The position of Ukrainian lands in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Ukrainian lands as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland Ukrainian lands as part of the Lithuanian principality
Some researchers, based on semi-legendary chronicle information, believe that the accession of Southern Russia to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania took place already under Prince Gedemin (1316-1341) in the 1320s. Gedemin, perhaps, really captured Kyiv, but he clearly could not establish his control over Southern Russia.
The indisputable beginning of the entry of Ukrainian lands into the Grand Duke of Lithuania was laid by the son of Gedemin Lubart, when he took the princely throne in Volyn in 1340. In addition, albeit nominally, Lubart was also considered a Galician-Volyn prince. Khan of the Golden Horde Uzbek recognized his rights to the Volyn table and supported him in the fight against Poland and Hungary.
Still Mindovg in the early 1260s. tried to capture the Chernihiv-Seversk land. But only in the late 1950s. 14th century Prince Olgerd (1345-1377) took advantage of the strife in the Golden Horde and captured Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky. Apparently, a little later, the power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania extended to Pereyaslavshchina. In 1362 Olgerd's army occupied Kyiv. The Kyiv table, together with Pereyaslavshchina, passed to Olgerd's son Vladimir.
In 1362, Olgerd, together with the militia of the South Russian lands, in the battle of Blue Waters, dealt a crushing blow to the Tatar leaders Khocheboy, Kotlubuk and Dmitry, who, in the words of the chronicler, were “fathers and grandfathers” of Podolsk land. The victory at Blue Waters became a turning point in the liberation of South Russia from the Tatar yoke and created favorable conditions for the offensive of the ON troops in Podolia. At one time, this ancient Russian territory was called Ponysia and was subordinate to the Galician principality. However, after the invasion of Batu, the population of Ponysia preferred the dependence of the Horde to the power of the Galician prince. It can be assumed that the establishment of the power of the ON in this region was more difficult than in the rest of South Russia. The tributary dependence of Podolia on the Horde was preserved even after Olgerd's nephews Yuri, Alexander, Konstantin and Fyodor Koriatovich received inheritances here. But the Kiev specific principality as part of the GDL for a long time remained dependent on the Tatars, as evidenced, in particular, by the coins of Vladimir Olgerdovich with the Horde coat of arms.
Since Olgerd's campaigns were objectively in the nature of the liberation of Southern Russia from the Horde yoke, the local population did not look at the Grand Duke and his soldiers as complete strangers. Therefore, many historians completely refuse to characterize his actions as “conquest” or “invasion”, and use such words as “penetration”, “inclusion”, “attachment” to describe and characterize these events. Even if we take into account that in some places in the Slavic world there are still islands of the so-called "Tatar people", which from the middle of the XIII century. focused primarily on the intercession of the Golden Horde khans, then they, apparently, in the conditions of the “great zamyatna” of the 1360-1370s. the Horde had to choose the lesser evil.
As a result of Olgerd's campaigns against South Russia, the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania advanced to the mouth of the Dnieper and Dniester. It included Kiev, Chernigov-Seversk, Volyn specific principalities and Podolia. Since the Lithuanian ethnographic lands proper constituted only a tenth of the newly formed state, an illusion was created of the revival of ancient Russian statehood. Under these conditions, the Lithuanian princes could consider their policy in the east and south, in fact, as a mission of “gathering the lands of Russia” and, thus, used this pretext long before Moscow borrowed it in the struggle for the ancient Russian inheritance.
Preservation specific principalities allowed to find a place in the political system of the state for numerous representatives of the Gedeminovich dynasty and, most importantly, did not infringe on the interests of local feudal lords, guaranteed them the inviolability of "old times". The agreement, the “row”, concluded with the most influential part of the population of the annexed lands, determined its attitude towards the supreme power for a long time. The closest political cooperation with the local boyars characterized the reign of Vladimir Olgerdovich in Kyiv.
Most of the appanage tables in the southern Russian lands were occupied by the Orthodox Gedeminoviches, who very quickly adapted to local customs and often resembled their predecessors, the Rurikovichs, in behavior. Moreover, many of them have taken such deep roots in their lands that they began to show clearly separatist sentiments. The threat of a return to the order of specific Russia became real. But, beginning with the Grand Duke Jagiello, tendencies of centralization began to intensify in the Lithuanian-Russian state.
Union of Krevo 1385 and the privileges of Vladislav II Jagello in 1387, which discriminated against the Orthodox feudal lords, aroused the discontent of the latter. The Lithuanian-Russian opposition to the policies of the new Polish king was led by his cousin Vitovt Keistutovich. In 1392, Vladislav II was forced to recognize the power of Vytautas over the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Thus, the incorporation of Lithuania by Poland did not materialize, and the Union of Kreva remained a proper dynastic agreement.
However, many rulers of the southern Russian principalities did not want to recognize the supremacy of not only the Polish king, but also the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Under these conditions, Vitovt sought to achieve maximum centralization of government and began to transfer the princes from one possession to another, thus depriving them of local support. So, Fyodor Lyubartovich was deprived of his rich Volyn possessions. Instead, he was offered much less attractive Novgorod-Seversky lands, which he, however, did not even think of accepting. Vladimir Olgerdovich instead of Kyiv received a small Kopyl inheritance.
Vitovt forced the recalcitrant princes to exile by military force. Such was the fate of Fyodor Koriatovich Podolsky, who was forced to seek asylum in Hungary. A little later, Vitovt sold half of Podolia to the Poles, then bought the same lands from them.
Some historians believe that Vytautas completely destroyed the specific system in the south of the Grand Duchy. However, in reality, he only severely limited the autonomy of the large lands of Southern Russia. In addition, secondary destinies survived. It is also known that at the end of his life, Vitovt gave Chernigov with Novgorod-Seversk and Bryansk lands to his worst enemy Svidrigail Olgerdovich, and in Podolsk he allocated an inheritance for Dmitry-Koribut Olgerdovich. Probably, the brother of the latter, King Vladislav II, insisted on this. Thus, the traditions of the specific period in the history of Russia were still quite strong.
Vitovt's dreams of uniting all of Eastern Europe within the framework of Lithuanian statehood were shattered by a military disaster at Vorskla in 1399, when the flower of the GDL troops died in a battle with the Tatars of Temir-Kutlug. The Horde devastated Pereyaslav, Kiev, Podolia and Volhynia. The defeat from the Tatars revived the opposition to the grand duke's power. During the bloodless war between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Principality of Moscow (1406-1408), there was a massive exodus of Orthodox princes and boyars, especially Chernihiv-Seversky, to Moscow.
But the victory of the combined forces of the Slavs and Lithuanians over the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald (1410) again strengthened the ambitions of Vitovt, and forced Vladislav II to make concessions. The Union of Horodello in 1413 confirmed the independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, although the supremacy of Poland remained over it.
In 1430, the younger brother of the Polish king, Svidrigailo Olgerdovich Seversky, became the Grand Duke, who, despite his Catholic religion, maintained close ties with the Orthodox aristocracy. Under him, the Belarusian and Ukrainian nobility occupied the highest government posts, sat in the grand ducal council.
Svidrigailo intended to limit and even break ties with Poland. And soon hostilities began between him and the Polish king. The bone of contention was Western Podolia, but the struggle, in which the local Orthodox population took the most active part, was also fought in Volhynia, and even in Galicia. The passivity of Svidrigailo himself in this campaign was compensated by his efforts to mobilize allies - Germans, Vlachs, Tatars. The Polish king was forced to conclude a truce on the terms of maintaining the status quo.
However, the orientation of the Grand Duke mainly towards the Orthodox Slavic nobility met opposition from the Lithuanian Catholic feudal lords. A conspiracy formed against Svidrigailo, and in the autumn of 1432 he fled. The conspirators put Vitovt's younger brother, Sigismund Keistutovich (1432-1440), on the Vilna table. Sigismund ceded Western Podolia to Poland.
But Svidrigailo did not lay down his arms and even took the title of "Grand Duke of Russia." started Civil War, which, as a result of the battle of Vilkomir (1435), ended with the victory of Sigismund. But the position of Sigismund was very difficult. Volyn and Kyiv land still did not recognize his authorities. As a Polish creature, he caused discontent even among the Lithuanian Catholic nobility. In 1440, Sigismund was killed in his own castle in Troki (now the city of Trakai in Lithuania) as a result of a conspiracy, the leading role in organizing which was played by the Volyn prince Alexander Czartorysky and the Kyiv boyar Skobeiko.
New Grand Duke Lithuanian, Casimir Jagiellonchik (1440-1492), apparently, on the advice of his uncle Jan Gashtold, agreed with the existence of the Kyiv and Volyn specific principalities as part of the ON. The son of Vladimir Olgerdovich Olelko (1440-1455) became the prince of Kyiv. Prior to that, he spent five years in prison at the behest of Sigismund, who, not without reason, suspected him of intending to take the Grand Duke's table.
In Volhynia, with the consent of the supreme authority, Svidrigailo Olgerdovich reigned. Only after his death in 1452 Volhynia was turned into an ordinary province under the control of a vicegerent in the Polish manner.
Feudal nobility of the border with Kyiv principality Volyn and Podolsk lands refused to obey the authority of the governors and came under the rule of Olelka Vladimirovich. In addition, Pereyaslav and part of Chernihiv were under the rule of the Kyiv prince. Olelko continued his father's course to ensure the interests of the local boyars, gave a number of privileges to the Kyiv philistines. He supported the Orthodox Church in every possible way and prevented the first attempt to introduce a church union.
From 1455 Olelka's son Semyon reigned in Kyiv. He was a real contender for the grand duke's table, he was considered an equal by powerful European rulers. This is also evidenced by the dynastic connections of the prince: his daughter was married to Prince Michael of Tver, and his sister was married to the Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great. In his policy, Semyon Olelkovich also skillfully used the autonomist aspirations of the southwestern uluses of the Golden Horde and the formation of the Crimean Khanate.
Casimir, who from 1447 also became the Polish king, did not want to put up with the self-will of the specific Kyiv princes. He took advantage of the death in 1470 of Semyon Olelkovich and sent to Kyiv the Catholic Lithuanian Martin Gashtold, the brother of the wife of the deceased prince.
However, Semyon had direct heirs - the son of Vasily and the brother of Mikhail, who at that time was in Novgorod. Michael's candidacy most appealed to the people of Kiev, who resolutely refused to recognize Gashtold as a person of non-princely origin and a Catholic. They twice did not let the grand prince's governor into Kyiv, and only the third time, in 1471, the voivode captured the city by force. Glimpses of the statehood of Southern Russia irrevocably disappeared.
After the death of Casimir IV, the personal union between Poland and Lithuania was broken. Alexander Kazimirovich became the Grand Duke, and his brother Jan-Albrecht became the Polish king. But already in 1501, power over both states was united in the hands of Alexander. This situation was repeated under his successors - Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) and Sigismund II August (1548-1572). However, even under a single ruler, until the Union of Lublin (1569), the isolation of the GDL and the Kingdom of Poland remained, which remained two independent state organisms.
History of Ukraine from ancient times to the present day Semenenko Valeriy Ivanovich
Ukrainian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Ukrainian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
During the XIV century, a significant part of Russia (from 1362 and Kyiv) came under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Original Lithuania is a small area between the Neris, Viliya and Neman rivers. Lithuania was first mentioned in 1009 in the Annals of Quedlinburg and became a kingdom in 1253. The recognized leader of the Lithuanian tribes in 1230–1240 was Prince Mindovg (Mindaugas). He extended his influence to most present Belarus, and shortly before his death in 1263 he was preparing a military expedition to capture the Chernigov principality. Back in 1270–1280, the Lithuanians annexed Polotsk, Vitebsk, the lands of the Krivichi, Dregovichi, and part of the Derevlyans to their kingdom.
In the 12th-13th centuries, Lithuania was considered a periphery of Europe, formally at war with almost all Catholic states north of the Alps, where the material and demographic base of the Crusaders was located. Lithuania's resources were small, so the prospect of taking possession of the lands in the southeast seemed very attractive to her. In addition, in the Golden Horde, which nominally owned the Ukrainian lands, in the XIV century there was a sharp struggle for power between the Genghisides, which ended in the middle of the XV century with the collapse of the Golden Horde.
Lands of the former Kievan Rus They could pay heavy tribute, had branched trade routes, and were able to provide Lithuania with military force and material resources. Not the last role was played by the dynastic interest in expanding the possessions: Gediminas, for example, left five brothers, eight sons, 34 grandchildren, and all of them needed inheritances. For these reasons, during the end of the 12th - beginning of the 15th centuries, by concluding vassal agreements with the ancient Russian principalities or their forceful subordination
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania turned into a power stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from the Moscow region in the east to the borders of the Polish and Hungarian kingdoms in the west. The princes who had possessions in the upper reaches of the Oka, until the first quarter of the 15th century, had the right to pass into the citizenship of either a Moscow or Lithuanian prince and return back, which happened quite often.
The first stage of Lithuanian expansion into Ukrainian lands began in 1321, but it was not possible to subjugate the Dnieper region then, so something similar to the structure of dual power arose here: the Mongol Baskaks acted, relying on armed detachments from local residents (since 1331 they were no longer mentioned), and administration subordinate to the Lithuanian prince.
Under Grand Duke Vytautas, Lithuanians made up 5% of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the rest of the inhabitants were Belarusians and Ukrainians.
According to the terms of the truce with Poland in 1352, Lithuania retained the Volhynia and Brest lands. Five years later, the prince of Vitebsk and Krevo, Olgerd (Algirdas), began to develop the left bank of the Dnieper, giving Bryansk to his son Dmitry, and transferring Chernigov-Seversk land to his son, Koribut. At the beginning of the 15th century, Prince Vitovt (Vytautas) colonized part of the Black Sea region, extending his power to the Crimean peninsula. But after his death in 1430, the Lithuanians lost interest in the steppes, and for a long time they turned into a Wild Field.
It should be noted that the capture of the Kiev region in late 1361 - mid-1362 by the Chernigov-Seversky principality (including Putivl and Kursk) occurred with the help of the troops of the Crimean Khan Mamai and the squads of Russia. The Lithuanian princes first declared the preservation of the local power structures and customs, the leading role of the Belarusian elite. On the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, not only the Lithuanian language, but also Polish, Armenian, German, Ukrainian-Belarusian, Jewish, and written Latin functioned freely as state languages. Until the beginning of the 15th century, a federal-princely system of government existed in Lithuania.
Lithuanians sometimes referred to their country as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russia and Samogitia because the vast majority of its population were the emerging nations of Ukrainians and Belarusians (the ethnic and linguistic border between them remained indistinct). The appanage princes of Russia had full power in the localities, being vassals of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, but at the highest levels of the state structure there were almost exclusively representatives of the Lithuanian aristocracy. But the Slavic beginning prevailed in the economic and cultural spheres. From the middle of the 14th century, the Lithuanian grand dukes sought to create a single state throughout the territory of the former Kievan Rus, including the northeastern regions. Hence - Olgerd's campaigns against Moscow in 1368, 1370, 1372. But they all ended in failure. The plan of the Lithuanian-Muscovite anti-Horde union, which was supposed to be sealed by a dynastic marriage, did not materialize either. Other solutions emerged.
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author Shcherbakov AlexanderThe army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania The army of Mamai's ally, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello Olgerdovich, hardly exceeded 6-7 thousand people. Such a figure can be assumed based on the number of soldiers that Lithuania put up in the battle of Grunwald in 1410
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From the book Grand Duchy of Lithuania author Levitsky Gennady Mikhailovich3. Inclusion of the Berestey land into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
author Team of authors5. Ukrainian lands as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian-Russian and the Commonwealth
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From the book The Battle of Blue Waters the author Soroka YuriDaniil Romanovich Galitsky His attempts to resist the Golden Horde The emergence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the relationship of the Galicia-Volyn principality historical figures who are honored by one political power and who,
From the book History of Ukraine author Team of authorsWestern and southwestern lands ancient Russia as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Zhemoitsk and Russia in ancient Russian chronicles and in modern literature is called Lithuania. The inhabitants of the principality themselves often called it Rus. And for that they were
AT mid-XIV in. as a result of a series of internecine strife, the Golden Horde splits into two parts with a border along the Volga. Lithuanians hastened to take advantage of the weakness of the Horde, and a new stage of their penetration into the lands of the former Kievan Rus begins. Son of Gedemin Olgerd(1345 - 1377) forms the main task for the Lithuanian princes: "All Russia should simply belong to the Lithuanians." Gradually, Chernihiv-Severshchina, Kiev region, Pereyaslavshchina moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And after the famous victory of Lithuanians and Russians over the Tatars in 1362 on the banks of the river. Blue Waters (a tributary of the Southern Bug) - and Podolia.
The penetration of Lithuanians into Ukrainian lands had its own characteristics:
the local population did not resist the Lithuanian conquest, since the power of the Lithuanians was softer than that of the Tatars;
the Ukrainian principalities retained their autonomy for some time;
90% of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were Rusyns (Ukrainians and Belarusians).
There is a process of glorification of the Lithuanians, during which they borrowed from the Rusyns:
orthodoxy;
"Russian Truth";
Old Slavonic language;
military organization;
the structure of the princely administration.
15. Western Ukrainian lands under the rule of Poland. Union of Lublin, its consequences for the history of Ukraine.
Like the Lithuanians and the Poles, they did not want their chance in appropriating Ukrainian lands. They begin their advance to the Ukrainian lands as early as 1340 after the death of the Galician-Volyn prince Yuri II Boleslav. Poles troops led by the king KazimirIII captured Lvov, but could not advance further, as an uprising of the local population led by the boyar Dmitry Dedko rose against the Poles. After the death in 1349, Dedka Casimir III begins the second large-scale expansion into Ukrainian lands, during which he managed to capture Galicia. And in 1366, he signed an agreement with the Grand Duke of Lithuania, under the terms of which Western Volyn with Kholm and Belz (200 thousand people and 52 thousand square kilometers of territory) went to Poland.
After the death of Casimir III Galicia from 1370 to 1387. was under Hungarian rule. In 1387, Poland finally annexed Galicia to its possessions. The process of Polonization (Polishization - the introduction of the Polish language, traditions and customs) and Catholicization (Catholicization - the forced transfer of the population from Orthodoxy to Catholicism) of the Galician population begins. The Russian province was created here (over time it turned into a Polish province). Latin becomes the official language, all rights in the state were granted only to Poles and Catholics.
Poland also wanted to subordinate the Ukrainian lands, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to its influence. The first attempt to seize these lands was the signing of the Union of Kreva, but this attempt was not one hundred percent successful. It was followed by the second - the signing of the Union of Lublin in 1569.
Since Lithuania, as a result of a long confrontation with the Moscow kingdom, constant attacks by the Tatars, the struggle for the grand prince's throne, is in decline, and Poland, on the contrary, is becoming more powerful, the Lithuanians were forced to turn to the Poles for military assistance. They promised to help in exchange for the signing of the Union of Lublin, according to which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (and all Ukrainian lands subject to it) were, together with Poland, part of the new state of the Commonwealth.
Features of the political situation of Ukrainian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The beginning of the era of Lithuanian political supremacy over the Ukrainian lands was laid in 1340, when Gediminas' son Lubart sat on the prince's table in Volhynia and Galicia. The latter, after a 40-year desperate military-political struggle, went to Poland, and Volhynia became the first real acquisition of Lithuania on Ukrainian lands. Then, within one or two decades, the Kiev region, Severshchina and Podolia also came under the control of Vilna, as a result of which the territory of the Lithuanian principality almost doubled. In fact, about 90% of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were Rusyns, that is, Belarusians and Ukrainians. The Russian language became the official language of government bodies and the Grand Duke's court, Russian traditions of life and institutions of power were established as state ones.
Until the end of the 14th century. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania remained a kind of federation of lands-principalities, including Ukrainian ones - Kiev, Chernigov-Seversky, Volyn, Podolsky. Each of them was ruled by a specific prince, however, now not from the Russian Rurik dynasty, but from the Lithuanian - Gediminovich. Baptized according to the Russian rite, married to Russian princesses, accustomed to the traditions of local life, these rulers were not perceived as foreign conquerors, but on the contrary, they came to an agreement with the Russian nobility, which fully shared the mood of their rulers, who considered themselves independent from the capital Vilna. Evidence of this is the minting of its own coin in Kiev Vladimir Olgerdovich, who was titled "By the grace of God, Prince of Kiev." He did not particularly consider the metropolis and, the Chernihiv-Seversky ruler Dmitry-Koribut Olgerdovich, pursuing its own foreign policy in partnership with close neighbors - the Moscow and Tver princes. The brothers Koriatovichi, who were especially concerned about the neighborhood of the Tatars, did not burden themselves with the obligations of citizenship in distant Podolia. In the Russian principalities, large-scale fortification work was launched, initiated by the rulers - the Gediminids. So, in Kyiv in the second half of the 14th century: on a high hill above the artisan Podil and the Prince's Mountain, on the orders of Vladimir Olgerdovich, a spacious and strong castle of oak logs grew up, which existed with certain restructurings until the middle of the 17th century. Under Lubart Gediminovich, the Lutsk Castle, built at the end of the 13th - the first quarter of the 14th century, underwent significant modernization. The power of defensive construction in Podolia, begun under the Koriatovichs, is striking, in particular, the radical restructuring of the fortress and city fortifications of impregnable Kamenets.
With the approval of the Lithuanian princes, the position of the indigenous inhabitants did not change either. since the Russian laws and customs, confirmed in the contracts of the Grand Duke with local landowners and townspeople, remained in force. The boyars-warriors were assigned their ancestral lands, from which they had to go with weapons to serve on the call of the prince-ruler; as before, in the cities, merchants and artisans lived in accordance with Russian city law. Finally, the wealth and influence of the church rapidly increased, having received devout and generous defenders among the newly converted pagans.
After entering into 1385 Dynastic Union of Kreva between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland in the principality there was an anti-union. opposition led by Vitovt. After Yagai-lo and Vitovt came to an agreement in 1392, Vitovt, with the rank of governor, actually became the Grand Duke of Lithuania. The new Grand Duke took a course towards political weakening with the subsequent liquidation of the largest specific principalities of the state, primarily the remote ones - Kiev, Chernigov-Seversky and Podolsky. The Lithuanian-Russian state began to lose the Russian element, instead, Polish traditions were strengthened.
While the Ukrainian principalities became weaker after the invasion of the nomads, in the North, in the Baltic states, a new state was formed - Lithuania, which not only united the Lithuanian tribes, but also began to seize Belarusian, and then Ukrainian lands. By the middle of the XIV century, subjugated most of Belarus and Ukraine. Belarusian and Ukrainian lands made up 9/10 of the territory of this huge state, the overwhelming population of it was also Belarusians and Ukrainians. Lithuanian expansion was relatively easy and fast. The Lithuanians did not harass the local nobility, they attracted them to the government, which did local boyars Lithuanian allies. The Ukrainian principalities and their population were more developed politically and culturally, and the Lithuanians largely adopted the cultural traditions of the Ukrainian people, tried not to violate them and not to impose a new one. The Lithuanian princes themselves considered themselves not conquerors, but "gatherers of the lands of Russia." The first Lithuanian prince who began to annex Belarusian and Ukrainian lands to Lithuania was Gediminas. In 1319-1320. he captured the Brest land and the city of Dorogochin, then Kamenets and other cities. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania reached its highest power during the reign of Olgerd (1345-1377) and Prince Vitovt (1392-1430). Olgerd expanded the possessions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the expense of the southwestern and western Ukrainian lands. It was during the reign of Olgerd that Ukrainian (Russian) became the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Since that time, the history of Ukrainian lands is closely connected with the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With the coming to power of the Lithuanian princes, the position of the indigenous population of Ukraine and Belarus did not change. Local laws and customs continued to operate, their preservation was confirmed in the contracts of the Grand Duke with local landowners and townspeople. The boyars retained the right to own their ancestral lands, Ukrainian merchants and artisans continued to live in the cities.
Western Ukrainian lands in the same period became the object of Polish expansion. The Polish king Casimir the Great (1320-1370) restored the medieval Polish monarchy and laid the foundation for the conquest of Ukrainian lands. The formal reason for the seizure of the Galician lands was the protection of the Catholics of the region. Due to the Ukrainian lands, a more developed and stronger Poland increased its territory by 50 percent. Already in 1349, after an extremely successful military campaign, Casimir subjugated Galicia and part of Volhynia. In 1387, the Polish queen Jadwiga decisively and finally annexed the Galician lands to the possessions of the Polish crown. In the middle of the 15th century, these lands under the name "Russian Voivodeship" were an ordinary province of the Polish kingdom.
19. Union of Lublin:
At the beginning of the 16th century The Grand Duchy of Lithuania faced the threat of decline. The consequence of this was the signing of the Union of Lublin between Lithuania and Poland. In January-August 1569, a Sejm was convened in Lublin, at which a project was submitted for the complete annexation of Lithuanian lands to Poland. The Sejm dragged on for several months, but at the end the union was concluded. For her, Lithuania retained the right to its own coat of arms, seal, legislation, ministers, troops, finances and administration; the king, the diet and the senate became joint, foreign policy, land ownership. So, after the Treaty of Lublin, Poland and Lithuania formed a new state - the Commonwealth.
negative consequence The Union of Lublin was the complete dominance of the Commonwealth in the Ukrainian lands, which lasted until the end of the 18th century, the assertion of the unlimited power of the Polish magnates, the strengthening of the social, national and religious oppression of the Ukrainian population, the loss of opportunities to create an independent state. At the same time, in modern historiography, an opinion is expressed about positive consequences Union of Lublin: the unification of all Ukrainian lands of the west and east, Ukrainian society was returned to a more civilized West, it temporarily saved Ukrainian lands from Moscow and Turkey. Finally, the Union of Lublin led to increased protest of the Ukrainian people against the oppressors, to the national liberation struggle at the end of the 16th-17th centuries.
20. Beresteyskaya church union:
The idea of uniting two Christian churches, Catholic and Orthodox, arose as early as the 11th century, immediately after the split of Christianity in 1054. However, Catholic Poland and Orthodox Muscovy opposed such a course of events, which prevented the unification of Christianity. In the XVI century. The Jesuit order, which was active in Poland and Ukraine, became an ardent supporter of the unification of churches. This time the religious idea of uniting Christians was complemented by political and economic interests. Poland was interested in subordinating the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Rome, since this would have tied Ukraine and Belarus with the Commonwealth even more tightly and would have weakened the influence of Orthodox Muscovy on these lands. Therefore, the Polish king Sigismund III acted as a fanatical adherent of the church union (unification). On the other hand, supporters of the union also existed among the Ukrainian population of the Commonwealth. The creation of a single church promised for the Ukrainians to receive equal rights with the Poles in the political and economic spheres. However, at the cost of this equality, the rejection of the faith of their ancestors, as well as the inevitable Polonization of Ukraine. In 1590, Bishop Balaban of Lvov held a secret meeting of bishops in the city of Belz, where the bishops of Lutsk, Kholmsk and Turov were present, which approved the idea of a church union. Later, they were joined by the bishops of Vladimir and Przemysl, as well as the Kyiv Metropolitan Rogoza. The bishops agreed to recognize the authority and spiritual leadership of the Roman pope, but while maintaining the traditional Orthodox church rites. On December 23, 1595, in a solemn ceremony, Pope Clement VIII officially accepted the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under his authority. When the secret became clear and the church union was openly proclaimed in Ukraine, the indignation of the majority of Ukrainians knew no bounds. At the head of the anti-Uniate speeches appeared the largest Ukrainian magnate, Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky. The current situation forced the Polish king Sigismund III to convene a church council in Brest in order to finally resolve the issue of the union. In the autumn of 1596, numerous representatives of the Ukrainian gentry, bourgeoisie and clergy arrived in Brest. From the Polish side there were some Catholic bishops, representatives of the Polish gentry and the king. From February 8 to 10, both councils carried out their work in Brest and came to radically opposite decisions: the Catholic one approved the creation of a new Uniate church (later it became known as the Greek Catholic), and the Orthodox one condemned the union. Thus, a split occurred in the Ukrainian church, which gave rise to an irreconcilable spiritual and political struggle in Ukraine. The Polish government, headed by King Sigismund III, completely sided with the Uniates and began direct persecution of the Orthodox in Ukraine. The new Metropolitan of Kyiv Hypatius also actively fought for the implementation of the union. He persecuted recalcitrant clergy, took away Orthodox churches and monasteries, schools and printing houses. Submitting to the authorities and hoping to receive new benefits and privileges, most of the Ukrainian gentry began to move into Uniatism. However, the majority of the population of Ukraine did not accept the union and retained their adherence to Orthodoxy.
21. The emergence of the Ukrainian Cossacks, its role in the history of Ukraine:
The Ukrainian Cossacks are a significant phenomenon in European history. The main historical condition for the emergence of the Ukrainian Cossacks as a social class and armed forces- the servile position of Ukraine, which was under the rule of neighboring states, the lack of its own ethnic statehood, social oppression, as well as national and religious oppression that the Ukrainian people suffered from foreign rulers. The first written references to the Ukrainian Cossacks contain sources from the late 15th - early 16th century. The oldest mention, which under 1489 informs about the Ukrainian Cossacks in Podolia, is placed in the “Chronicle” of the Polish historian Martyn Belsky. Reasons for the emergence of the Ukrainian Cossacks: the main reason for the emergence of the Cossacks was in those social and political conditions that developed in the Ukrainian lands in 15-16 Art.
1) liquidation of the remnants of autonomous Ukrainian lands;
2) strengthening the expansion of Catholicism;
3) expansion of gentry land ownership;
4) enslavement of the peasantry;
5) the existence of Tatar nomads in the southern steppes;
6) the possibility of resettlement in the steppe.
The role of the Cossacks:
The role of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the history of Ukraine is simply colossal. If it were not for the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, the Ukrainian people in the 15-16 centuries would have ceased to exist, would have been partially destroyed by the Tatars and Turks and partially assimilated by Poles, Lithuanians and Russians .
1) during the second half of the 15th - the first half of the 17th century, it was precisely it that played a decisive role in the economic development of the south of Ukraine, it starts a new socio-economic branch on Ukrainian lands - the bourgeois one, based on free labor, private property, commodity-money
2) The Cossacks were engaged in military activities, acting as an armed force to protect the people from physical destruction and slavery as a result of the Tatar-Turkish aggression. The Zaporozhian Sich became a shield in the South Ukrainian lands. After the Union of Brest in 1596, the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks took on the role of defenders of Orthodoxy in the Ukrainian lands, they began to personify the entire Ukrainian people, to represent them in the international arena. Unable to endure the growing religious, socio-economic and national violence on the part of the Polish gentry, the Cossacks from the end of the 16th century, one after another, raised uprisings against the Poles, until in 1648 they liberated most of the Ukrainian lands.
3) Thanks to the Cossacks, for the first time in several centuries, the Ukrainian state of the Hetmanate was formed, which later, as a vassal, became part of the Muscovite state and later, as an autonomy, existed until 1764.
Thus, the Ukrainian Cossacks played an epoch-making role in the history of Ukraine; without them, not only would an independent Ukraine not exist, but even the Ukrainian people would cease to exist.
