Four Years Sejm still further alienated him from the Liberals. After strenuously but vainly opposing every project of reform, he slipped off to Vienna whence he continued an active propaganda against the new proposals. Protest against the Constitution He opposed the Constitution of 3 May of 1791, and was one of the leaders of the Hetman Party. After attempting fruitlessly to persuade the Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor to take up arms against the reformers, he proceeded with his co-conspirators to St. Petersburg in March 1792 and, with the connivance of the Empress Catherine II of Russia formed the Targowica Confederation allegedly for the maintenance of the ancient and lax institutions of Poland (14 May 1792), of which he had been marshal, or rather the dictator. He continued directing the conspiracy from his castle at Tulczyn. When the May Constitution was overthrown and the Prussians were already in occupation of Greater Poland, Potocki (March 1793) went on a diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg. There finding himself duped and set aside, he again went to Vienna until 1797, when he retired to Tulczyn and devoted himself to the improvement of his estates and large wealth for the remainder of his life. He had been sentenced to death in absentia by the Supreme Criminal Court during the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. On 17 November 1797 he was made a general of the Russian infantry, but was dismissed on 30 October 1798. He was buried with the ignominy of a "traitor" 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." See also Arboretum Sofiyivka References External links Article in the Russian Biographical Dictionary 1753 births 1805 deaths People from Chervonohrad People from Ruthenian Voivodeship Voivodes of the Ruthenian Voivodeship Generals of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Polish generals in the Imperial Russian Army People sentenced to death in absentia Diplomats of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislaw Szczesny Targowica confederates Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)