Bar Confederation

War of the Bar Confederation
Part of the Russo-Polish wars

Bar Confederates pray before the battle of Lanckorona, painting by Artur Grottger (1863)
Date1768–1772
Location
Result Russian victory
Territorial
changes
First Partition of Poland
Belligerents
 Russian Empire
 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (royal crown regiments)
Poland–Lithuania (Bar Confederation)
Allies:
 Ottoman Empire
 Kingdom of France (from 1770)
Commanders and leaders
Franciszek Ksawery Branicki
Ivan Weymarn
Aleksandr Bibikov
Alexander Suvorov
Ivan Karpovich Elmpt
Karol Radziwiłł
Casimir Pulaski
Michał Jan Pac
Count Benyovszky
Charles François Dumouriez
Strength
Lanckorona: 3,500 troops Lanckorona: ~3,500 troops; 2 cannons
Total: ~100,000 – 150,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown Heavy

The Bar Confederation (Polish: Konfederacja barska; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles (szlachta) formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia (now Ukraine), in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian political influence and against King Stanislaus II Augustus with Polish reformers, who were attempting to limit the power of the Commonwealth's wealthy magnates.

The founders of the Bar Confederation included the magnates Adam Stanisław Krasiński, the bishop of Kamieniec, Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, Casimir Pulaski, his father and brothers and Michał Hieronim Krasiński. Its creation led to a civil war and contributed to the First Partition of Poland. Maurice Benyovszky was the best known European Bar Confederation volunteer, supported by Roman Catholic France and Austria. Some historians consider the Bar Confederation the first Polish uprising.