Delegaci miasta Kowna na sejmach Rzeczypospolitej w drugiej połowie XVIII wieku

ENAlthough on the scale of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kowno (Kaunas) was a relatively small town, it had a unique position in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the second half of the eighteenth century. During the reign of King Stanislaus Augustus, Kowno burghers sent their delegates to the Sejm eight times. In 1764, Kaunas delegates went to Warsaw twice, to watch the election and coronation procedures at the Sejm. In 1776, when the Sejm discussed the status of the towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kowno delegates were also present in Warsaw. In 1784, Kowno representatives at the Sejm session in Grodno (Hrodna) succeeded in getting an audience with the king. During the period of the Four-Year Sejm, Kowno townsmen responded to the invitations of the Old Warsaw Magistrature and visited the city three times in 1789 and 1791. Encouraged by the delegates of other Lithuanian cities, Kowno sent a representative to participate in the closing of the Grodno Sejm in 1793. In 1776–1791, instructions to the delegates reveal that the greatest part of townsmen’s requests to the central government reflected their hopes of the end of the city’s agricultural and economic stagnation. In the long run, however, the horizon of the Kowno burghers broadened and their interests shifted from local matters to more general problems of the cities both in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish Crown. These changes were particularly influenced by the burghers’ congresses organized by the Old Warsaw Magistrature during the Four-Year Sejm. [From the publication]