Discussion

1. Explain:

a) the meaning of the word “vecha”

(The power in early Belarusian states belonged to the vecha)

b) the meaning of the concept ”half-independent”.

(The Belarusian principalities in Lithuania were half-independent)

2. What do you think?

Why Useslau was called “The Magician” – “Чародей”?

3.Historians give several versions of the origin of the name Belarus. Which version do you support? Give your arguments.

4. You have taken part in some excavations of kurgans or ancient graves, haven’t you? Write a report about one of the excavations

5. Write an essay on the topic “Euphrasinnia Polatskaya is a remarkable figure in the Belarusian history”.

Text 2. The Development and Flourishing of Great Lithuania

Read the text and assimilate its information.

The Great prince Gedymin, who ascended to the throne in 1316, limited the power of the members of the federation and so the Great Lithuanian Principality became a true monarchy. Gedymin using the Tatar invasion in Kievan and Eastern Rus, joined the principalities of Kiev, Chernigov and Volyn. The Tatars were not able to reach Belarus mostly because of swamps in the south of the country, in the area called Palesse. However, in the time of Mindaug, when they were stronger, they managed once to enter Belarus, but were defeated by Lithuanian troops in 1249. Thus, Gedymin strengthened Lithuanian power in Eastern Europe, and the Lithuanian-Belarusian state gained its authority and influence. Gedymin also moved its capital to Vilnia (now Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania). The wisdom of Gedymin was in his policy towards the conquered lands: he never oppressed the local beliefs, customs and freedom of people. He understood that he could achieve more by goodness and loyalty than by brutal force.

Gedymin’s son, the Great Prince Alherd (1341 - 1377) continued his father’s expansion of Lithuania’s borders. He unyoked the Ukraine from the Tatars and joined the rest of the Ukranian lands to the Great Lithuanian Principality, including the seashore of the Black Sea. But at this time a new enemy appeared in the East – the principality of Moscow, the ancestor of today’s Russia. They constantly attacked Lithuania’s eastern neighbor and vassal – the Smolensk principality. Alherd had to help Smolensk, and he defeated the Moscow troops three times – in 1368, 1370, and 1373.

Alherd’s army fought to the gates of Moscow, but the Moscow prince Dmitry Donscoy, unable to resist the Lithuanian army, asked Alherd to spare his native town and promised him lots of trophies. Alherd took compassion on him and did not destroy Moscow, but expanded Lithuania’s borders yet farther to the East. Alherd wanted Lithuania to become the strongest power of Eastern Europe, and also a center of Orthodox belief. He asked the Constantinople Patriarch, the head of the Orthodox church, to found the metropoly in Navahradak. The Moscow prince asked for the same thing for Moscow, and both request were granted. Thus started the extreme rivalry between Lithuania and Moscow for religious and political influence in Eastern Europe.

After Alherd’s death in 1377, his younger son Yahaila (Jagiello) became the Great Prince, in accordance with the treaty between Alherd and his wife. This caused great discontent in Alherd’s older son, Andrei, and in the population of the western parts of Lithuania who hoped that the throne would be accepted by Alherd’s brother and councillor Keistut. In a short struggle for the throne, Keistut won; he imprisoned Yahaila and proclaimed himself the Great Prince, and soon released his nephew. Shortly after that Yahaila started a revolt against Keistut and occupied a part of the Vilnia region. He invited Keistut and his son Vitaut to Kreva for negotiations, and when they arrived, he captured them and killed Keistut five days later. Vitaut managed to escape from the execution having dressed in woman’s clothes. He turned for help to the crusaders who were always ready to participate in Lithuanian internal discords in order to weaken their competitor. Therefore Yahaila, trying to avoid conflicts with the crusaders, allowed Vitaut to return home and gave him the Harodnia (Hrodna) principality.

Still Yahaila’s position was not stable since he was surrounded by crusaders from the north and west and Muscovites and Tatars from the east. That’s why he decided to unite with neighboring Poland, which had the same problems with the crusaders. He asked to marry the Polish princess Jadzviga, and though she had already been engaged to the Austrian prince Wilhelm, polish aristocracy, which had always been searching for influence in Lithuanian ruling circles, decided to promote Yahaila’s proposal. Before their marriage in 1385 in Kreva. a dynasty union was signed between Lithuania and Poland, according to which the Great Prince also became the Polish king and ruled the two countries. Yahaila agreed to change his confession to Catholicism and also baptized the still Pagan tribes of Zhmudz and Aukshtota. He hoped to convert the Belarusian population to Catholicism, too, but only a small part accepted. According to the Kreva union, both countries still had their independent internal governments, but defence and international affairs were united. In the Polish-Lithuanian union, Lithuania was stronger and bigger, and the cultural development was also higher in Lithuania. When Yahaila moved to Krakow, the Polish capital, he took with him many Belarusian painters to work decorating his palace. Until the end of his life, Yahaila couldn’t speak Polish and used his native Belarusian. His second wife, Sonka, was a Belarusian patriot; she brought up her sons Wladyslaw and Kazimir, in the spirit of love of Belarus.

But for most of the Belarusians, the Kreva union was not satisfying. They believed that it tied Poland and the Great Principality too closely, and were apprehensive that in the future, the Polish king could be of non-Belarusian origin and he would nevertheless rule Lithuania. Yahaila’s cousin Vitaut was especially discontented, and in 1392 he managed to occupy the Great Prince’s throne by force. Yahaila, seeing that a fight with Vitaut would not be easy, had to accept him as an independent Prince under his wardship. Thus Vitaut became the Great Prince of Lithuania.

The first thing Vitaut had to as the Great Prince was to calm the princess under Lithuanian influence who didn’t want to obey anybody and were always ready to ask the crusaders or the Tatars for help. Vitaut succeeded in establishing his power over most of them and joined new lands to Lithuania. Smolensk and parts of the Tula and Kaluga principalities became territories of the Great principality; the Ryazan principality and republics of Great Novgorod and Pskov – the states of congeneric Kryvichy - became Lithuania’s protectorates. The Tatars of the Golden Horde respected Vitaut and even invited him to be a judge in Tatar internal conflicts. In 1398 the Golden Horde was invaded by a new conqueror from Middle Asia – emir Timur (Tamerlan) who, together with his huge army, was ready to take the field against Europe. The Khan Takhtamysh of the Golden Horde asked Vitaut for help, and the Great Prince agreed, seeing the possibility of expanding his influence up to the Volga river. He started thorough preparations for the war. He signed a peaceful union with the crusaders and gathered an army, which included in addition to the Belarusians, knights from all of Christian Europe. This force met Timur’s army in 1399 near the river Vorskla (in modern Ukraine). The cruel and bloody battle didn’t bring victory to anybody – Vitaut’s soldiers were defeated, but Timur’s troops were also weakened so that he did not feel strong enough to continue his campaign against the West and returned to Asia.

After this battle crusaders renewed their raids on Lithuania and northern Poland, having grown bolder after Vitaut’s failure to defeat Timur. Sometimes these raids turned into real wars. The Great Prince Vitaut and the Polish king Yahaila decided to stop the raids, and gathered a huge army of 100,000 warriors, which included representatives of all the East European peoples, and under the command of Vitaut this united army moved to Prussia, the nearest crusader’s state. The battle which took place on July, 15, 1410, near Grunvald (now in northern Poland) was hard and severe and the crusaders were utterly defeated by the united troops. After this battle, the Great Lithuanian Principality expanded its borders to the Baltic Sea and became the most powerful state in Eastern Europe. It occupied large territories from the Baltics to the Black Sea, having many neighboring states as vassals. The Moscow prince Vasily was Vitaut’s grandson, and the princes of Tver and Ryazan called him their master. In addition, the Czechs wanted to grant him their crown; in response to which Vitaut sent his nephew to be a regent in Prague.

The difficult thing was to get rid of the Polish influence and the consequences of the Kreva union. All Vitaut did for Lithuania was not good for Poland or, to be exact, for the Polish ruling aristocracy, which did not want Lithuania to be free from the sphere of their influence. Of course, the Poles were afraid of any open conflicts with Vitaut, but they used all their slyness and insidiousness to interfere with Lithuania’s policies. Vitaut wished Lithuania to be completely independent from Poland, and in 1429 he proclaimed his state a kingdom. Yahaila’s councillor, bishop Olesnicki, persuaded him to let Vitaut have the Polish crown, but Vitaut refused – he wanted only the Lithuanian throne. Then the Poles captured the Roman Emperor’s envoys, who carried a crown for Vitaut from the Vatican and took the crown away from them. Vitaut who was sick at that time didn’t outlive the new misfortune and died November, 27, 1430, before the coronation was to occur.

Vitaut’s reign and several decades after it are considered to be the period of the highest flourishing of Belarus and Belarusian culture. The Belarusian language was the state language of the Great Lithuanian Principality; all documents, laws, charts, and other official documents were issued in Belarusian; it was used also as an official language in some neighboring states like Moldavia. The statehood in Lithuania was also one of the most liberal in Eastern Europe. The principality had a parliament consisting of two chambers – Soym and Rada, which replaced the vecha.

The population belonged to three groups – shlakhta (or aristocracy), merchants and artisans, and peasants. The conditions for the lower groups of population were generally better than in the Moscow principality or Poland. The majority of Belarusian cities had their right of self-government, the so-called Magdeburg right, based on elections. All these conditions attracted oppressed people from other countries. Thus, in addition to the Belarusians who occupied the so-called Old Lithuania, Zhmudz, the Ukrainians, the indigenous population of the Principality, Tatars from the Golden Horde, and Jews from Germany and other countries of Europe also settled there. The liberal policy of Vitaut towards these peoples attracted them – they could feel free to use their language, religion, and traditions.

Word Check

Ex. 1. Consult the text and find the English equivalents of the following

Ex. 2. Match words or phrases from A with those form B.

Ex. 3. Find sentences and phrases in the text that are close or equivalent in meaning to the following.

1. Обе просьбы были удовлетворены.

2. Ограничил власть членов федерации.

3. Освободил Украину от татарского ига.

4. Он пожалел его.

5. Альгерд хотел, чтобы Литва стала самым сильным государством в Восточной Европе.

6. Освободил своего племянника.

7. Пригласил на переговоры.

8. Удалось избежать казни.

9. Ослабить соперника.

10. Согласиться изменить вероисповедание.

11. Она воспитала своих сыновей в духе любви к Беларуси.

12. Они понимали, что в будущем…

13. Под опекой.

14. Был готов начать сражение.

15. Великое Княжество Литовское расширило свои границы до Балтийского моря.

16. Избавиться от польского влияния и последствий Кревской унии.

17. Они использовали хитрость и коварство.

18. Советник Ягайлы.

19. Не пережил нового несчастья.

20. Имели право на самоуправление.

21. Местное население

Ex. 4. Use the following words and word combinations in sentences of your own