DOCSLIB.ORG

History of Lithuanian Historiography

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
History of Lithuanian Historiography VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Moreno Bonda History of Lithuanian Historiography DIDACTICAL GUIDELINES Kaunas, 2013 Reviewed by Prof. habil. dr. Egidijus Aleksandravičius Approved by the Department of History of the Faculty of Humanities at Vytautas Magnus University on 30 November 2012 (Protocol No. 3–2) Recommended for printing by the Council of the Faculty of Humanities of Vytau- tas Magnus University on 28 December 2012 (Protocol No. 8–6) Edited by UAB “Lingvobalt” Publication of the didactical guidelines is supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Project title: “Renewal and Internationalization of Bachelor Degree Programmes in History, Ethnology, Philosophy and Political Science” (project No.: VP1-2.2-ŠMM-07-K-02-048) © Moreno Bonda, 2013 ISBN 978-9955-21-363-5 © Vytautas Magnus University, 2013 Table of Contents About Human Universals (as a Preface) . 5 I. Historiography and Hermeneutics: Definition of the Field . 10 Literature . 22 II. History as “Natural Histories” . 24 Nicolaus Hussovianus’ A Poem about the Size, Ferocity, and the Hunting of the Bison 28; Adam Schroeter’s About the Lithuanian River Nemunas 30; Sigismund von Herberstein’s Notes on Muscovite Affairs (as a conclusion) 31 Literature . 32 III. Proto-Historiography: Annals, Chronicles, State Official His to- riography and Letters . 34 III. 1. Annals and Chronicles . 36 Jan Długosz’s Annals or Chronologies of the Illustrious Kingdom of Poland 39; Peter of Dusburg’s Chronicles of the Prussian Lands 41; Wigand of Marburg’s New Prussian Chronicle 43; The Annals of Degučiai 44; Other Chronicles (for a History of the Historiography about Lithuania) 46 III. 2. Official State Historiography . 48 The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania 50; The Chronicle of Lithuania and Samogitia 51; The Bychowiec Chronicle 52 III. 3. Epistles . 57 Gediminas’ Epistles 58; Vytautas’ Epistles 58; Algirdas’ Greek Letter (as a conclusion) 60 Literature . 62 IV. Universal Histories, Specula, and Hagiographies . 64 The Life of Vaišvilkas 67; Stanisław Sarnicki’s Annals, or About the Deeds of Polish and Lithuanians in Eight books 68; Nicolaus Husso- vianus’ Life and Deeds of St. Hyacinth 71; Gregorius Svencicius’ Life of Saint Casimir 72; Piotr Skarga’s Lives of the Saints 72; Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s Life of Laurentius Bartilius 74 Literature . 75 V. The Ethnographic Historiography . 76 Michalo Lituanus’ About the habits of Tatars, Lithuanians and Muscovites 81; Simonas Daukantas’ The Manners of the ancient Lithuanians, Highlanders and Samogitians 83; Johannes Łasicki’s Concerning the Gods of Samogitians, other Sarmatians and false 3 Christians 84; Theodor Lepner’s The Prussian Lithuanians 85; Maciej Miechowita’s About the Two Sarmatias 86; Johann Bohemme’s, The Habits, Laws and Rituals of all the People 87; Alexander Guagnini’s Description of Sarmatic Europe 89; Guillebert de Lannoy’s Journeys and Embassies 89; Nicholas Christopher Radziwiłł’s Journey to the Holy Land, Syria and Egypt 90 Literature . 95 VI. History as Contemporary History . 96 A Lithuanian Knight’s Livonian War Ten Years Deeds 99; Laurentius Bojer’s The Battle of Kirkholm 100; Elijas Pilgrimovijus’ Panegyric for Christoph Radziwiłł 101; Elijas Pilgrimovijus’ Account of Leo Sapieha’s Great Delegation to Moscow 102; Prančiskus Gradovskis’ Ode to the Illustrious Christoph Radziwiłł’s Expedition to Muscovy 108; Mikalo- jus Kazimieras Šemeta’s The Battle of Ochmatov 109; Mikalojus Kaz- imieras Šemeta’s Relation about the Beginning and Conclusion of the Swedish Protectorate in Samogitia 110; Nicolaus Hussovianus’ New and Outstanding Victory over the Turks in the Month of July 111; Al- bert Wijuk-Kojałowicz’s About the Events of 1648 and 1649 Against the Rebel Zaporozhian Cossacks 111; Albrycht-Stanisław Radziwiłł’s Mem- ories about the Polish Events between 1632 and 1656 113; Jonas Eisman- tas’ Threnody about the Fire of Vilnius 114; Justus Ludwik Decjusz’s A Book about the Time of King Sigismund (as a conclusion) 115 Literature . 117 VII. History as the History of Men: Fasti, Gesta and Biographies . 118 Joannis Vislicensis’ The Prussian War 121; Jonas Rivockis’ Portrait of a Great Hero or Leo Sapieha Elegiac Description 122; Jonas Rivockis’ Life of Simonas Rudnicki 123; Joannes Radvanus’ Radvilias 124; Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s Radziwił Chronicle 124; Boguslaw Radziwiłł’s autobiography (and biography) 125; Maciej Stryjkowski’s The Polish, Lithuanian, Samogitian and All Russia Chronicle 125 Literature . 128 VIII. The Transition towards the Erudite Historiography . 129 Marcin Kromer’s About the Origin and Deeds of the Polish in 30 books 132; Augustine Rotundus’ Short History of the Lithuanian Dukes 134; Al- bert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s Short History of the Church in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 137; Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s History of Lithuania 139 Literature . 142 Register of the Historians (until early 18th century) . 143 Index of Names . 152 4 About Human Universals (as a Preface) This student handbook has been produced on the occasion of an innovation project. It was meant to provide Vytautas Magnus Uni- versity students with English textbooks to be used during lessons taught in English. In turn, this innovation aims to offer Lithuanian students the opportunity to improve their linguistic competence indirectly while studying other, non-language related, subjects: en- riching their specialist vocabulary; getting acquainted with English academic writing; and reflecting upon sectorial terminology. In this respect, the present handbook should be particularly useful if ad- opted in conjunction with a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teaching attitude. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons behind the linguistic and etymologic approach emerging in several sections of this work. Yet, the focus of this textbook is the history of historiography, not the language itself: this handbook is intended as a reference (or a sort of catalogue) for students attending courses in Lithuanian historiography. Additionally, the opportunity to produce an English textbook about Lithuanian historiography has been understood by the author as a stimulus to introduce foreign students (more and more often vis- iting this university) to local historiography. Conscious of the lack of sources accessible to an international audience, we printed this work with the intention of offering a systematic reference book: an easy- to-consult reasoned catalogue of historical works. It should serve as both an introduction to in-depth research and as an overview of Lithuanian history of historiography for those who are just prepar- ing to take the exam. Consequently, we did not aim at the introduction of innovative theories or at presenting new sources and documents not yet studied. Rather, we tried to be systematic (as far as the pragmatic limits of writing allowed). Nonetheless, cognizant of the didactical function of such a handbook, we opted for a pretty unorthodox organization of the contents and a transnational (comparative) outlook on local historiography precisely to convey a methodological precept and to rectify two misleading persuasions. 5 History of Lithuanian Historiography Methodologically, we believe that only a comparative approach can make evident both the peculiarities of a work and the manifes- tations in it of universal trends. Likewise, being the historical con- science a manifestation of the spirit – a human-universal, the inten- tion to study a historical work as an end in itself is fallacious. Rather, every historical work should be studied, as expounded by Erich Au- erbach (with reference to literature), as the concrete manifestation of the universal. Finally, we intend to prevent students from believing that abstract categorizations can actually represent and frame intel- lectual expressions. That is, we want to remove the erroneous idea that a medieval historiography existed with its annals, and then the Humanistic one substituted it only to evolve, after some centuries, into the historiographic style of Romanticism. Students (and, some- times, even teachers) got used to this evolutionistic didactic at school and tend to put everything in categories, which are often perceived as concrete receptacles beginning with a date or a name and con- cluding with another. First, to better illustrate the concept of the evolutionistic didac- tic, we can consider the historiographic genre of annals. Speaking about medieval historiography (abstract category), Zenonas Ivinskis individuates its specific manifestation in annals and chronicles and specifies, “Chronicles evolved from annals mainly written in mon- asteries. […] The accounts included in the annals expanded and be- came independent histories, that is, chronicles.” These concepts are absolutely correct. Nonetheless, if presented in this form, this infor- mation induces a student to think that a) the Middle Ages are a peri- od of time rather than a 19th century values interpretation; b) annals are typical medieval expressions of history-writing; c) after a certain period of time historians abandoned the annalistic form in favour of chronicles. On the contrary, the reality is much less schematic than this. First of all, the concept of the Middle Ages differs in many re- spects from country to country, historical schools, etc. Second, the historiographic form of annals was already typical of the Mesopota- mian civilizations 5000 years ago; it was common in Ancient Greece; and it was
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In Search of the Law Governed State
    THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARCH TITLE: IN SEARCH OF THE LAW-GOVERNED STAT E Conference Paper #17 of 1 7 Commentary : The Printed versions of Conference Remarks by Participant s AUTHOR: Berman et al . CONTRACTOR: Lehigh University PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : Donald D. Barry COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 805-0 1 DATE : October 199 1 The work leading to this report was supported by funds provided by the National Council for Soviet and East European Research. The analysis and interpretations contained in the report are those of the author. NCSEER NOTE This paper is #17 in the series listed on the following page. The series is the product of a major conferenc e entitled, In Search of the Law-Governed State: Political and Societal Reform Under Gorbachev, which was summarized in a Council Report by that title authored by Donald D . Barry, and distributed by the Council i n October, 1991. The remaining papers were distributed seriatim . This paper was written prior to the attempted coup of August 19, 1991 . The Conference Papers 1. GIANMARIA AJANI, "The Rise and Fall of the Law-Governed Stat e in the Experience of Russian Legal Scholarship . " 2. EUGENE HUSKEY , "From Legal Nihilism to Pravovoe Gosudarstvo : Soviet Legal Development, 1917-1990 . " 3. LOUISE SHELLEY, "Legal Consciousness and the Pravovoe Gosudarstvo . " 4. DIETRICH ANDRE LOEBER, "Regional and National Variations : The Baltic Factor . " 5. JOHN HAZARD, "The Evolution of the Soviet Constitution . " 6. FRANCES FOSTER-SIMONS, "The Soviet Legislature : Gorbachev' s School of Democracy . " 7. GER VAN DEN BERG, "Executive Power and the Concept of Pravovo e Gosudarstvo .
    [Show full text]
  • Artyku³y Y- Go 0– 27 Rzed- Lstwo Egen- Płacić Rzynaj- Genealo- Mie Pilnego W Świetle Ch I Domowych Dtym Nigdy Od Żad- I Napisał Na Jego , [W:] M
    artyku³y Stefan Dmitruk (Białystok) Geneza rodu Chodkiewiczów Początki rodu Chodkiewiczów są trudne do ustalenia. Dzieje przodków Grzegorza Chodkiewicza (ok. 1520–1572) sięgają przynaj- mniej początków XV w. Genealogia Chodkiewiczów stanowiła przed- miot licznych dyskusji wśród historyków. Przyjmuje się, że genealo- giczne hipotezy o pochodzeniu Chodkiewiczów dzielą się na legen- darne i naukowe. Prekursorem wywodów mitycznych stał się żyjący w latach 1520– 1584 Augustyn Rotundus. W swym dziele Rozmowy Polaka z Li- twinem pisał, że Chodkiewiczowie to ród litewski wywodzący się od „Chocka”1. Podwaliny pod legendę chodkiewiczowską położył Maciej Stryjkowski (ok. 1547 – ok. 1593). Między 1575 a 1579 r. przeby- wał on na dworze kniazia Jerzego III Słuckiego2 i napisał na jego polecenie pracę O początkach, wywodach, dzielnościach... W świetle jego ustaleń w 1306 r. do księcia Gedymina miało przybyć poselstwo od chana zawołżańskiego3. Poseł tatarski zaproponował pojedynek wojowników – Tatara i Litwina. W przypadku wygranej poddanego litewskiego państwo Gedymina (ok. 1275–1341) przestałoby płacić 1 A. Rotundus, Rozmowy Polaka z Litwinem, Kraków 1890, s. 47. 2 J. Radziszewska, Maciej Stryjkowski i jego dzieło, [w:] M. Stryjkowski, O początkach, wywodach, dzielnościach, sprawach rycerskich i domowych sławnego narodu litewskiego, żemodzkiego i ruskiego, przedtym nigdy od żad- nego ani kuszone, ani opisane, z natchnienia Bożego a uprzejmie pilnego doświadczenia, opr. J. Radziszewska, Warszawa 1978, s. 8, 10. 3 M. Stryjkowski, O początkach..., s. 239–242. 27 haracz. Na dworze książęcym przebywali Żmudzini. Spośród nich do walki o honor Litwy stanął Borejko. Żmudzinowi udało się pokonać Tatara w pojedynku, przez co zwolnił swoją ojczyznę od płacenia da- niny chanowi. Gedymin nagrodził dzielnego wojownika nadając mu Kazyłkiszki, Zblanów, Sochałów oraz odstąpił mu w dzierżawę Stki- wiłowicz i Słonim.
    [Show full text]
  • Lithuanian Jews and the Holocaust
    Ezra’s Archives | 77 Strategies of Survival: Lithuanian Jews and the Holocaust Taly Matiteyahu On the eve of World War II, Lithuanian Jewry numbered approximately 220,000. In June 1941, the war between Germany and the Soviet Union began. Within days, Germany had occupied the entirety of Lithuania. By the end of 1941, only about 43,500 Lithuanian Jews (19.7 percent of the prewar population) remained alive, the majority of whom were kept in four ghettos (Vilnius, Kaunas, Siauliai, Svencionys). Of these 43,500 Jews, approximately 13,000 survived the war. Ultimately, it is estimated that 94 percent of Lithuanian Jewry died during the Holocaust, a percentage higher than in any other occupied Eastern European country.1 Stories of Lithuanian towns and the manner in which Lithuanian Jews responded to the genocide have been overlooked as the perpetrator- focused version of history examines only the consequences of the Holocaust. Through a study utilizing both historical analysis and testimonial information, I seek to reconstruct the histories of Lithuanian Jewish communities of smaller towns to further understand the survival strategies of their inhabitants. I examined a variety of sources, ranging from scholarly studies to government-issued pamphlets, written testimonies and video testimonials. My project centers on a collection of 1 Population estimates for Lithuanian Jews range from 200,000 to 250,000, percentages of those killed during Nazi occupation range from 90 percent to 95 percent, and approximations of the number of survivors range from 8,000 to 20,000. Here I use estimates provided by Dov Levin, a prominent international scholar of Eastern European Jewish history, in the Introduction to Preserving Our Litvak Heritage: A History of 31 Jewish Communities in Lithuania.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of the Hygiene Department of Stephen Bathory University in the Development and Promotion of Public Health in Vilnius in the Years 1922–1939
    Science in Poland Aistis Žalnora ORCID 000-0002-2382-370X Department of History of Medicine and Ethics, Institute of Health Sciences, Vilnius University (Vilnius, Lithuania) [email protected] The role of the Hygiene Department of Stephen Bathory University in the development and promotion of Public Health in Vilnius in the years 1922–1939 Abstract Objective: During the interwar period, the healthcare system in Europe experienced a dramatic transformation. It was perceived that preventive medicine was no less important than curative medicine. Moreover, without proper prevention of the so-called social diseases, all later therapeutic measures were expensive and ineffective. The former battle against the consequences was re- placed by measures targeting the causes. The fight against so- cial diseases involved a state-owned strategy and a broad arsenal of measures. The University’s scholars also took part in this PUBLICATION e-ISSN 2543-702X INFO ISSN 2451-3202 DIAMOND OPEN ACCESS CITATION Žalnora, Aistis 2018: The role of the Hygiene Department of Stephen Bathory University in the development and promotion of Public Health in Vilnius in the years 1922–1939. Studia Historiae Scientiarum 17, pp. 51–87. Available online: https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.004.9324. ARCHIVE RECEIVED: 2.04.2018 LICENSE POLICY ACCEPTED: 22.10.2018 Green SHERPA / PUBLISHED ONLINE: 12.12.2018 RoMEO Colour WWW http://www.ejournals.eu/sj/index.php/SHS/; http://pau.krakow.pl/Studia-Historiae-Scientiarum/ Aistis Žalnora The role of the Hygiene Department of Stephen Bathory University... process. Our study revealed that the significance of the disease prevention in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ste- phen Bathory was well understood.
    [Show full text]
  • Crusading, the Military Orders, and Sacred Landscapes in the Baltic, 13Th – 14Th Centuries ______
    TERRA MATRIS: CRUSADING, THE MILITARY ORDERS, AND SACRED LANDSCAPES IN THE BALTIC, 13TH – 14TH CENTURIES ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the School of History, Archaeology and Religion Cardiff University ____________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in History & Welsh History (2018) ____________________________________ by Gregory Leighton Abstract Crusading and the military orders have, at their roots, a strong focus on place, namely the Holy Land and the shrines associated with the life of Christ on Earth. Both concepts spread to other frontiers in Europe (notably Spain and the Baltic) in a very quick fashion. Therefore, this thesis investigates the ways that this focus on place and landscape changed over time, when crusading and the military orders emerged in the Baltic region, a land with no Christian holy places. Taking this fact as a point of departure, the following thesis focuses on the crusades to the Baltic Sea Region during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It considers the role of the military orders in the region (primarily the Order of the Teutonic Knights), and how their participation in the conversion-led crusading missions there helped to shape a distinct perception of the Baltic region as a new sacred (i.e. Christian) landscape. Structured around four chapters, the thesis discusses the emergence of a new sacred landscape thematically. Following an overview of the military orders and the role of sacred landscpaes in their ideology, and an overview of the historiographical debates on the Baltic crusades, it addresses the paganism of the landscape in the written sources predating the crusades, in addition to the narrative, legal, and visual evidence of the crusade period (Chapter 1).
    [Show full text]
  • Bitwa Pod Chocimiem, Józef Brandt, 1867 R
    Śmierć Stanisława Żółkiewskiego w bitwie pod Cecorą, Walery Eljasz-Radzikowski BIT WA POD CHOCIMIEM 2 września – 9 października 1621 r. W relacjach Polski z Turcją cały wiek XVI upłynął pod znakiem pokoju. Plany rozpoczęcia wojny z Turcją snuł co prawda Stefan Batory, jednak król zdawał sobie sprawę z tego, że szansę powodzenia może stworzyć jedynie zbrojny sojusz głównych europejskich potęg. Zaczepną politykę wobec Turcji próbował kontynuować po śmierci Batorego kanclerz i hetman wielki koronny Jan Zamoyski. Zakładając, że ewentualna przyszła wojna powinna się toczyć na ziemiach mołdawskich, hetman starał się ugrunto- wać polskie wpływy w Mołdawii. W ślad Zamoyskiego szły magnackie rody z Ukrainy, mające w Hospodarstwie Mołdawskim rozliczne interesy, wzmocnione nierzadko związkami rodzinnymi z samymi hospodarami. Niezależnie od planów polityków w stosunkach Polski i Turcji występowały stale dwa punkty zapalne: kozackie rajdy łupieskie na wybrzeża Morza Czarnego – „chadzki morskie po dobro tureckie” i tatarskie najazdy na południowo-wschodnie ziemie Rzeczypospolitej. Sytuacja zaostrzała się od początku XVII wieku. Polskie wyprawy na Mołdawię, mające na celu osadzenie na tronie przychylnego hospodara, powtarzały się w 1600 r., 1612 r. i w 1615 r. Turcja uznawała te wyprawy za mieszanie się w jej wewnętrzne sprawy, jako że już od początku XVI wieku Mołdawia była uznawana za część Imperium Osmańskiego. Równie wielkie oburzenie wywoływało tolerowanie przez Rzeczpospolitą kozackich rajdów. Kozacy zaporoscy na lekkich łodziach „czajkach” zabierających ok. 60 ludzi spływali w dół Dniepru, omijali turec- ką twierdzę w Oczakowie i wypływali na Morze Czarne, gdzie rabowali statki handlowe, nadmorskie wsie, miasteczka i porty. Niejednokrotnie atakowali z powodzeniem wojenne galery tureckie. W 1606 r. napadli Warnę, w 1614 r.
    [Show full text]
  • Change of Efp Battalion Battle Group Command
    FEBRUARY 2021. NO 2 (33). NATO'S PRESENCE THE NORTHERN STARS: TELEMARK BATTALION IN LITHUANIA IN SHORT Change of eFP Battalion WAR FOR FREEDOM OF LITHUANIA: battle Group command THE DECLARATION OF FEBRUARY 16, 1949 n February 10 the change of com- continue working on improving service con- mand ceremony of the NATO en- ditions, infrastructure and Host Nation Sup- hanced Forward Presence Battal- port provided to the NATO eFP battalion and Oion Battle Group (eFP BG) in Lithuania took other allies here in Lithuania," the Minister place at Rukla. The incoming eFP BG Lithua- said. nia Commander Lt Col Sebastian Hebisch "8 of 10 Lithuanian residents approve of al- from the 93rd Panzer Battalion of the Ger- lied troop presence on the territory of Lithua- man Armed Forces took over the duties from nia and think that the multinational NATO the outgoing LT Col Peer Papenbroock. The battalion constitutes a deterrence to hostile high-readiness multinational eFP BG capabi- states. We need to invest in our defence the lity of the Alliance was deployed in Lithuania same way we invest in fences around our four years ago as a collective and weighty con- houses, to protect us from threats or just for SPECIAL tribution of NATO allies to the enhancement the sake of it — because we need it to feel safe of security of the Baltic region. and take care of our backyard calmly. NATO CHALLENGES POSED BY Minister of National Defence of Lithuania allied presence in our country and the region RUSSIA FOR LITHUANIAN Arvydas Anušauskas thanked NATO allies is a clear and unambiguous message to the for their contributions to the NATO eFP BG threat keeping watch on the other side of the MILITARY SECURITY AND Lithuania and at the same time — to the secu- fence, it has tried to take advantage of our gul- THEIR PROSPECTS rity and efforts to strengthen not only Lithua- libility, or weakness, or sometimes blindness nia and the region but the whole Alliance.
    [Show full text]
  • Were the Baltic Lands a Small, Underdeveloped Province in a Far
    3 Were the Baltic lands a small, underdeveloped province in a far corner of Europe, to which Germans, Swedes, Poles, and Russians brought religion, culture, and well-being and where no prerequisites for independence existed? Thus far the world extends, and this is the truth. Tacitus of the Baltic Lands He works like a Negro on a plantation or a Latvian for a German. Dostoyevsky The proto-Balts or early Baltic peoples began to arrive on the shores of the Baltic Sea nearly 4,000 years ago. At their greatest extent, they occupied an area some six times as large as that of the present Baltic peoples. Two thousand years ago, the Roman Tacitus wrote about the Aesti tribe on the shores of the #BMUJDBDDPSEJOHUPIJN JUTNFNCFSTHBUIFSFEBNCFSBOEXFSFOPUBTMB[ZBT many other peoples.1 In the area that presently is Latvia, grain was already cultivated around 3800 B.C.2 Archeologists say that agriculture did not reach southern Finland, only some 300 kilometers away, until the year 2500 B.C. About 900 AD Balts began establishing tribal realms. “Latvians” (there was no such nation yet) were a loose grouping of tribes or cultures governed by kings: Couronians (Kurshi), Latgallians, Selonians and Semigallians. The area which is known as -BUWJBUPEBZXBTBMTPPDDVQJFECZB'JOOP6HSJDUSJCF UIF-JWT XIPHSBEVBMMZ merged with the Balts. The peoples were further commingled in the wars which Estonian and Latvian tribes waged with one another for centuries.3 66 Backward and Undeveloped? To judge by findings at grave sites, the ancient inhabitants in the area of Latvia were a prosperous people, tall in build.
    [Show full text]
  • The Peoples of the Eastern Baltic Littoral
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-83372-1 - A Concise History of the Baltic States Andrejs Plakans Excerpt More information 1 The peoples of the eastern Baltic littoral A survey of the history of the peoples of the eastern Baltic littoral could start with the first mention of them in written sources, which would permit subsequent events to be described according to a recognized chronology. To begin much earlier requires that in this chapter we use a different time scale from that common among historians, reckoning the passage of time in tens and hundreds of thousands of years. The decision to start earlier was in part based on the desirability of underlining that the Baltic region was not empty space at the time major civilizations appeared, flowered, and declined in the Near East and in the Mediterranean basin; and in part to establish that human movement was from the beginning an integral part of long-term Baltic history. In the centuries when they began to appear by name in written historical sources – roughly starting in the first century AD – the peoples of the littoral were only the latest of hundreds of generations of migrants, some of whom left behind identifiable fragments of material culture while others disappeared leaving barely a trace. All these comings and goings no doubt had turning points of various kinds about which we are unlikely ever to know very much. The one that was crucial for connecting the continuous human history of the Baltic littoral to the history of the rest of the European continent, however, came when writers in the existing civilizations began to assign names to the littoral peoples, imprecise and largely uninformative though these names were.
    [Show full text]
  • „Golden Age”: Introduction Into the 1803–1832 Epochs
    ARCHIWUM EMIGRACJI Studia – Szkice – Dokumenty http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/AE.2018-2019.008 Toruń, Rok 2018/2019, Zeszyt 1–2 (26–27) ___________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ UNIWERSYTET W WILNIE THE UNIVERSITY OF VILNIUS AND ITS „GOLDEN AGE”: INTRODUCTION INTO THE 1803–1832 EPOCHS Alfredas BUMBLAUSKAS (Vilnius University) ORCID: 0000-0002-3067-786X Loreta SKURVYDAITĖ (Vilnius University) ORCID: 0000-0002-4350-4482 1. WHAT IS THE UNIVERSITY OF VILNIUS? It is a paradoxically simple question. Though it will not seem so simple if we ask another question — what is Vilnius? Today it is the capital of the Republic of Lithuania, a member state of the European Union. However, at the beginning of the 19th century, the epoch of great importance to us, it was turned into a provincial town of the Russian Empire. Prior to that, for a long time, it was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which existed in the 13th–18th century. In the 20th century, after the reestablishment of the Polish and Lithuanian states, it did not become the capital of Lithuania (the city of Kaunas became its provisional capital); Vilnius was incorporated into Poland and became a city of the Polish province. In 1939, on Stalin’s initiative, it was taken away from Poland and returned to Lithuania, at the same time annexing Lithuania to the Soviet Empire. All this has to be kept in mind if we want to understand the question what the University of Vilnius is. And what was it during the period between 1803 and 1832? 79 At first glance the answer seems simple — this is an institution founded by the Jesuits and Stephen Bathory in 1579.
    [Show full text]
  • UNITED NATIONS CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All
    CEDAW/C/LTU/1 English Page 1 CEDAW UNITED NATIONS Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW) CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 18 OF THE CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN Initial report of States parties LITHUANIA Part I Land and people1 Lithuania is located on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east, and Poland and the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation to the south. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 square kilometres. At the beginning of 1998 the population totalled 3,704 million. The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius. Average income per capita: in the first quarter of 1998, it was 452 litas (LT), and average disposable income per capita was LT 393.7. GDP: in 1996, LT 31,569 million; and in 1997, LT 38,201 million. /... CEDAW/C/LTU/1 English Page 2 Rate of inflation has been decreasing in recent years: in 1994, it was 45.1 per cent, and in 1997, 8.4 per cent. External debt: as of 1 July 1998, it comprised US$ 1,402.70 million. Rate of unemployment: in 1997, 5.9 per cent; in April 1998, 6.9 per cent. Literacy rate: according to the census of 1989, 99.8 per cent of the population 9-49 years of age were literate. Religion: the majority of the population is Roman Catholic. Ethnic composition of the population: according to the data of the beginning of 1997, Lithuanians comprised 81.6 per cent; Russians, 8.2; Poles, 6.9; Belarussians, 1.5; Ukrainians, 1.0; Jews, 0.1; and other nationalities, 0.7 per cent.
    [Show full text]
  • Download.Aspx?Symbolno=CEDAW%2F Px C%2Fltu%2Fco%2F5&Lang=En (Use the Link to ‘Key Documents’ on the Left Hand Side
    Centralized National Risk Assessment for Lithuania FSC-CNRA-LT V1-0 EN FSC-CNRA-LT V1-0 CENTRALIZED NATIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT FOR LITHUANIA 2017 – 1 of 81 – Title: Centralized National Risk Assessment for Lithuania Document reference FSC-CNRA-LT V1-0 EN code: Approval body: FSC International Center: Policy and Standards Unit Date of approval: 13 April 2017 Contact for comments: FSC International Center - Policy and Standards Unit - Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 5 53113 Bonn, Germany +49-(0)228-36766-0 +49-(0)228-36766-30 [email protected] © 2017 Forest Stewardship Council, A.C. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the publisher’s copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, recording taping, or information retrieval systems) without the written permission of the publisher. Printed copies of this document are for reference only. Please refer to the electronic copy on the FSC website (ic.fsc.org) to ensure you are referring to the latest version. The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) is an independent, not for profit, non- government organization established to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. FSC’s vision is that the world’s forests meet the social, ecological, and economic rights and needs of the present generation without compromising those of future generations. FSC-CNRA-LT V1-0 CENTRALIZED NATIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT FOR LITHUANIA 2017 – 2 of 81 – Contents Risk assessments that have been finalized for Lithuania ........................................... 4 Risk designations in finalized risk assessments for Lithuania ...................................
    [Show full text]