Prussia joined in a military intervention . Historians consider the Uprising's defeat to have been a foregone conclusion in face of the superiority in numbers and resources of the three invading powers . The defeat of Kościuszko's forces led in 1795 to the third and final partition of the Commonwealth . </P>

Who had the right to vote as stipulated in the french constitution of 1791