As the situation of Polish serfs improved, it actually caused a problem in the
Polish–Russian relations.
Russian peasants were escaping from the
Russian Empire to the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in significant enough numbers to become a major concern for the
Tsardom of Russia. Increasingly in the 18th century, Russian armies raided territories of the Commonwealth, officially to recover the escapees, but in fact kidnapping many locals.
[10] Describing the system as it existed by the end of the century, Wagner writes: "The situation of the peasants in Poland was better than in most other countries. In
France and
Germany, for example, the owners of landed estates had unlimited jurisdiction over them, including the power to punish by death. In Russia,
their economic oppression was notorious, and one of the reasons
Catherine II gave for the
partition of Poland was the fact that thousands of peasants escaped from Russia to Poland to seek a better fate."
[11] Piotr Kimla noted that the Russian government spread international propaganda, mainly in France, which falsely exaggerated serfdom conditions in Poland, while ignoring worse conditions in Russia, as one of the justification for the partitions.
[12]
Polish government reforms aiming at improving the situation of the peasantry reached culmination with the
Constitution of 3 May 1791, which declared that the government would protect the peasantry, and encourage the use of
contracts between peasants and their lords. Any further reforms were made impossible by the
partitions of Poland and the resulting disappearance of the Polish state.
[12][13]