“According to the historian Lektonen, the need for more settled land outside the existing boundaries of Russia, in order to satisfy the desires of the nobility, was one of the factors which contributed to the first partition of Poland. But once these lands had become available, the policy of granting settled estates should be viewed in the context of Russian policy towards non-Russian lands. Grants had been, and continued to be made primarily from estates in lands outside the borders of Great Russia proper, i.e. in Little Russia, Livonia and Estonia, Belorussia and later Poland and Curland. Certainly the amount of confiscated settled land available after the first partition was considerable. In addition the Russian government could dispose of the crown lands leased to Polish landlords….Lands confiscated from Polish landlords who failed to take the oath of allegiance or to sell their property within the time limit enacted by Catherine came to 95,097 souls in the two guberniya…. Several very large estates belonging to magnates such as Prince K. Radziwitt (7,805 and 16,280) and Prince A. Sapieha (18,602) fell into the Russian net.”

Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia. (1998) Isabel De Madariaga.