DOCSLIB.ORG

New Book: Bessudnova on Russo-Livonian Relations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
New Book: Bessudnova on Russo-Livonian Relations H-EarlySlavic New book: Bessudnova on Russo-Livonian relations Discussion published by Daniel Waugh on Thursday, August 6, 2015 Posted by Daniel C.Waugh <[email protected]> M[arina] B[orisovna] Bessudnova. Rossiia i Livoniia v kontse XV veka. Istoki konflikta. Moskva: Kvadriga, 2015. 448 pp. 16 pp. ill. ISBN 978-5-91791-173-1. The name of Marina Borisovna Bessudnova, who teaches at Lipetsk State Pedagogical University, may not yet be well known to specialists on early modern Russia and the Baltic region. She has previously published a book on Novgorod as reflected in Livonian sourcesIstoriia ( Velikogo Novgoroda kontsa XV-nachala XVI veka po livonskim istochnikam, Velikii Novorod, 2009) and has edited a volume devoted to the 770th anniversary of the famous battle on Lake Peipus Ledovoe( poboishche v zerkale epokhi, Lipetsk, 2013). Several recent articles, not all published in readily available places, anticipate the impressive monograph under consideration here. While I can but suggest why it should be of interest (in that as a non-specialist I cannot provide a proper review), my sense is that it will establish for the author a bright place in the firmament of those who are writing seriously about foreign relations in early modern Eastern Europe. Despite the fact that there is a long scholarly tradition of primary source publication and monographic study of the relations between Russia and Livonia, much of what we thought we knew about that history is now undergoing serious revision in Russian-language scholarship. One might cite, for example, A. I. Filiushkin’sIzobretaia pervuiu voinu Rossii i Evropy (reviewed on H- EarlySlavic 30 June 2014) or A. I. Ianushkevich’sLivonskaia voina (like Bessudnova’s volume published by Kvadriga [2013]; reviewed by V. A. Arakcheev in Quaestio Rossica 2014, No. 2). Just as Ivan IV’s “Livonian War” is being reassessed, so now Bessudnova invites us to reconsder the events leading up to the Russian-Livonian war of 1501-1503. In so doing, she takes on entrenched views which have tended for nationalistic or other reasons to depict the relations in rather simplistic terms of hostility and aggression (heroic Livonians vs. barbaric, imperialistic Russians or vice versa, depending on which side of the confessional boundary one stands). Rather, she argues for a much more nuanced picture where neither side was particularly interested in provoking a conflict, where relations across the borders generally were peaceful because of mutual interest in trade, and where domestic and other international political considerations were usually the more important ones for the political actors. The often inflammatory rhetoric in the sources tends to conceal the realities. As the author recognizes, the Russian sources unfortunately leave more to hypothesis than one would like. It is easy enough to suggest Ivan III was more interested in consolidation of his hold over Russian territories and increasingly insistent that his new “imperial” status be recognized in Europe. It can be difficult prove though what exactly he may have been thinking in closing the Hanse factory in Novgorod and then taking his uncompromising stance in negotiations with Livonia and the Hanse following the deterioration of relations in the early 1490s. The primarily German sources from Livonia and the Hanse are far more revealing about the making of policy, in particular that by the head of the Livonian Order Wolter von Plettenberg. Livonia was far from a united entity, and von Citation: Daniel Waugh. New book: Bessudnova on Russo-Livonian relations. H-EarlySlavic. 08-06-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/3076/discussions/77734/new-book-bessudnova-russo-livonian-relations Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-EarlySlavic Plettenberg no “national hero.” Bessudnova’s extensive quotation from the well-preserved correspondence and reports of negotiations undertaken by the various Livonian actors explains convincingly (in my view) von Plettenberg’s extreme caution due to the weakness of the Order and his difficulty in gaining either domestic support (for example, from the major commercial cities such as Reval/Tallinn) or assurances of foreign support as relations with the new power to the east deteriorated. She argues that Livonia was caught in the middle of events involving much more powerful forces at a time when the consolidation of the Russian lands around Moscow was significantly changing the balance of power in the region. The failure of the Livonian actors to appreciate the significance of Moscow’s takeover of Novgorod (with the replacement there of many of the elite families) and subsequent de facto control over Pskov meant it was impossible to expect negotiations to resolve conflicts could proceed as they had when those cities were still independent. In her view, Ivan III’s closure of the Hanse factory in Novgorod in 1494 had little to do with any particular interest of the Grand Prince in controlling Baltic trade but rather was a symbolic assertion of his power to enhance his stature and exact a kind of “revenge” for what he considered to be his demeaning treatment in the failed negotiations with the Holy Roman Empire. At the same time though, he did not appear to have explicit plans regarding territorial expansion into Livonia. Ivan’s political world view was very different from that in the Hanse cities. They might reasonably invoke the rule of law in cases involving Russian merchants and insist that their own merchants and diplomats likewise be subject to the rule of law in Russia. But the Russia of Ivan III had become one where, if he so willed, the Grand Prince would rule by fiat, and he had the unreasonable expectation that his negotiating counterparts would submit to his demands, even if that in fact was for them unthinkable foreign meddling in their domestic affairs. Undoubtedly some of Bessudnova’s conclusions will be disputed, but arguably she has looked much more closely at the details in the documents than have most of her predecessors. And the devil seems to be in the details of what those documents reveal. One might fault her book for its distinct emphasis on the Livonian part of the history, although for this reader precisely that emphasis is welcome for its encouragement to look through a lens other than the Russian one if one would wish to understand the foreign policy of Ivan III. Some may wonder whether she lets Ivan get away with too much, although I fail to find in her text any evidence she has a political axe to grind at a time when our daily news is rarely free of opinions about “Russian intentions.” At very least, readers of this ambitious book should come away with a new appreciation that for any analysis of foreign relations amongst “regional actors” to be persuasive, it will have to take into account their domestic concerns and also look at the big picture of international diplomacy. Citation: Daniel Waugh. New book: Bessudnova on Russo-Livonian relations. H-EarlySlavic. 08-06-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/3076/discussions/77734/new-book-bessudnova-russo-livonian-relations Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Town Archives and Historiographic Notes
    Between Public and Secret: Town Archives and Historiographic Notes Juhan Kreem (Tallinn) Common history is one of the important features of the urban public. Even when the history of a community is not explicitly written down, there are the stories, interpretations, and legends which cement the urban identity and self-awareness. This kind of a public urban sense of history may be easily pos- tulated; it is, however, often difficult to establish the mechanisms of its forma- tion and transferral in the Middle Ages. There has been a kind of oral tradition, there are different commemorative monuments, and so on. Among the most ob- vious means of recording and transferral of common past are urban history writing and collections of the town archives. Urban history writing is a complex late medieval phenomenon, mostly known from the Italian and German contexts.1 It is very variable in its form. There are chronicles in a proper sense: that is, more or less consistent narratives of the past and contemporary events. There are also more heterogeneous histo- riographic notes (Aufzeichnungen) scattered in different town records or col- lected later from these records. Also the audience of this history writing has been very different. The chronicles were intended for the widest possible public and appeared quite early in print. There are also all kinds of shorter historio- graphic notes, which were mainly intended for the use of the town council. Sometimes it has been explicitly underlined that they are not for the wider pub- lic, that is secret (hemlik).2 The notion of public archives is of course modern.
    [Show full text]
  • 17 Infidel Turks and Schismatic Russians in Late Medieval Livonia
    Madis Maasing 17 Infidel Turks and Schismatic Russians in Late Medieval Livonia 17.1 Introduction At the beginning of the sixteenth century, political rhetoric in Livonia was shaped by the threat posed by an alien power: Following a significant deterio- ration in the relations between the Catholic Livonian territories and their mighty Eastern Orthodox neighbour – the Grand Duchy of Moscow – war broke out, lasting from 1501 to 1503, with renewed armed conflict remaining an immi- nent threat until 1509. During this period of confrontation, and afterwards, the Livonians (i.e., the political elite of Livonia) fulminated in their political writ- ings about the gruesome, schismatic, and even infidel Russians, who posed a threat not only to Livonia, but to Western Christendom in general. In the Holy Roman Empire and at the Roman Curia, these allegations were quite favoura- bly received. Arguably, the Livonians’ greatest success took the form of a papal provision for two financially profitable anti-Russian indulgence campaigns (1503–1510). For various political reasons, the motif of a permanent and general ‘Russian threat’ had ongoing currency in Livonia up until the Livonian War (1558–1583). Even after the collapse of the Livonian territories, the Russian threat motif continued to be quite effectively used by other adversaries of Mos- cow – e.g., Poland-Lithuania and Sweden. I will focus here first and foremost on what was behind the initial success of the Russian threat motif in Livonia, but I will also address why it persisted for as long as it did. A large part of its success was the fact that it drew upon a similar phenomenon – the ‘Turkish threat’,1 which played a significant role in the political rhetoric of Early Modern Europe, especially in south-eastern 1 This research was supported by the Estonian Research Council’s PUT 107 programme, “Me- dieval Livonia: European Periphery and its Centres (Twelfth–Sixteenth Centuries)”, and by the European Social Fund’s Doctoral Studies and Internationalization Programme DoRa, which is carried out by Foundation Archimedes.
    [Show full text]
  • Vērdiņam 500 500 Years of Livonian Ferding
    VĒRDIŅAM 500 500 YEARS OF LIVONIAN FERDING Informācija pa tālruni 67022434. Information by phone +371 67022434. Informācija pa tālruni [email protected]. Information www.bank.lv by phone +371 67022434. [email protected] www.bank.lv Latviešu rakstnieka Kārļa Skalbes (1879–1945) "Pasaka par vērdiņu" (1912) ir Latvian writer Kārlis Skalbe (1879–1945) wrote a "Fairy Tale about a Ferding" vēstījums par to, kā trūcīgais pirtnieks Ansis negaidīti atrod vērdiņu, kas, iztē- (1912), in which a poor bathhouse attendant Ansis finds a ferding, which, when- rēts būdams, atkal atgriežas saimnieka kabatā. Alkatības pārņemtais Ansis visu ever spent, returns to its owner's pocket. Overcome by greed, Ansis lives out his dzīvi vada, tērējot un tērējot šo brīnumvērdiņu. Viņš gan kļūst neticami bagāts life, spending and respending the miracle coin. Having accumulated fabulous un visu apskausts, tomēr, labumus raušot, pat veco māti atstājis trūkumcietējas wealth and being envied by all, he has become so selfish that he does not even postam. Vērdiņš Ansim gandarījumu tā arī neatnes, un naudas gabalu atgūst help his destitute mother. The ferding does not bring satisfaction to Ansis and, velns, tā patiesais saimnieks. Pasaka ar gudru pamācību saistīt savas intereses in the end, it is the Devil, the true owner of the coin, who reclaims it. This fairy un guvumus ar līdzcilvēku vajadzībām tapusi laikā, kad vērdiņš bija sastopams tale, with its implied advice to tie one's interests and gains to the needs of other vien tautas garamantu un muzeju krājumos. people, was written at a time when the ferding could only be found in museums.
    [Show full text]
  • ИОГАНН БЛАНКЕНФЕЛЬД И МИСЮРЬ МУНЕХИН. К ИСТОРИИ ЛИВОНСКО-РУССКИХ ОТНОШЕНИИ В 1520-Е Годы* Miscellanea
    ББК 63.3(2)44; УДК 94(47).042+94(474.2) А. Селарт ИОГАНН БЛАНКЕНФЕЛЬД И МИСЮРЬ МУНЕХИН. К ИСТОРИИ ЛИВОНСКО-РУССКИХ ОТНОШЕНИИ в 1520-е годы* Miscellanea Иоганн Бланкенфельд происходил из берлинской патрицианской семьи. Его ка- рьера духовного лица закончилась кафедрой рижского архиепископа (1524–1527)1. Он является одной из выдающихся, но одновременно и противоречивых фигур в истории Ливонии XVI века. Бланкенфельд учился в Вене и Болонье, получил уче- ные степени доктора церковного и римского права. Он служил семье бранденбург- ских курфюрстов2 в качестве дипломата при Имперском камеральном суде и папской курии, был генеральным прокуратором Тевтонского ордена3 в 1512–1519 гг. * Работа выполнена при поддержке проекта ETF № 7744. 1 Schnöring W. Johannes Blankenfeld. Ein Lebensbild aus den Anfängen der Reformation (Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte. Bd. 86). Halle, 1905; Schuchard Ch. Johann Blankenfeld (†1527) — eine Karriere zwischen Berlin, Rom und Livland // Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Jahrbuch des Landesarchivs Berlin 2002. Berlin, 2002. S. 27–56. 2 Schulte A. Die Fugger in Rom 1495–1523: Mit Studien zur Geschichte des kirchlichen Finanzwesens jener Zeit. Leipzig, 1904. Bd. 1. S. 92–141; Beuttel J.-E. Der Generalprokurator des Deutschen Ordens an der R�mischen Kurie. Amt, Funktionen, personeller Umfeld und Finanzierung. Marburg, 1999. S. 76–77, 146. (�uellen und Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens. Bd. 55); Sach M. Hochmeister und Großfürst. Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Deutschen Orden in Preußen und dem Moskauer Staat um die Wende zur Neuzeit. Stuttgart, 2002. S. 203–205. (�uellen und Studien zur Geschichte des �stlichen Europa. Bd. 62). 3 Курфюрст бранденбургский Йоахим I Нестор и кардинал Альбрехт II, архиепископ магдебургский и майнцский были братьями.
    [Show full text]
  • Ordines Militares
    ORDINES◆ MILITARES COLLOQUIA TORUNENSIA HISTORICA Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders vol. XVI (2011) DIE RITTERORDEN IN UMBRUCHS- UND KRISENZEITEN e Military Orders in Times of Change and Crisis Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu Toruń 2011 E"#$%&#'* B%'&" Roman Czaja, Editor in Chief, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń Jürgen Sarnowsky, Editor in Chief, University of Hamburg Jochen Burgtorf, California State University Sylvain Gouguenheim, École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Lyon Hubert Houben, Università del Salento Lecce Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Assistant Editor, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds R56#575&8: Wiesław Długokęcki, University of Gdańsk Marian Dygo, University of Warsaw Sławomir Jóźwiak, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń A""&588 %= E"#$%&#'* O==#>5: Instytut Historii i Archiwistyki UMK, ul. Gagarina 9 87-100 Toruń e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Subscriptions orders shoud be addressed to: [email protected] Wydanie publikacji do[nansowany przez Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego Printed in Poland © Copyright by Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika © Copyright by Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu Toruń 2011 ISSN 0867-2008 NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY PRESS E"#$%&#'* O==#>5: ul. Gagarina 5, 87-100 Toruń tel. (0) 56 611 42 95, fax (0) 56 611 47 05 e-mail: [email protected] D#8$&#{|$#%}: ul. Reja 25, 87-100 Toruń tel./fax (0) 56 611 42 38 e-mail: [email protected] www.wydawnictwoumk.pl First edition Print: Nicolaus Copernicus University Press ul. Gagarina 5, 87-100 Toruń CONTENTS I. STUDIES AND ARTICLES Alan Forey (Kirtlington) A Hospitaller Consilium (1274) and the Explanations Advanced by Military Orders for Problems Confronting them in the Holy Land in the Later irteenth Century .....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Merchants of War: Mercenaries, Economy, and Society in the Late Sixteenth-Century Baltic
    Merchants of War: Mercenaries, Economy, and Society in the Late Sixteenth-Century Baltic by Joseph Thomas Chatto Sproule A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Joseph Thomas Chatto Sproule 2019 Merchants of War: Mercenaries, Economy, and Society in the Late Sixteenth-Century Baltic Joseph Thomas Chatto Sproule Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2019 Abstract The polities of the sixteenth-century Baltic competed and cooperated with one another and with local power groups in fluctuating patterns of rivalry and expedient partnership. Mercenarism thrived in this context, as early modern governments were seldom equipped with the fiscal and logistical tools or the domestic military resources needed to wholly meet the escalating challenges of warfare, while mercenaries themselves were drawn to a chaotic environment that afforded opportunities for monetary gain and promotion into the still- coalescing political elites of the region’s emerging powers. This study sits, like the mercenary himself, at the intersection of the military, the economic, the social, and the political. Broadly, it is an analysis of mercenaries in Livonian and Swedish service during the so-called Livonian War of 1558 to 1583. Mercenaries are examined as agents of the polities for whom they fought and as actors with goals of their own, ambiguously positioned figures whose outsider status and relative independence presented both opportunities and challenges as they navigated the shifting networks of conflict and allegiance that characterized their fractious world. The aims of this study are threefold. The military efficacy of Western and Central European professional soldiers is assessed in an Eastern ii European context, problematizing the notion of Western military superiority in a time of alleged military revolution.
    [Show full text]
  • Anu Mänd (Tallinn)
    BEAVER TAILS AND ROASTED HERRING HEADS: FAST AS FEAST IN LATE-MEDIEVAL LIVONIA Anu Mänd (Tallinn) Fast and feast – this pair of words sounds well and makes a good book ti- tle.1 Fast and feast (in the Middle Ages) are usually treated as contrasts, as no- tions that oppose each other, that exclude each other. What I intend to do in this essay is to demonstrate how fast and feast were sometimes combined. In order to do so, I shall examine cases where a festive occasion took place in the course of a fasting period, particularly Lent.2 The relations between fast and feast in the Middle Ages have been studied before. A rightful question has been if fast, the very idea of which is self-restric- tion and abstinence, in practice meant any self-restriction? The answer to this largely depends on the social, temporal, and regional context. It is clear that one’s eating (and fasting) habits and possibilities depended on one’s status, po- sition, wealth, health, age, and gender, and that, in general, the fasting regula- tions became less strict in the course of time. It has been shown that for prosper- ous people, fasting periods meant above all an opportunity to consume extraor- dinary and expensive foodstuffs, and that this helped to satisfy their need for (self-)representation.3 This was true for fast days in general; however, my aim is to demonstrate that it was also no problem to arrange lavish feasts during Lent and other periods of abstinence, and, at the same time, to formally break no fasting rule imposed by the Church.
    [Show full text]
  • The Story of Lutheran Sects
    The Story of Lutheran Sects The Story of Lutheran Sects: “In Christ We Speak” By Aarne Ruben The Story of Lutheran Sects: “In Christ We Speak” By Aarne Ruben This book first published 2020 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2020 by Aarne Ruben All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-5208-X ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-5208-1 Cover illustration by Lembe Ruben-Kangur TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Holy Innocents’ Night ............................................................................ 1 2. Context ................................................................................................... 7 3. Heretics: From Dignity to Scorn ........................................................... 19 4. Exegesis of Romans 1 and 3 – Revolving Elements in Revolution ...... 27 5. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin ........................................................................ 31 6. Hostia and its Historical Development ................................................. 37 7. The Indulgences – Potent for God, Accident for Humans .................... 43 8. Utopia of Marrying a Nun ...................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Ordines Militares Xx the Knight Brothers From
    ORDINES◆ MILITARES COLLOQUIA TORUNENSIA HISTORICA XX Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders 2 0 1 5 ISSN (print) 0867-2008 / ISSN (online) 2391-7512 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/OM.2015.006 pp. 123–144 J A. M Institute for History Universiteit Leiden Johan Huizinga Building Doelensteeg 16 2311 VL Leiden Netherlands [email protected] THE KNIGHT BROTHERS FROM THE LOW COUNTRIES IN THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE WESTPHALIANS AND THE RHINELANDERS IN THE LIVONIAN BRANCH OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER K Teutonic Order; Livonia; internal conflicts; th century; medieval prosopography; careers rosopographical research is a rewarding but time and energy consuming kind of study. As for the military orders, the challenge may be too big when datasets on thousands of persons have to be built, like in the case of the PTemplars at the time of the trials or the Teutonic knights in early fifteenth cen- tury Prussia. About twenty-five years ago however, a serious collaboration project has been carried out to gather as much information as possible on the careers and origin of the somewhat smaller population of the Livonian knights of the Teu- tonic Order. Lutz Fenske and Klaus Militzer, who had the lead, brought a group of eight specialists together to produce a catalogue of Ritterbrüder which could Czasopismo jest wydawane na zasadach licencji niewyłącznej Creative Commons i dystrybuowane w wersji elektronicznej Open Access przez Akadmicką Platformę Czasopism www.apcz.pl received: "#.$%.&$"% | accepted: "%.$'.&$"% © Copyright by Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, 2015 124 JOHANNES A. MOL serve as a point of departure for further research.
    [Show full text]
  • Ordines Militares
    ORDINES◆ MILITARES COLLOQUIA TORUNENSIA HISTORICA Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders vol. XVI (2011) DIE RITTERORDEN IN UMBRUCHS- UND KRISENZEITEN e Military Orders in Times of Change and Crisis Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu Toruń 2011 E"#$%&#'* B%'&" Roman Czaja, Editor in Chief, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń Jürgen Sarnowsky, Editor in Chief, University of Hamburg Jochen Burgtorf, California State University Sylvain Gouguenheim, École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Lyon Hubert Houben, Università del Salento Lecce Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Assistant Editor, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds R56#575&8: Wiesław Długokęcki, University of Gdańsk Marian Dygo, University of Warsaw Sławomir Jóźwiak, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń A""&588 %= E"#$%&#'* O==#>5: Instytut Historii i Archiwistyki UMK, ul. Gagarina 9 87-100 Toruń e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Subscriptions orders shoud be addressed to: [email protected] Wydanie publikacji do[nansowany przez Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego Printed in Poland © Copyright by Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika © Copyright by Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu Toruń 2011 ISSN 0867-2008 NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY PRESS E"#$%&#'* O==#>5: ul. Gagarina 5, 87-100 Toruń tel. (0) 56 611 42 95, fax (0) 56 611 47 05 e-mail: [email protected] D#8$&#{|$#%}: ul. Reja 25, 87-100 Toruń tel./fax (0) 56 611 42 38 e-mail: [email protected] www.wydawnictwoumk.pl First edition Print: Nicolaus Copernicus University Press ul. Gagarina 5, 87-100 Toruń CONTENTS I. STUDIES AND ARTICLES Alan Forey (Kirtlington) A Hospitaller Consilium (1274) and the Explanations Advanced by Military Orders for Problems Confronting them in the Holy Land in the Later irteenth Century .....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Liivimaa Maapäev Wolter Von Plettenbergi Ajal (1494–1535)*
    Ajalooline Ajakiri, 2008, 1/2 (123/124), 45–88 Liivimaa maapäev Wolter von Plettenbergi ajal (1494–1535)* Pärtel Piirimäe Vana-Liivimaa riikluse lahtimõtestamisel on võtmetähendusega maapäeva institutsiooni analüüs. Läti ajaloolane Ilgvars Misāns, üks Liivimaa seisus- like kogunemiste paremaid tundjaid, on tabavalt öelnud, et just tänu maa- päevale saame kõnelda Liivimaast kui “ühtsest poliitilisest organismist”.1 Tõepoolest, maapäev oli ainus institutsioon, mis ühendas kõiki Liivimaa maaisandaid ja seisuslikke korporatsioone, mistõttu ilma maapäevata ei saaks kindlasti kõnelda Liivimaa ühtsusest poliitilises mõttes. Samas ei ole historiograafias selgeks vaieldud, mida Liivimaa kui poliitiline organism endast täpsemalt kujutas. Kaks äärmuslikku vastusevõimalust on sõnasta- nud baltisaksa ajaloolane Heinz von zur Mühlen oma küsimusega, kas 16. sajandi Liivimaa oli “Staatenbund” või “Ständestaat” – riikide liit või sei- suslik riik? Siinkohal on tarvilik märkida, et niimoodi sõnastatuna on see küsi- mus ilmselgelt anakronistlik, kuna sedalaadi lähtumine uusaegsest, suve- räänsusprintsiibil põhinevast riigimõistest on hiliskeskaja ja varauusaegse poliitilise struktuuri analüüsiks ebasobiv. Eelmodernsed riiklikud moo- dustised olid mitmetahulised ja keerukad, koondades sageli enda alla erinevatel tingimustel liidetud ning väga erineva integratsiooniastmega seotud osiseid.2 Nii on ju Liivimaa puhul veel eraldi probleemiks seotus * Artikkel on valminud sihtfinantseeritava teadusteema SF0180040s08 toetusel. Olen tänu võlgu dr Juhan Kreemile kasulike märkuste ja nõuannete eest. 1 Ilgvars Misāns, “Wolter von Plettenberg und der livländische Landtag”, Wolter von Plettenberg und das mittelalterliche Livland, hrsg. von Norbert Angermann und Ilgvars Misāns, Schriften der Baltischen Historischen Kommission, 7 (Lüneburg: Verlag Nor- dostdeutsches Kulturwerk, 2001), 55–71. 2 Vt nt Harald Gustafsson, “The conglomerate state: a perspective on state formation in early modern Europe”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 23 (1998), 189–213; John H.
    [Show full text]
  • Fishponds in the Baltic States Historical Cyprinid Culture in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
    CHAPTER 6 Fishponds in the Baltic States Historical Cyprinid Culture in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Madeleine Bonow, Stanisław Cios and Ingvar Svanberg The three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – are currently among the smallest aquaculture producing countries in the European Union (Eurostat 2011: 142). The main species produced in Estonia is rainbow trout, Oncor- hynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1792), while the common carp, Cyprinus carpio, is the main species in Latvia and Lithuania. So far, there has been very little research into the history of fishpond culture in the region that today constitutes the Baltic States. However, the cultivation of cyprinids in ponds in this area can be traced to as far back to medieval times. As well as the common carp, the crucian carp, Carassius carassius, tench, Tinca tinca, and, more recently, during the Soviet-forced annexation, the Prussian carp, Carassius gibelio, have also been farmed. The latter species was introduced into the Baltic States in the late 1940s (Ojaveer, Pihu and Saat 2003: 231; Vetemaa et al. 2005; Aleksejevs and Birzaks 2011). Undertaking research across the Baltic region is complicated by the fact that the available sources are in many different languages, which is a consequence of the region’s turbulent political history. Different rulers have conquered the area, and national borders have shifted numerous times. The present day borders of the three Baltic states of interest to this study emerged with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when they reclaimed independence. The historical establishment of pond culture in the Baltic territories is highly intertwined with the earlier monastic culture and feudal structures.
    [Show full text]