On May 3, 1791, Poland did something bold. It wrote a constitution -- a set of written rules for how the government should work. Only the United States had done this earlier, in 1787. Poland's Constitution of May 3rd was the first of its kind in all of Europe. The Polish leaders who wrote it wanted to fix serious problems. For decades, Poland's government had been weak. Any single member of parliament could block a new law just by saying no. This made it almost impossible to get anything done. Russia and Prussia took advantage of Poland's weakness and grabbed pieces of Polish land. The new constitution changed everything. It ended the liberum veto, created a stronger king, and gave more rights to people in towns and cities. It was a bold step toward a fairer government. But Poland's powerful neighbors were furious. Russia's Empress Catherine the Great saw the constitution as a threat. If Polish people could demand a better government, her own people might want the same thing. Within a year, Russia invaded Poland to destroy the constitution. Sadly, they succeeded. Poland was eventually divided up and erased from the map for over a century.