Influenced greatly by their Russian subjects, the Lithuanians not only reorganized their army, government administration, and legal and financial systems on Russian models but also allowed the Russian nobility to retain its Orthodox religion, its privileges, and its local authority.
The Lithuanians, however, also remained involved with their western neighbours; in 1385, under pressure from the hostile Teutonic Knights, the grand duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło) (reigned 1377–1434) concluded a pact with Poland (Union of Krewo), agreeing to accept the Roman Catholic faith, marry the Polish queen, become king of Poland, and unite Poland and Lithuania under a single ruler. Jogaila took the Polish name Władysław II Jagiełło.
Polish influence subsequently began to replace Russian influence in Lithuania. The grand duchy, however, retained its autonomy, and, under the rule of Vytautas (Vytautas the Great), Jogaila's cousin and former political rival, who was named viceroy in 1392, it expanded to the Ugra and Oka rivers in the east, assumed a dominant role in Tatar and east Russian political affairs, and became the most powerful state in eastern Europe. In 1410 Lithuania, led by Vytautas, also joined Poland and decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights (Teutonic Order) (Battle of Tannenberg). As a result, it gained control of the northwestern territory of Samogitia (confirmed in 1422) and permanently reduced the German threat to Lithuania.
After Vytautas' death (1430), Lithuania continued to have its own rulers, who were nominally subordinate to the Polish king but maintained Lithuania's autonomy and its authority in eastern European affairs. When the Poles chose the 19-year-old Lithuanian grand duke Casimir (Casimir IV) as their king (1447), the two countries became somewhat more closely associated. Casimir, however, in an attempt to guarantee Lithuania's independent status, granted a charter to the Lithuanian boyars who had proclaimed him grand duke (1447), verifying the nobles' rights and privileges, giving them extensive authority over the peasantry, and thereby increasing their political power.
The authority of the grand duke subsequently declined, and, without its strong ruler, Lithuania was unable to prevent the Tatars from continually raiding its southern lands; nor could it stop Muscovy (Moscow, Grand Principality of) from annexing the principalities of Novgorod (1479) and Tver (1485), which had maintained close relations with Lithuania, from seizing one-third of Lithuania's Russian lands (1499–1503), and from capturing Smolensk (1514), which Lithuania had held since 1408.
During the 16th century Lithuania made major economic advances, including agrarian reforms, and generally appeared to maintain itself as a strong, dynamic state. When the wars between Muscovy and Lithuania were resumed in the Livonian War (q.v.; 1558–83), however, Lithuania's resources were strained, and it was forced to appeal to Poland for help. The Poles refused unless the two states were formally united. Lithuanian resistance to a union was strong, but, when Sigismund II Augustus (grand duke of Lithuania 1544–72; king of Poland 1548–72) attached one-third of Lithuania's territories (Volhynia, Kiev, Bratslav, and Podlasia) to Poland, the Lithuanians had to accept the Union of Lublin (Lublin, Union of) (1569).
Under the terms of the union, Lithuania officially remained a distinct state, constituting an equal partner with Poland in a Polish-Lithuanian confederation. Nevertheless, it soon became the subordinate member of the new state. Its gentry adopted Polish customs and language; its administration organized itself on Polish models and pursued Polish policies. Although the peasants retained their Lithuanian identity, Lithuania was politically an integral part of Poland from 1569 until the end of the 18th century, when the partitions of Poland placed it in the Russian Empire.
Livonian War
▪ Russian history
(1558–83), prolonged military conflict, during which Russia unsuccessfully fought Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden for control of greater Livonia—the area including Estonia, Livonia, Courland, and the island of Oesel—which was ruled by the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights (Order of the Brothers of the Sword (Brothers of the Sword, Order of the)).
In 1558 Ivan IV of Russia invaded Livonia, hoping to gain access to the Baltic Sea and to take advantage of the weakness of the Livonian Knights; he seized Narva and Dorpat and besieged Reval. The Knights, unable to withstand the Russian attack, dissolved their Order (1561); they placed Livonia proper under Lithuanian protection and gave Courland to Poland, Estonia to Sweden, and Oesel to Denmark.
Ivan was then obliged to wage war against Sweden and Lithuania to retain his conquests in Livonia. Initially successful, the Russians captured Polotsk, in Lithuanian Belorussia (1563), and occupied Lithuanian territory up to Vilna. In 1566 the Russian zemsky sobor (“assembly of the land”) refused a Lithuanian peace proposal. But as the war progressed, Russia's position deteriorated; during the 1560s Russia experienced severe internal social and economic disruptions while Lithuania became stronger, forming a political union with Poland (1569) and acquiring a new king, Stephen Báthory (1576).
Báthory launched a series of campaigns against Russia, recapturing Polotsk (1579) and laying siege to Pskov. In 1582 Russia and Lithuania agreed upon a peace settlement (Peace of Yam Zapolsky), whereby Russia returned all the Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced its claims to Livonia. In 1583 Russia also made peace with Sweden, surrendering several Russian towns along the Gulf of Finland (its only access to the Baltic Sea) and giving up its claims to Estonia.
History
The early period
Origins and foundation
Kiev has a long, rich, and often stormy history. Its beginnings are lost in antiquity. Archaeological findings of stone and bone implements, the remains of primitive dwellings built of wood and skins, and large accumulations of mammoths' bones indicate that the first settlements in the vicinity date from the Upper Paleolithic Period (some 15,000 to 40,000 years ago). As early as 3000 BC in the Neolithic Period and subsequently at the time of the Cucuteni-Trypillya culture (Trypillya culture) at the end of the Neolithic, tribes engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry lived on the site of modern Kiev. Excavations continue to uncover many artifacts from settlements dating from the Copper, Bronze, and Iron ages. The tribes of the area traded with the nomadic peoples of the steppes to the south, Scythians, Sarmatians, and later Khazars, and also with the ancient Greek colonies that were located on the Black Sea coast.
According to the 12th-century chronicle Povest vremennykh let (“Tale of Bygone Years,” also known as the The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The)), Kiev was founded by three brothers, Kiy, Shchek, and Khoriv, leaders of the Polyane tribe of the East Slavs (Slav). Each established his own settlement on a hill, and these became the town of Kiev, named for the eldest brother, Kiy; a small stream nearby was named for their sister Lybed. Although the chronicle account is legendary, there are contemporary references to Kiev in the writings of Byzantine, German, and Arab historians and geographers. Archaeological evidence suggests that Kiev was founded in the 6th or 7th century AD.
The first Rus capital
Less legendary is the chronicle account of the Varangians (Viking), who seized Kiev in the mid-9th century. As in Novgorod to the north, a Slavo-Varangian ruling elite developed. Kiev, with its good defensive site on the high river bluffs and as the centre of a rich agricultural area and a group of early Slavic towns, began to gain importance. About 882 Oleg (Oleh), the ruler of Novgorod, captured Kiev and made it his capital, the centre of the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus. The town flourished, chiefly through trade along the Dnieper going south to Byzantium and north over portages to the rivers flowing to the Baltic, the so-called “road from the Varangians to the Greeks,” or “water road.” Trade also went to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.