scholarly journals “Within One’s Inner Circle”: The Identity of Ruthenian Szlachta (Noblemen) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the Time of the Union of Lublin (the Case of Filon Kmita Czarnobylski)

2016 ◽  
pp. 37-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Koluzaeva

“Within One’s Inner Circle”: The Identity of Ruthenian Szlachta (Noblemen) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the Time of the Union of Lublin (the Case of Filon Kmita Czarnobylski)The main aim of this article is to reconstruct the Ruthenian nobleman’s (szlachcic) perception of “us” and “the sphere of familiarity” in the second half of the sixteenth century and to place him within his respective communities and social groups by analyzing successive levels of his identity. It seems to be particularly important to study ideas and awareness of the common representative of the Ruthenian political nation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as scholars have so far been paying attention only to the notions of identity held by particular representatives of the elite, or else by intellectuals. Clientelist relationships of particular Ruthenian families, which are of crucial importance for reconstructing the complete image of the period, have not commonly been the subject of scientific research.The main thesis posited by this work is that the perception of one’s inner, familiar circle, of “us” as opposed to “them,” in the case of Ruthenian nobility was as multilevel as their national identity. To elucidate the posed questions, I am going to analyze Filon Kmita’s personal correspondence, his public, family and matrimonial relationships, the social practices he engaged in, and military and official environments to which he belonged.Such approach can help us not only to reconstruct the circle of relationships of this remarkable person but also to show how one of three primary nations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – the Ruthenians – was experienced from the perspective of one of its representatives. „W kręgu swoich”: O świadomości ruskiej szlachty Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego w dobie Unii Lubelskiej (na przykładzie Filona Kmity Czarnobylskiego)Głównym zadaniem mojego artykułu jest rekonstrukcja postrzegania „swojskości” przez ruskiego szlachcica z drugiej połowy XVI wieku oraz analiza jego wielopoziomowej świadomości, która umożliwi usytuowanie tego pojęcia w systemie odniesień poszczególnych grup i zbiorowości społecznych. Szczególnie istotne wydaje się zbadanie horyzontów i wyobrażeń przeciętnego przedstawiciela ruskiego narodu politycznego Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego w XVI wieku, dotychczas uczeni skupiali się bowiem najczęściej na wyobrażeniach elit (zwłaszcza ich pojedynczych przedstawicieli) lub intelektualistów, a związki klientalne poszczególnych rodzin ruskich, niezwykle istotne dla skonstruowania całościowego obrazu, praktycznie nie były przez nich jeszcze badane. Jedna z najważniejszych tez mojego artykułu zakłada, że świadomość przynależności do takiego „kręgu swoich” była jednym z nieodłącznych elementów ówczesnej ruskiej tożsamości. Jednocześnie zarówno postrzeganie „swoich”, jak i świadomość narodowa ruskiej szlachty charakteryzowały się wielopoziomową strukturą. Aby uzyskać rzucić światło na tak postawione kwestie, analizie poddam korespondencję osobistą Filona Kmity, jego powiązania społeczno-rodzinne, związki małżeńskie, zależności klientalne, praktyki społeczne, otoczenie wojskowe i służbowe. Takiego rodzaju podejście może pomóc nie tylko w przedstawieniu konkretnej jednostki (wprawdzie wybitnej, ale pozostającej poza środowiskiem elity Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego), lecz również w prezentacji trzeciego największego narodu Rzeczypospolitej w XVI wieku z punktu widzenia jednego z jego przedstawicieli.

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-60
Author(s):  
Raimonda Ragauskienė

Drawing on an extant list of courtiers (1552) of the wife of the starosta of Žemaitija, references in correspondence, posthumous property inventories and individual pieces of legislation, the present article aims to illustrate the generalized composition of sixteenth-century noblewomen’s court in the GDL, and the functions of those attached to such courts. At the same time an attempt is made to determine the role of noblewomen in appointing officials and co-opting court members and, in general, establishing the limits of their rights and patronage. The size of the court depended on the social position of the lady as its head – on the office held by her husband and on the role of the noblewoman herself in her family as well as on her personality. Minors were attended merely by a few servants, while the courts of married women and in particular those of widows comprised between 50 and 60 courtiers. As a rule, noblewomen’s courts consisted of several parts that functioned as a single unit: court officials, the male quarters (male courtiers and messengers), court specialists (medical practitioners, clergymen and musicians), the female quarters (ladies, young ladies and lady’s maids) and court staff (servants, craftsmen and coachmen). The role of the husband was crucial in the formation of noblewomen’s court. Noblewomen themselves could transform their court after the death of their husbands. The maintenance of a large number of court members required massive investment on the part of noblewomen. Nevertheless, such investment, albeit without any obvious dividends, paid off ultimately. The court was a matter of their prestige; it was important in raising noblewomen’s status in society. A court enabled them to develop their clientele and to participate actively in public life and create their own home clientele. Through their mediation their clients could become clients of their husbands or of their friends of the same high social status.


2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Darius Vilimas

This article investigates the formation of the system of land courts in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the period between 1564 and 1588. This process was an integral part of the social and structural modernisation of the GDL in the second half of the sixteenth century. The powiat (district) land courts of the GDL were formally established between 1564 and 1566 in the aftermath of administrative and legal reforms. An analysis of the changes of the officials of land courts and their kinship relations has revealed the beginning of the formation of powiat land court officials as a specific group. The purpose of the land court reform was to formalise the equality of the entire ruling gentry ‘nation’ before the law. However, the magnate families of the GDL managed to preserve both their possessed wealth and high posts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Egdūnas Račius

Muslim presence in Lithuania, though already addressed from many angles, has not hitherto been approached from either the perspective of the social contract theories or of the compliance with Muslim jurisprudence. The author argues that through choice of non-Muslim Grand Duchy of Lithuania as their adopted Motherland, Muslim Tatars effectively entered into a unique (yet, from the point of Hanafi fiqh, arguably Islamically valid) social contract with the non-Muslim state and society. The article follows the development of this social contract since its inception in the fourteenth century all the way into the nation-state of Lithuania that emerged in the beginning of the twentieth century and continues until the present. The epitome of the social contract under investigation is the official granting in 1995 to Muslim Tatars of a status of one of the nine traditional faiths in Lithuania with all the ensuing political, legal and social consequences for both the Muslim minority and the state.


1983 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-488
Author(s):  
Charles D. Sheldon

Merchants in the Tokugawa period were placed at the bottom of the shinōkōshō hierarchy of samurai-peasants-artisans-merchants. This social hierarchy was produced by a combination of social reality at the time Japan was unified in the late sixteenth century and an ancient Chinese physiocratic theory, never taken very seriously, in practical ways, in China. Once the country was unified, the social mobility of the previous years, of a kind which permitted men of ability to climb from the lowest ranks to join the military nobility—Hideyoshi is the prime example of this mobility—was viewed, by Hideyoshi above all others, as a cause of prolonged chaos and internecine warfare. With the argument that war had been abolished and common people therefore no longer needed weapons, Hideyoshi carried out his ‘sword-hunt’. He thus established the most fundamental of the class distinctions, between the samurai, the ruling class, who now enjoyed a monopoly of bearing arms, and the common people, who were henceforth expected simply to produce the food and other necessities of life, and to pay their taxes, which remained high even though warfare was supposedly ended.


Artifex Novus ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Anna Sylwia Czyż

ABSTRAKT Sprowadzone do Wilna między 1616 a 1618 r. benedyktynki utworzyły niewielką i skromnie uposażoną wspólnotę. Ich sytuacja zmieniła się w 1692 r., kiedy to dzięki bogatym zapisom Feliksa Jana Paca mogły wystawić murowany kościół konsekrowany w 1703 r. Hojność podkomorzego litewskiego nie była przypadkowa, bowiem do wileńskich benedyktynek wstąpiły jego córki Sybilla i Anna, jedyne potomstwo jakie po sobiepozostawił. Z nich szczególne znaczenie dla dziejów klasztoru miała Sybilla (Magdalena) Pacówna, która w 1704 r. została wybrana ksienią. Nie tylko odnowiła ona życie wspólnoty, ale stała się również jedną z najważniejszych postaci ówczesnego Wilna. Po pożarze w 1737 r. Sybilla Pacówna energicznie przystąpiła do odbudowy klasztoru i kościoła, którą kończyła już jej następczyni Joanna Rejtanówna. Wzniesioną wówczas według projektu Jana Krzysztofa Glaubitza fasadę ozdobiono stiukowo-metalową dekoracją o indywidualnie zaplanowanym programie ideowym odwołującym się i do tradycji zakonnej i rodowej – pacowskiej. W fasadzie wyeksponowano ideały związane z życiem benedyktyńskim sytuując je wśród aluzji o konieczności walki na płaszczyźnie ducha i ciała, włączając w militarną symbolikę także konieczność walki z wrogami Kościoła i ojczyzny oraz charakterystyczną dla duchowości benedyktyńskiej pobożność związaną z krzyżem w typie karawaka oraz zOpatrznością Bożą. Jednocześnie przypominano o bogactwie powołań w klasztorze benedyktynek wileńskich przyrównując mniszki do lilii. Porównanie to dzięki obecności w fasadzie herbu Gozdawa (podwójna lilia) oraz powszechnego w XVII i XVIII w. zwyczaju określania Paców „Liliatami” można było odnosić także do ich rodu, w tym do zasłużonej dla klasztoru ksieni Sybilli. Tak mocne wyeksponowanie fundatorów było nie tylko chęciąupamiętnia darczyńców, ale wraz z całym architektonicznym i plastycznym wystrojem świątyni wiązało się z koniecznością stworzenia przeciwwagi dla nowego i prężnie rozwijającego się pod patronatem elity litewskiej klasztoru Wwizytek w Wilnie. Przy tym charakter dekoracji fasady kościoła pw. św. Katarzyny wpisuje się w inne fundacje Paców: kościół pw. św. Teresy i kościół pw. śś. Piotra i Pawła będąc ostatnią ważną inicjatywą artystyczną rodu w stolicy Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. SUMMARY The Benedictines, who had been brought to Vilnius between 1616 and 1618, formed a small and modest community. Thanks to the generous legacy of Feliks Jan Pac, in 1692 their situation changed as they could erect a brick church, which was then consecrated in 1703. The generosity of the Lithuanian chamberlain was not a coincidence; his two daughters, Sybilla and Anna, the only offspring he left, had joined the Benedictine Sisters in Vilnius. Sybilla (Magdalena) Pac, who became an abbess in 1704, was particularly important for the history of the monastery. Not only did she renew the community life, but she also became one of the most important personalities of the then Vilnius. After the fire in 1737 Sybilla Pac vigorously started rebuilding the monastery and the church, which was completed by her successor, Joanna Rejtan. The facade which was then erected after Johann Christoph Glaubitz’s design was adorned with stucco and metal decorations with a perfectly devised ideological programme which referred to the tradition of the order and to the one of the Pac family. The facade presented ideals connected with the Benedictine life, which placed them among the hints of having to fight at the level of spirit and body, incorporating among the military symbols also the need to fight the enemies of the Church and the state, and the typical for the Benedictine spirituality piety connected with the Caravaca cross and the Divine Providence. At the same time, it reminded of the Benedictine vocations comparing nuns to lilies. This comparison, due to the presence of the Gozdawa coat-of-arms (double lilie) and the common nickname of the Pac family in the 17th and 18th cc. “the Liliats”, could also apply to their lineage, including the abbess Sybilla and her services to the monastery. Exposing founders in such an emphatic way was not only the will to immortalise them, but was also, together with the entire architectural and artistic decor of the church, connected with the need to counterbalance the new and dynamicallydeveloping Visitation Monastery in Vilnius. At the same time, the nature of the facade decoration of the Church of St. Catherine is in line with other foundations of the Pac family: St Theresa’s Church and the St Peter and St Paul Church, and was the last significant artistic initiative of the family in thecapital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-270
Author(s):  
Dorota Szagun

The subject of the study is the analysis of a series of Internet memes and linguistic jokes made available in pseudomemic form in connection with the COVID-19 pan­demic. Comedy itself feeds on any deviations from the norm observed in social, and especially political, life; it captures all the aberrations, nonsense and inconsistencies. The pandemic emergency is fraught with new situations and rules that constitute such a deviation. A vivid social reaction is especially visible in the multisemiotic comic genres, such as Internet memes, due to their channel of entry (the Internet becomes the main channel of communication outside of family communities during social isolation), plasticity and susceptibility to replication. Comic forms, apart from peculiarly ludic and humorous functions, also perform persuasive functions, activating the social need to differentiate between oneself and the stranger, and consequently isolate or integrate certain social groups. In addition, Internet memes also serve as a commentary on current events, thus prompting the audience to take a position. Persuasion dressed in a comic costume seems to be one of the strongest ways of social influence, because it spreads in its innocent and playful form like a viral and becomes firmly fixed in social consciousness.


2016 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Anželika Smetonienė

The catechism of M. Petkevičius (1598) is the first book in Lithuanian language by Reformers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the second book in Lithuanian language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the first hymnal in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, however, there are only few studies of it. In this article verbal nouns abstracts, derivatives with suffix -imas / -ymas from verbs, are analysed. The aim is to determinate whether such abstract making type in the sixteenth century was most numerous, as is it today, and is some rare type of making such derivative abstracts recorded in the catechism of M. Petkevičius. Also, it was fond what Polish words were translated to Lithuanian language as verbal nouns abstracts. In order to achieve the aim, from the catechism of M. Petkevičius were elected all such abstracts: 220 different abstracts with suffix -imas / -ymas, that was used a total of 780 times. In conclusion it can be said that already in the catechism of M. Petkevičius derivatives from verbs with the suffix -imas / -ymas significantly prevails, although there are recorded a different pattern of verbal abstract derivatives (eg. mėgumas). Moreover, at the end of a sixteenth century the formation of verbal abstracts with suffix -imas / -ymas was established and little different from the formation of such abstracts in the current Lithuanian language. Also, there is some correlation between most numerous verbal noun formation type (-imas / -ymas derivatives) in the Lithuanian language and most numerous verbal noun formation type (-anie, -enie, -cie derivatives) in the Polish language: all Polish nomina actionis with suffixes -anie, -enie, -cie were translated to the Lithuanian language as verbal abstracts with suffix -imas / -ymas.


Author(s):  
Anastasiya Nikolaevna Soboleva

The object of this research is the youth of Buryat-Mongolian ASSR as most active social group within the social structure of 1941 – 1945, which was the major source for replenishment of labor reserves. The subject of this research is the examination of core financial and social problems faced by the youth working at the defense industry plants of the republic. Special attention is given to analysis of the impact of wartime struggles and hardships upon household and food procurement. It is noted that shortage of housing, low salaries, insecure life, poor nutrition, deficit of clothing and footwear often led breach of employee discipline. The article explores the important vectors in the activity of Komsomol with regards to housing and living conditions, as well as various forms of financial and psychological incentives that promote adaptation of youth to working at the industrial plant. The scientific novelty consists in introduction into the scientific discourse of a number of previously unpublished source that were collected specifically for this research. As a result of the conducted research, it was established that working youth, who for the most part came from rural localities to the city, were put in quite difficult social and living conditions, experiencing critical problems in the process of adaptation; however, they accomplished significant labor achievements and made their contribution to the common Victory.


Author(s):  
U. A. Padalinski

The article explores the biographies of Peter Kisel and Cimafiej Hurka, who represented the Viciebsk district at the Diet of 1569 and directly participated in the conclusion of the Union of Lublin. For a long time in historiography, attention was paid only to the most influential figures of this Diet. However, the simple, «unremarkable» representatives of the wide circles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’ nobility played their role in the negotiations on the union. Interests and ideas, conscious and values, and finally, the personal experience of these people directly determined their social and political position, and therefore, to one degree or another, the life of the entire state. The aim of research is to reflect the most important forms of social activity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’ petty and middle nobility in the second half of the 16th century on the example of two Viciebsk noblemen’s unique destinies. It shows the influence of the military and political events of the 1560s on political activities of Peter Kisel and Cimafiej Hurka. The Livonian War’s experience definitely influenced their position on the conclusion of the union between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish Kingdom in 1569. The author concludes that it was the cardinal transformations of the 1560s (state reforms, the establishment of the Commonwealth) that allowed them to actively participate in a public life of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It also enabled Kisel and Hurka noble families to take a firm place among the political elite of the Viciebsk district for a long time. It is emphasized that a detailed study of «unremarkable» noblemen’s biographies provides advanced research of the noble estate of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.


Author(s):  
Eric Fabri

This chapter addresses ontology, which is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being. As a branch of metaphysics, ontology is mainly concerned with the modes of existence of different entities (tangible and intangible). Every subdiscipline in the social sciences relies on an ontology that defines which elements really matter when it comes to explaining the phenomenon they set out to elucidate. A specific branch of ontology is devoted to the modes of existence of social phenomena: social ontology. Two main positions emerge: realism and constructivism. Scientific realism assumes that social phenomena have an objective existence, independent of the subject. By contrast, constructivism claims that social phenomena have no objective existence and are a construction of the human mind. Its fundamental axiom is that, even if reality exists outside the subject’s perception, the subject cannot reach it without perceiving it. This implies the mediation of imaginary structures, which are provided by social groups. It is important to note, however, that many other positions exist apart from realism and constructivism.


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