EntranceCommunication of the Lithuanian principality during the 16th century. Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rus'
The Principality of Lithuania was initially Lithuanian-Russian in composition with a predominance of Russians and could become a powerful Orthodox state. It is unknown what would have happened to the Principality of Moscow if the Lithuanian princes had not turned to the West, towards Poland.
Zhemgola, Zhmud, Prussians and others
Lithuanian tribes, close to the Slavs, judging by both language studies and analysis of beliefs, lived quite calmly and carelessly on the Baltic coast between the Western Dvina and the Vistula. They were divided into tribes: on the right bank of the Dvina lived the Letgola tribe, on the left - the Zhemgola, on the peninsula between the mouth of the Neman and the Gulf of Riga - the Korsi, between the mouths of the Neman and the Vistula - the Prussians, in the Neman basin - the Zhmud in the upper reaches, and Lithuania itself - on average, plus the most dense of the listed Yotvingians on Narva. Cities in these territories did not exist until the 13th century, when the city of Voruta among the Lithuanians and Tveremet among Zhmudi were first noted in the chronicle, and historians tend to attribute the formation of the beginnings of the state to the 14th century.
German knights
Young and aggressive Europeans, mainly Germans, as well as Swedes and Danes, naturally could not help but begin colonizing the eastern Baltic Sea. So the Swedes took the lands of the Finns, the Danes built Revel in Estland, and the Germans went to the Lithuanians. At first they only traded and preached. The Lithuanians did not refuse to be baptized, but then they plunged into the Dvina and “washed away” the baptism from themselves, sending it back to the Germans by water. The pope then sent the crusaders there, led by Bishop Albert, the first bishop of Livonia, who in 1200 founded Riga, the Order of the Swordsmen, fortunately there were plenty of knights in those days, and conquered and colonized the surrounding lands. Thirty years later, another order, the Teutonic Order, was located nearby, in the possessions of the Polish prince Konrad of Mazovia, which was driven out of Palestine by the Muslims. They were called upon to defend Poland from the Prussians, who constantly robbed the Poles. The knights conquered all Prussian lands in fifty years and a state was founded there in fief subordination from the Emperor of Germany.
The first reliable reign
But the Lithuanians did not submit to the Germans. They began to unite in large groups and build alliances, in particular, with the Polotsk princes. Considering that the Russian western lands were weak at that time, the passionate Lithuanians, who were called into service by one or the other prince, acquired primitive management skills, and began to seize first the Polotsk land, then the lands of Novgorod, Smolensk, and Kyiv. The first reliable reign was that of Mindaugas, the son of Romgold, who created a principality of Russians and Lithuanians. However, it was impossible to turn around too much, since in the South there was a strong Galician principality led by Daniel, and on the other side the Livonian Order was not asleep. Mindovg ceded the occupied Russian lands to Daniil's son Roman, but formally retained power over them and consolidated this matter by marrying his daughter to Daniil's son Shvarna. The Livonian Order recognized Mindaugas when he was baptized. As a sign of gratitude, he handed over to the Germans letters of approval for Lithuanian lands, which he did not own.
Founder of the dynasty
After the death of Mindaugas, as one would expect, various civil strife began in the principality, which lasted for half a century, until in 1316 the princely throne was occupied by Gedimin, the founder of the Gedimin dynasty. Over the previous years, Daniil and other Russian princes had great influence in Lithuania and transferred a lot there in terms of urban planning, cultural and military. Gediminas was married to a Russian and, in general, pursued a Lithuanian-Russian policy, understanding that this was necessary for the construction of the state. But he subjugated Polotsk, Kyiv, and partly Volyn. He himself sat in Vilna, and two-thirds of his state were Russian lands. The sons of Gediminas Olgerd and Keistut turned out to be friendly guys - one sat in Vilna, and was engaged in north-eastern Russia, and Keistut lived in Troki, and acted against the Germans.
Jagiello - apostate
Befitting the sound of his name, Prince Jagiello turned out to be the unworthy son of Olgerd; he agreed with the Germans to destroy his uncle Keistut. That Jagiello won, but did not kill his nephew, and in vain, because at the first opportunity Jagiello strangled his uncle, but his son Vytautas was able to hide with the Teutonic knights, however, he later returned and settled on small lands. The Poles began to approach Jagiello with a proposal to marry him to Queen Jadwiga. She was recognized as queen after the death of the Hungarian King Louis, who ruled according to the dynastic principle in Poland. The lords argued and fought for a long time about who Jadwiga should take as a husband, and Jagiello was very suitable: the disputes over Volyn and Galich would stop, Poland would strengthen itself against the Germans who seized the Polish seaside, and would expel the Hungarians from Galich and Lvov. Jagiello, baptized into Orthodoxy, was very happy at the offer, was baptized into Catholicism and baptized Lithuania. In 1386, the marriage was concluded and Jagiello received the name Vladislav. He destroyed pagan temples, etc., helped remove the Hungarians and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Teutonic Order at Grunwald. But, as Russian historian Sergei Platonov notes, the union “introduced the seeds of internal hostility and decay into Lithuania,” since the preconditions were created for the oppression of Orthodox Russians.
Vytautas - collector of lands
The son of the murdered Keistut, Vytautas, as soon as Jagiello left for Poland, with the help of appanage princes, began to rule in Poland (1392), and with such support that he achieved complete personal independence from King Vladislav, the former Jagiello. Under Vytautas, Lithuania expanded from the Baltic to the Black Sea and advanced deeply to the East at the expense of the Smolensk Principality. Vasily I was married to Vytautas's only daughter Sophia, and the left tributary of the Oka Utra was designated as the border between Moscow and Lithuanian lands. Some historians believe that this powerful eastern policy, which could lead to the creation of a huge Lithuanian-Russian state, was promoted by the Orthodox princes of Lithuania, but was sharply opposed by the Poles and the new Polized Lithuanian nobility, which received all the privileges of the gentry and lords. Vytautas even began to apply for a royal title to the Emperor of Germany in order to become independent from Poland, but died (1430) in the midst of this process.
Full union
For more than 100 years, the union was largely formal. This, as in the case of Vytautas, could have the most dire consequences for Poland, so it was decided to always elect one person as both prince and king. Thus, the union conceived in 1386 was implemented only in early XVI century. Polish influence in Lithuania began to grow after this. Previously, local princes could rule in their lands without Catholic and Polish dictates, now Grand Duke subjugated them, the Roman faith became suppressive and oppressive towards the Orthodox. Many converted to Catholicism, others tried to fight, moved to Moscow, which, thanks to this situation, was able to squeeze Lithuania. In domestic policy Principalities, the Polish order was finally established, first of all, the gentry with its enormous rights in relation to the king and peasants. This process naturally ended in 1569 with the Union of Lublin and the formation of another state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Ivan Kalita, Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan the Terrible - these creators of the Moscow state are known to us from school. Are the names of Gediminas, Jagiello or Vytautas also familiar to us? At best, we will read in textbooks that they were Lithuanian princes and once upon a time fought with Moscow, and then disappeared somewhere into obscurity... But it was they who founded the Eastern European power, which, with no less reason than Muscovy, called itself Russia.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Chronology of the main events of history (before the formation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth):
9th-12th centuries- development of feudal relations and formation of estates on the territory of Lithuania, formation of the state
Early 13th century- increased aggression of the German crusaders
1236- Lithuanians defeat the Knights of the Sword at Siauliai
1260- victory of the Lithuanians over the Teutons at Durbe
1263- unification of the main Lithuanian lands under the rule of Mindaugas
XIV century- significant expansion of the territory of the principality due to new lands
1316-1341- reign of Gediminas
1362- Olgerd defeats the Tatars in the Battle of Blue Waters (the left tributary of the Southern Bug) and occupies Podolia and Kyiv
1345-1377- reign of Olgerd
1345-1382- reign of Keistut
1385- Grand Duke Jagiello
(1377-1392)
concludes the Union of Krevo with Poland
1387- adoption of Catholicism by Lithuania
1392- as a result of internecine struggle, Vytautas becomes the Grand Duke in Lithuania, who opposed the policy of Jagiello 1410 - united Lithuanian-Russian and Polish troops utterly defeat the knights of the Teutonic Order in the Battle of Grunwald
1413- Union of Gorodel, according to which the rights of the Polish gentry extended to Lithuanian Catholic nobles
1447- the first Privilege - a set of laws. Together with Sudebnik
1468 it became the first experience of codification of law in the principality
1492- “Privilege Grand Duke Alexander.” The first charter of the nobility's liberties
Late 15th century- formation of the general gentry Sejm. Growth of rights and privileges of lords
1529, 1566, 1588 - the publication of three editions of the Lithuanian statute - “charter and praise”, zemstvo and regional “privileges”, which secured the rights of the gentry
1487-1537- wars with Russia that took place intermittently against the backdrop of the strengthening of the Principality of Moscow. Lithuania lost Smolensk, captured by Vytautas in 1404. According to the truce of 1503, Rus' regained 70 volosts and 19 cities, including Chernigov, Bryansk, Novgorod-Seversky and other Russian lands
1558-1583- Russia’s war with the Livonian Order, as well as with Sweden, Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for the Baltic states and access to the Baltic Sea, in which Lithuania suffered failures
1569- signing of the Union of Lublin and the unification of Lithuania into one state with Poland - Rzeczpospolita
A century later, Gediminas and Olgerd already had a power that included Polotsk, Vitebsk, Minsk, Grodno, Brest, Turov, Volyn, Bryansk and Chernigov. In 1358, Olgerd’s ambassadors even declared to the Germans: “All of Rus' should belong to Lithuania.” To reinforce these words and ahead of the Muscovites, the Lithuanian prince opposed the Golden Horde “itself”: in 1362 he defeated the Tatars at Blue Waters and assigned ancient Kyiv to Lithuania for almost 200 years.
“Will Slavic streams merge into the Russian sea?” (Alexander Pushkin)By no coincidence, at the same time, the Moscow princes, the descendants of Ivan Kalita, began to “collect” lands little by little. Thus, by the middle of the 14th century, two centers had emerged that claimed to unite the ancient Russian “heritage”: Moscow and Vilna, founded in 1323. The conflict could not be avoided, especially since Moscow’s main tactical rivals were in alliance with Lithuania - Tver princes, the Novgorod boyars also sought “under the arm” of the West.
Then, in 1368-1372, Olgerd, in alliance with Tver, made three campaigns against Moscow, but the forces of the rivals turned out to be approximately equal, and the matter ended in an agreement dividing the “spheres of influence.” Well, since they failed to destroy each other, they had to get closer: some of the children of the pagan Olgerd converted to Orthodoxy. It was here that Dmitry proposed to the still undecided Jagiello a dynastic union, which was not destined to take place. And not only did it not happen according to the prince’s word: it became the other way around. As you know, Dmitry was unable to resist Tokhtamysh, and in 1382 the Tatars allowed Moscow “to be poured out and plundered.” She again became a Horde tributary. The alliance with his failed father-in-law ceased to attract the Lithuanian sovereign, but rapprochement with Poland gave him not only a chance for a royal crown, but also real help in the fight against his main enemy - the Teutonic Order.
And Jagiello still married - but not to the Moscow princess, but to the Polish queen Jadwiga. He was baptized according to the Catholic rite. Became the Polish king under the Christian name Vladislav. Instead of an alliance with the eastern brothers, the Krevo Union of 1385 happened with the western ones. Since that time, Lithuanian history has been firmly intertwined with Polish: the descendants of Jagiello (Jagiellon) reigned in both powers for three centuries - from the 14th to the 16th. But still, these were two different states, each retaining its own political system, legal system, currency and army. As for Vladislav-Jagiello, he spent most of his reign in his new possessions. His cousin Vitovt ruled the old ones and ruled brightly. In a natural alliance with the Poles, he defeated the Germans at Grunwald (1410), annexed the Smolensk land (1404) and the Russian principalities in the upper reaches of the Oka. The powerful Lithuanian could even place his proteges on the Horde throne. A huge “ransom” was paid to him by Pskov and Novgorod, and the Moscow Prince Vasily I Dmitrievich, as if turning his father’s plans inside out, married Vitovt’s daughter and began to call his father-in-law “father”, that is, in the system of the then feudal ideas, he recognized himself as his vassal. At the peak of greatness and glory, Vytautas lacked only a royal crown, which he declared at the congress of monarchs of Central and Eastern Europe in 1429 in Lutsk in the presence of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund I, the Polish king Jagiello, the Tver and Ryazan princes, the Moldavian ruler, embassies of Denmark, Byzantium and the Pope. In the autumn of 1430, the Moscow Prince Vasily II, Metropolitan Photius, the Tver, Ryazan, Odoev and Mazovia princes, the Moldavian ruler, the Livonian master, and ambassadors gathered for the coronation in Vilna Byzantine Emperor. But the Poles refused to let through the embassy, which was bringing Vytautas royal regalia from Rome (the Lithuanian “Chronicle of Bykhovets” even says that the crown was taken from the ambassadors and cut into pieces). As a result, Vytautas was forced to postpone the coronation, and in October of the same year he suddenly fell ill and died. It is possible that the Lithuanian Grand Duke was poisoned, since a few days before his death he felt great and even went hunting. Under Vitovt, the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, and its eastern border passed under Vyazma and Kaluga...
“What angered you? Excitement in Lithuania? (Alexander Pushkin)
The daredevil Vitovt had no sons - after a protracted strife, Jagiello's son Casimir ascended to power in 1440, taking the thrones of Lithuania and Poland. He and his immediate descendants worked intensively in Central Europe, and not without success: sometimes the crowns of the Czech Republic and Hungary ended up in the hands of the Jagiellons. But they completely stopped looking to the east and lost interest in Olgerd’s ambitious “all-Russian” program. As you know, nature abhors a vacuum - the task was successfully “intercepted” by the Moscow great-grandson of Vitovt - Grand Duke Ivan III: already in 1478 he laid claim to the ancient Russian lands - Polotsk and Vitebsk. The church also helped Ivan - after all, the residence of the all-Russian metropolitan was Moscow, which means that Lithuanian adherents of Orthodoxy were also spiritually governed from there. However, the Lithuanian princes more than once (in 1317, 1357, 1415) tried to install “their” metropolitan for the lands of the Grand Duchy, but in Constantinople they were not interested in dividing the influential and rich metropolis and making concessions to the Catholic king.
And now Moscow felt the strength to launch a decisive offensive. Two wars take place - 1487-1494 and 1500-1503, Lithuania loses almost a third of its territory and recognizes Ivan III as the “Sovereign of All Rus'”. Further - more: Vyazma, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky lands (actually, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky, as well as Bryansk, Starodub and Gomel) go to Moscow. In 1514, Vasily III returned Smolensk, which for 100 years became the main fortress and “gate” on the western border of Russia (then it was again taken away by Western opponents).
Only by the third war of 1512-1522 did the Lithuanians gather fresh troops from the western regions of their state, and the forces of the opponents turned out to be equal. Moreover, by that time the population of the eastern Lithuanian lands had completely cooled down to the idea of joining Moscow. Still, the gap between public views and the rights of subjects of the Moscow and Lithuanian states was already very deep.
One of the halls of the Vilnius Gediminas Tower
Not Muscovites, but Russians
In cases where Lithuania included highly developed territories, the grand dukes maintained their autonomy, guided by the principle: “We do not destroy the old, we do not introduce new things.” Thus, loyal rulers from the Rurikovich tree (princes Drutsky, Vorotynsky, Odoevsky) for a long time retained their possessions completely. Such lands received “privilege” charters. Their residents could, for example, demand a change of governor, and the sovereign would undertake not to take certain actions in relation to them: not to “enter” into the rights of the Orthodox Church, not to resettle local boyars, not to distribute fiefs to people from other places, not to “sue” those accepted by local courts decisions. Until the 16th century, on the Slavic lands of the Grand Duchy, legal norms were in force that went back to the “Russian Truth” - the oldest set of laws given by Yaroslav the Wise.
 Lithuanian knight. Late 14th century |
In the northeastern part of Rus', that is, in that which, in the end, was preserved on the map under this name, the process of “gathering lands” took longer and more difficult, but the degree of unification of the once independent principalities under the heavy hand of the Kremlin rulers was immeasurably higher. In the turbulent 16th century, the “free autocracy” (the term of Ivan the Terrible) strengthened in Moscow, the remnants of Novgorod and Pskov liberties, the own “destinies” of aristocratic families and semi-independent border principalities disappeared. All more or less noble subjects performed lifelong service to the sovereign, and attempts by them to defend their rights were regarded as treason. Lithuania in the XIV-XVI centuries was, rather, a federation of lands and principalities under the rule of the great princes - the descendants of Gediminas. The relationship between power and subjects was also different - this was reflected in the model of the social structure and government order of Poland. “Strangers” to the Polish nobility, the Jagiellons needed its support and were forced to grant more and more privileges, extending them to Lithuanian subjects. In addition, the descendants of Jagiello were active foreign policy, and for this, too, the knights who went on campaigns had to be paid.
Taking liberties with propination
But it was not only due to the goodwill of the great princes that such a significant rise in the gentry - the Polish and Lithuanian nobility - occurred. It’s also about the “world market”. Entering the phase of industrial revolutions in the 16th century, the Netherlands, England, and northern Germany required more and more raw materials and agricultural products, which were supplied by Eastern Europe and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And with the influx of American gold and silver into Europe, the “price revolution” made the sale of grain, livestock and flax even more profitable (the purchasing power of Western clients increased sharply). Livonian knights, Polish and Lithuanian gentry began to transform their estates into farms, aimed specifically at the production of export products. The growing income from such trade formed the basis of the power of the “magnates” and the wealthy gentry.
The first were the princes - the Rurikovichs and Gediminovichs, the largest landowners of Lithuanian and Russian origin (Radziwills, Sapiehas, Ostrozhskys, Volovichi), who had the opportunity to take hundreds of their own servants to war and occupied the most prominent posts. In the 15th century, their circle expanded to include “simple” “noble boyars”, who were obliged to bear military service to the prince. The Lithuanian Statute (code of laws) of 1588 consolidated their broad rights accumulated over 150 years. The granted lands were declared the eternal private property of the owners, who could now freely enter the service of more noble lords and go abroad. It was forbidden to arrest them without a court decision (and the gentry themselves elected local zemstvo courts at their “sejmiks” meetings). The owner also had the right of “propination” - only he himself could produce beer and vodka and sell it to the peasants.
Naturally, corvée flourished in the farms, and along with it other serfdom systems. The statute recognized the right of peasants to only one possession - movable property necessary to fulfill duties to the owner. However, a “free man” who settled on the land of a feudal lord and lived in a new place for 10 years could still leave by paying off a significant sum. However, the law adopted by the national Sejm in 1573 gave the lords the right to punish their subjects at their discretion - up to and including the death penalty. The sovereign now generally lost the right to interfere in the relationship between patrimonial owners and their “living property,” and in Muscovite Rus', on the contrary, the state increasingly limited the judicial rights of landowners.
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The state structure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was also strikingly different from Moscow. There was no central administration apparatus similar to the Great Russian system of orders - with its numerous clerks and clerks. The zemsky podskarbiy (the head of the state treasury - “skarbom”) in Lithuania kept and spent money, but did not collect taxes. Hetmans (troop commanders) led the gentry's militia when it was assembled, but the Grand Duke's standing army numbered only five thousand mercenary soldiers in the 16th century. The only permanent body was the Grand Ducal Chancellery, which conducted diplomatic correspondence and kept the archive - the “Lithuanian Metrics”.
In the year when the Genoese Christopher Columbus set off on his first voyage to the distant “Indian” shores, in the glorious 1492, the Lithuanian sovereign Alexander Kazimirovich Jagiellon finally and voluntarily embarked on the path of a “parliamentary monarchy”: now he coordinated his actions with a number of lords , consisting of three dozen bishops, governors and governors of the regions. In the absence of the prince, the Rada generally completely ruled the country, controlling land grants, expenses and foreign policy.
Lithuanian cities were also very different from Great Russian ones. There were few of them, and they settled reluctantly: for greater “urbanization,” the princes had to invite foreigners - Germans and Jews, who again received special privileges. But this was not enough for foreigners. Feeling the strength of their position, they confidently sought concession after concession from the authorities: in the 14th-15th centuries, Vilno, Kovno, Brest, Polotsk, Lvov, Minsk, Kiev, Vladimir-Volynsky and other cities received their own self-government - the so-called “Magdeburg law”. Now the townspeople elected “radtsy”-councillors, who were in charge of municipal revenues and expenses, and two mayors - a Catholic and an Orthodox one, who judged the townspeople together with the grand-ducal governor, the “voight”. And when craft workshops appeared in cities in the 15th century, their rights were enshrined in special charters.
The origins of parliamentarism: the Val Diet
But let us return to the origins of the parliamentarism of the Lithuanian state - after all, it was its main distinctive feature. The circumstances of the emergence of the supreme legislative body of the principality - the Valny Sejm - are interesting. In 1507, he first collected for the Jagiellons an emergency tax for military needs - “serebschizna”, and since then it has been like this: every year or two the need for a subsidy was repeated, which means the gentry had to collect. Gradually, other important issues fell into the competence of the “lords’ council” (that is, the Sejm) - for example, at the Vilna Sejm in 1514 they decided, contrary to the princely opinion, to continue the war with Moscow, and in 1566 the deputies decided: not to change anything without their approval single law.
Unlike the representative bodies of other European countries, only the nobility always sat in the Sejm. Its members, the so-called “ambassadors,” were elected by povet (judicial-administrative districts) by local “sejmiks,” received “zupolny mots” from their voters—the gentry—and defended their orders. In general, almost our Duma - but only a noble one. By the way, it is worth comparing: in Russia at that time there also existed an irregularly meeting advisory body - the Zemsky Sobor. However, it did not have rights even closely comparable to those possessed by the Lithuanian parliament (it had, in fact, only advisory!), and from the 17th century it began to be convened less and less, so that in 1653 it was held in last time. And no one “noticed” this - now no one even wanted to sit in the Council: the Moscow service people who made up it, for the most part, lived off small estates and the “sovereign’s salary”, and they were not interested in thinking about the affairs of the state. It would be more reliable for them to secure the peasants on their lands...
“Do Lithuanians speak Polish?..” (Adam Mickiewicz)
Both the Lithuanian and Moscow political elites, grouped around their “parliaments,” created, as usual, myths about their own past. In the Lithuanian chronicles there is a fantastic story about Prince Palemon, who with five hundred nobles fled from the tyranny of Nero to the shores of the Baltic and conquered the principalities of the Kyiv state (try to compare the chronological layers!). But Rus' did not lag behind: in the writings of Ivan the Terrible, the origin of the Rurikovichs was traced back to the Roman emperor Octavian Augustus. But the Moscow “Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” calls Gedimina a princely groom who married his master’s widow and illegally seized power over Western Russia.
But the differences were not only in mutual accusations of “ignorance.” A new series of Russian-Lithuanian wars at the beginning of the 16th century inspired Lithuanian sources to contrast their own, domestic, orders with the “cruel tyranny” of the Moscow princes. In neighboring Russia, in turn, after the disasters of the Time of Troubles, the Lithuanian (and Polish) people were looked at exclusively as enemies, even “demons”, in comparison with which even the German “Luthor” looks cute.
So, wars again. Lithuania generally had to fight a lot: in the second half of the 15th century, the combat power of the Teutonic Order was finally broken, but a new terrible threat grew on the southern borders of the state - Ottoman Empire and her vassal, Khan of Crimea. And, of course, the many times already mentioned confrontation with Moscow. During the famous Livonian War (1558-1583), Ivan the Terrible initially briefly captured a significant part of Lithuanian possessions, but already in 1564, Hetman Nikolai Radziwill defeated the 30,000-strong army of Peter Shuisky on the Ule River. True, the attempt to go on the offensive against Moscow's possessions failed: the Kiev governor, Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky, and the Chernobyl headman, Philon Kmita, attacked Chernigov, but their attack was repulsed. The struggle dragged on: there were not enough troops or money.
Lithuania had to reluctantly go for full, real and final unification with Poland. In 1569, on June 28, in Lublin, representatives of the gentry of the Crown of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania proclaimed the creation single speech The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzecz Pospolita - a literal translation of the Latin res publica - “common cause”) with a single Senate and Sejm; The monetary and tax systems were also unified. Vilno, however, retained some autonomy: its rights, treasury, hetmans and the official “Russian” language.
Here, “by the way,” the last Jagiellon, Sigismund II Augustus, died in 1572; so, logically, they decided to choose the common king of the two countries at the same Diet. For centuries, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth turned into a unique, non-hereditary monarchy.
Res publica in Moscow
As part of the gentry “republic” (XVI-XVIII centuries), Lithuania at first had nothing to complain about. On the contrary, it experienced the highest economic and cultural growth and again became great power in Eastern Europe. In times of troubles for Russia, the Polish-Lithuanian army of Sigismund III besieged Smolensk, and in July 1610 defeated the army of Vasily Shuisky, after which this unfortunate king was overthrown from the throne and tonsured a monk. The boyars found no other way out than to conclude an agreement with Sigismund in August and invite his son, Prince Vladislav, to the Moscow throne. According to the agreement, Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth concluded an eternal peace and alliance, and the prince pledged not to erect Catholic churches, “not to change the previous customs and ranks” (including serfdom, of course), and foreigners “in the governors and among the officials not to be". He did not have the right to execute, deprive of “honor” and take away property without the advice of the boyars “and all Duma people.” All new laws were to be adopted “by the Duma of the boyars and all the lands.” On behalf of the new Tsar “Vladislav Zhigimontovich”, Polish and Lithuanian companies occupied Moscow. As we know, this whole story ended in nothing for the Polish-Lithuanian contender. The whirlwind of the ongoing Russian unrest swept away his claims to the throne of Eastern Rus', and soon the successful Romanovs, with their triumph, completely marked a further and very tough opposition to the political influence of the West (while gradually succumbing more and more to its cultural influence).
What if Vladislav’s affair had “burnt out”?.. Well, some historians believe that the agreement between the two Slavic powers already at the beginning of the 17th century could have become the beginning of the pacification of Rus'. In any case, it meant a step towards the rule of law, offering an effective alternative to autocracy. However, even if the invitation of a foreign prince to the Moscow throne could actually take place, to what extent did the principles outlined in the agreement correspond to the ideas of the Russian people about a fair social order? Moscow nobles and men seemed to prefer a formidable sovereign, standing above all “ranks” - a guarantee against arbitrariness “ strong people" In addition, the stubborn Catholic Sigismund categorically refused to let the prince go to Moscow, much less allow his conversion to Orthodoxy.
The short-lived heyday of Speech
Having lost Moscow, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, however, seized very substantial “compensation”, again regaining the Chernigov-Seversky lands (they were recaptured in the so-called Smolensk War of 1632-1634 already from Tsar Mikhail Romanov).
As for the rest, the country has now undoubtedly become the main breadbasket of Europe. The grain was floated down the Vistula to Gdansk, and from there along the Baltic Sea through the Oresund to France, Holland, and England. Huge herds of cattle from what is now Belarus and Ukraine - to Germany and Italy. The army did not lag behind the economy: the best heavy cavalry in Europe at that time, the famous “winged” hussars, shone on the battlefields.But the flowering was short-lived. The reduction of export duties on grain, so beneficial to landowners, simultaneously opened up access to foreign goods to the detriment of their own producers. The policy of inviting immigrants to the cities - Germans, Jews, Poles, Armenians, who now made up the majority of residents of Ukrainian and Belarusian cities, especially large ones (for example, Lviv), which was partly destructive for the overall national perspective, continued. The offensive of the Catholic Church led to the displacement of Orthodox burghers from city institutions and courts; cities became “foreign” territory for peasants. As a result, the two main components of the state were disastrously demarcated and alienated from each other.
On the other hand, although the “republican” system certainly opened up wide opportunities for political and economic growth, although broad self-government protected the rights of the gentry from both the king and the peasants, although it could already be said that a kind of rule of law state was created in Poland , in all this there was already a destructive beginning hidden. First of all, the nobles themselves undermined the foundations of their own prosperity. These were the only “full-fledged citizens” of their fatherland, these proud people considered themselves alone as a “political people.” As has already been said, they despised and humiliated peasants and townspeople. But with such an attitude, the latter could hardly be eager to defend the master’s “liberties” - neither in internal troubles, nor from external enemies.
The Union of Brest-Litovsk is not an alliance, but a schism
After the Union of Lublin, the Polish gentry poured into the rich and sparsely populated lands of Ukraine in a powerful stream. There, the latifundia grew like mushrooms - Zamoyski, Zolkiewski, Kalinovski, Koniecpolski, Potocki, Wisniewiecki. With their appearance, former religious tolerance became a thing of the past: the Catholic clergy followed the magnates, and in 1596 the famous Union of Brest was born - a union of the Orthodox and Catholic churches on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The basis of the union was the recognition by the Orthodox of Catholic dogmas and the supreme power of the pope, while the Orthodox Church preserved rituals and services in Slavic languages.
The Union, as one would expect, did not resolve religious contradictions: clashes between those who remained faithful to Orthodoxy and the Uniates were fierce (for example, during the Vitebsk revolt of 1623, the Uniate bishop Josaphat Kuntsevich was killed). The authorities closed Orthodox churches, and priests who refused to join the union were expelled from parishes. Such national-religious oppression ultimately led to the uprising of Bohdan Khmelnitsky and the actual fall of Ukraine from Rech. But on the other hand, the privileges of the gentry, the brilliance of their education and culture attracted Orthodox nobles: in XVI-XVII centuries Ukrainian and Belarusian nobility often renounced the faith of their fathers and converted to Catholicism, adopting along with the new faith new language and culture. In the 17th century, the Russian language and the Cyrillic alphabet fell out of use in official writing, and at the beginning of the New Age, when the formation of national states was underway in Europe, the Ukrainian and Belarusian national elites became Polonized.
Freedom or bondage?
...And the inevitable happened: in the 17th century, the “golden liberty” of the gentry turned into paralysis state power. The famous principle of liberum veto - the requirement of unanimity when passing laws in the Sejm - led to the fact that literally none of the “constitutions” (decisions) of the congress could come into force. Anyone bribed by some foreign diplomat or simply a tipsy “ambassador” could disrupt the meeting. For example, in 1652, a certain Vladislav Sitsinsky demanded that the Sejm be closed, and it resignedly dispersed! Later, 53 meetings of the supreme assembly (about 40%!) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ended ingloriously in a similar manner.
But in fact, in economics and big politics, the total equality of the “brother lords” simply led to the omnipotence of those who had money and influence - the “royalty” tycoons who bought themselves the highest government positions, but were not under the control of the king. The possessions of such families as the already mentioned Lithuanian Radziwills, with dozens of cities and hundreds of villages, were comparable in size to modern ones European states, like Belgium. The “krolevats” maintained private armies that were superior in number and equipment to the crown troops. And at the other pole there was a mass of that same proud, but poor nobility - “A nobleman on a fence (a tiny piece of land - Ed.) is equal to a governor!” - which, with its arrogance, had long instilled in itself the hatred of the lower classes, and was simply forced to endure anything from its “patrons.” The only privilege of such a nobleman could remain only the ridiculous demand that his owner-magnate flog him only on a Persian carpet. This requirement - either as a sign of respect for ancient freedoms, or as a mockery of them - was observed.
In any case, the master's liberty has turned into a parody of itself. Everyone seemed to be convinced that the basis of democracy and freedom was the complete impotence of the state. Nobody wanted the king to become stronger. In the middle of the 17th century, his army numbered no more than 20 thousand soldiers, and the fleet created by Vladislav IV had to be sold due to lack of funds in the treasury. The united Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland were unable to “digest” the vast lands that merged into a common political space. Most of the neighboring states have long turned into centralized monarchies, and the gentry republic with its anarchic freemen without an effective central government, financial system and the regular army turned out to be uncompetitive. All this, like a slow-acting poison, poisoned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
 Hussar. 17th century |
The last one began in 1654 big war Russia with Lithuania-Poland. At first, the Russian regiments and Cossacks of Bogdan Khmelnitsky seized the initiative, conquering almost all of Belarus, and on July 31, 1655, the Russian army led by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich solemnly entered the capital of Lithuania, Vilna. The Patriarch blessed the sovereign to be called the “Grand Duke of Lithuania,” but the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth managed to gather forces and go on the offensive. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, after the death of Khmelnitsky, a struggle between supporters and opponents of Moscow broke out, Civil War- “Ruin”, when two or three hetmans with different political views acted simultaneously. In 1660, the Russian armies were defeated at Polonka and Chudnov: the best forces of the Moscow cavalry were killed, and the commander-in-chief V.V. Sheremetev was completely captured. The Muscovites had to leave the newly triumphantly conquered Belarus. The local gentry and townspeople did not want to remain subjects of the Moscow Tsar - the gap between the Kremlin and Lithuanian orders had already run too deep.
The difficult confrontation ended with the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, according to which Left Bank Ukraine went to Moscow, while the right bank of the Dnieper (with the exception of Kyiv) remained with Poland until the end of the 18th century.
Thus, the protracted conflict ended in a “draw”: during the 16th-17th centuries, the two neighboring powers fought for a total of more than 60 years. In 1686, mutual exhaustion and the Turkish threat forced them to sign the "Perpetual Peace". And a little earlier, in 1668, after the abdication of King Jan Casimir, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was even considered a real contender for the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In Russia at this time, Polish clothing came into fashion at court, translations were made from Polish, the Belarusian poet Simeon of Polotsk became the heir’s teacher...
Last August
In the 18th century, Poland-Lithuania still stretched from the Baltic to the Carpathians and from the Dnieper to the interfluve of the Vistula and Oder, with a population of about 12 million. But the weakened gentry “republic” no longer played any important role in international politics. It became a “traveling inn” - a supply base and theater of military operations for the new great powers - in the Northern War of 1700-1721 - Russia and Sweden, in the War of the "Polish Succession" of 1733-1734 - between Russia and France, and then in Seven Years' War(1756-1763) - between Russia and Prussia. This was also facilitated by the magnate groups themselves, who focused on foreign candidates during the election of the king.
However, the Polish elite's rejection of everything connected with Moscow grew. “Muscovites” aroused hatred greater than even the “Swabians”; they were perceived as “boors and cattle.” And according to Pushkin, Belarusians and Litvinians suffered from this “unequal dispute” of the Slavs. Choosing between Warsaw and Moscow, natives of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in any case chose a foreign land and lost their homeland.
The result is well known: the Polish-Lithuanian state could not withstand the onslaught of the “three black eagles” - Prussia, Austria and Russia, and became a victim of three partitions - 1772, 1793 and 1795. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth disappeared from political map Europe right up to 1918. After abdicating the throne, the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Stanislav August Poniatowski, remained to live in Grodno virtually under house arrest. A year later, Empress Catherine II, whose favorite he had once been, died. Paul I invited the ex-king to St. Petersburg.
Stanislav was settled in the Marble Palace; the future Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Prince Adam Czartoryski, saw him more than once in the mornings in the winter of 1797/98, when he, unkempt, in a dressing gown, wrote his memoirs. Here the last Grand Duke of Lithuania died on February 12, 1798. Paul gave him a magnificent funeral, placing the coffin with his embalmed body in the Church of St. Catherine. There, the emperor personally said goodbye to the deceased and placed a copy of the crown of the Polish kings on his head.
However, the dethroned monarch was unlucky even after his death. The coffin stood in the basement of the church for almost a century and a half, until they decided to demolish the building. Then the Soviet government invited Poland to “take back its king.” In July 1938, the coffin with the remains of Stanislav Poniatowski was secretly transported from Leningrad to Poland. There was no place for the exile either in Krakow, where the heroes of Polish history lay, or in Warsaw. He was placed in the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Belarusian village of Volchin - where the last Polish king was born. After the war, the remains disappeared from the crypt, and their fate has haunted researchers for more than half a century.
The Moscow “autocracy”, which gave birth to powerful bureaucratic structures and a huge army, turned out to be stronger than the anarchic gentry freemen. However, the cumbersome Russian state with its enslaved classes was not able to keep up with the European pace of economic and social development. Painful reforms were required, which Russia was never able to complete at the beginning of the 20th century. And the new little Lithuania will now have to speak for itself in the 21st century.
Igor Kurukin, Doctor of Historical Sciences
However, the biggest methodological error is the idea that somewhere in the West there was a super-civilized Lithuania with an advanced statehood, ruled by a progressive king - a purebred Lithuanian Mindovg. The Balts did not have any principality as a feudal state, not even the Prussians, as the most numerous tribe. At the time of the formation of the Lithuanian principalities, all the Balts had a tribal system with a strong influence of pagan priests, and their small number was explained by the fact that they had not yet really mastered agriculture. The Russian boyars chose Mindovg not for his literacy, but for the strength that stood behind him in the form of his squad and his influence among the leaders of the Baltic tribes.
Lithuania's civilization and industrialization are a product of the USSR, which it is happily losing today in the United Europe. Lithuania is gradually returning to the position it had before joining Russia. Considering themselves Germans through kinship with the Prussians, as Lithuanian nationalists declare, is obviously a unique type of patriotism, since all Prussians were completely assimilated by German colonists who moved to the indigenous lands of the Balts, captured by the Order states. Unfortunately, the Lithuanian ancestors did not know about the passionate desire of their descendants to merge with the Germans, and therefore they fought for hundreds of years against the Teutonic and Livonian orders, which came to the lands of the Baltic peoples in a crusade.
Apparently, in the Middle Ages, the Eastern Slavs did not single out the Balts as an alien tribe, especially since the lands of the Balts had long been located deep in the territory of the Eastern Slavs. Some of the Balts participated in the formation of the Polish and Belarusian nations, but thanks to the formation of the Principality of Lithuania, the Balts had a chance to subsequently create Lithuania and Latvia as national states.
You just have to be aware that national feelings are a VALUE that the “national” elite instills in the people in order to maintain their dominant position. For the elite itself, nationality is an empty phrase (a striking example is Ukraine), however, if you instill it as a value in citizens, you can get ownership - whole people, united by this value. Paying tribute to national feelings, one should not be mistaken about their origin.
For those readers who are looking for an answer to the question - How was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania formed?, I advise you to look at the map, which clearly shows that occurs in the northwestern part of the Russian land (so called - Black Rus', according to the coloristic designation of the cardinal directions among the Slavs - black = north), which at the time of the formation of VKL was UNSUBJECTIVE Mongol-Tatar Empire. Independence (1) from Russian princes and (2) from Mongol yoke- was main condition appearance .
Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rus'
However, a consequence of MOSCOW CENTRISM is the fact that story Galician and Lithuanian Rus' fall out of orthodoxy Russian history Russia as the history of exclusively Muscovite Rus', and then - this one-sidedness doesn't allow understand those that matured precisely in these “shards” of Kievan Rus, alien to the idea of unifying Russian lands under the rule of Moscow.
Today a frenzied war is being waged against the present and Russia, where the fact that Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia was a Russian-speaking state to hide the more important fact that Rus Lithuanian was a Russian state , the main population of which were Kyiv Rusyns. In the minds of Russians and Europeans, Batu’s invasion is did not lead to the division of Rus' into separate parts. Western Rus', Southwestern Rus' And North-Eastern Rus' always remained a country of Russians, only much later the political struggle of the power elites of these parts of Rus' diverged history Lithuanian Rus', Galician Rus' And Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' (Muscovy) according to the main criterion - who will reassemble united Rus' .
But the idea of the state among people in ancient times fully corresponded - as a community of people, to a nationality that was of no interest to anyone on some territory - under the government, for the individualization of which everyone was primarily interested in the nationality, at least the primary one. Nationality became the name of the state for the reason that could be individualized, which in those days were entirely captured by force, inhabited by many different tribes and, more often, unrelated nationalities. In conditions of impossibility of determining the ethnic composition of the people of a certain state, it was nominally assigned the nationality of his elite.
If we consider “nationality” by belonging to a tribe, then population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was very diverse in national composition, however, Slavic-speaking people have always prevailed numerically, preserving their dialect as a Western dialect of the Old Russian language of Kievan Rus. If the modern Russian language developed under the enormous influence of the church language of Cyril and Methodius, which was actually literary in Northern Rus', then the modern Belarusian language developed from the Western Russian dialect under the influence of Polish.
Principality of Lithuania and Russia
The Balts have always constituted a small part of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, even at the birth of the Lithuanian state, a separate Lithuanian tribe, apparently - there was no (in fact, see below about the origin of the name Lithuania). The territory of the birthplace of the Lithuanian state was inhabited by well-known Baltic-speaking tribes - the Aukštaites, Samogitians, Yatvingians, Curonians, Latgalians, villages, Semigallians who fled in the 13th century from forced Christianization, Prussians (Bortei or Zuks, Skalovs, Letuvinniki), among whom there is no Lithuania. Today one can only guess where it came from word Lithuania(like Rus'), but we can say for sure that the union of the Baltic tribes, formed on the territory bordering Russia, gave the collective name to the state - Lithuania, the official language of which, due to multinationality, became the Old Russian language, in which, by analogy with the word Rusin- and the ancient Russian word was formed Litvin- litvin - in the sense subject Principality of Lithuania. Later it was unity based on citizenship of one state pushed the national self-awareness of related Baltic-speaking tribes to feel unity into one Lithuanian nation.
This is confirmed by the appearance of the first mentions of Lithuania as an adjective Lituae in Latin to name the border of some previously unknown state with Russia. Then the term appeared in Europe lithuanians to designate citizens of a state that appeared on the political arena, the core of whose elite, judging by the place of origin, became aukstaity, in the sense of some UNION of the Baltic tribes close to the Prussians. As we know, all the other Prussians were colonized by the Teutonic Order, so much so that they simply disappeared, not even leaving us a language.
History of Lithuania Wikipedia contains the article Lithuania (tribes), which actually only proves that no tribe with a name Lithuania did not have, but simply several different tribes of the Balts, from different ethnic groups, on the lands adjacent to Black Russia, formed a territorial union, which received the external name Lithuania. This Union of Lithuania fought with its neighbors - the alliance of the Balts of Yatvingia, Aukstaiti and Samogitia, although the tribes of these same nationalities were part of Union of Lithuania. Members of the Lithuania union had the name Litvina, which directly comes from the word Lithuania, but from what word the word was formed Lithuanians I don't quite understand. The term Lithuania in the sense union of Lithuanian Baltic tribes- is quite legitimate, and the existence of a separate Lithuanian tribe not recorded.
Actually, the full name is Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russia and Zhemoytskoye- reflected the multinational composition not of the population of the Principality of Lithuania, which was much more diverse, but the specific composition of its elite. The names of the main nationalities are sewn into the name of the state - Principality of Lithuania- for the reason that (1) the union of the Baltic tribes called Lithuania gave the first princes, (2) Principality of Lithuania and Russia not so much due to the numerical predominance of the Rusyns, since the territory of the Principality of Lithuania was formed precisely at the expense of the Russian lands of the weakened Kievan Rus, but due to the presence of Russian boyars, on whom the Novogrudok Principality rested, and in addition (3) - Principality of Zhemoytsk(Zhomoit, Zhemait, Zhamait, Zhmud - various transcriptions of the name of the second union of the Baltic tribes, known in Rus' as Zhmud - were introduced by a new dynasty of princes Gediminovich, originating from the Zhemait tribes.
The first mention of Lithuania in the European Quedlinburg Annals refers to 1009 year when describing the death of a certain missionary Bruno of Querfurt, who was killed “on the border of Rus' and Lithuania,” which itself is referred to as Lituae, that is Litua in the form of the indirect case (in the sense - Lithuanian- for the name of the border).
Perhaps the terms Lituae And lithuanians in Europe became widespread from the crusaders of the Teutonic Order, who seized the lands of the Prussians, which for the neighboring related Baltic tribes became factor for the formation own state. The Russian chronicle mentions the Litvins at almost the same time, but in connection with the campaigns of Prince Yaroslav the Wise in 1040 against the Yatvingians. It seems to me that the reason for the punitive campaign of the powerful Kiev prince was the predatory raids of the squads of the emerging Lithuanian state, as a union of tribes on the outskirts of Rus', since the Baltic lands themselves were unlikely to be of particular economic interest to Rus'. It was during Yaroslav's campaign that the Novgrud fortress was laid as an outpost, which later turned into the Russian city of Novogrudok, which became the first capital of the Principality of Lithuania.
Actually, Lithuanian tribes lived surrounded by Eastern Slavs from the Krivichi tribe, to whom they paid tribute, so the Western Russian dialect of the Krivichi was understandable to the Balts. To designate balts from Lithuanian union of tribes in Rus' coined the term Litvin , Litvin- by analogy with the Russian self-name - Rusin, Rusyn, and in Europe they coined the term - lithuanians to designate subjects of the Lithuanian proto-state.
For us it is no longer so important where it came from. word Lithuania- most likely that this was the self-name of the tribe that once ruled in the union of the Baltic tribes and was able to promote from its ranks the first rulers - elite, which gave its own self-name Litvin to all subjects. Later - from the word Litvin ethnonym originated Lithuanians, when the population of the main indigenous lands () needed to somehow separate themselves from their neighbors.
I do not insist on authenticity, and for Russian history the issue of the emergence of a state among the Balts is relevant only in the plane of the emergence of Lithuanian Rus', which became a competitor to the Muscovite kingdom, ripening within Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'.
In this article, the reader will need an idea of the empire as a state entity, the whole essence of which is the unlimited expansion of borders. This "spring" sewn into Principality of Lithuania allowed him from the unknown tiny city-state of Novogrudok to turn into the most powerful state in Eastern Europe.
Next article Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia from Wikipedia, which still had to be edited a little. It is possible to understand the history of the Lithuanian-Russian state only by presenting a clear periodization, since at different stages we are dealing with a completely different state, which changes not only the size of its territory, but the political vector of development. Initially Principality of Lithuania arises and acts as a typical principality of Kievan Rus, participating in the civil strife of Russian princes, which continues despite the Tatar-Mongol yoke.
However, soon two global forces - the European empire (the papal throne and the German emperors) on the one hand and the khans (elite) of the Golden Horde begin to “pull apart” the Russian principalities left without a center on opposite sides of the “barricade”, both on the issue of choice of faith and political orientation. Moreover, a feature of those times is the literal, undisguised coincidence of the “interests of states” with the personal interests of their rulers, in full accordance with the theory of elites.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia
History of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania is an Eastern European state that existed from the mid-13th century to 1795 on the territory of modern Belarus and Lithuania, as well as parts of Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Poland, Estonia and Moldova.
Periodization of the history of the Principality of Lithuania
1. On from 1240 to 1385 - as an independent Russian principality fighting against Southwestern (Galician) Rus' and Northeastern (Vladimir-Suzdal) Rus' for the collection of Kyiv lands for yourself. The death of Alexander Nevsky and the feud that broke out between his heirs allowed the Lithuanian principality to seize the middle lands of Kievan Rus, and later annex almost the entire territory of the Galician-Volyn principality. becoming the most powerful state in Eastern Europe.
2. Since 1385, after the conclusion of a personal union with the Kingdom of Poland, the Principality of Lithuania has been part of the union state, where the main role belongs to the Polish gentry. The reason was the weakening of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the wars against Muscovy, which openly announced the gathering of Russian lands.
Since 1385 it was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Poland, and since 1569 - in the Sejm Union of Lublin as part of the confederal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the XIV-XVI centuries - rival of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the struggle for dominance in Russian lands. It was abolished by the Constitution on May 3, 1791. It finally ceased to exist after the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. By 1815, the entire territory of the former principality became part of the Russian Empire.
Rus' and Lithuania
In Russian chronicles, the first dated mention of Lithuania dates back to 1040, when the campaign of Yaroslav the Wise took place against the Yatvingians and the construction of the Novogrudok fortress began - i.e. a Russian outpost was founded against the Litvins - New town , whose name was later transformed into Novogrudok.
Since the last quarter of the 12th century, many principalities bordering Lithuania (Gorodenskoye, Izyaslavskoye, Drutskoye, Gorodetskoye, Logoiskoye, Strezhevskoye, Lukomskoye, Bryachislavskoye) left the field of view of ancient Russian chroniclers. According to the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Prince Izyaslav Vasilkovich died in a battle with Lithuania (previously 1185). In 1190, Rurik Rostislavich organized a campaign against Lithuania in support of his wife’s relatives, came to Pinsk, but due to the melting of the snow, the further campaign had to be canceled. Since 1198, the Polotsk land has become a springboard for the expansion of Lithuania to the north and northeast. 
Lithuanian invasions begin directly into the Novgorod-Pskov (1183, 1200, 1210, 1214, 1217, 1224, 1225, 1229, 1234), Volyn (1196, 1210), Smolensk (1204, 1225, 1239, 1248) and Chernigov (1 220) lands with which chronicle Lithuania did not have common borders. The Novgorod first chronicle, dated 1203, mentions the battle of the Chernigov Olgovichi with Lithuania. In 1207, Vladimir Rurikovich of Smolensk went to Lithuania, and in 1216 Mstislav Davydovich of Smolensk defeated the Litvins, who were plundering the outskirts of Polotsk.
Article Grand Duchy of Lithuania Wikipedia I had to correct it because during the period before no formations of the Principality of Lithuania Lithuanians didn't exist, but were Litvins ka is the collective name of the Balts, who carried out raids deep into the Russian principalities.
History of the Principality of Lithuania
If you follow the chronicles, then at the beginning of the second millennium, Baltic tribes often raided the nearest Russian principalities, which allowed Russian chroniclers to correlate the robbers with the territory already known in Rus', for which the generalized name was assigned Lithuania. However, the Balts themselves have not yet been united into a single union, since we know at least about TWO unions - a separate union of Samogitian tribes, and the one that interests us - the Lithuanian union based on the Aukshaits, which, after the Yatvingians entered it, received a common name Lithuania. In those ancient times, when no one asked the nationality of the robbers, all gangs of robbers from the Varangian Sea in Rus' were called the same and without distinction - Litvins from Lithuania. Lithuania, running out of its forests into the border villages of Pskov, caused destruction.
Actually, already THAT Lithuanian tribes pursued only purely predatory goals, tells us that state organization Lithuania was loose - the meaning of allied relations came down to the creation of a single detachment of armed men to carry out robberies of neighbors who clearly already had more high level government system in the form of principalities, headed by princes from the same Rurik family, which united them into one confederation of principalities, called Rus'.
Chronicles tell us that the Russian princes, in order to pacify the Litvins, themselves carried out punitive raids on lands of the Balts, erecting defensive fortresses on the borders with the lands of the Balts, one of which was Novogrudok, which turned into the center of a small newly formed Russian principality. However, against the backdrop of expansion by the Crusaders and especially after the defeat of Rus' from the Mongol-Tatars, the policy of the elites of this border Russian principality began to change towards the neighboring alliances of Lithuanian tribes. Armed squads from the Balts, who have already gained experience in warfare, begin to invite the Russian border city for defense, which in chronicle form is expressed as an “invitation to reign” of their leaders (which had already happened before Mindovg).
It should be noted that - history of the Lithuanian state, most likely, it would never have started, because the Balts were already pushed out from all sides by the Order of the Crusaders - the Teutonic and Livonian, and, well, what to hide - Rus' itself, if in a small Russian principality, the boyars (read correctly - the elite) would not dare to invite the Lithuanian leader Mindaugas and his retinue to reign. This is how TWO problems were solved at once - (1) armed guards appeared and (2) RAIDS from Lithuania stopped, since they themselves Litvins began to defend Novogrudok.
Novogrudok was able to break the inflexible rule about the possibility of reigning exclusively by members of the Rurikovich family due to the circumstances of the weakening of Rus', when the clan of Rurikovich princes, which owned Russia, was brutally reduced as a result of defeats in battles with the Mongol-Tatars. Actually, both in relation to the crusaders, clad in armor along with their horses, and in relation to the unusual deceptive tactics of the Tatar cavalry, Rus' was faced with an unfamiliar technology of warfare. Moreover, the almost unarmed Tatars on small horses turned out to be even more invulnerable than the German knights clad in iron.
The third condition for the success of the first Lithuanian prince was the almost immediate support from the Pope and the European Empire, which, with the assistance of Poland, was carrying out the colonization of the Baltic lands. Granting Mindaugus the title of king was an advance to attract Lithuania to the side of Catholic Europe. Although the heirs of Mindaugas were no longer crowned kings, according to all the rules they received the title of grand dukes, even according to the concepts accepted in the empire of the Eastern Slavs. The royal title was never required by the Lithuanian princes, since the Principality of Lithuania was Russian, and Rus' had its own tradition of glorifying rulers, in which only the title “Grand Duke” was supreme.
What are the reasons for the formation of the Principality of Lithuania
Reasons for the formation of the Principality of Lithuania- in changing the policy of the Russian elite of the Russian city of Novogrudok in relation to the leaders of the unions of neighboring Lithuanian tribes from hostile - to the creation of a single state association - Russian Lithuanian state- in the form of the Novgrudian principality, in which - in principle, “Russian” in its location - the invited Litvin began to rule Mindovg, How first Lithuanian prince.
I think no one really thought about what to call the new one back then. Russian-Lithuanian state- it naturally turned out that the adjective Lithuanian put before the word principality, especially since the Ministry of Education and Science had no choice but to accept the Western Russian language as the state language - simply, formation of the Lithuanian-Russian state began in the Russian city of Novogrudok. Any Balt language was of no interest to anyone, since the language of communication between Rusyns and Litvins had probably long been the Rusyn language.
Now, after answering the question - what are the reasons for the formation of the principality of Lithuania, I want to give an idea of the states themselves during the era of feudalism. In Russian orthodox history they put forward in first place as something extraordinary - features of Kievan Rus as a confederation of almost independent principalities, which allows some anti-Russian historians to argue that the state itself - Kievan Rus- in reality it wasn’t. Actually, they appeal to today’s idea of the structure of the state as centralized, the creation of which in Rus' only Ivan the Terrible will be able to complete.
Firstly, Kyiv Rus is just a term for a period in the history of Rus' called Kyiv or pre-Mongolian- from before the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, when Kyiv was the political center and capital of the ancient Russian state. Then feudal fragmentation, which is carried around like a sack, was not a unique feature of the ancient Russian state - in Europe, all states were separate feuds as a certain territory that the feudal lord COULD PERSONALLY BYPASS to collect taxes. Since, simply for physical reasons, the feudal lord could not control a large territory, the European principalities were small in size. States in Europe were like nesting dolls - small fiefs formed a larger feud of the lord, larger in relation to the fiefs of the vassals, since it overlapped them. Even larger were the fiefs of lords, princes or dukes, who together constituted the fief of the king or grand duke, whose fief was considered a state.
Secondly, the principle according to which only members of the Rukovich family could reign in the Russian principalities was also not unique, although it was carried out unquestioningly hundreds of years after the bloody lesson taught Prophetic Oleg Kyiv "impostors" - from simple warriors who took the place of the Kyiv princes and were sentenced to death only for lack of kinship with Rurik. After all, the entire history of the European empire shows us the struggle of princes to install themselves or their descendants in the vacant place of the monarch.
Features of the Lithuanian state were typical for territorial empires, which undoubtedly was Principality of Lithuania 13th-15th century, since it was formed by the leader of the pagan Balts, who became a prince in a Christian Orthodox principality, inhabited by Rusyns, but outside the principality already called Litvins. The main feature of the Lithuanian state thing is great state of Lithuania became a “melting pot” in which two current nations were formed - Lithuanians and Belarusians, as descendants of those Litvinians and Russians who were united by the Great Russian-Lithuanian state, which became one of the three parts of Rus' during the period of the Mongol yoke called.
To understand the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, some periodization should be carried out, since Principality of Lithuania in the 13th century is "Great" only in the dreams of his princes, while Grand Duchy of Lithuania 15th century- the largest state in Europe by territory (if you don’t count Golden Horde or, perhaps, North-Eastern Rus', which did not have any fixed borders in the East).
Grand Duchy of Lithuania 13th century
The consolidation of the Principality of Lithuania took place against the background of the gradual advance of the Crusaders of the Order of the Sword in Livonia and the Teutonic Order in Prussia, leading crusade for the sake of converting the pagan Prussians to Christianity, who stubbornly continued to adhere to their ancient pagan beliefs. Unfortunately, the details of the existence of statehood among the Baltic tribes themselves remained outside the attention of chroniclers, since the Teutonic Order did not keep records of events among the conquered Baltic tribes, and Russian chroniclers, since the campaign of Yaroslav the Wise, have been losing interest in the peoples of this region of Kievan Rus, since the main The enemies are the crusaders of the Teutonic and Livonian orders, the fight against which is the prerogative of the princes of the Novgorod land and the Pskov principality. The rest of Rus' focused all its attention on the infighting between the brother princes and the first attack of the Mongol-Tatars, which destroyed the flower of the Russian army.
Princes of the Principality of Lithuania
I hope the reader understands that History is a description of the activities of the elite of society, who make decisions and often answer with their lives for the correctness of their choice. Everything is in full accordance with the theory of elites - representatives of the people living in different parts of the state are not only unable to assess the event (which is important when writing history), but do not even know about it if it did not affect them personally. Knowing and assessing is the function of the elite, which, in order to make life easier for its descendants, just so that they remain in power for as long as possible, begins to write history as instructions based on accumulated experience. Chronicles were written by literate people in ancient times at the request of the authorities; today, versions of history are offered by the intelligentsia - and the elite chooses the option that is beneficial to them in today's conditions.
Therefore, there is no objective or “in general” history - each is written from some point in space and time - know, from a certain angle, which is necessarily present and determines the assessment of events, and the role of elite representatives in them. The first Lithuanian princes, not burdened with obligations to any numerous parties of the elite or officials, acted based on their purely personal interests, disposing of the state as personal property.
The world is diverse, so we are interested in the character, personal qualities and even the appearance of the princes of Lithuania, which definitely influenced the course of history. The logic of development goes by itself, and the mistakes or tactical successes of the princes are a retreat or adherence to the strategy of this logic, which sometimes changes the goals of the logic itself.
The first Lithuanian princes
First Lithuanian prince first mentioned in the agreement of 1219 between the Galicia-Volyn principality and the “princes” of Lithuania, Diavoltva and Samogitians ( Lithuania- in the sense of the name of the union of Lithuanian tribes). The contract appears in Russian Prince Mindovg, How fourth leader on the list of Baltic leaders, which immediately raises the question of the reasons why the future first prince of Lithuania By 1240, he took a leading position among the other Lithuanian prince leaders.
We must understand that the Lithuanian princes mentioned in the chronicle were still leaders of tribal unions, since concept of prince assumes that he has a personal castle - a fortress or in Old Russian detinets, around which a city grows. Since we do not know about Lithuanian cities, the Lithuanian leaders have not yet distinguished themselves enough from among their fellow tribesmen to have a fortified personal dwelling with a warehouse for storing the collected tribute. However, the further history of the approval of Mindaugas as the first among the five leaders mentioned in the chronicle confirms the fact that among the Balts there are already families or clans that have seized power or have hereditary advantages to occupy the place of leader. Perhaps someone else, thanks to his personal courage or wisdom, could still take the place of leader, but the history of the rise of Mindaugas shows that the men of his clan already realize the value of supporting each other in order to find the entire clan in a privileged position among the rest of the tribe. The chronicle mentions Mindaugas fourth, and soon after his reign, his brothers and nephews are listed, who occupy key positions of power among the Baltic tribes. The remaining leaders from the chronicle list of leaders disappear from the historical scene, apparently pushed aside by a close-knit group of men from the Mindaugas clan.
Actually, the above paragraph is the beginning of a separate article - as an insert into this article, which has already become too long. The first Lithuanian princes They also acted as leaders of the Baltic squads, since it was important for them to receive support among their fellow tribesmen and, accordingly, members of their own family, who occupied key positions in the alliances of the Baltic tribes. Obviously, the resource of the Russian Principality of Novogrudok was immediately used to strengthen the positions of Mindaugas’s relatives in the power structures of the alliances of Lithuanian captivity.
On the other hand, an invitation to the principality had only the force of an agreement between the hired leader of a military squad, and the practice of invitation itself had ancient traditions, when the squad was expelled. Therefore, the first prince of Lithuania should be considered as a successful adventurer who, like Rurik, managed to realize the opportunity and gain a foothold in the place of the prince, without relying on any party or family ties among the Russian boyars. Most likely, the first Lithuanian prince was a member of the dynasty of Polotsk princes through the female line, as the chronicle hints at. The Principality of Polotsk itself lost its importance, but a century earlier it was in second place among the Russian principalities, the lot of the first heirs to the throne of the Kyiv Grand Dukes.
I single out Mindovg both as a person and as the leader of the Baltic tribes, who became the first prince for the Balts themselves, who became citizens of the state he created on the Russian lands of Black Rus' and the adjacent lands of the Balts themselves.
Board of Mindovg
So, let us once again recall the geopolitical situation in the Baltic region, when the Russian principalities, weakened by defeat from the Tatar-Mongols, leave the border lands outside their sphere of attention, where, in violation of the rule, it became possible to invite princes not from the Rurik dynasty. According to one hypothesis, the boyars of the Russian city of Novogrudok and Lithuanian prince Mindovg Negotiations about an invitation to reign begin closer to 1240, when Mindaugas is nominated for the role of the main leader among the leaders of the Baltic tribes. The main danger for Novogrudok came from Prince Daniil of Galitsky, since the Galician-Volyn principality, in its expansionist desire to dominate all of Rus', which itself was the most southwestern principality, “reached” even to the northern outskirts of Rus'. The eastern direction for the expansion of the Galician principality was blocked by the Tatars, in the western direction the Galician prince sought friendship with Hungary, only the northern direction remained.
The first Lithuanian prince successfully used the opposition of the Pskov principality, and most importantly - Alexander Nevsky, who reigned in Novgorod, with Daniil of Galicia, but in the end Lithuania fell under the influence of the Galician-Volyn principality, which became the main fighter against the crusaders invited by the Polish king to Prussian lands. Novgorod and Pskov would simply annex the Novogrudok principality, and an alliance with the strong Galician principality would provide the Lithuanian principality with the possibility of independence from the Russian principalities and assistance in the fight against the crusaders. In addition, the distance from the Golden Horde allowed the Principality of Lithuania not to pay tribute and accumulate resources, and even ensured its safety from sudden attacks by the Tatars. All history of the Principality of Lithuania- this is its expansion at the expense of the weakening Galician-Volyn principality, which did not have such a favorable geopolitical position.
Considering the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the aspect of its formation as Lithuanian Rus, we must remember that immediately after the invasion of the Tatars, Kievan Rus disintegrated into TWO parts - the unauthorized Galician-Volyn principality and the northeastern confederation of Russian principalities. Galician Rus' came into contact with the European empire, from which it began to seek protection in the confrontation with the Golden Horde, and North-Eastern Rus', with the help of Alexander Nevsky, entered into a close alliance with the Golden Horde. Moreover, assistance from the Western European Empire required Galician Rus' to profoundly change its cultural and religious foundations, while the Tatars did not seek to change anything in the states they captured, in which their original way of life was preserved. As history has shown, CHOICE OF Alexander Nevsky turned out to be more effective for the self-preservation of Rus'. The core for the revival of Rus' was preserved precisely in the northern principalities, among which Moscow became the main collector of Russian lands.
The most likely reason for inviting Mindaugas to reign in Russian Novogrudok was his hypothetical membership in the Russian dynasty of Polotsk princes (see the biography of Mindaugas), since at that time kinship with princes and dynastic marriages were decisive for occupying the princely throne. A pagan taking the place of prince in an Orthodox city was not something unusual, since no one paid attention to it. The baptism of Mindaugas according to the Orthodox rite is not recorded, but most likely it was with his family, since his son Voishelk makes a pilgrimage to Athos and becomes a monk, but the baptism of Mindaugas according to the Catholic rite in 1251 is a recorded fact that clearly served the political purposes of weakening the pressure on the part of the order's Catholic states.
History of the Lithuanian state begins with the wars that Prince Mindovg organizes to transform his tiny Principality of Novogrudok into the Principality of Lithuania, for which he first eliminates rivals among the leaders of the Baltic tribes, forcing his nephew Tovtivil (Mindovk’s protégé in the Principality of Polotsk) together with the rest of the leaders to make a campaign against the Smolensk lands, promising the captured lands for their management. Having learned about the failure of the campaign, Mindovg seized the lands of the prince-leaders and tried to organize their murder. Most likely, the leaders from the failed Smolensk campaign returned not to their own, but to other Balt tribes.
Lithuanian king
To weaken the coalition of his enemies, which included the Livonian Order, Prince Mindovg uses a trick - he “gives” the Livonian Order the lands of the Baltic tribes that disobey him in exchange, first for baptism according to the Catholic rite, and then in 1253 coronation of Mindaugas on behalf of Pope Innocent IV. Having donated part of the Samogitian and Yatvingian lands to the Livonian Order, Mindovg strengthens its power over all of Black Russia (the word “Black” goes back to the ancient designation of the cardinal direction - Server - y, for which reason the name Bela Rus will initially designate North-Eastern Rus', and Red Rus'- southern Galich lands of Rus').
We must understand the political situation of Western (Black) Rus', which became historical center the principality of Mindaugas, as a northwestern wedge of Russian lands, on which the interests of the Catholic German orders and Veliky Novgorod opposing them, led by Alexander Nevsky, the Kingdom of Poland and Daniil of Galicia, converged, and for the latter, Mindaugas turned out to be a natural ally. For Galicia-Volyn Principality of Lithuania as independent it was of interest for contrasting with rivals, which in no way canceled Daniil’s claims to reign under the right of the Rurikovichs, therefore, as we know, Mindovg was forced to transfer rule in Novogrudok to Daniil’s son Roman, which, together with Mindovg’s rebaptism into Catholicism, leads him to confrontation with his own son Voishelk, who headed the Orthodox party.
Voishelk’s biography confirms the thesis that the Lithuanian princes already in the second generation became Russian princes, since son of Mindaugas demonstrates exceptional loyalty to Orthodoxy. In addition, Voishelk goes against his pagan father, who was baptized several times for political purposes and returned to paganism before his death, and returns to reign only for the sake of becoming a truly Russian Principality of Lithuania, since he himself recognizes the right of the Rurikovichs to reign and voluntarily transfers the rule to Shvarn, his son Daniil Galitsky. Since Voyshelk, the Principality of Lithuania has firmly entered the “circle” of Russian principalities with the rights of an appanage principality.
Actually, it is difficult to show the borders of the Lithuanian-Russian state under Mindovga and Voishelka on the map - I depicted an area that captured the Russian lands and the lands of the Balts. For me, it is more important to show that literally after a few years of reign (in 1254), Mindovg recognized his Russian principality as part of the empire of the Galician prince Daniil, planting Roman Danilovich, the son of Daniil, in Novogrudok, the former capital of the principality. In fact, this was the recognition of the laws of Rus' on reigning, according to which only a member of the Rurikovich dynasty could reign. In fact, a strange situation arises when King Mindovg, having transferred the capital to Rurikovich, himself is in an unknown residence - most likely precisely because of the unknown - on the territory of the Lithuanian tribes. Dual power will continue under the son of Mindovg - Voishelka, who will kill Roman Danilovich, but then voluntarily give the Principality of Lithuania to another son of Daniel - Shvarn Danilovich, in turn recognizing the unconditional rights of the Rurikovichs to reign in any Russian principality.
The first Lithuanian princes could not fight against the rules of Galician Rus, which was not only the hegemon in the region, but also almost the only natural ally of the Lithuanian princes. Most likely, the Novogrudok principality would have simply been annexed by its Russian neighbors, but as an outpost of the Galicia-Volyn principality in the northwestern corner of Rus', it was preserved as public education. The patronage of Galician Rus had to be paid for by the transfer of power to the sons of Daniil of Galicia, but they also contributed to the expansion of the territory and strengthening of the principality as not an appanage, but a Grand Duchy.
Another thing is that the Galician-Volyn principality itself, for which the Principality of Lithuania became an inheritance, is beginning to fall apart for several reasons at once, which, in the context of the weakening influence of the Galician princes, allows a new generation of Lithuanian impostors from the Zhmud leaders to seize power in the Principality of Lithuania and create a new dynasty of Lithuanian princes - Gediminovichi.
The murder of Schwarn as a legitimate Russian prince from the Rurik dynasty pitted the Principality of Lithuania against the rest of Rus'. After several political assassinations of the new princes, apparently self-promoted by their military squad, princely power was finally consolidated under Gediminas, as the prince of the Lithuanian principality, independent of the Galician grand dukes.
As I already said, activities of the Lithuanian princes covered in a separate article - but note that with Gediminas the expansion of the Lithuanian principalities begins by annexing primarily the southern Russian lands. After the death of the main ones (from our point of view) political figures- Alexander Nevsky and Daniil Galitsky are fragmenting their states into inheritances of heirs, who did not particularly show themselves, except for Daniil Alexandrovich, who with his peace-loving policy brought the seedy appanage Moscow principality into the first rank of the most influential principalities.
The entry of Lithuania into the political system of Catholic Europe for a couple of decades allowed Mindovg to strengthen his power among the Baltic tribes, and create an alliance with the Galician-Volyn principality by transferring the reign in Novogrudok to the son of the Galician prince Roman Danilovich (Novogrudok prince 1254-1258). The union was not overshadowed by the joint campaign against Poland and Lithuania of the Horde and Galicians, organized under pressure from the khans of the Golden Horde, who did not forgive Mindaugas for accepting the title of king from the Pope. Daniil Galitsky himself avoided the campaign, transferring command to his brother, Prince of Volyn Vasilko Romanovich, which did not save his son Roman Danilovich from being captured by Voishelka, the son of Mindovg, who led the Russian party in Novrogrudok. Roman Danilovich was killed in 1258, which coincides with Mindaugas’s renunciation of Christianity (it is not clear whether it was only Catholicism) and the return to open struggle against the Catholic Orders. After supporting several Prussian uprisings, the Lithuanians, under the leadership of Midovg, win the Battle of Durbe, which became the stage of the annexation of Samogitia to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However, in 1263, Mindovg, along with his younger sons, was killed as a result of a conspiracy organized by the Polotsk prince Tovtivil and Mindovg’s nephews - Troinat and Dovmont, which ended with Troinat (1263-1264) taking the place of the Grand Duke, who soon killed the head of the conspirators Tovtivil.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Samogit and Russia (this is the full name of this power) formed in the 1240s. Initially it included the eastern part of modern Lithuania (Aukštaitija) and the so-called. “Black Rus'” (modern Western Belarus). Mindovg is considered its founder. By ethnic composition the population of the principality was Balto-Slavic with a predominance of the Slavic Orthodox element. Lithuanians constituted the ruling ethnic group. Moreover, they were pagans.
Because of this religious pluralism, the authorities of the young state immediately faced the question of the need religious reform. Perhaps around 1246 the issue of converting all of Lithuania to Orthodoxy was discussed. In any case, he was accepted by the son of Mindaugas, Voishelk. However, the Grand Duke made a different choice. In 1252/53 Mindovg received from the Pope royal title in exchange for adoption of Catholicism and the founding of a Catholic bishopric. He hoped that Rome would help Lithuania repel the aggression of the German knights. However, his hopes, like the plans of Daniil Galitsky in his time, were not destined to come true. The new allies helped mainly with prayers and appeals, but not with troops. Meanwhile, the knights were defeated by pagans from the Zhmud tribe. Therefore, in 1261 Mindovg renounced Christianity and accepted Zhmud into his principality.
The end of the life of the first Lithuanian ruler was rather absurd. He missed his deceased wife Martha very much. Another prince, Dovmont, had a wife who looked very similar to the late princess. Without thinking twice, Mindovg took his wife away from him. The offended Dovmont repaid his insulted honor. In 1263, a conspiracy arose led by princes Dovmont and Troinat. In a battle with the rebels, the presumptuous sovereign died.
Dovmont soon left Lithuania, and Troinat became the Grand Duke. But he was soon killed by the grooms of Mindaugas, avenging the death of their master. After a short strife, during which Pinsk and, possibly, Polotsk and Vitebsk became part of Lithuania, Voishelk Mindovgovich sat on the throne. He made a second attempt to baptize Lithuanians, now according to the Orthodox rite, and in 1265 he applied for this in Pskov. But there, in 1266, Dovmont, the murderer of his father, became prince. After that, Voishelk did not want to hear about any contacts with Russians who “welcome criminals.”
A sharp expansion of the territory of Lithuania occurred under the Grand Duke Gediminas (1316-1341). He annexed the Smolensk, Minsk, Kyiv, Brest lands and in 1339 entered into a direct military conflict with the Horde, thereby leading the Eastern European anti-Tatar national liberation movement.
The clash occurred due to the transition of Smolensk to Lithuanian rule. Khan Uzbek responded by sending a punitive detachment of Tavkubey-Murza to Smolensk, which included the regiments of the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita. Thus, this event marked the beginning of open confrontation between Moscow and Lithuania over disputed territories in Eastern Europe. With the help of Lithuanian squads, the blow was repelled, and from that moment on, Smolensk no longer paid tribute to the Horde.
Gediminas in 1324 made another attempt to Catholicize the country, but the Orthodox population opposed it, and the project was rejected. But territorial growth is proceeding at a rapid pace: around 1325, Brest was annexed. An intensive attack on Volyn began. In the 1320-30s. Lithuanian troops subjugated part of the Kyiv lands.
Before his death, Gediminas divided his possessions among his seven sons. It seemed that Lithuania was on the verge of feudal fragmentation. But the country did not fall apart. After a short strife, during which the new Grand Duke Yavnut was killed by his brothers, he came to the throne in 1345. Olgerd ascended, and Keistut became his co-ruler. The two of them ruled the Lithuanian state for many years.
Olgierd and Keistut became the rulers of Lithuania at a difficult time. In 1345-48. she was continuously attacked by German knights. In 1348 on the river. Strava, the Russian-Lithuanian army was defeated, their brother Narimunt died. Poland was advancing from the west: in 1349 its troops occupied Galicia and Brest. In 1350 Moscow captured Smolensk.
Olgierd managed to stabilize the situation with quick and decisive actions. In 1352, he simply officially renounced the territories captured by the Poles, thereby temporarily curbing the appetites of his western neighbor. The Lithuanians stopped the knightly onslaught with stubborn resistance. An anti-Moscow alliance was concluded with the Tver Principality, an old enemy of the Kalitichs. Thus, Lithuania found a powerful ally in the east.
In 1358 Olgerd and Keistut proclaimed unification program under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Samogit and Russia all Baltic and East Slavic lands. During their reign, Lithuania experienced rapid territorial growth. In the 1350s, it captured cities between the Dnieper, Berezina and Sozh rivers. By 1362, Kyiv, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Bryansk, and Seversky lands were finally subjugated (the process of their annexation began in the 1330s).
At the same time, the Lithuanians emerged victorious from conflicts with other contenders for dominance in Eastern Europe. In 1362 V Battle of Blue Waters Olgerd's regiments inflicted a crushing defeat on the Horde (this battle is considered similar in scale to the Battle of Kulikovo). In 1368, 1370 and 1372 with the support of the allied Tver, the Grand Duke of Lithuania attacks Moscow three times. But she survived. Only as a sign that “he was here”, Olgierd drove up and broke his spear against the Kremlin wall.
The growing influence of Lithuania among European states is evidenced by the fact that Western countries begin to seek an alliance with her. Polish King Casimir IV, Pope Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV vied with each other to propose converting to Catholicism. Proud Olgerd replied that he agreed, but on one condition. Let the Teutonic Order leave the Baltic states and settle in the steppes between Lithuania and the Horde, becoming a human shield against invasions from the East. Naturally, this was a deliberately impossible requirement.
Olgerd tried to challenge the church leadership of Moscow in Orthodox world. Officially, the head of the Russian church was still called the Metropolitan of Kyiv, but his residence moved first to Vladimir-on-Klyazma, and after 1326 to Moscow. Since the overwhelming majority of the lands of the former Kievan Rus professed Orthodoxy, it turned out that politically they were subordinate to Lithuania, and religiously they were subordinate to Moscow.
Olgerd saw here a threat to the unity of his state. In 1352, the Byzantine patriarch was asked to approve the Lithuanian candidate for the Kiev metropolitan table - Theodoret. Constantinople did not recognize Theodoret. But Olgerd achieved approval of his project from the Bulgarian Patriarch. Seeing that the situation was fraught with a split in Orthodox Christianity, Byzantium backed down. A compromise decision was made: Alexy, who was sitting in Moscow, was appointed Metropolitan of Kyiv. But a special Lithuanian metropolitanate was established in Novogrudok, to which the Polotsk, Turov and Galicia-Volyn lands were subordinate.
After the death of Olgerd in 1377, the throne was taken by his son, Prince Jagiello 1 - the man who was destined radically change the path of development of Lithuanian statehood. He was distinguished by extremely inconsistent policies. At first, Jagiello abandoned the traditional anti-Horde orientation for Lithuania. He entered into an alliance with Mamai and even promised to take part in a punitive campaign against Rus' and on the Kulikovo Field to stab Dmitry Donskoy in the back. But the Lithuanian squads did not reach the battlefield. The triumph of Moscow on the Kulikovo Field forced Jagiello to seek the friendship of Prince Dmitry, and a project arose for Jagiello’s baptism into Orthodoxy and his marriage to one of the daughters of the Moscow ruler. But in 1382 Moscow was burned by Tokhtamysh, and Jagiello was again disappointed in his plans.
In 1385, Lithuania sharply changed its orientation towards Poland. In the town Krevo signs union - union of the Lithuanian and Polish crowns. Now the two countries had one ruler, bearing the title of “King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.” Jagiello was baptized according to the Catholic rite, took the name Vladislav and became the founder of the Jagiellonian dynasty. He married the Polish queen Jadwiga and from 1387 began an intensive Catholicization of his principality.
Thus, there was a rapprochement between Orthodox Lithuania and the Catholic West. She finds herself drawn into the orbit of the political life of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, the Vatican, and France. Its political and social system is becoming more and more similar to the Polish one. This radically changed the direction of development of this state and its place on the Eastern European map.
The formation of Lithuanian statehood in its new status was not easy. In 1390-92. Prince Vitovt starts a rebellion. He sought to separate Lithuania from Poland and, in alliance with the Teutonic Order, inflicted a number of sensitive blows on Jogaila’s troops. Finally, in 1392, an agreement was reached between Jagiello-Vladislav and Vytautas. The Polish king retained nominal power over the entire Polish-Lithuanian federation, and Vytautas became the actual Lithuanian prince. The beginning of his reign was successful: in 1395 he returned Smolensk, in 1397 he defeated the Horde, and for the first time on its territory - in the Volga region!
However, in 1399 R. Vorskla The Tatar army of Timur-Kutluk destroyed the army of Vytautas. After this, he was forced to somewhat humble his ambitions and in 1401 confirm the union with Poland. Gradually, the prince began to regain his position, having been shaken after the “massacre on Vorskla”: in 1401 he suppressed the anti-Lithuanian rebellion in Smolensk led by Yuri Svyatoslavich, and in 1410 under Grunwald inflicted a crushing defeat on the Teutonic Order. The flower of German chivalry died in the battle.
In 1426, Vitovt imposed tribute on Pskov. In 1427, he undertook a grandiose demonstration campaign along the eastern border of Lithuania. The princes of Pereyaslavl, Ryazan, Pronsk, Vorotynsk, Odoev greeted him magnificently and presented him with large gifts. In 1428, Vitovt besieged Novgorod and took a huge ransom of 11 thousand rubles from it.
The rise of Vytautas against the background of the rather faceless Jogaila drew the attention of European monarchs to the Lithuanian ruler. In 1430, the Holy Roman Empire, making plans to create an anti-Polish alliance from Lithuania, Hungary, the German principalities and the Teutonic Order, offered Vytautas a royal crown. The prince at first refused. But then he learned that the Polish gentry were actively protesting against this proposal, arguing that Lithuania should depend on Poland, and not vice versa. Then, in spite of the “proud Poles,” Vitovt decided on a coronation. But he was not destined to wear the royal crown: on October 27, 1430, he died, sincerely mourned by the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Some modern historians, disputing the conclusions of the Imperial Geographical Society (although without access to its archives - no one worked with the Polotsk Chronicle after Tatishchev), consider Gedimina a descendant of the Zhmudins, who “they had been sitting on the princely thrones of the appanages of the Principality of Polotsk for a long time - it was weakened and princes from strong Lietuva (Zhmudi) were invited/appointed there, so the annexation of the Polotsk lands took place voluntarily and peacefully”
A question immediately arises that cannot be answered.
How probable is an invitation (peaceful - there was no conquest) to the princely throne in the Christian center of the leaders of the pagan aborigines
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“The Samogits wear poor clothes and, in the vast majority of cases, are ashen in color. They spend their lives in low and, moreover, very long huts; in the middle of them there is a fire, near which the father of the family sits and sees the cattle and all his household utensils. For they have custom of keeping cattle, without any partition, under the same roof under which they live. The more noble ones also use buffalo horns as cups. ... They blast the earth not with iron, but with wood... When going to plow, they usually carry with them there are a lot of logs with which to dig the ground"
S. Herberstein, “Notes on Muscovy”, 16th century, about contemporary Zhmudins. (It was even sadder in the 13th century)]
And what guided the residents, preferring them to people from neighboring (Volyn, Kyiv, Smolensk, Novgorod, Mazovia) principalities, which
- represent a powerful state entity
- closer in culture
- closer in language
- dynastically related
- live in cities, know writing and similar laws
And this despite the fact that at that time in Polotsk there was "freedom Polotsk or Venice"- undesirable rulers were quite often simply expelled.