Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki Count Stanisław Szczęsny Feliks Potocki ( ; 1753 – 1805 ) , of the Piława coat of arms , was a member of the Polish - Lithuanian szlachta and a military commander of the forces of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth and then Poland . Knight of the Order of the White Eagle , awarded in August 1775 . He was Great Chorąży of the Crown in 1774 – 1780 , voivode of Ruthenian Voivodeship in 1782 – 1791 , Great Lieutenant General of the Crown since 1784 , General of Artillery of the Crown in 1789 – 1792 , Marshal of the Targowica Confederation in 1792 , " starost bełski , hrubieszowski , sokalski , hajsyński , zwinogrodzki " . His daughter Olga married Lev Alexandrovitch Narychkine . Life . He was son of Franciszek Salezy Potocki , Voivod of Kiev , of the Tulczyn line of the family . He entered the public service , and owing to the influence of his relations became grand standard - bearer of the Crown at the age of twenty - two . After the death of Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski in 1782 King Stanisław August appointed him the Voivode of Ruthenia . In 1784 he purchased the rank of a colonel from bankrupted Voivod of Kiev Stempkowski and became soon a lieutenant - general . A grand magnate ruling patriarchally in his vast estates , his annual income was 3 million zloties . Elected deputy for Braclaw at the famous Four Years Diet , he began that career of treachery which was to terminate in the ruin of his country . Yet his previous career had awakened many hopes in him . His popularity culminated in 1784 when he presented an infantry regiment of 400 men as a free gift to the republic . But he identified the public welfare with the welfare of the individual magnates , his goals in seeking reforms was to transform the Commonwealth into a mangate oligarchy . His scheme was the division of Poland into an oligarchy of autonomous grandees exercising the supreme power in rotation ( in fact a perpetual interregnum ) . In 1788 he won over to his views two other great lords , Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and Severin Rzewuski , and joined he anti - royalist opposition . The election of Małachowski ( q . v . ) and Kazimierz Lew Sapieha as marshals of the Four Years Diet still further alienated him from the Liberals ; and , after strenuously but vainly opposing every project of reform , he retired to Vienna whence he continued to carry on an active propaganda against the new ideas . He protested against the Constitution of 3 May 1791 , and was one of the leaders of the Hetman Party . After attempting fruitlessly to induce the Emperor Leopold to take up arms against the reformers , proceeded with his friends in March 1792 to St . Petersburg , and subsequently with the connivance of the Empress Catherine II formed the Targowica Confederation for the maintenance of the ancient institutions of Poland ( 14 May 1792 ) , of which he was the marshal , or rather the dictator , directing its operations from his castle at Tulczyn . When the May constitution was overthrown and the Prussia ns were already in occupation of Great Poland , Potocki ( March 1793 ) went on a diplomatic mission to St . Petersburg ; but , finding himself duped and set aside , retired to Vienna until 1797 , when he settled down at Tulczyn and devoted himself for the remainder of his life to the improvement of his estates . Sentenced to death " in absentia " by the Supreme Criminal Court during the Kościuszko Uprising ( 1794 ) . On 17 November 1797 he was made a general of the infantry for the Russian Empire and was dismissed on 30 October 1798 . He was buried as a Russian general . Quote . After the signing of the Targowica Confederation : " " Each true Pole , not blinded by the Prussian and royalist cabal , is convinced , that our Fatherland can only be saved by Russia , otherwise our nation will be enslaved " " . After Stanisław August Poniatowski ' s abdication and the destruction of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth : " " About past Poland and Poles [ I don ' t want to talk anymore ] . Gone is this country , and this name , as many others have perished in the world ' s history . I am now a Russian forever . " "