The Belarusian-Lithuanian borderlands of the 10–13th centuries: from Krevа to Kernavė

Abstract

Traditional notions on the Belarusian-Lithuanian borderlands and the earlier Lithuania of the 10-13th c. are quite sketchy. In the public consciousness of a population of the historical Lithuania (“Lithuania in the narrow sense”) is significantly inferior in terms of its civilization development of neighboring Rus' and Poland. But already in the 13th century new impulses of state formation began from Lithuania at a time when the entire of the East Slavic region of Europe was in a deep crisis. The article analyzes the results of the latest archaeological and historical research of the four centers of the Belarusian-Lithuanian borderlands and the historical Lithuania in the 10-13th c.: Kreva, Halsany, Kemaй (Kernave), Vilnia (Vilnius). The significant presence of Slavic settlers influenced the existence of urban settlements with a clear administrative and sacred function among the Baltic pagan population of Lithuania in the 12th-14th centuries. On the example of Kreva and Kernave we can see the emergence of regional centers of Lithuania, the first of which is already in the 14th century it will be the domain of Alhierd (Olgierd) and Jagiello, and the second in the late 13th - early 14th centuries it will be the main residence of the Duke Trojdzien and perhaps of Vicien. Halsany become generic possession of the Halsanski princes and early modern town as and Kreva will develop in accordance with the process of urbanization (16-18th cc.). Kreva, Kernave and Vilnius can be described as the sacred center of the Balts. These observations allow us to consider the emergence of a new state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as a result of the influence of the Slavic ethnos on the corresponding development of political and economic interests of Lithuanian elites, as well as ethno-cultural interaction.