Protekcja rosyjska udzielana przedstawicielom szlachty litewskiej u progu wojny siedmioletniej. Postawienie problemu

ENThe basic intention of this article is to outline the range and character of the co operation with Russia on the part of Jan Chreptowicz, Jozef Strutyriski and Stanislaw Pioro in the mid-1750s. These members of the middle gentry in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania proved capable of requesting protection from the court in St. Petersburg while bypassing the intermediary of the leaders of the "family" camp, to which they belonged during this period. They could be thus considered sui generis agents with whose assistance the eastern empire tried to pursue its interests in the Commonwealth, a state undergoing a sovereignty cri sis, The presented facts served as a foundation for resolving questions concern ing the manner in which Russian protection reinforced the position of the three men on the domestic political stage and the-plans, which Russia linked with them. A restriction of the description to three examples and the brief chrono logical scope of the survey compel us to remain cautious while formulating more general conclusions and rather incline towards proposing hypotheses. [Translated by Aleksandra Rodziriska-Chojnowska].