scholarly journals Defensive battles for Kyiv and cancellation of the city from the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1651

Author(s):  
Andrii Hurbyk ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-70
Author(s):  
Elmantas Meilus

This article deals with the situation of the Jews in 1654 at the beginning of the Muscovite invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is maintained that that was the main reason to the disasters that befell the Jewry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The extant sources (mainly relating to Vilnius) show that in the occupied western lands of the GDL the attitude of the Russian authorities towards the Jews was more relaxed than in the eastern lands inhabited by the Orthodox. Seeking to win the favour of the population of the occupied territory, the Russians tried the Jews and the Christians by the same laws at least in areas where their jurisdiction was introduced. That could mean that Muscovy had no definite programme concerning the Jews at least in the western part of the GDL, inhabited mainly by the Catholics. Meanwhile, the Jews, despite the hostile attitude of the local population – that was attested by the plea of Vilnius authorities to the tsar to evict the Jews from the city – managed to find a way of coexistence both with the locals and the authorities of the occupiers. The sources show that even after the tsar’s indication to remove the Jews they continued to reside in the city.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-93
Author(s):  
SERGIUSZ ŁUKASIEWICZ

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to explain the activities of the Communist Party of Western Belarus in Vilnius during the fi rst half of the thirties of the twentieth century. The author’s aim is to show the organisation, theory and practice of this illegal party. Further-more, the intention is to present the activities of Vilnius police towards communist sym-pathizers and activists. Founded in 1923 in Vilnius, the Communist Party of Western Belaruswas a branch of The Communist Party of Poland. This organization like the polish communist party was illegal. Its aim was to combat the Polish state and to perform electioneering for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Although the name of the party could indicate a desire for independence of Belarus, in practice it was for the removal of the north eastern provinces of the Second Republic of Poland to the USSR. CPWB activity had a special dimension in Vilnius. As the region’s largest city and former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnus was home for many nations, religions and cultures. Moreover, Vil-nius was the most important fi eld for communist action. Given the number of inhabitants, industrialized multi-ethnic character, communists had the opportunity to develop wide subversive and conspiratorial work. In addition, the city was the great centre of production and distribution of communist publications, which allowed the spread of propaganda in both its administrative boundaries and in the Vilnius Voivodeship.


Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9 (107)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Iuliia Stepanova

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the territorial, administrative and settlement structure of Toropets and Toropets uezd at the end of the 15th — 16th centuries. During the period when Toropets was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, it was influenced by its peripheral position and its status as a state settlement, direct tax collection and at the same time maintaining relative independence. Communal traditions inherited from the Old Russian period were also preserved. The involvement of both urban and rural population in crafts activities was recorded, which influenced the formation of special territories (perevaras) in the Toropets uezd. The territories of volosts and a perevaras according to the scribe book of 1540 were localized. The territories of perevaras were within the borders of volosts. The inhabitants of the volosts and the townspeople of Toropets owned the side honey trees. In the city, the yards of shabry are recorded — the collective landowners, and in the county, on the territory of the crossing — the “nest” of settlements under a generalizing name, which served as a means of identifying the object of taxation. After Toropets joined the Moscow state, these features remain. However, the community land ownership and honey craft gradually decline throughout the 16th century.


Author(s):  
Alla Bortnikova

The political and legal analysis of the principles of organization and main directions of the city government in Lutsk activity according to the normative and legal acts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania supreme authority and materials of local administrative and judicial institutions in the conditions of the of Magdeburg lawimplementation has been carried out. Grand privilege to the city of Lutsk for the Magdeburg law in 1497 has been considered in details. The city’s government structure, its bodies’ functions: council and lava and chief officials ─ Vogt, Landvogt, burgomasters, advisers and lavnyks have been found out. The activities of the local government officials’ in the field of administration and justice, tax and customs policy, the organization of bids and fairs, support for the development of a handicraft trade, etc. has been revealed. It has been proven, that that in the middle of the 16thcentury the city government in Lutsk actually gained the value of a higher judicial and administrative body for the burghers who belonged to the jurisdiction of the city self- government. The confirmation of this was the participation of members of the city council and lava in criminal cases and taking over of such sentences as the death penalty. Considerable attention has been paid to the issue of the rights and freedoms of burghers’ protectiongranted to them by Magdeburg law and local customs  from attacks of the landowners and city officials. The examples of the conflict’s resolution between Lutsk burghers and property owners in connection with the unauthorized placement by private landowners of private customs and the unlawful introduction of bids have been given. It has been proven, that theviolations of ancient customs and traditions in the field of customs and tax policy, as well as other abuse of local authorities and landowners met with collective resistance from the burghers of Magdeburg jurisdiction. During their appeal by the Lutsk burghers, the Grand Duke stood on the side of the burghers, confirming the authority and power of the urban community, as well as respect to the traditions and law, that was publicly demonstrated by the supreme power. Keywords: Grand Duchy of Lithuania, local self-government, the Magdeburg law, city, Luts’k, burghers, council, lava, administration, court


2021 ◽  
pp. 328-343
Author(s):  
Maria Kalinowska

This text deals with the depiction of Vilnius in the work of Mieczysław Limanowski, geologist, co-founder of the Reduta Theatre Company, art and theatre critic, and professor at the Stefan Batory University. The author, drawing on the work of specialists from various fields, presents a semiotics of Vilnius in Limanowski’s writing. In his depiction of the city and the larger region, reflections on nature and culture and interwoven, and thus his work is an outstanding early example of modern cultural geography. In his vision of Lithuania and Vilnius we can identify such interdisciplinary traits as the motive of the road and the theme of transcendence, along with spirituality recorded in the cultural code of the city. In Limanowski’s writing on Vilnius his reflections on the Gates of Dawn and on the Church of Saint Nicolas are particularly noteworthy.


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-512
Author(s):  
Kestutis Nastopka

The paper discusses the myth of the founding of Vilnius as an example of a myth of city foundation. The myth has received two independent semiotic interpretations. Narrative grammar procedures are applied to the analysis of the mythical story and the semantic code generating the story in the paper “Gediminas’ Dream (Lithuanian myth of city foundation: an attempt at analysis)” by Algirdas Julien Greimas (1971). The sovereignty ideology expressed in the myth, which describes religious and spiritual culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, is linked to the tri-functional model of the IndoEuropean social structure. The semantics of the Vilnius myth is seen as analogous with such Indo-European myths as king’s accession to the throne and creation of a city-state. The Lithuanian myth of Vilnius is linked paradigmatically to the Indo-European mythology in the study “Vilnius, Wilno, Vil’na: City and myth” by Vladimir Toporov (1980). At the level of the signifier, phonological equivalents of toponyms of Vilnius are traced. At the level of the signified, transformations of the “core” Indo-European myth are identified. The myth of the city foundation can be read both as a figurative form of cultural expression and as an ideology narrated as a plot of a story. In this view, the paradigmatic and syntagmatic approaches complement each other.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 107-121
Author(s):  
Lilia Kowkiel ◽  
Arvydas Pacevičius ◽  
Iwona Pietrzkiewicz

Historians and publishers of historical sources have a lot of problems with the texts written in different languages and alphabets, which were created at different times, in the multilingual areas inhabited by many nations following different religions. The historians of book culture have the same problems with texts of inventories and catalogues of books, which are the primary source of knowledge about the content of libraries. At present it’s also important the historical texts to be published in the digital form. This article is a part of the discussion on this very important subject.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Egdūnas Račius

Muslim presence in Lithuania, though already addressed from many angles, has not hitherto been approached from either the perspective of the social contract theories or of the compliance with Muslim jurisprudence. The author argues that through choice of non-Muslim Grand Duchy of Lithuania as their adopted Motherland, Muslim Tatars effectively entered into a unique (yet, from the point of Hanafi fiqh, arguably Islamically valid) social contract with the non-Muslim state and society. The article follows the development of this social contract since its inception in the fourteenth century all the way into the nation-state of Lithuania that emerged in the beginning of the twentieth century and continues until the present. The epitome of the social contract under investigation is the official granting in 1995 to Muslim Tatars of a status of one of the nine traditional faiths in Lithuania with all the ensuing political, legal and social consequences for both the Muslim minority and the state.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 219-236
Author(s):  
Andrey Yu. Dvornichenko

The abundant Russian historiography of the medieval history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuanian-Russian State) has become in the last decades the centre of the discussions and is often subject to groundless criticism. This historiography was not very lucky in the Soviet period of the 20th century either, as it was severely criticized from the Marxist-Leninist position. When discussing Russian historiography the author of this article is consciously committed to the Russian positions. There are no reasons to consider this historiography branch either Byelorussian or Ukrainian one, as that was really Russian historiography, - the phenomenon that formed under the favorable specific conditions of Russian Empire before the beginning of the 20th century. The said phenomenon can be studied in different ways: according to the existing then main trends and schools or according to their affiliation with specific universities of Russian Empire. But according to the author of this article the best way to study the issue is in accordance with the main concepts of history. And then the pre-revolutionary historiography appears as an integral scientific paradigm that turns out to be the most divaricate branch of the Lithuanian studies of the time. It created, in its turn, the most vivid and objective historical picture that can still serve as the basis for the studies of Lithuanian-Russian state.


Author(s):  
Valdas Rakutis

The article analyses ordinary life of the Armed Forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the period between the beginning of the rule by the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanisław August Poniatowski, and until the reforms by the Four-Year Sejm (1788–1792). In the period of interest it was a small (up to 4,000 soldiers), independent army, made up from national contractors, mostly cavalry detachments, the main unit being a flag of 30–100 soldiers, and the so-called foreign contractors (cavalry, infantry and artillery), the main unit being a company of 60–100 soldiers. In 1775–1777, division by contractors’ ethnicity was replaced with the territorial divisions. The main changes took place in the national cavalry, where two equally sized brigades of hussars and petyhorcy were created, whereas majority of foreign contractors were reorganized into infantry. Peace-time armed forces was an important factor for the Lithuanian public, the ruling elite and the local communities. Army was not a tool for use in large international politics, it was more of a current order preserving instrument. Army supply system was based on the independent economic unit, governed by the unit commander. Attempts by the Lithuanian Military Commission to impose greater control gave insignificant results, although the reforms of 1775–1775 were able to strengthen control of the treasury and procedures, making relationships more visible and transparent, and the actual composition of the armed forces was very close to the theoretical provisions. The economic weakness of the nation after the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and lack of correlation between recovery of the treasury and army financing put bridles on the army, preventing it from development and change. In spite of all 1764–1788 reforms, the Lithuanian armed forces remained a stagnating institution, where routine and established traditions dominated over novelty and change. Keywords: Armed Forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ordinary army life, rule of Stanisław Poniatowski, Military Commission, Military Department of the Permanent Council.


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