Gdansk dans les memoires de Stanislas-Auguste Poniatowski

Gdańsk, connected to Poland but at the same time independent, was never an object of greater neighbors’ of Poland desire than in the 18th c. Although we have abundant printed and handwritten sources concerning this issue in French, the opinion of Stanisław August Poniatowski, king of Poland, is worth to consider, what is possible thanks to the publication of his Diaries originally written in French. Those might be considered primarily pro domo sua defense against future generations. Therefore, one can understand the ongoing throughout the 19th c. Russian efforts to not make ’Diaries‘ publicly known. The modern reader finds there no new facts about the history of the city of Gdańsk. Although one can realize that the king – unlike his countrymen before the partitions – properly evaluated the political and economic benefits, which could provide harbor of Gdańsk to Poland. The part of ’Diaries‘ referring to the events after first partition of Poland gives description of King’s efforts aimed to hold Gdańsk under the Polish rule, so preventing the takeover of Gdansk by the Prussians. ’Diaries‘ reveal the futility of these treatments because Polish hopes on the support of the Western powers, especially France and the Netherlands were an illusion, just as hopes on conflict between the partitioning powers.