Russian Partition

The Russian Partition (Polish: zabór rosyjski) constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian acquisition encompassed the largest share of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's population, living on 463,200 km2 (178,800 sq mi) of land constituting the eastern and central territory of the former Commonwealth. The three partitions, which took place in 1772, 1793 and 1795, resulted in the complete loss of Poland's and Lithuania's sovereignty, with their territories split between Russia, Prussia and Austria. The majority of Lithuania's former territory was annexed by the Russian Empire, except for Užnemunė (a geographical area on the left bank of the River Neman) which was annexed by Prussia. The Napoleonic Wars saw significant parts of Prussia's and Austria's partitions reconstituted as the Duchy of Warsaw (a French client state in a personal union under Saxony), most of which was then reconstituted as the Kingdom of Poland within the Russian Empire in 1815.