Bar, Confederation of

Bar, Confederation of. A union or confederation established by Polish nobles on 29 February 1768 in the town of Bar in Podilia. Its purpose was to defend the independence of Poland and the traditional rights of the nobility against King Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski and Russia. The initiative for the confederation came from Józef Puławski and others. The confederates rejected equal rights for the Orthodox church in the Polish Commonwealth, which Russia demanded. The antipeasant and anti-Orthodox policies of the Confederation of Bar sparked revolt of the Ukrainian population in Right-Bank Ukraine against the nobility (see Haidamaka uprisings). The Russian troops, which were invited by King Stanislaus Poniatowski captured Bar and defeated the confederation, but at the same time put down the popular revolt.