The Proclamation had only insignificant influence on the situation of peasants, as the insurrection was soon to collapse. But it did become a legend and one of the documents to which subsequent insurrectionary and democratic movements drew upon in their bids to improve the lot of the peasants and grant them freedom, land ownership, and citizenship rights – and draw them into battle and work on behalf of an independent Poland.

Composed of a preamble and eleven chapters, the Government Statute introduced a tripartite division of powers in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that consisted of a bicameral legislature (i.e., the Sejm and Senate), an executive branch (the king), and a judiciary branch. The principle of unanimity known as liberum veto was abolished in favour of resolutions being passed by majority vote. The executive power rested with a royal council (‘the Guard of the Laws’, referred to as ‘the Guardianship’ in the following English version), presided over by the king and composed of five ministers proposed by the monarch and reporting to the Sejm – namely, the Primate, the heir to the throne, the Marshal of the Sejm, and two secretaries. The long-standing institution of elective monarchy was replaced with hereditary succession of the throne in the Saxon House of Wettin. The Constitution enshrined freedom of religion, though it recognised the Roman Catholicism as the ruling religion. The privileged position of the gentry was guaranteed, whilst the rights of the bourgeoisie were confirmed as previously granted by the ‘Law on the Cities’ (burghers from royal cities enjoyed broad opportunities to enter the gentry, and were allowed to own land and hold offices).

The attempts to carry out the reforms envisioned by the Government Statute were thwarted already in mid-1792 by the Confederation of Targowica and the entry of the Russian army into the Rzeczpospolita.

The Constitution of the 3rd of May, Poland’s first modern constitution (indeed, the world’s second such, preceded only by the US Constitution), expressed the political and civic awareness of the Rzeczpospolita’s citizens that their country was facing a dire crisis. Throughout the period when Poland was partitioned (1795-1918), the Constitution of the 3rd of May symbolised the nation’s pursuit of independence. The authors of Poland’s twentieth-century constitutions drew inspiration from it, as well.

The establishment of the Commission of National Education (Komisja Edukacji Narodowej, KEN) was a response to the crisis. It was officially created through the resolution of the Sejm on 14 October 1773 and took over the property of the Society of Jesus. Its establishment was initiated by Reverend Hugo Kołłątaj (1750–1812), who did not join neither the Commission nor the Society for Elementary Books. The latter, established on 10 February 1775 in Warsaw, was devoted to designing and publishing syllabuses and textbooks. Its initiator and secretary was Reverend Grzegorz Piramowicz (1735–1801).

KEN activities were based on the ideas of the Enlightenment. The main objective of the Commission was to design a new official syllabus, reorganise and recreate the system of secondary schools and create teachers’ colleges by universities (which were also under reform). The number of Latin lessons was reduced for the sake of extended education in Polish, and the sciences were introduced to regular curriculum: natural history, physics and geometry. Some of the textbooks designed in those times were still in use throughout the whole 19th century. Through their activities, KEN contributed to the secularization and nationalization of education in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, to the establishment of the new role model of a citizen-landowner and to the popularization of Physiocracy, an important socio-economic theory of the Enlightenment.

In their Universal of 24 October 1773, the Commission announced reforms in the Polish education system and the launch of its activities by specifying its aims. Those included especially changing the nature of the education and upbringing of Polish youth to a more national and civic one.