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GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA |
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Lithuanian tribes, divided and dispersed in small territory, employed themselves mostly with agriculture, hunting and fishing, but they were accustomed to brigand expeditions, led by their princes - kunigai - to neighbouring Polish and Russian lands. Numerous military expeditions, and their changing luck, made the Lithuanians to develop closer tribal links; however, their vitality was rather short-lived. It was not until the second quarter of the 13th century that appeared a new, powerful impulse, which to a great degree conditioned emergence of state structures; it was the German drive to the East conducted by the Teutonic and Livonian Knights. One of the Lithuanian kunigai, Mindaugas, used his position of the temporary military leader to unite first a considerable part of the Lithuanian tribes (around 1235), and later also the whole country. The direct source of that process became a substantial military power - armed
bands. With them Mindaugas moved on, into the Russian domains, which opened an era of long opposition of both countries and extension of the Lithuanian possessions in Russia. Within 150 years the Lithuanian state expanded in vast territories, while with time Russian elements started dominating within
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First Mindaugas incorporated to Lithuania the Black Russia - territories in the south of upper Niemen, at that time under the rule of the dukes of Polotsk, and partially Turov, Pinsk and Volhynia, with the cities of Slonim and Novogrudok. The latter one had even been the capital of the Lithuanian state. |
Those conquests took place at the time of the Tartaro-Mongolian invasion - weakened Russian principalities at that time were not able to deliver any serious resistance. In the next years Mindaugas consolidated his power, and in 1253 he received, upon previous conversion to Christianity, a royal crown from pope Innocent IV. His further fates - return to paganism, bloody wars with the Teutons and death from the hands of a murderer (1263) - did not change the course of the History. True, within few decades Lithuania, ravaged by domestic troubles and the Teutonic aggression, did not continue expansion in Russia, but eventually that process renewed with previous speed, especially during the reign of Gediminas (1316-1341), who used the title of the grand duke, and sometimes even the royal title. Nevertheless, his predecessor, Vytenis, took Polotsk exploiting the political trouble of the Polotsk principality, which at that time split into several small fiefdoms.
Using either force or intrigues, or other methods, especially successful marriages of his sons with Russian princesses, Gediminas subdued principalities of Minsk, Vitebsk, Turov and Pinsk, as well as a part of Podlashye - in the basin of middle Bug and upper Narev. More or less at the same time, despite of political and military successes, growth of the power of the Lithuanian state and moving of the capital from Trakai to Vilnius (Trakai was the capital after Novogrudok), the Lithuanian element of the country yielded to the Russian element, and the Russian language became official in Lithuania.
The son of Gediminas, Algirdas (1345-1377), devoted his entire reign to the further expansion of Lithuania in Russian territories. First he subdued the principality of Kiev, where he appointed one of his sons to the governor, and then Volhynia. Later Algirdas' armies moved into Podolia, which at that time was under the direct Tartar rule. A protracted war with the Tartars had started. In 1362 Algirdas defeated the armies of three Tartar hordes in the battle of Blue Waters (Siniye Vody, nowadays Sinyukha, tributary of the Southern Bug) and conquered Podolia, where he appointed to the governors representatives of another family of the descendants of Gediminas - the Koryatoviches. The struggle for Podolia, as well as Volhynia, became the source of the long Polish-Lithuanian conflict, in result of which some contested territories went to Poland. And as far as the Podolian conquests of Algirdas are concerned, it is often mentioned that he had extended the frontiers of his state as far as to the Black Sea coasts. If that statement includes any historic truth, it must be rather concerning a temporary and informal authority, and in later period. At any rate, Lithuania had not established any state administration on the Black Sea, and the authority of the grand dukes of Lithuania over so-called "Wild Plains" was always just nominal.
After that Algirdas' conquests crossed the Dnieper to its east bank, into the lands of the principalities of Pereyaslavl, Chernigov and Novgorod Severskiy, as well as partly Smolensk, in its northern part with the cities of Belyi and Toropets. The territory of Lithuania doubled; at the same time the proper Lithuanian lands constituted no more than one-ninth of the whole state. The constitution of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was very peculiar. In some domains Algirdas left old rulers - the Rurikoviches; in other domains he appointed his sons or other relatives - the Gediminoviches. Links among individual fiefdoms, and between the fiefdoms and the centre was rather loose; at any rate one is not entitled to speak about a centralized state power. The Russian element in that state already dominated stronger than in the times of Gediminas, and not only the Russian domination did not meet any resistance, but there was not even a thought that such a resistance might be any expedient.
Algirdas also enjoyed big authority in Pskov and Novgorod, as well as growing influence in Tver. The political support of Tver was pregnant with the conflict with Moscow, but the sources of the conflict lied, of course, deeper. Once Algirdas conquered such a big piece of Russia, he needed to take into consideration that such an incredible territorial growth would have to be defended somehow. The Grand Duchy of Moscow at that time also started integration of the Russian lands and this way became Lithuania's principal rival. There are no doubts that if there had been any slightest chances for success, Algirdas would have not hesitated to crush the principality of Moscow.
Such was the background of three Algirdas' expeditions against Moscow (1368-1372). But they all turned disastrous, chiefly due to poor planning, huge distances, lack of support among the population, and strong defence of Moscow and the Kremlin, which at that time was substantially rebuilt. First two sieges of the Kremlin had to be lifted due to disastrous outcome of the campaigns and weather conditions. During the third expedition Algirdas did not even rich the gates of the Kremlin; he was forced to turn back after his army suffered big casualties already en route. But the aggressive policy of Lithuania did not exhaust after that; still Michael, the duke of Tver, strove to lay his hand on the Grand Duchy, for which he received a yarlik from The Horde's. Dimitri of Moscow then severed relations with the Tartars, still so abruptly for the first time since the Tartaro-Mongolian invasion. It became obvious that the situation was heading towards a decisive clash. Dimitri decided to outstrip the events and struck first against Tver (1375 г.). He forced Michael to renounce claims towards the Grand Duke's throne and declare support of further campaigns against The Horde. Next year with the same result Dimitri campaigned in Bulgaria of
Kama.
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