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33-545: The palace was erected in 1690–1700 by voivode of Polock Dominik Słuszko of the Clan of Ostoja , who ordered creating an artificial peninsula on Neris for the purpose of building the palace there. The peninsula was formed from the soil of the leveled down hill separating Antakalnis from the Vilnius Castles . Initially the façades of the palace were unified by a giant order of Ionic pilasters framing huge windows. It

66-485: A brewery of Dominik Zajkowski from 1803 until 1831 when the palace was taken by tsarist military. The building was rearranged, the floors were redivided into four, and the palace served as a military prison since 1872. The rich original interior and exterior of the palace have not survived. Nowadays the palace houses the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre . In the meantime the outhouses are undergoing

99-545: A dietine ; Lithuanian : seimelis ) was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania . The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of Poland (before 1572), though they gained significantly more influence in the later era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (18th century). Sejmiks arose around the late 14th and early 15th centuries and existed until

132-694: A voivodeship . Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland provides this description of the Połock Voivodeship: “Połock, in Latin Polocia, Polocium, lies on the right bank of the Dvina , and is regarded as one of the oldest gords of Rus’ . In the 13th century, the Principality of Polotsk was ruled by Kievan princes, but in app. 1225 it was seized by

165-628: A sejmik can be traced to the institution of the wiec that actually predates the Polish state. They originated from gatherings of nobility, formed for military and consultative purposes. Historians disagree about the specific date of origin of the sejmiks, with some proposed dates being 1374 (the Privilege of Koszyce ) and 1454 (the Nieszawa Statutes ). Geographically, sejmiks first arose in central Poland ( Greater Poland province). Over

198-471: Is believed that the decoration works of the palace were performed by Michelangelo Palloni and Giovanni Pietro Perti who was the architect of the palace. The Polish–Lithuanian rulers used to stay in the palace during their visits in the city after the Royal Palace was damaged. The tsar Peter I of Russia stayed and had his headquarters established here in 1705 and 1709. After Słuszko's death

231-510: The Second Polish Republic , although they were called sejms rather than sejmiks. They included the short-lived Sejm of Central Lithuania (1921–1922); the three voivodeship sejms ( Silesian Parliament , Greater Poland Sejm , and Pomeranian Sejm , 1920–1939), which preserved the tradition of sejmiks in the former Prussian partition; and the county sejmiks , of which there were 264 in 1939. The existence of these institutions

264-748: The partitions of Poland in 1795, the institution of the sejmik continued, albeit in a somewhat restricted fashion. In the Duchy of Warsaw , sejmiks elected deputies to the Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw . Similarly, sejmiks of Congress Poland elected deputies to the Sejm of Congress Poland until its abolishment in 1831. Even in the Lithuanian territories incorporated into the Russian Empire , some judicial sejmiks were allowed to elect lower court judges; it

297-534: The 15th century to 104 by the late 18th century, as nobility sought to meet in places that required less travel time. Stanisław Płaza also estimates about 100 at the turn of the 18th century. Those sejmiks elected 170 deputies (48 from Lithuania). Most sejmiks elected 2 deputies, but there were exceptions. Wojciech Kriegseisen notes that until the late 18th century, there were 44 sejmiks in Poland proper (the Crown of

330-566: The Kingdom of Poland ), 24 in Lithuania, and 1 in Inflanty province. The sejmik's role grew again in the late 17th century, as central power weakened . Sejmiks attained the peak of their importance at the turn of the 18th century, when they often set their own time limits—that is, they extended their authorized periods of operation. In the face of an inefficient central government, with

363-715: The Lithuanians under Duke Mindaugas (...) Duke Vytautas named the first starosta of Połock, and in app. 1500, the starosta was renamed into the Voivode of Połock, while the Duchy was turned into a voivodeship, divided into halves by the Dvina (...) The voivodeship had two senators, who were the Voivode and the Castellan of Połock (...) Since it was not too large and its population was not numerous, furthermore, its capital

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396-399: The chairman of the voivodeship executive board rather than the presiding officer of the sejmik itself.) While the sejmiks were originally convened by the king, soon a loophole was exploited: the sejmiks would limit the number of issues discussed, using that as a pretext to reconvene later at a time chosen by the marshal. Voivodes and starosts also had the ability to convene some sejmiks. Until

429-477: The dysfunctional elements of the Polish political system that contributed to the fall of the Commonwealth. He cautions against such simplistic assessments, and traces them to 18th century publications whose negative views of the sejmiks have been rarely challenged since. The stereotype of a group of drunken, fighting nobility, found in some literature, should not be seen as representative, particularly outside

462-543: The end of the Commonwealth in 1795, following the partitions of the Commonwealth . In a limited form, some sejmiks existed in partitioned Poland (1795–1918), and later in the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939). In modern Poland , since 1999, the term has revived with the voivodeship sejmiks ( sejmiki województwa ), referring to the elected councils of each of the 16 voivodeships . The competencies of sejmiks varied over time, and there were also geographical differences. Often, numerous different types of sejmiks coexisted in

495-443: The growing power of the magnates , and counteract it with the middle nobility. With the creation of a national Sejm in 1493, which took over the powers of taxation and the pospolite ruszenie previously granted to sejmiks at Nieszawa, the importance of regional governance somewhat diminished. Still, the sejmikis continued to play an important role in the governance of Poland as the most direct form of political enfranchisement of

528-524: The magnates. When they met, the drunken nobility was known to fight among themselves, which on occasion led to fatalities. Sejmiks were significantly reformed by the Prawo o sejmikach , the act on regional sejms, passed on 24 March 1791 and subsequently recognized as part of the Constitution of 3 May . This law introduced major changes to the electoral ordinance , as it reduced the enfranchisement of

561-437: The national Sejm often disrupted by the liberum veto and the office of starosta losing much of its importance, sejmiks administered a portion of the taxes, and raised their own military ( wojsko powiatowe ). This period, which was known as the "rule of sejmiks" ( rządy sejmikowe ), was brought to an end by acts of the one-day Silent Sejm (Polish: sejm niemy ) of 1717, which removed most taxation and military competences from

594-500: The next century or so, they spread to other provinces of Poland, and finally, by the 16th century, to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . Sejmiks were legally recognized by the 1454 Nieszawa Statutes, in a privilege granted to the szlachta (Polish nobility) by King Casimir IV Jagiellon , when the king agreed to consult with the nobility concerning certain decisions. Casimir's recognition of the sejmik stemmed from an attempt to limit

627-559: The nobility. In the 1560s, the state organization of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was reformed in accordance with the Polish model. An act of July 1564 established sejmiks in the Grand Duchy. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had about 70 sejmiks (out of those, 24 were in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ). Jacek Jędruch notes a trend of an increasing number of sejmiks over time, from about 16 in

660-413: The noble class. The voting right became tied to a property qualification; to be eligible to vote, a noble had to own or lease land and pay taxes, or be closely related to another who did. Some 300,000 out of 700,000 otherwise eligible nobles were thus disfranchised, much to their displeasure. A document from 1792 lists only 47 sejmiks. Although the independent existence of the Commonwealth ended with

693-422: The only difference between various sejmiks was the purpose for which they were convened. Nonetheless, other scholars often distinguish between different types of sejmiks. Juliusz Bardach and Jędruch, for example, divide sejmiks based on their purpose as follows: Kriegseisen notes that the institution of the sejmik gained a negative reputation following the partitions of Poland, and it has been described as one of

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726-531: The palace was owned by the Puzyna princely family (of Rurikid stock) since 1727 and by the Potocki family since 1745. The Piarist monks bought the palace in 1756 and established a collegiate and a printing house. Later it was bought by Michał Kazimierz Ogiński in 1766 and reconstructed by Pietro Rossi. The palace was confiscated by the tsarist government in 1794 and transformed into an apartment house. It housed

759-404: The period of the sejmik's decline in the 18th century. He argues that while many sensationalist descriptions of debauchery, brawling or outright bloody violence at sejmiks have survived, they did so because they were just that—sensationalist—and should be seen as exceptions to the long, uneventful, but usually constructive proceedings that were much more common. Kriegseisen also remarks that there

792-485: The reforms of the Constitution of 3 May, all the nobility residing in the territory that was holding a sejmik were eligible to participate in the sejmik. It is estimated that most sejmiks drew around 4 to 6% of eligible participants. Historians distinguish several types of sejmiks, depending on their geographical scope: Kriegseisen, quoting Adam Lityński , argues that there was only one type of sejmik and that

825-490: The restoration and the main palace is planned to come next. The palace is planned to regain its original two main floors layout and original Baroque style windows. 54°41′28″N 025°17′50″E  /  54.69111°N 25.29722°E  / 54.69111; 25.29722 Voivode of Polock Polotsk or Połock Voivodeship ( Latin : Palatinatus Polocensis ; Lithuanian : Polocko vaivadija ; Polish : Województwo połockie , Belarusian : Полацкае ваяводства )

858-586: The same governance structure. Almost always presided over by the marshal , sejmiks could often elect delegates to the national sejm, and sometimes would give such delegates binding instructions. Sejmiks attained the peak of their importance at the turn of the 18th century, when they effectively supplanted the inefficient national sejm . The words sejm and sejmik are cognates with the old Czech sejmovat , which means "to bring together" or "to summon". Both forms originate from Proto-Slavic *sъjьmъ, from *sъ- ("from, with") and *jęti ("to take"). The traditions of

891-437: The sejmiks. Sejmiks in Lithuania were dominated by the magnates to a greater extent than those in Poland proper, as the Lithuanian magnates were more powerful than their Polish counterparts. The magnate-dominated sejmiks, which gathered impoverished nobility, have been described as more concerned with eating and drinking than debate; for the poorest of nobility, they were a rare occasion to participate in feasts sponsored by

924-530: The sejmiks. Some sejmiks were also affected by liberum veto until it was abolished for sejmiks in 1766; this was not always the case, as some decided to forgo unanimity and move to majority rule. Where the middle nobility had been the leading force at the sejmiks in the 16th century, the magnates became increasingly influential in the 18th century. This stemmed from their ability to bribe masses of poorly educated, landless nobility (known as magnate's "clients" or "clientele"), as all nobles were eligible to vote in

957-473: Was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ( Grand Duchy of Lithuania ) since the 15th century until the partitions of Poland in 1793. The voivodeship history can be traced to the Principality of Polotsk , conquered by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania around late 14th / early 15th centuries. From 1504 the former Principality was recognized as

990-461: Was chosen by lawmakers in order to eliminate the term rada wojewódzka ( voivodeship council ), which conjured memories of voivodeship people's councils during the communist Poland era. Sejmiks were usually held in a large, open field. The nobility would elect a presiding officer ( marszałek sejmiku : sejmik marshal), whose role was analogous to the marshal of the sejm at national Sejms. (This term has been revived since 1999, but it now refers to

1023-488: Was interrupted by the occupation of Poland during the Second World War , and they were not reestablished in the era of communist Poland . The sejmiks were revived again after the fall of communism in modern Poland. Since 1999, the term sejmik (in full, sejmik województwa ) has been used to refer to the elected council of each of the 16 voivodeships or regions (see voivodeship sejmik ). The word sejmik

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1056-742: Was located in the middle, the voivodeship was not divided into counties. Its courts were located in Połock, where the sejmiks also took place. Połock Voivodeship had two envoys in the Sejm , and two deputies to the Lithuanian Tribunal”. Voivodeship Governor ( Wojewoda ) seat: Administrative division: Number of Senators : Number of envoys in the Sejm : 55°29′17″N 28°48′26″E  /  55.488099°N 28.807210°E  / 55.488099; 28.807210 Sejmik A sejmik ( Polish pronunciation: [ˈsɛjmʲik] , diminutive of sejm , occasionally translated as

1089-588: Was the only elective representative institution to survive in the Lithuanian territories after the partition. In the Prussian partition there were provincial sejmiks (Provinziallandtag) and powiat sejmiks (Kreistag). Near the turn of the century, some limited local representative institutions existed in the Russian partition and Austrian partition , but they did not bear the name of sejmiks. After Poland regained independence, provincial sejms were restored in

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