The Polish -Lithuanian Biography

Adam Mitskevich. Collage: New Poland copied the frequent concept of “Polish heritage in the East”, as well as similar “German”, can cause associations with political revenge. How to distinguish what is a Polish heritage, and what is Ukrainian, Belarusian or Lithuanian? And is it possible to conduct such a distinction at all? On the one hand, it was a monarchy, since the king had the supreme power, on the other hand, democracy, that is, in addition, the Commonwealth was dual - in essence, it consisted of two states: the kingdoms of the Polish and Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

They had a common ruler and Sejm, but separate administration, institutions, treasury and army, as well as partially separate legislation. The basis of the territory of the Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth was the lands belonging to Poland and Lithuania at the time of the imprisonment of the Union and remained within the boundaries of the country to sections, and when the Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria.

If you correlate the then borders with modern ones, these were the central and eastern regions of Poland, Western Ukraine, all Belarus, almost the whole of Lithuania, South Latvia and the strip of Russia along the border with Belarus. When sometimes all this country - for simplification - was called "Poland", this did not entail the current national connotations. The territory of the Commonwealth by the year on the modern map of Europe.

Source: Wikipedia, the Commonwealth, one of the largest European states, was incredibly diverse in religious, ethnic, cultural and economic relations. If we talk about confessions, Roman, Greek and Armenian Catholics, Orthodox, Old Believers, Lutherans, Calvinists, Ariana, Mennonites and representatives of other Protestant movements, Jews, Muslims and Karaites lived in it, and pagan cults were also preserved in places; The ethnic composition was no less rich: Poles, Rusyns Ukrainians and Belarusians, Russians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Germans, Jews, Tatars, Karaites and other nations.

The country's civilizational country is spread between the rich centers of trade in the pan -European significance of Gdansk and the wild flows of Polesie and the deserted Ukrainian steppes. Renaissance or new countries? The Commonwealth ceased to exist in the year. In the 19th century, the descendants of her long -standing elites persistently, albeit unsuccessfully, tried to revive her.

However, when, after the First World War, the power of the capital states weakened and new states were able to arise in Central Europe, they were given a national character. The legacy of the Commonwealth in a certain sense appropriated Polish nationalism. The reason was that the national self -awareness of the Poles was built on the gentry traditions, the glory of the long -standing kingdom of the Polish and the Commonwealth, as well as its mythologized role as the “outpost of Christianity” and the overshadow of Catholicism.

The ideological leaders of the rest of the nations, formed on the lands of the former Commonwealth, interpreted in a completely different way. For Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians and Latvians, peasant traditions were key. It was the peasants who had to preserve the “spirit of the people”, not succumbing to the cultural influence of the alien authorities of Polish, Russian, German and Austrian.

From this perspective, the legacy of the gentry of the Polish -Lithuania was not attractive, while the Poles deliberately turned to him. A clear evidence of this was the name of the Polish state by the “Commonwealth”, despite the fact that in the Polish language to determine the democratic state there is an international word: “republic”. Actually, the word Rzeczpospolita is translation: Rzecz pospolita is literally Latin Res Publika, that is, a social thing, a common thing.

It logically follows from this that before the sections there was a “first” Polish Commonwealth. However, it is worth emphasizing that in those days it was not just “Polish”, like the next two. It must be remembered that in this case we are not talking about “national” Poland and Lithuania, but about the Kingdom of the Polish and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Nationalities and borders were the basis of the Society of the Commonwealth of the Commonwealth.

And although the relationship between the groups that inhabited the country was not always friendly, nevertheless, they lived side by side and inevitably interacted. Migrations, family ties and assimilation processes contributed to the mixing of residents of various origin and different faiths. As a result, only a few territories of the Commonwealth were characterized by the uniformity of the population.

These processes did not slow down after the sections, but in the multinational empires of the Austrian Habsburgs and Russian Romanovs, they even intensified. In this sense, the real revolution was brought by national movements of the XIX century. From their prospects, not only the empire that existed at that time, but also the former multinational issue of the Polish -Lithuanian were a relic.

The slogans proclaimed by supporters of individual national states gained popularity.The Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Russians, Germans and even Jews presented their claims to the lands of the Commonwealth, which existed to the sections. There was a project of the East European Federation dependent on Germany, which was supposed to protect the rights of Jews.

At the same time, the borders between the mixed peoples could not be drawn either according to ethnic or historical criteria. Where, in the event of new states, Lviv should have turned out to be, inhabited mainly by Poles and Jews, but surrounded by Ukrainian villages? Or is the German Torun among the mainly Polish population of the Helmin land? Or the rural areas of the former Grand Duchy, where sometimes were there villages with the advantage of the Polish, Lithuanian or Belarusian population, and Jews predominated in the towns?

It was no better with cultural-historical renosions. Yes, Lviv arose in the XIII century in the state of the Western Russian princes Daniel and Leo, the descendants of the Rurikovich, but in the 19th century he, as the capital of the Galicia of the Austrian section with broad autonomy, was the leading center of the Polish political, scientific and cultural life. Vilnius was the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but one cannot unequivocally say whether the principality of the state of Lithuanians or Belarusians was the very principality.

Indeed, despite the name, the Rusyns numerically predominated in the principality, and it was the Rusinsky “Old Belorussian” that was the official language until the Polish modern Lviv replaced it. Source: Pixabay in such realities, an attempt to conduct interstate borders peacefully, undertaken after the First World War, had no chance of success. The political map of interwar central Europe was formed as a result of numerous conflicts of various scale and degree of fierce.

Poles, Ukrainians and Latvians fought against Bolshevik Russia; Lithuanians fought with the Poles; Poles - with Ukrainians and Germans; All of them opposed the Jews, and the ill -conceived actions of the Western powers rather poured oil into the fire than led to reconciliation. This time, everyone decided by the winners, without asking for the opinions of smaller states and peoples.

New boundaries became the result of political bargaining and a layout of forces and only partially related to the ethnic map of the region. In most cases, it was decided that these peoples should adapt to the established boundaries. Immediately after the war, the Germans, Poles and Ukrainians moved inside the new borders of their countries, and most Jews survived in the Holocaust left for Israel.

People who were forced to leave their homes preserved and handed over to the next generation a memory of them. Paradoxically, this was facilitated by the atmosphere of secrets and the halo of the “forbidden fetus”, because during the reign of the Communists it was impossible to freely talk about Polishness beyond the eastern border of the PNP. Organizations uniting the descendants of the inhabitants of a settlement or region are not a unique Polish phenomenon: such associations act, for example, among Germans and Jews.

At the same time, the selectivity of the memory, concentrated in each case, was a characteristic phenomenon on what is important for a particular community. For some cities in the territory of the current Western Belarus or Ukraine there are three “parallel” historical monographs: in Belorussian either in Ukrainian, Polish, as well as in Hebrew or Yiddish. Their authors were often based on the same historical sources, but did not know anything about each other ...

as an exception, worthy of attention, it is worth mentioning Shimon Redlich’s book “Together and apart in the Brzhans: Poles, Jews and Ukrainians,”. The work of an Israeli historian about his hometown compares the author’s memoirs with documents and stories of other people, while attention is equally paid to three population groups. The book was published in English, and then transferred to Hebrew, Polish and Ukrainian, which in itself is remarkable.

Another example of “parallel” memory is neglect in relation to the second side of the union, which can often be found in ordinary conversations about the past. In Poland, the rulers of the Commonwealth often appear exclusively as the "kings of Poland", and in Lithuania - only as "the Grand Dukes of the Lithuanian." Historians also often write exclusively about Poland or Lithuania, forgetting that these were parts of one whole.

Numerous discussions are still underway about the "nationality" of outstanding historical figures. Was the Pole or the Germans the creator of the heliocentric system Nikolai Copernicus, the German -speaking canon from the Warmia region, on behalf of the Polish king, defending the property of the diocese from the Teutonic Order? Was the Pole or Ukrainian the Russian Rusin prince Konstantin-Vasily Ostrog, the defender of the borders of the Commonwealth and the Orthodox Faith?

And Adam Kisel, the Orthodox Senator, who strove for an agreement between the Cossacks of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the authorities of the Commonwealth?The Pole, Lithuanian or Belarusus was the hetman and chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Lev Sapog, who turned from Orthodoxy to Calvinism, and then to Catholicism? Picture of Yana Mateiko "Copernicus. Conversation with God ”, year.

Its name reminded of the historical coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The club ceased to exist during the Second World War. In X, his traditions were remembered on the western land of Poland within its new borders: the new clock club was founded in Schezin. This is all the more interesting that Shchezin does not have historical ties not only with Lithuania, but also with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in general.

For centuries, this port city was the capital of the specific Pomeranian principality, and later was part of Sweden and Prussia. However, for its Polish residents, resettled from the East, the appeal to the Lviv and Lithuanian traditions was quite logical. In turn, in Lviv in the year, the local team was restored, which is proudly called the oldest sports club of Poland and Ukraine at the same time, although at the time of its founding at the beginning of the 20th century none of these states existed.

The processes of the formation of nations and states are very complex and long. In each era, people draw something from the past, addressing those plots that correspond to relevant political or social needs. The nationalist view of history always means its simplification and fit for pre -accepted prerequisites. The fate of the long -standing Commonwealth is an incredibly eloquent example of this.

The successes and defeats of the kingdom of Polish and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are not exceptional “property” of the Poles, or Lithuanians, or Belarusians or Ukrainians. This is the general heritage of all the peoples who inhabited this territory, including those that there are almost no more on its lands - Jews and Germans. It remains only to hope that someday the time of information and mutual accusations about the “threat to the national heritage” of the Polish, German, Ukrainian, etc.

Translation by Vladimir Okun.