Гістарычны шлях нацыі і дзяржавы
Радзім Гарэцкі, Міхась Біч, Уладзімір Конан
Выдавец: Беларускі кнігазбор
Памер: 348с.
Мінск 2001
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a polyethnic country with the majority of the Belarusians and minorities of the Zhamoity, the Ukrainians, and the Polish. Since the late XIVth century the Tatars have lived on the Belarusian territory invited by Duke Vitaut to military service. In the XVIth century the Tatars already used the Belarusian language, even for writing their sacred books. In the XIVth century the Jews from Western Europe began moving to Belarus and in no time took a considerable place both in the ethnic structure and in the economical and cultural life of our country. The Old Believers (the Russians adhering to pre-reformed Orthodoxy) also took their refuge in our country. And it was a real honour for every resident of the GDL to be called a Lithuanian.
The Belarusians-Lithuanians were characterized by democracy founded in the community traditions of the Polatsk principality of the times of Rahvalod and Usiaslau Charadzei. Democracy led to the spirit of freedom, formed moral and legal views on independence and understanding of personal values. These very principles were the basis for the principal legislation documents of the Duchy and, first of all, of the Statute book — The Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Three versions of The Statute are known — of 1529, 1566 and 1588. The third version, considered to be the most perfect, was compiled by the best lawyers supervised by oustanding politicians of the Middle ages, Chancellor of the GDL Astafei Valovich and his follower Leu Sapieha.
The Statute of 1588 was the most perfect collection of legislation documents in Europe at that time. The third Statute book was in force for two and a half centuries until 1840. It was intelligible because of being written in vernacular Belarusian. Meanwhile, Roman law with its principal ideas in Latin prevailed in the majority of European countries at that time, and Latin was not in the least clear for common people. Every state document in the GDL was written in Belarusian. This can be easily proved by the archives of the Duchy called the Metric of the GDL. It numbers 600 volumes of state documents which were removed to Russia, and are now kept in Moscow.
With the Statute as the basis for a legal state, not personal will but government, ruled by law, was established. The Statute of 1529 was adopted as the only law for everyone in the GDL. According to the Statute of 1566 the major and minor nobility, middle classes, and peasants became citizens enjoying their full rights. The Duke’s power was restricted by state institutions, such as Soim and Rada. The power was divided into legislative, executive, and judicial.
The Grand Duchy Statute of 1588 is rightfully considered to be a classical example of legislation of the Middle ages. It confirmed the sovereignty of the Duke, established social and political systems of the state, rights and duties of the people, and the principles of a legal system. The Statute officially declared religious tolerance and was responsible for every person’s rights, with no connection to his social position and faith. The Grand Duke was obliged to guard the borders of the Duchy and to try to return the lost lands. The criminal law was worked out in details, and the presumption of innocence was introduced. The Statute of 1588 seems to be the first European code which sought to protect nature.
The third version of the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was translated into Polish, Russian, German, and some other languages. It had a considerable influence on the legislation systems of Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia.
From the state documents one can learn about social structure of the GDL. The principal social groups in the GDL were peasants, middle classes, and the nobility. The nobility played the most important role in state organization. They elected a king, took part in state government, were mainly responsible both for the protection of the state from the danger of war and for cultural and educational development. The upper nobility were called magnates. The best known Belarusian magnate families were the Ahinskis, the Alielkavichs, the Astrozhskis, the Halshanskis, the Hashtolds, the Drutskis, the Kezhailas, the Kishkas, the Radzivils, the Sahnushkas, the Sapiehas, the Sollans, the Patses, the Tyshkievichs, the Khadkievichs, the Khraptovichs, and the Chartaryiskis. Belarusian noble families maintained relations with the European nobility and took part in knight tournaments in Europe. In the XVth century one of the Sol tans was decorated with Order of the Golden Fleece, the highest honour of that time desired by every European nobleman.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania acquired its own sovereign state symbols based upon the history of the land and its people. In 1295 Pahonia ('The Chase’) — the emblem of Navahradak and Polatsk — was accepted as State Emblem of the GDL. An armed horserider, symbolizing a defender of our country, at first was designed only on a military coat of arms. Grand Duke Vitsen was the first one to use it. The white-and-red-and-white banner, a prototype of our National Flag, has been known since the early XVIth century. The earliest design of it is in the picture devoted to the battle against the Muscovian army at Orsha in 1514. At present this picture is kept at the National museum in Warsaw. The insurgents under the leadership of Kastus Kalinouski revived our national symbols in the second half of the XIXth century. When the Belarusian People’s Republic was proclaimed in 1918 Pahonia and the White-and-Red-and-White Banner became State Symbols. Once more history was repeated in 1991 when the Republic of Belarus gained its independence. In 1995 our National Symbols were rejected for Soviet ones having no historical foundation.
The GDL was a strong economical power with its own monetary system. Agriculture played the principal role there. The huge feudal properties (falvarks) where rye, wheat, oats, legumes, vegetables, flax, hemp, and other were grown made the foundation. Hunting, fishing, and honey gathering were quite well developed. Such trades as glassworking, pottery making, the leather industry, soap making, building, woodand stone-cutting, bricklaying were widely known. In the XIVth century there were more than 200 crafts in Belarusian big and small towns.
Trade was also quite important. The main trade ways, crossing Belarus, favoured the economical prosperity of the state. The GDL exported its products to a number of European countries. Besides, fairs, organized in big and small towns, played an important role, too. A new period in the economical life of the GDL started in the second half of the XVIllth century. Capitalist relations gradually replaced feudal ones. Commodity-money relations were developed, and even agriculture became a commodity production. The specialization of regions and industry was getting more and more noticeable; a number of manufactories were built.
The state encouraged efficient landowners through a system of economic stimulation based upon certain privileges and tax reduction. All these helped to overcome economic decline caused by wars and other disasters.
In the XHIth century there were about 40 towns on the territory of the contemporary Belarus. In the XVIIth century there were 757 towns and smaller settlements. The towns, granted the Magdeburg Privilege, developed especially fast, as self-government created favourable conditions for their growth. Vilnya was the first town to be granted the Magdeburg Privilege in 1387.
The latest scholarly investigations, made by independent historians, prove the inaccuracy of previous historical ideas about the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The principal
idea of the previous official concent was that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, stretching ‘from the sea to the sea’, was founded by the Balts only, so can be considered as a great Baltic state. This myth was completely accepted by orthodox historians in Soviet Belarus, who had to assert the historical dependence of the Belarusians. It met the requirements of the Soviet Empire and was in the sphere of Lithuanian interests as well. Thus, the contemporary Lithuanian Republic (Lietuva) is the only state, sharing the same name with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, due to the fact that its lands were a part of the GDL. In 1918, when proclaiming independence, our neighbours took the name of our ancient state and, thus, took possession of the historical inheritance as well. Pahonia, only a little bit changed, has been accepted as State Emblem of the Lithuanian Republic. But now Belarusian and Lithuanian historians have come to an agreement on the history of formation of the GDL. At the scientific conference held in the Herviaty settlement in the Astraviets Region, Belarus on 19ll’-20th June 1992, the general approaches to historical studies of the GDL were finally discussed.
The GDL played the principal role in the history of the Belarusians. Without the state being a great power and our ancestors united and devoted to their Motherland in any danger, they would not have withstood the 2 hundred year expansion of the cross-bearers and the Mongol-Tatar assaults. They would have had the same misfortune of their eastern neighbours, who for two and a half centuries suffered the horrors of occupation. Our country was an insurmountable barrier on the path of the Mongol-Tatars to the West, and, thus, Western European nations did not suffer from the cruelty of the invaders.
In the year 1362 the army of the GDL with Grand Duke Alhierd at its head routed the army of three Tatar khans at the settlement of Siniya Vody, and, thus, the Ukrainian lands were released from the Mongol-Tatar invasion. In the year 1506 the Tatar army of many thousands was smashed by the Duchy warriors, led by Mikhal Hlinski, in the battle at the Lan River near Klietsk. Many thousands of Belarusians, who had been captured by horrible Asian invadors, were released.
КНІГІ ОНЛАЙН
