Unification Policy of the State and the Identity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Nobility in the Light of Belarusian Districts Deputy Instructions in the 1630s and 1640s

Abstract

This article aims to show the evolution of the civil consciousness of the nobility in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This text focuses on the analysis results of the instructions (in a modern sense) of Belarusian deputies of the nobility in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 1630s and 1640s. Particular emphasis is put on studying the contexts of references to such concepts as ‘the Commonwealth’, ‘Fatherland’, ‘nation’, and ‘Union’. The article concludes that the union state policy of the Commonwealth bore fruit, and the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania increasingly often identified themselves with the civil identity of the Commonwealth while preserving the specificity of the regional self-consciousness.