scholarly journals Genealogical Links in Samogitian Nobility Heraldry Sources in the Second Half of the 16th–18th Centuries

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 148-166
Author(s):  
Gabrielė Jasiūnienė
Keyword(s):  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Specific Individual ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Coats Of Arms ◽  
Grand Duchy

Heraldry and its research have deep traditions in Europe, making it a certain focus of attention among researchers. The interest in this field in Lithuania is a more recent phenomenon. The late beginning of heraldry research was partly influenced by Lithuania’s loss of independence. At present, researchers’ attention is focused mainly on the periods of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, also looking at Lithuanian heraldry from the 20th–21st centuries, and conducting thorough research of the coats of arms of the state, cities, and towns. Research of the heraldry of the nobility is also being conducted, such as the heraldry of the political elite in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – the Goštautas, Pacas, Radvila, Sapiega families, etc. The heraldry of representatives of the lower gentry, especially among the Samogitian families, has received less attention. Many unanswered questions and undeveloped themes remain in the field of the Samogitian nobility’s heraldry, overlooked in research for a long time. This article analyzes how genealogical links were reflected in Samogitian nobility heraldry sources in the second half of the 16th–18th centuries. Having analyzed the heraldic sources of the Samogitian nobility, it was found that these reflected not only information about a specific individual, but also their broader origins, family and marital lines. The coats of arms of the Samogitian nobility in time became a unique means of representation. The coats of arms of the Samogitian nobility were depicted in seals, literature, portraits, architecture, and elsewhere.

scholarly journals The social biography of the Lublin Diet’s participant (1569): Peter Kisel and Cimafiej Hurka

2019 ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
U. A. Padalinski
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
The Military ◽  
Grand Duchy

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.

scholarly journals On the Diploma of Nobility of Jan Januszowski and a Portrait of a Renaissance Printer

Terminus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (Special Issue 1) ◽  
pp. 81-105
Author(s):  
Justyna Kiliańczyk-Zięba
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Coats Of Arms ◽  
Grand Duchy

Jan Januszowski, best known as Jan Kochanowski’ friend, was the most distinguished printer of the Polish Renaissance. Januszowski, a lawyer educated in Cracow and Padua, was an extremely versatile man: an outstanding printer, as well as a prolific writer and translator. For all his achievements, he was ennobled by Sigismund III Vasa, and—happily—the diploma of nobility of Jan Januszowski, penned on parchment and splendidly illuminated, survived to the present day. The illumination of the document is rich and sumptuous. It shows the coats-of-arms representing the provinces of the Polish Kingdom and Grand Duchy of Lithuania and small portraits: three of them depict Polish kings, the fourth is of Januszowski himself—it is one of the very few known portraits of Polish Renaissance intellectuals and the oldest portrait of a Polish printer. The document’s decoration is not only beautiful, but also meaningful, as its content and composition reflects the nature of the state—the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—and suggests Januszowski’s important place in its structure and strong links between the printer and the most important dignitaries of the country.

scholarly journals The Castle in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Histo Riography, Search for Definitions, Research Model

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Vytautas Volungevičius
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
Grand Duchy

This article aims to reinterpret the castle in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, at the same time as evaluating the state of historiography and trends in terminology used in historical sources. Historiographical problems are defined from a comparative perspective. The author emphasises interpretational issues which refer to the word ‘castle’ in different languages used in different sources. The newly formulated definition of the castle as a changing historical phenomenon expands the concept of the castle. This signifies that the castle was not a static subject. The castle is therefore perceived as an integral part of the historical social reality. This idea is based on certain material and socio-political assumptions. In theory, the castle is understood as an object of structures and social history, research into which should embrace different aspects of social reality: judicial, military-defensive, political-representational, economichousehold. The proposed quaternary model of the research (1. The castle and its internal structure; 2. The castle and its external structure; 3. The particularity of the castles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; 4. The dispersion of castles in the territory of the state) presupposes the multi-layered perspective of the phenomenon of the castle, which guides from fact to process, from object to structure. The article states that the castle as a long time phenomenon cannot be perceived and interpreted separately from simultaneous socio-political circumstances which were formed by the local society.

scholarly journals From imagination to political reality? The Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a successor of Rome in the early modern historiography (15th–18th centuries)

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-181
Author(s):  
Joanna Orzeł
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
Grand Duchy

AbstractAt the beginning of the Renaissance Lithuanians understood that to join the civilization of Western Europe, it was necessary to have an appropriate (it means: very long) tradition. Like other countries, they had to create their own myth of origin. The most prestigious tradition was Greek-Roman antiquity, so the country’s origin story was invented, claiming its people descended directly from Rome. According to subsequent chronicles, the founder of the new state was Palemon (Publius Libon, initially Vilia).Using the theory of cultural memory of Jan and Aleida Assmann, the article presents how and why the Lithuanian myth of origin was transformed from 15th to the end of the 18th century. Particular attention was paid to the current needs of the state and the powerful noble families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which also found their origins in the state myth.During the early modern period, the changes in the story were made (including the date of Palemon’s arrival in the Lithuanian lands). Nonetheless, the myth was not questioned for a long time. Even once it had already been established that it was no more than a fairy tale, the story was revived again, performing other functions in the 19th century.

The Final Stage of the Minority Revolution in the United States. Upward Mobility of Minorities to the Corridors of Power

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2-1) ◽  
pp. 62-91
Author(s):  
Irina Zhezhko-Braun ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Electoral Laws ◽  
The Government

This article is the third and final in a series dealing with the birth of a new political elite in the United States, the minority elite. In previous articles, the mechanism of its appearance was analyzed, as well as its ideology, goals, program and values. The black movement, as the most co-organized of all protest movements, is entering the final phase of its development, being engaged in the placement of its representatives in state and federal governments, political parties and other social institutions. The women’s movement has recently been taken over by ethnic movements, primarily blacks, and has become their vanguard. This article describes new social elevators for the promotion of minority representatives into the corridors of power. The logic of promoting people of their own race, gender and nationality to the highest branches of power began to prevail over other criteria for recruiting personnel. During the 2020 election campaign, a new mechanism for promoting minorities in all branches of government was formed. It is based on numerous violations of local and federal electoral legislation. The mechanism of pressure on the US electoral system is analyzed using the example of the state of Georgia and the activities of politician Stacey Abrams. The article describes Abrams’ strategy to create a network of NGOs that are focused on one mission - to arrange for the political shift of the state in the elections. These organizations circumvented existing laws, making the state of Georgia the record holder for electoral irregularities and lawsuits. The article shows that Abrams’ struggle with the electoral laws of her state is based on the political myth of the voter suppression of minorities. The author identifies a number of common characteristics of the new elite. The minority elite does not show any interest in social reconciliation and overcoming racial conflict, but rather makes efforts to incite the latter, to attract the government to its side and increase its role in establishing “social justice” through racial quotas and infringement of the rights of those social strata that it has appointed bearers of systematic racism in society. As the colored elite increases and the government’s role in resolving racial conflicts grows, the minority movement is gradually condemned, it ceases to be a true grassroots movement and turns into astroturfing.

Somali National Reconciliation

2019 ◽  
pp. 215-226
Author(s):  
Abdurahman Abdullahi “Baadiyow”
Keyword(s):  
Good Governance ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
National Reconciliation

This chapter redefines the Somali conflict by refuting Somali exceptionalism and the approach based solely on clan. Instead, it argues that the genesis of hostilities is the state–society conflict that, as a consequence, has generated a violent power struggle among the political elite. In turn, this political elite power struggle has provoked political clannism and Islamism: the two indigenous ideologies. These conflicts have been generated sequentially as a result of state–society conflict, and must be addressed as part of a four-part process of reconciliation. The chapter also recommends a ten-point programme of reconciliation, which gradually realizes good governance practices and comprehensive elite and clan reconciliation. Moreover, it proposes a participatory approach and prudent synthesis of modernity and tradition.

Business and Politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 234-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Harriss ◽  
Andrew Wyatt
Keyword(s):  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Big Business ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Illegal Activities ◽  
The Relationship

The political economy of Tamil Nadu presents a puzzle: in spite of politics that are generally considered to be unhelpful to development, the state does relatively well in terms both of economic growth and of human development. The chapter argues that Tamil Nadu is neither a developmental nor a social democratic state, while having some of the features of both. It is, rather, characterized by Bonapartism. While the state has generally been supportive of big business, the relationship between the corporate sector and the political elite is distinctly “arm’s-length.” The power and influence of business groups has not “grown enormously,” as has been claimed elsewhere. Tamil politicians do not rely for financial resources on big business but have their own sources of finance, some of them in semilegal or illegal activities such as sand mining and granite quarrying.

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