Polish-Lithuanian Empire

The Polish Lithuanian Empire is a Puppet State of the German Empire after Poland and Lithuania were both liberated by the Germans from Imperial Russia. The Germans created the country out of Poland, Galicia and Lodomeria, Lithuania, West Belarussia and West Ukraine by merging them together and they elected Prince Wilhelm Radziwiłł as Emperor of Poland-Lithuania. The Country is a Dual Monarchy due to the fact that Poland and Lithuania both have separate factions in their Parliament that are each led by a Prime Minister from Poland and Lithuania.

## History

### Origins

Poland and Lithuania were a commonwealth that was formally known as the **Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania** and, after 1791, the **Commonwealth of Poland**. It was a country and bi-federation of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch in real union, who was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 square kilometres (400,000 sq mi) and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million. Polish and Latin were the two co-official languages.

The Commonwealth was established by the Union of Lublin in July 1569, but the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been in a *de facto* personal union since 1386 with the marriage of the Polish queen Hedwig and Lithuania's Grand Duke Jogaila, who was crowned King *jure uxoris* Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland. The First Partition in 1772 and the Second Partition in 1793 greatly reduced the state's size and the Commonwealth was partitioned out of existence with the Third Partition in 1795.

The Union possessed many features unique among contemporary states. Its political system was characterized by strict checks upon monarchical power. These checks were enacted by a legislature (*sejm*) controlled by the nobility (*szlachta*). This idiosyncratic system was a precursor to modern concepts of democracy, as of 1791 constitutional monarchy, and federation. Although the two component states of the Commonwealth were formally equal, Poland was the dominant partner in the union.

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was marked by high levels of ethnic diversity and by relative religious tolerance, guaranteed by the Warsaw Confederation Act 1573; however, the degree of religious freedom varied over time. The Constitution of 1791 acknowledged Catholicism as the "dominant religion", unlike the Warsaw Confederation, but freedom of religion was still granted with it.

After several decades of prosperity, it entered a period of protracted political, military and economic decline. Its growing weakness led to its partitioning among its neighbors (Austria, Prussia and Russia) during the late 18th century. Shortly before its demise, the Commonwealth adopted a massive reform effort and enacted the 3 May Constitution – the first codified constitution in modern European history and the second in modern world history (after the United States Constitution). Sadly they were too late as the country was split up by the three powers themselves.

### Before Rebirth

The Congress Kingdom of Poland was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw, a French client state, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 when the great powers reorganized Europe following the Napoleonic wars. The Kingdom was created on part of the Polish territory that had been partitioned between Russia, Austria and Prussia, and then transformed into the Duchy of Warsaw by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807. After Napoleon's 1812 defeat, the fate of the Duchy of Warsaw was dependent on Russia. Prussia insisted on the Duchy being completely eliminated; after Russian troops reached Paris in 1812, Tsar Alexander I intended to annex the Duchy and parts of Lithuanian-Belarusian lands which were historically in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, both Austria and the United Kingdom strongly disapproved of the idea, Austria issuing a memorandum on returning to the 1795 resolutions with support from the United Kingdom under George IV, Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson and the British delegate to the Congress, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh.

Following the Congress, Russia gained a larger share of Poland (with Warsaw) and, after crushing an insurrection in 1831, the Congress Kingdom's autonomy was abolished. Poles faced confiscation of property, deportation, forced military service, and the closure of their own universities. The Congress was important enough in the creation of the state to cause the new country to be informally named for it. The Kingdom lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative divisions were reorganized. It was sufficiently distinct that its name remained in official Russian use, although in the later years of Russian rule it was replaced with the "Vistula Land" (Russian: Привислинский Край). Following the defeat of the November Uprising its separate institutions and administrative arrangements were abolished as part of increased Russification to be more closely integrated with the Russian Empire. However, even after this formalized annexation, the territory retained some degree of distinctiveness and continued to be referred to informally as Congress Poland until the Russian rule there ended as a result of the advance by the armies of the Central Powers in 1915 during World War I.

Originally, the Kingdom had an area of roughly 128,500 km2 and a population of approximately 3.3 million. The new state would be one of the smallest Polish states ever, smaller than the preceding Duchy of Warsaw and much smaller than the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth which had a population of over 10 million and an area of 1 million km2. Its population reached 6.1 million by 1870 and 10 million by 1900. The majority of ethnic Poles within the Russian Empire lived in the Congress Kingdom, although some areas outside its borders were also inhabited by strong Polish and Roman Catholic minorities.

The Kingdom of Poland largely re-emerged as a result of the efforts of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, a Pole who aimed to resurrect the Polish state in alliance with Russia. The Kingdom of Poland was one of the few contemporary constitutional monarchies in Europe, with the Emperor of Russia serving as the self-proclaimed King of Poland.

Theoretically, the Polish Kingdom in its 1815 form was a semi-autonomous state in personal union with Russia through the rule of the Russian Emperor. The state possessed the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, one of the most liberal in 19th century Europe, a Sejm (parliament) responsible to the King capable of voting laws, an independent army, currency, budget, penal code and a customs boundary separating it from the rest of Russian lands. Poland also had democratic traditions (Golden Liberty) and the Polish nobility deeply valued personal freedom. In reality, the Kings had absolute power and the formal title of *Autocrat*, and wanted no restrictions on their rule. All opposition to the Emperor of Russia was suppressed and the law was disregarded at will by Russian officials. Though the absolute rule demanded by Russia was difficult to establish due to Poland's liberal traditions and institutions, the independence of the Kingdom lasted only 15 years; initially Alexander I used the title of the King of Poland and was obligated to observe the provisions of the constitution. However, in time the situation changed and he granted the viceroy, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, almost dictatorial powers. Very soon after Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them. In 1819, Alexander I abolished freedom of the press and introduced preventive censorship. Resistance to Russian control began in the 1820s. Russian secret police commanded by Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev started the persecution of Polish secret organizations and in 1821 the King ordered the abolition of Freemasonry, which represented Poland's patriotic traditions. Beginning in 1825, the sessions of the Sejm were held in secret.

Alexander I's successor, Nicholas I was crowned King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw, but he declined to swear to abide by the Constitution and continued to limit the independence of the Polish kingdom. Nicholas' rule promoted the idea of Official Nationality, consisting of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality. In relation to Poles, those ideas meant assimilation: turning them into loyal Orthodox Russians. The principle of Orthodoxy was the result of the special role it played in the Russian Empire, as the Church was in fact becoming a department of state, and other religions discriminated against; for instance, Papal bulls could not be read in the Kingdom of Poland without agreement from the Russian government.

The rule of Nicholas also meant the end of political traditions in Poland; democratic institutions were removed, an appointed—rather than elected—centralized administration was put in place, and efforts were made to change the relations between the state and the individual. All of this led to discontent and resistance among the Polish population. In January 1831, the Sejm deposed Nicholas I as King of Poland in response to his repeated curtailing of its constitutional rights. Nicholas reacted by sending Russian troops into Poland, resulting in the November Uprising.

Following an 11-month military campaign, the Kingdom of Poland lost its semi-independence and was integrated much more closely with the Russian Empire. This was formalized through the issuing of the Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland by the Emperor in 1832, which abolished the constitution, army and legislative assembly. Over the next 30 years, a series of measures bound Congress Poland ever more closely to Russia. In 1863 the January Uprising broke out but lasted only two years before being crushed. As a direct result, any remaining separate status of the kingdom was removed and the political entity was directly incorporated into the Russian Empire. The unofficial name *Privislinsky Krai* (Russian: Привислинский Край), i.e., 'Vistula Land', replaced 'Kingdom of Poland' as the area's official name and the area became a *namestnichestvo* under the control of a namiestnik until 1875, when it became a Guberniya.

### Revival

Germany had conquered Poland after Imperial Russia was conquered due to it being overthrown by the Communists led by Lenin. To Prevent Communist Expansion into Europe, Germany annexed The Area of Russia known as St. Petersburg with all the territories of West Russia (Belarussia, Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and Finland). Germany then merged west Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Galicia and Lodomeria (which it took after annexing Austria-Hungary as a Puppet State due to it's weak failures in Military campaigns) and merged them all into a nation known as the Polish-Lithuanian Empire. Germany was about to let August Wilhelm and William Charles Florestan Gero Crescentius von Urach, Graf von Württemberg to being the kings. However Wilhelm II elected Prince Janusz Radziwiłł as a way to favor the Polish and Lithuanians with a Monarch who is believed to be descended from the rulers of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. Janusz Radziwiłł was then crowned Janus I of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire.

## Government

The Government is a Dual-Monarchy ruled by the Emperor (who goes by the titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania) and governed by a Reichkommissar who has the power to appoint members of the Reichkommissarat who have power to who appoint members of the Sejm who have to power to appoint the members of the Chamber of Deputies who have the power to elect the Prime Ministers of Poland and Lithuania who appoint members of their cabinets. The Prime Minister of Poland has governing power over the Congress Kingdom of Poland (Southwest Portion of the Empire) as the Prime Minister of Lithuania has governing power over the Congress Duchy of Lithuania (Northeast Portion of the Empire). Both sets of Administrations answer to the Chamber of Deputies who answer to the Sejm who answers to the Reichkommissarat who answers to the Reichkommissar and the Emperor themselves as they answer to Germany.

**Administration of the Congress Kingdom of Poland**

* **Emperor: Janus I**
* **Reichkommissar:** Gerd von Rundstedt
* **Prime Minister:** Antoni Ponikowski
* **Foreign Minister:** Józef Beck
* **Armament Minister:** Tadeusz Kasprzycki
* **Minister of Defense:** Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz
* **Minister of Intelligence:** T. Pelczynski-Grzegorz
* **Chief of Staff:** Edward Rydz-Smigly
* **Chief of Army:** Tomislaw Lupaszko
* **Chief of Navy:** Jan Kiwerski
* **Chief of Air Force:** Alfred Chlapowski
* **Chief of Military Police:** Francois Sokal

#### **Administration of the Congress Duchy of Lithuania**

* **Emperor: Janus I**
* **Reichkommissar:** Gerd von Rundstedt
* **Prime Minister:** Leonas Birstras
* **Foreign Ministers:** Stasys Lozoraitis
* **Armament Minister:** Vincentas Latozaite
* **Minister of Defense:** Valdemaras Vytautas-Carneckis
* **Minister of Intelligence:** Dovas Zaunius
* **Chief of Staff:** Jonas Galvydis-Bykauskas
* **Chief of Army:** Stasys Rastikis
* **Chief of Navy:** Garnis Dirmantas
* **Chief of Air Force:** Antanas Gustaitis
* **Chief of Military Police:** Albinas Cepas-Cepauskas

## Military

### Army

The Army is the largest unit in the Polish-Lithuanian Military. It consists of 200 Infantry Divisions, 190 Artillery Batteries, 90 Mechanized Infantry Units, 80 Gun Cars and 60 Tanks. The Polish Army is commanded by Tomislaw Lupaszko as the Lithuanian Army is commanded by Stasys Rastikis.

### Navy

The Navy is medium sized and only has 100 Submarines, 50 Destroyers, 30 Battleships and 1 Dreadnought. The Polish Branch of the Navy is commanded by Jan Kiwerski and the Lithuanian branch of the Navy is commanded by Garnis Dirmantas.

### Air Force

The Air Force is the second largest faction of the Military. It consists of 100 Warplanes piloted by 100 Pilots trained by the Germans. The Polish Branch of the Air Force is commanded by Alfred Chlapowski as the Lithuanian Branch of the Air Force is commanded by Antanas Gustaitis.

## Foreign Relations

* Great Relations with the German Empire, the United Baltic Duchy, the Kingdom of Finland, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of Denmark.
* Bad relations with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Tsardom of Russia