these reforms came too late, however, as the commonwealth was immediately invaded from all sides by its neighbors, which had been content to leave the commonwealth alone as a weak buffer state, but reacted strongly to attempts by king stanisław august poniatowski and other reformers to strengthen the country. russia feared the revolutionary implications of the may 3rd constitution's political reforms and the prospect of the commonwealth regaining its position as a european power. catherine the great regarded the may constitution as fatal to her influence and declared the polish constitution jacobinical. grigori aleksandrovich potemkin drafted the act for the targowica confederation, referring to the constitution as the "contagion of democratic ideas". meanwhile, prussia and austria used it as a pretext for further territorial expansion. prussian minister ewald friedrich von hertzberg called the constitution "a blow to the prussian monarchy", fearing that a strengthened poland would once again dominate prussia. in the end, the may 3 constitution was never fully implemented, and the commonwealth entirely ceased to exist only four years after its adoption.