The Problem of the Beginning of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (abstract) (original) (raw)

2023, . Cukurova 10th International Scientific Research Conference April 2-4, 2023. Adana / Türkiye. Abstract Book Editors Dr. Ethem İlhan Şahin, Merve Kidiryuz. IKSAD Publishing House. Issued: 25.04.2023 - ISBN: 978-625-367-063-4

Video here: https://youtu.be/WV6r05k7TmY -- Slides here: https://www.academia.edu/99912304/ The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) was a puffer-state in the Middle Ages, between the western, Roman Catholic part of Europe on one side, and the evolving Muscovy, which began to grow in the 14th c, on the other side. By the 1300s, it reached its borders from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Already in 1219, the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, a Slavic State, made a peace treaty with it. Thus, this date of 1219 must be accepted for the beginning of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Therefore, we cannot agree with Rowell, who dates the beginning of the Lithuanian state to the very end of the 13th century (1295). According to some other theories, the beginning of the GDL is counted from the coronation of Mindaugas (Mindog in Slavic sources) in 1253, which was not continued, it did not ground any dynasty. He remained an episodic-only Lithuanian king who was murdered by his Lithuanian elite. The Lithuanian state remained a ‘grand duchy’ after him, therefore, it was not subordinated under the indirect political rule of the Roman Pope. On the other hand, it was not a ‘pagan’ state at all, in contrary to Rowell, 1994, even if Lithuanians cultivated pagan costumes as their confessional identification. The Lithuanian rulers often married Slavic princesses of Orthodox confession, and they baptized themselves, too, according to the Byzantine-rite form of the Christian religion. Their chancellery was managed in the Church Slavic language, their clerks were Slavic priests and scribes of Orthodox Christianity. Therefore, it was a de facto Christian state with a huge number of Orthodox believers and a written chancellery language, the local redaction of the Church Slavonic. It was a powerful and dynamically developing state in Eastern Europe from the early 13th up to the late 14th cc.