State of research on the military affairs in the Commonwealth of Poland in 18th century

The article presents the current state of research on the history of the Commonwealth's military in XVIII century. First and foremost, Polish historians were analysed, without the application of chronological limits, i.e. since XIX century until today. Moreover, work of researchers from other countries was also taken into account, however, to a limited extent. Among the abovementioned researchers were those who somehow see themselves as successors of the traditions of the Commonwealth and its neighbouring countries of XVIII century. The state of research on the Commonwealth's military was presented in the following chapters: history of wars with participation of the Polish - Lithuanian state; legal basis of operation, strength, organization and financing of military forces, human resources with particular focus on commanding staff and officers, equipment, training and discipline in the army, military law, technical and logistic services. The analysis of a few hundred papers on the history of the military shows that there are substantial grounds for undertaking new research tasks, ultimately leading to the launch of a series of printed source materials, and primarily to writing a new monograph on the Commonwealth's military history, where the XVIII should be discussed in a far more exhaustive manner than has been the case so far. It must not only be a supplementary description of victories and defeats of the Crown and Lithuanian armies of the times of Stefan Batory, the Vasas and the first two compatriot - kings, but most of all, it should impose a new view on the history of the Commonwealth's military as a formation existing and performing a broad scope of activities in the time of peace. Therefore, special attention must be paid to the issues of financing and organization of the army over longer periods of time, as well as to the everyday, common life of the army and soldiers. This shall require conducting a wideranging and comprehensive source search in libraries and archives both in Poland and abroad