A strong Lithuanian-Russian state existed on the territory of Eastern Europe for more than three centuries. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia3 arose on the lands of the former Kievan state, where the Mongols did not “come”. The unification of Western Russian lands began in the second third of the 13th century under the Grand Duke of Lithuania Mindovge. During the reign of Gediminas and his son Olgerds, the territorial expansion of Lithuania continued. It included Polotsk, Vitebsk, Minsk, Drutsk principalities, Turov-Pinsk Polissya, Beresteyshchyna, Volyn, Podolia, Chernihiv land and part of the Smolensk region. In 1362, Prince Olgerd defeated the Tatars at the Battle of Blue Water and captured Podolia and Kyiv. Indigenous Lithuania was surrounded by a belt of Russian lands, which made up 9/10 of the entire territory of the newly formed state, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Today it is the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine.

Russian cultural influence in the new state prevailed, subordinating the politically dominant people - the Lithuanians. Gediminas and his sons were married to Russian princesses, the Russian language dominated the court and official office work. Lithuanian writing at that time did not exist at all.

Until the end of the 14th century, Russian regions within the state did not experience national-religious oppression. The structure and character of local life was preserved, the descendants of Rurik remained in their economic positions, having lost little politically, since the system of the Lithuanian and Russian states was of a federal nature. The Grand Duchy was rather a conglomerate of lands and possessions than a single political entity. Until some time, Russian cultural influence in the state of Lithuania and Russia was growing steadily. The Gediminids became Russified, many of them converted to Orthodoxy. There were obvious trends leading towards the formation of a new version of Russian statehood in the southern and western lands of the former Kyiv state.

These tendencies were broken when Jagiello became the Grand Duke. In 1386, he converted to Catholicism and formalized the union of the Lithuanian-Russian principality with Poland. The aspirations of the Polish gentry to penetrate the vast Western Russian lands were satisfied. Her rights and privileges quickly exceeded those of the Russian aristocracy. Catholic expansion began in the western lands of Russia. Large regional principalities were abolished in Polotsk, Vitebsk, Kyiv and other places, self-government was replaced by governorship. The Lithuanian aristocracy changed its cultural orientation from Russian to Polish. Polonization and catholicization captured part of the Western Russian nobility. However, the majority of Russians remained faithful to Orthodoxy and ancient traditions.

National-religious hostility began, which did not exist until the 80s of the XIV century. This enmity developed into a tough political struggle, during which a part of the Western Russian population inevitably grew stronger in favor of the Muscovite state. The "departure" of Orthodox princes to Muscovy began. In 1569, according to the Union of Lublin, two states - Polish and Lithuanian-Russian - united into one - the Commonwealth. Later, at the end of the XVIII century, the Commonwealth ceased to exist, and its territory was divided between three states: Russia, Prussia and Austria-Hungary.

In ancient times, Lithuanian tribes occupied the northern lands almost to the present Tambov. But then they merged with the Finno-Ugric and Slavic populations. Lithuanian tribes survived only in the Baltic states and Belarus. The central part of this area was occupied by the Lithuanian tribe or Lithuanians, Zhmud lived to the west, Prussians lived even further to the west. In the east of modern Belarusian lands, the Yatvags lived, and the golyad tribe was located in the Kolomna region.

From these disparate tribes, the Lithuanian prince Mindovg created a single principality. After his assassination by conspirators in 1263, the Lithuanian princes fought for power until the beginning of the 14th century. The winner in these internecine wars was Prince Gediminas (ruled 1316-1341). It was to him that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century owed its successful policy of conquest.

The very first conquest was Black Russia. This is an area near the city of Grodno - the westernmost part of Russia. Then Gediminas subjugated Minsk, Polotsk, Vitebsk. After that, the Lithuanians penetrated into Galicia and Volhynia. But Gediminas failed to conquer Galicia. It was occupied by the Poles, and the Lithuanians settled only in eastern Volhynia and began to prepare for a campaign against Kyiv.

Black Russia on the map

At the time described, Kyiv had already lost its greatness, but Stanislav, who reigned in the city, decided to defend himself and the townspeople to the end. In 1321, he entered into battle with the army of Gediminas, but was defeated. And the victorious Lithuanians laid siege to Kyiv. The people of Kiev were forced to submit to the great Lithuanian prince on the basis of vassalage. That is, all property was left to the people of Kiev, but the Kyiv prince fell into complete submission to the winners.

After the capture of Kyiv, the Lithuanian army continued its military expansion. As a result, Russian cities up to Kursk and Chernigov were conquered. So, under Gediminas and his son Olgerd, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania arose in the 14th century. It continued its policy of conquest after the death of Gediminas, when his sons Olgerd and Keistut entered the political arena.

The brothers divided spheres of influence. Keistut settled in Zhmudi and resisted the Germans, while Olgerd pursued an aggressive policy in the Russian lands. It should be noted that Olgerd and his nephew Vitovt formally accepted Orthodoxy. Lithuanian princes married Russian princesses and united around themselves the Rurikovichs from the Turov-Pinsk land. That is, they gradually included the Russian lands in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Olgerd managed to subjugate a vast territory to the Black Sea and the Don. In 1363, the Lithuanians defeated the Tatars at the Blue Waters (Sinyukha River) and captured the western part of the steppe between the Dnieper and the mouth of the Danube. Thus, they went to the Black Sea. But Lithuania continued to be sandwiched between Orthodox Russia and Catholic Europe. The Lithuanians waged active wars with the Teutonic and Livonian Orders, and therefore Poland could become their ally.

Poland at that time was in a state of deepest crisis. She was periodically tormented by both anti-papist German orders and the Czechs who captured Krakow and the lands adjacent to it. The latter were hardly driven out by the Polish king Vladislav Loketek from the Piast dynasty. In 1370, this dynasty ceased to exist, and the Frenchman Louis of Anjou became the king of Poland. He gave the crown to his daughter Jadwiga. The Polish magnates strongly advised that she should be legally married to the Lithuanian prince Jagaila, the son of Olgerd. Thus, the Poles wanted to unite Poland with Lithuania and stop German expansion.

In 1385, Jagiello married Jadwiga and became the full ruler of Lithuania and Poland in accordance with the Union of Kreva. In 1387, the population of Lithuania officially adopted the Catholic faith. However, not everyone greeted it with enthusiasm. Those Lithuanians who linked themselves with the Russians did not want to accept Catholicism.

This was taken advantage of by the cousin of Jagiello Vitovt. He led the opposition and led the struggle for the throne of the Grand Duke. This man was looking for allies among the Lithuanians, and among the Poles, and among the Russians, and among the crusaders. The opposition was so strong that in 1392 Jagiello concluded the Ostrov agreement with Vytautas. According to him, Vitovt became the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Jagiello appropriated the title of the Supreme Duke of Lithuania.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XIV century on the map

Vitovt continued to conquer Russian lands and in 1395 captured Smolensk. Soon he refused to submit to Jagiello and, thanks to an alliance with the Tatars, annexed a large territory of the Wild Field to Lithuania. So the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XIV century significantly expanded its borders. However, in 1399 military happiness turned away from Vitovt. He lost Smolensk and part of other lands. In 1401, Lithuania was so weakened that it again entered into an alliance with Poland - the Union of Vilna-Radom.

After that, Vitovt again gained serious political weight. In 1406, an official border was established between Moscow Rus and Lithuania. The Principality of Lithuania waged a successful struggle against the Teutonic Order. In 1410, the Battle of Grunwald took place, in which the crusader knights suffered a crushing defeat. In the last years of his reign, Vytautas sought to separate Lithuania from Poland again, and for this purpose he decided to be crowned. But this idea ended in failure.

Thus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XIV century became a strong state militarily and politically. It united, noticeably expanded its borders and acquired high international prestige. An important historical event was the adoption of Catholicism. This step brought Lithuania closer to Europe, but moved it away from Russia. It played a big political role in later centuries.

Alexey Starikov

At the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th centuries, the Baltic tribes were at the stage of decomposition of the tribal system. Individual tribes had not yet united with each other, so there were no state formations. They developed feudal relations.

At the end of the XII century - the German invasion of the Baltic states. The Baltic tribes fiercely resisted, and this accelerated the formation of the state (and this was also facilitated by the weakening of the Russian lands after the Mongol invasion).

Mid 13th century - Establishment of the Principality of Lithuania. There was a temporary alliance against the knights, but as the Russian lands weakened, the Lithuanian princes repeatedly invaded the Polotsk land. But still, the Russians found the support of the local population here.

The ruin of Russia by the hordes of Batu led to state decentralization and disunity of the Russian lands. As a result of the current political situation in the second half of the XIV century. part of the Southern and Western lands of Russia became part of Lithuania. At that time, they made up most of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL).

The position of the Russian lands in the ON:

• East Slavic culture prevailed on the lands of the newly formed state;
• Old Russian remained the main language (at that time there was no written language in Lithuania);
• there were no national-religious oppressions, the influence of Orthodoxy even increased due to the fact that it was accepted by princely families;
• Russian princes had the opportunity to occupy command positions in the army, took part in civil administration;

In its territorial form, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was far from a single and centralized political entity, it rather represented a disorderly association of territories with local self-government.

Against the background of an increase in the number of Russian lands that became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the aggravation of relations with the Moscow principality is ripe. In the period from 1382 to 1372, the Lithuanian prince Olgerd organized several campaigns against Moscow, but none of the rivals achieved decisive success.

Stage II. Reorientation of the ON to Poland

After Jagiello came to power in 1377, the situation changed dramatically:

• the marriage between him and the sister of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, conceived for rapprochement with Moscow, broke down;
• in 1385, Jagiello concluded the Union of Krevo with the Polish kingdom;
• in 1386, Jagiello converted to Catholicism and a week later married Jadwiga, as a result of which he became the king of Poland.

The consequences of a change in political course for the lands of Southern and Western Russia:

1. In 1387, Jagiello baptized Lithuania, and from that moment on, the expansion of Catholicism began on Russian territory as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
2. The governorship of Russian princes was abolished.
3. The Lithuanian aristocracy, which fell under the influence of Polish traditions, actively contributed to the spread of gentry foundations in the western lands.

Such a policy led to discontent and resistance from the Russian population of these lands. Therefore, in the XV century. the rights of the Russian Orthodox nobility were equalized with the Catholics, allowing her to return to leadership positions again with a guarantee of the inviolability of their land holdings. For the peasants, conditions were created for independence from landowners, exemption from paying taxes.

Stage III. The final state structure of Lithuania and Poland

After the conclusion of the Union of Lublin in 1569, a new federal state, the Commonwealth, was formed on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The planting of Catholicism in these primordially Slavic territories and the growth of land ownership of the gentry already in the 16th century. led to the growth of national and religious resistance among the people.

16. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia in the XIII - XVI centuries. Russian lands as part of the principality.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a feudal state that existed in the 13th-16th centuries. on the territory of part of modern Lithuania and Belarus. The main occupation of the population was agriculture and cattle breeding. Hunting and crafts played an auxiliary role in the economy. The development of handicrafts based on iron production, internal and external trade (with Russia, Poland, etc.) contributed to the growth of cities (Vilnius, Trakai, Kaunas, etc.). In the 9th-12th centuries. feudal relations developed on the territory of Lithuania, the estates of feudal lords and dependent people were formed. Separate Lithuanian political associations had different levels of social and economic development. The decomposition of primitive communal relations and the emergence of the feudal system led to the formation of a state among the Lithuanians. According to the Galicia-Volyn chronicle, the Russo-Lithuanian treaty of 1219 mentions an alliance of Lithuanian princes headed by the "oldest" princes who owned lands in Aukstaitija. This indicates the existence of a state in Lithuania. The strengthening of the grand ducal power led to the unification of the main Lithuanian lands in V. k. L. under the rule of Mindovg (mid-30s of the 13th century - 1263), who also seized some Belarusian lands (Black Russia). The formation of the V. k. L. was accelerated by the need to unite to fight the aggression of the German crusaders, which intensified from the beginning of the 13th century. Lithuanian troops won major victories over the knights in the battles of Siauliai (1236) and Durba (1260).

In the 14th century, during the reign of Gediminas (1316-1341), Olgerd (1345-77) and Keistut (1345-82), . the Principality of Lithuania significantly expanded its possessions, adding all Belarusian, part of Ukrainian and Russian lands (Volyn, Vitebsk, Turov-Pinsk, Kyiv, Pereyaslav, Podolsk, Chernihiv-Seversky lands, etc.). Their inclusion was facilitated by the fact that Russia was weakened by the Mongol-Tatar yoke, as well as the fight against the aggression of German, Swedish and Danish invaders. Joining the Great. princes Lithuanian. Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian lands with more developed social relations and culture contributed to the further development of socio-economic relations in Lithuania. In the annexed lands, the Lithuanian grand dukes retained significant autonomy and immunity rights for local magnates. This, as well as differences in the level of socio-economic development and the ethnic heterogeneity of individual parts of V. k. L., led to the lack of centralization in state administration. At the head of the state was the Grand Duke, with him - a council of representatives of the nobility and the highest clergy. In order to join forces to fight the advance of the German knightly orders and strengthen his power, Grand Duke Jagiello (1377-92) concluded the Union of Krevo with Poland in 1385. However, the union was fraught with the danger of Lithuania becoming a province of Poland in the future. In Lithuania, where until the end of the 14th century. paganism existed, Catholicism began to spread by force. Jagiello's policy was opposed by a part of the Lithuanian and Russian princes, headed by Vitovt, who in 1392, after an internecine struggle, actually became the Grand Duke in Lithuania. The combined Lithuanian-Russian and Polish troops, with the participation of Czech troops in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, utterly defeated the knights of the Teutonic Order and stopped their aggression.

The growth of large feudal landownership and the consolidation of the ruling class in the 14th - 15th centuries. were accompanied by mass enslavement of the peasants, which caused peasant uprisings (for example, in 1418). The main form of exploitation of the peasants was food rent. Simultaneously with the growth of economic dependence, national oppression in the Belarusian and Ukrainian lands also intensified. Crafts and trade developed in the cities. In the 15-16 centuries. the rights and privileges of the Lithuanian lords are growing. According to the Union of Horodel in 1413, the rights of the Polish gentry were extended to the Lithuanian Catholic nobles. At the end of the 15th century a Rada of pans was formed, which actually put the power of the Grand Duke under its control by the privilege of 1447 and by the privilege of the Grand Duke Alexander in 1492. The formation of a general gentry Sejm (at the end of the 15th century), as well as the publication of the Lithuanian Statutes of 1529 and 1566, consolidated and increased the rights of the Lithuanian nobility.

The transition to cash rent at the end of the 15th-16th centuries. was accompanied by an increase in the exploitation of the peasants and an aggravation of the class struggle: escapes and unrest became more frequent (especially large ones - in 1536-37 in the grand ducal estates). In the middle of the 16th century a reform was carried out on the estates of the Grand Duke, as a result of which the exploitation of the peasants intensified due to the growth of corvee (see Volochnaya Pomera). From the end of the 16th century this system is being introduced in the estates of large landowners-tycoons. Mass enslavement of peasants, development of corvée economy, acquisition by Lithuanian landowners in the second half of the 16th century. rights to duty-free export of grain abroad and the import of goods hindered the development of cities.