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Neighbors with a Common PastRecently I came across the October 2009 issue of ARCHE, a well-known Belarusian socio-political magazine. This particular issue was devoted to Lithuania, Belarus’ neighbor to northwest and was entitled 1000 Years Together. It contained a number of articles by Lithuanian historians, most of them describing various aspects of the common past of Belarus and Lithuania.I was born and grew up in Vilnia that now as Vilnius is a part of present-day Lithuania. I maintained lifelong interest in the region, thus I am well acquainted with the ethnic issues peculiar to this part of Europe.. Yes, our peoples, the Belarusians and the present-day Lithuanians (a Baltic ethnic group) have lived almost 1000 years together, inhabiting the medieval state of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the Latin name, or Litva, as Belarusians call it, or Lietuva as do the Lithuanians.). Yet, the heritage of the historical Grand Duchy of Litva ( abbreviated as GDL) is now interpreted by each nation differently. The modern Lithuanian state presents itself as the sole legal successor to the GDL. According to the current Lithuanian constitution, the Lithuanian nation created the State of Lithuania many centuries ago, and has based its legal foundation on the (medieval) Lithuanian Statutes. This implies that both the medieval GDL and modern Lithuanian Republic are to be regarded as Lithuanian nation-states. This view is now generally accepted by the international community -- by scholars as well as by politicians. For the present-day average Lithuanians this interpretation of GDL’s heritage has served to provide them with a historical past they may be proud of. According to this simplified and romanticized version of history, the brave Baltic warriors managed to conquer the much more numerous neighboring Slavic tribes, and establish an empire, extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The Belarusian interpretation of the GDL’s heritage is based on a different aspect, primarily on the pre-dominance of the Belarusian culture (known at that time as Ruthenian) and language in the historical Lithuania ( Litva). First of all, the medieval Lithuanian Statutes, referred-to in the current Lithuanian constitution, were written in Old Belarusian, as were practically all of the GDL’s official documents. This Belarus-oriented view of the GDL history had much less opportunity to become known and disseminated, primarily because for a long time it contradicted the official Russian and later Soviet position that promoted the Baltic conquest theory , mainly for political reasons. This position dates back to the late Middle ages, when Russia (then known as Muscovy) embarked on ”liberating” their Orthodox brothers, Belarusians and Ukrainians from the influence of Rome and from the at first pagan and later Roman Catholic ”Lithuanian yoke”. Since that time Moscow has found it politically convenient to promote the Baltic version of describing the GDL heritage and Moscow’s role in the region. Belarusian historians have long disputed this theory, and more recently, at the end of the 20th century, did a solid group of Belarusian nationally-oriented researchers emerge that has undertaken the neglected task of questioning the theory of Baltic conquest. Their research has provided valuable insight into some less frequently analyzed aspects of the GDL heritage issue. For instance, historian Paul Urban in his work ”Ancient Litvanians (Licviny) - their language, origin and ethnicity” points out that Baltic-sounding names of some of GDL founders, do not necessarily confirm their Baltic origin. He, as well as other researchers trace the origin of all ancient Belarusian tribes to the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, from which they migrated to the territory of present-day Belarus and assimilated or mixed with the original Baltic substrate. According to Urban, Baltic-sounding or similar names were commonly used by Slavic tribes that inhabited the present northern Germany. Besides, many of the GDL founders were also known by their Slavic, Orthodox names. Another well-known and very prolific researcher, Mikola Yermalovich, traced the original geographic location of Litva to the upper reaches of the river Nioman in western Belarus. He pointed out that there are six villages named Litva in this region, and yet none in the ethnic Baltic regions of the former GDL. I may add another observation concerning the use of Old Belarusian in the official documents of the GDL. According to the proponents of the Baltic conquest theory, the usage of Old Belarusian was confined to the Grand Duke’s office, since at that time there existed only two traditional written languages; Latin and Old Belarusian, referred-to as Slavonic in their works. This would imply that Old Belarusian/Ruthenian was not being used by the common folk of the GDL This claim was contradicted by the early 20th century discovery of a Muslim holy book Al-Kitab written in the 16th century by the linguistically assimilated Tatars living in the GDL. It was written in the Belarusian vernacular of that time, in Arabic script. By using Arabic script, altered slightly to reflect Belarusian phonetic features, the language of Al-Kitab expressed these linguistic features better than official Cyrillic texts of that time, and revealed a surprising similarity of the Old Belarusian vernacular to today’s Belarusian. Belarusian Review, in its Winter 2002 issue, re-printed an article from the Encyclopedia of the Belarusian Language entitled Kitabs, the Unique Phenomenon of the Belarusian language. The October 2009 issue of ARCHE provided a valuable forum for translated contributions by contemporary Lithuanian historians. It essentially represented a gesture of goodwill on part of this Belarusian publication. Most of the articles contained in the issue present the GDL heritage from the modern Lithuanian point of view -- not flatly denying the Belarusian arguments -- but rather treating them as minor, less important facts, often “produced by academically unqualified researchers.” As a result, they do not question the role of the Baltic ethnos in forming and later governing the GDL, treating it as”universally accepted.” In concluding, I feel that it would benefit the furthering of knowledge about the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for a Lithuanian publication to publish Lithuanian translations of articles by Belarusian historians. Reciprocating the initial goodwill gesture by ARCHE, such a step would acquaint the Lithuanian readers with the views of their Belarusian neighbors. Eventually, once translated into English, this scientific historical exchange may attract even some Western scholars to explore this interesting subject. Expressing myself this way, I hope to bring our international readers on board in learning more about the convoluted history of Eastern Europe. This article appeared in Belarusian Review, Vol. 22, No. 1 --------------------------------------------- Copyright 2010 Belarusian Review All rights reserved. belarusianreview@hotmailcom George Stankevich
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