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Silent Sejm (or Dumb Sejm, ; ) is the name given to the session of the Sejm
Sejm

The Sejm is the lower house of the Poland parliament.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-Chambers of parliament Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the monarch....
 (parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries in 16th and 17th-century Europe, formed by a Union of Lublin of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569....
 of 1 February 1717. It marked the end of Augustus II of Poland's attempts to create an absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchy form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an absolute monarchy there is no constitution or legal...
 in Poland, and the beginning of Tsardom of Russia
Tsardom of Russia

The Tsardom of Rus was the official name for the Russian state between Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 and Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721....
 increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.

History
In the aftermath of the Great Northern War
Great Northern War

The Great Northern War was a war in which the so-called Northern Alliance composed of Russia, Denmark-Norway, Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony engaged Sweden to challenge them for the supremacy in the Baltic Sea....
, which eventually devastated the Commonwealth and marked the rise of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
 (1721), the growing conflict between Polish monarch Augustus II of Poland, who wanted to create an absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchy form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an absolute monarchy there is no constitution or legal...
, and the Polish nobility (szlachta
Szlachta

Szlachta refers to the nobility social class in the Kingdom of Poland , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the increasingly polonized territories under their control ....
) which opposed him (see Tarnogród Confederation
Tarnogród Confederation

Tarnogr?d Confederation was a Confederation of szlachta in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the years 1715-1716. It was formed on the 26:th of November 1715 in Tarnogr?d by nobility angered by illegal taxation, levied for Saxony forces operating in Grand Duchy of Lithuania n behalf of Augustus II the Strong, who wanted to introduce absolut...
), allowed the powerful Russian Tsar
Tsar

Tsar or czar , occasionally spelled csar or tzar in English language, is a slavs term designating certain monarchs.Originally, the title Czar meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who has the same rank as a Ancient Rome or Byzantine emperor due to recognition by another emperor or...
 Peter the Great
Peter I of Russia

Peter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V of Russia....
, victor of the Great Northern War, to pose as the conciliator between the Commonwealth king and the szlachta.

Threatened by strong Russian army, with Russian soldiers 'guarding' the proceedings, the Silent Sejm - known as silent because only one person, marshal of the Sejm Stanislaw Ledóchowski
Stanislaw Ledóchowski

Stanislaw Led?chowski was a marshal of the Crown Tribunal , member of the Sandomierz Confederation of 1704, marshal of the Tarnogr?d Confederation , marshal of the Sejm during Sejm Niemy of 1717....
 (podkomorzy krzemienicki), was allowed a voice - outlined the terms of the settlement designed by Peter the Great.






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Encyclopedia


Silent Sejm (or Dumb Sejm, ; ) is the name given to the session of the Sejm
Sejm

The Sejm is the lower house of the Poland parliament.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-Chambers of parliament Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the monarch....
 (parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries in 16th and 17th-century Europe, formed by a Union of Lublin of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569....
 of 1 February 1717. It marked the end of Augustus II of Poland's attempts to create an absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchy form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an absolute monarchy there is no constitution or legal...
 in Poland, and the beginning of Tsardom of Russia
Tsardom of Russia

The Tsardom of Rus was the official name for the Russian state between Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 and Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721....
 increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.

History


In the aftermath of the Great Northern War
Great Northern War

The Great Northern War was a war in which the so-called Northern Alliance composed of Russia, Denmark-Norway, Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony engaged Sweden to challenge them for the supremacy in the Baltic Sea....
, which eventually devastated the Commonwealth and marked the rise of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
 (1721), the growing conflict between Polish monarch Augustus II of Poland, who wanted to create an absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchy form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an absolute monarchy there is no constitution or legal...
, and the Polish nobility (szlachta
Szlachta

Szlachta refers to the nobility social class in the Kingdom of Poland , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the increasingly polonized territories under their control ....
) which opposed him (see Tarnogród Confederation
Tarnogród Confederation

Tarnogr?d Confederation was a Confederation of szlachta in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the years 1715-1716. It was formed on the 26:th of November 1715 in Tarnogr?d by nobility angered by illegal taxation, levied for Saxony forces operating in Grand Duchy of Lithuania n behalf of Augustus II the Strong, who wanted to introduce absolut...
), allowed the powerful Russian Tsar
Tsar

Tsar or czar , occasionally spelled csar or tzar in English language, is a slavs term designating certain monarchs.Originally, the title Czar meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who has the same rank as a Ancient Rome or Byzantine emperor due to recognition by another emperor or...
 Peter the Great
Peter I of Russia

Peter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V of Russia....
, victor of the Great Northern War, to pose as the conciliator between the Commonwealth king and the szlachta.

Threatened by strong Russian army, with Russian soldiers 'guarding' the proceedings, the Silent Sejm - known as silent because only one person, marshal of the Sejm Stanislaw Ledóchowski
Stanislaw Ledóchowski

Stanislaw Led?chowski was a marshal of the Crown Tribunal , member of the Sandomierz Confederation of 1704, marshal of the Tarnogr?d Confederation , marshal of the Sejm during Sejm Niemy of 1717....
 (podkomorzy krzemienicki), was allowed a voice - outlined the terms of the settlement designed by Peter the Great. This settlement stipulated that Poles and Saxony
Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a States of Germany of Germany. Located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-largest German state in area and the sixth largest in population , of Germany's sixteen states....
 (Augustus homeland) should not intervene into each other domestic affairs, limited the powers of the hetman
Hetman

Hetman was the title of the second highest military commander used in 15th to 18th century Poland, Ukraine and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, known from 1569 to 1795 as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth....
s (Polish military commanders in chief), and established taxes for Commonwealth army of 24,000 (normal soldier's wages, which meant that after factoring officer pensions and other military needs, the effective army was a little over 10,000 strong, several times weaker then those of its neighbours). After outlining the proposal, Ledochowski asked if there are any objections. After 6 hours, when nobody dared to oppose him and risk Russian intervention, Ledochowski concluded that 'silence means lack of objections'. The Silent Sejm is regarded as one of the first precedences that the Russian Empire dictated Polish internal policy, and also as a precursor to the partitions of Poland
Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth....
, which erased the Commonwealth from world maps by 1795.

See also

  • Grodno Sejm
    Grodno Sejm

    Grodno Sejm was the last Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grodno Sejm, held in fall of 1793 in Grodno, Grand Duchy of Lithuania is infamous because its deputies, bribed or coercion by the Russian Empire, passed the act of Second Partition of Poland....