The "truce" of Andruszowo proved to be one of the most per manent peaces in history, and Kiev, though only pledged for two years, was never again to be recovered. Henceforth the political influence of Russia over Poland was steadily to increase, without any struggle at all, although influences of Polish culture and manners, exercised chiefly through the academy of Kiev, still continued to permeate Russia for a time, until the advent of Peter the Great.
Growth of Political Corruption in Poland.—Poland had, in fact, emerged from the cataclysm of 1648-67 a moribund State, though her not unskilful diplomacy had enabled her for a time to save appearances. Her territorial losses, though considerable, were, in the circumstances, not excessive, and she was still a power in the opinion of Europe. But a fatal change had come over the country during the age of the Vasas. The period synchronized with, and was partly determined by, the new European system of dynastic diplomatic competition and the unscrupulous employment of unlimited secret service funds. This system, which dates from Richelieu and culminated in the reign of Louis XIV., was based on the old rivalry of the houses of Bourbon and Habsburg, and very soon nearly all the monarchs of the Continent and their ministers were in the pay of one or other of the antagonists. Poland was no exception to the general rule. To do them justice, the szlachta at first were not only free from the taint of official corruption, but endeavoured to fight against it. But they themselves unconsciously played into the hands of the enemies of their country by making the so-called liberum veto an integral part of the Polish Constitution. The liberum veto was based on the assumption of the absolute political equality of every Polish gentleman, with the corollary that every measure introduced into the Polish diet must be adopted unani mously. Consequently, if any single deputy believed that a meas ure already approved of by the rest of the house might be injurious to his constituency, he had the right to exclaim nie pozwalam, "I disapprove," when the measure in question fell at once to the ground. Subsequently this vicious principle was extended still further. A deputy, by interposing his individual veto, could at any time dissolve the diet, when all measures previously passed had to be re-submitted to the consideration of the following diet. Before the end of the 17th century the
liberum veto was used so recklessly that all business was fre quently brought to a standstill. Later it became the chief instru ment of foreign ambassadors for dissolving inconvenient diets, as a deputy could always be bribed to exercise his veto.
With the election of Michael Wigniowiecki in 1669 a new era began. A native Pole was freely elected by the unanimous vote of his countrymen : but he was chiefly chosen for the merit of his father, a great border magnate who had victoriously kept down the Cossacks, and he proved to be a passive tool in the hands of the Habsburgs. In view of this the French party rallied round John Sobieski, a military commander of rising fame. The dissensions between the two camps cost Poland a new defeat at the hands of the united Turks and Cossacks. Sealed by a shame ful treaty at Buczacz, this defeat was only wiped out by a brilliant victory of Sobieski's at Chocim, which also, after king Michael's early death, carried him to the throne against an Austrian candidate.
John III. Sobieski, 1674-96.—Connected with France by mar riage and by political sympathies, Sobieski, although he had half a lifetime of constant wars against the Turks behind him, at first, in accordance with French policy, stood for peaceful relations with Turkey, and directed his eyes towards the Baltic, attempting, with French help, to check the rising Hohenzollern power in that quarter. But his secret dealings with France turned his own sub jects against him, while continuous Turkish invasions forced him into war, until an attack of unprecedented magnitude, aimed at the very heart of Europe, called forth that unprecedented out burst of Polish heroism—the gallant rescue of Vienna in 1683. That great act was the last noble reflex of the great crusading impulse of the Middle Ages ; it was a unique service, rendered in the old chivalrous spirit by one nation to another in an age of Machiavellian diplomacy and growing national selfishness. It won Poland offers of friendship from all the great powers. But its positive gains for Poland proved little: cessions of territory to Moscow did not buy any active support in further campaigns against Turkey, nor did the delivered Austria assist Poland in her endeavour to re-establish the Rumanian outpost against the Turk.