scholarly journals Polish Way: The Light Cossack Cavalry in the Era of Military Revolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 683-709
Author(s):  
Aleksander Bołdyrew ◽  
◽  
Karol Łopatecki ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Innovative Strategy ◽  
Different Types ◽  
New Type ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
The Military ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Grand Duchy

The aim of the article is to show the way of adaptation of the military potential of the Crown to the Tatar threat, which first emerged in 1468. In connection with the particular geopolitical situation we present the dissimilarity of military reforms from those in Western Europe. In order to prevent Tatar raids, a standing frontier army (obrona potoczna or Permanent Defense) was formed. In the 1520s, an innovative strategy was developed which involved creating two defense lines with a very deep reconnaissance, 500 kilometers east of Lviv, already on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The consequence of applying the new model of defense was a new type of armed forces developed approximately two decades later, the cossack cavalry. The article presents a phenomenon of the creation a unified, in terms of weaponry, light cavalry, the process of which took place in the 1540s and 50s. Earlier the troops had consisted of soldiers differently equipped and armored and using various horses. Out of this chaos there emerged more unified units, which was the result of experiences of south-east borderline defense. The article emphasizes it was neither commanders-in-chief nor political and governmental factors that played a key role in the tactical innovation was mid-level commanders (starosts, rotmistrzes). It was their experiments with different types of arms that brought about a revolution in the rearmament and uniformity of the cavalry. The paper indicates that the main originator of the transformations was the starost of Bar and Trembowla Bernard Pretwicz. A clear influence of political decisions and strategic concepts on the final transformations in the warfare tactics should be noted.

Horse, Wheel, and Saddle

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-191
Author(s):  
Barton C. Hacker
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Horse Riding ◽  
Military Revolutions ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
The Military

Military revolutions are a normal consequence of the central role of military institutions in complex societies. They have everywhere occurred regularly, if infrequently; they are scarcely limited to Western Europe, or even to the modern world. This essay discusses recent writings on two military revolutions in the ancient world, both centered on the military horse: first, its domestication and its role in pulling war chariots; second, the transition from horse driving to horse riding in battle. The chariot revolution of the second millennium BC profoundly reshaped warfare and transformed polities all across Eurasia. The cavalry revolution of the first millennium BC proved equally transformative and far longer lasting. Despite the controversy that has come to surround the concept of military revolution, it may still be fruitfully applied to important aspects of the large-scale historical interactions between societies and their armed forces.

LIETUVOS DIDŽIOSIOS KUNIGAIKŠTYSTĖS KARIUOMENĖS KASDIENINIO GYVENIMO STANDARTAI 1764–1788 M.

2018 ◽  
pp. 198-217
Author(s):  
Valdas Rakutis
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Supply System ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
Economic Unit ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
A Company ◽  
A Current ◽  
Grand Duchy

The article analyses ordinary life of the Armed Forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the period between the beginning of the rule by the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanisław August Poniatowski, and until the reforms by the Four-Year Sejm (1788–1792). In the period of interest it was a small (up to 4,000 soldiers), independent army, made up from national contractors, mostly cavalry detachments, the main unit being a flag of 30–100 soldiers, and the so-called foreign contractors (cavalry, infantry and artillery), the main unit being a company of 60–100 soldiers. In 1775–1777, division by contractors’ ethnicity was replaced with the territorial divisions. The main changes took place in the national cavalry, where two equally sized brigades of hussars and petyhorcy were created, whereas majority of foreign contractors were reorganized into infantry. Peace-time armed forces was an important factor for the Lithuanian public, the ruling elite and the local communities. Army was not a tool for use in large international politics, it was more of a current order preserving instrument. Army supply system was based on the independent economic unit, governed by the unit commander. Attempts by the Lithuanian Military Commission to impose greater control gave insignificant results, although the reforms of 1775–1775 were able to strengthen control of the treasury and procedures, making relationships more visible and transparent, and the actual composition of the armed forces was very close to the theoretical provisions. The economic weakness of the nation after the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and lack of correlation between recovery of the treasury and army financing put bridles on the army, preventing it from development and change. In spite of all 1764–1788 reforms, the Lithuanian armed forces remained a stagnating institution, where routine and established traditions dominated over novelty and change. Keywords: Armed Forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ordinary army life, rule of Stanisław Poniatowski, Military Commission, Military Department of the Permanent Council.

scholarly journals Pomiędzy tradycją zakonu a tradycją rodu – treści ideowe fasady kościoła Benedyktynek pw. św. Katarzyny w Wilnie

Artifex Novus ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Anna Sylwia Czyż
Keyword(s):  
Community Life ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Common ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
The One ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church ◽  
Grand Duchy

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

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 The Death Penalty in Magdeburgian Cities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Late-16th and Early-17th Century

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-110
Author(s):  
Gitana Zujienė
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Grand Duchy

In the article, based on the acts of Magdeburg Law and the court books of Magdeburgian cities, the issue of the death penalty in Magdeburgian cities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is analysed. The most often imposed death penalties are discussed. There is an analysis of which crimes they were given for. Their use is compared with data from Poland and some Magdeburgian cities in Western Europe.

scholarly journals Literary Theory in the Eighteenth-Century Grand Duchy of Lithuania: From the Classical Tradition to Classicism

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-311
Author(s):  
Asta Vaškelienė
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Genre Theory ◽  
National Language ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Grand Duchy

The article is aimed at introducing the peculiarities of the literary theory in the eighteenth-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania. To show these peculiarities, it begins with an overview of the main rhetoric and poetics of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, which illustrate the theoretical thought of the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. The theses set out in these works had been taken up, developed, and modified up until the middle of the eighteenth century, which signalled the beginning of the Enlightenment and changes in literary aesthetics. The majority of the works on poetics and rhetoric of the period discussed were written by French and German Jesuits (only very few were penned by the Protestants or the Piarists) and were used in the colleges of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as textbooks intended for the classes of poetics and rhetoric. These works indicate a lively reception of the European literary theory. Up until the eighteenth century, the book on the Renaissance poetics Poetices libri septem (1561) by Julius Caesar Scaliger retained the status of an underlying work in this field. In it, the author summed up the literary theory absorbed from ancient authors and systematized the genres of poetry, the types of its style, and the metres. Scaliger’s works, which had an impact on the European literary theory of the Baroque and Renaissance, were directly taken up by other authors and modified to a greater or lesser extent. They were easily recognisable in eighteenth-century works on poetics and rhetoric. In the seventeenth-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania, literary theory was shaped by the works of Cyprianus Soarius, Nicolaus Caussinus, François Antoine Pomey, Charles Paiot, and Jacob Pontanus. Poetics of Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius played an important role in the development of Baroque literary theory. Although it was not published and spread only in the form of manuscript notes, it was widely known in the period’s academic environment both in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in Western Europe. On the one hand, it was a certain way of conveying Scaliger’s theory, yet on the other hand, thanks to an apt and accurate definition of the Baroque style, this work should be treated as one of the most significant Baroque poetics of conceit. Jacob Masen, another Baroque theorist, also markedly contributed to the theoretical development of the epigrammatic genre and ‘wit’ (argutia), which is held on a par with conceit. The textbooks used in the Jesuit colleges of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were not authored exclusively by the Jesuits. Mention should be made of the works on rhetoric by the Dutch Protestant author Gerardus Vossius. The rhetoric of Michał Kraus was very popular in the Piarist teaching system, and, as shown by the provenances, it was included in the syllabi of some of the Jesuit colleges. The textbooks by Joseph de Jouvancy and Dominique de Colonia represent the genre theory of the eighteenth century. Chronologically, these are the latest theoretical works of the eighteenth century that reflect the Baroque conception of the literary theory. They were highly appreciated and even used at the schools of the Board of Education. The educational reform that was launched in the middle of the eighteenth century nurtured a new approach towards the literary taste and the expression of thought. These changes are reflected in the work O wymowie i poezji (On Rhetoric and Poetry) by the Piarist monk Filip Nereusz Golański, which was the first normative poetics of the Enlightenment written in a national language (Polish in this particular case).

scholarly journals Yevhen Malaniuk and Dariia Vikonska. Artistically Transformed History of Princely Family of Fedorovyches in Poem “Meeting”

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-55
Author(s):  
Ihor Nabytovych
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
History Of ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Grand Duchy ◽  
Critical Reviews

Karolina Ivanna Fedorovych-Malytska (1893–1945) came into Ukrainian writing and culture as Dariia Vikonska, the author of short prose, literary studies, critical reviews and art studies. She was close to the circle of ʻvisnykivtsiʼ (the ʻVisnyk-poetsʼ). The history of literary contacts between Yevhen Malaniuk and Dariia Vikonska remains fragmentary and little known. The paper focuses on the poem “Pobachennia” (“Meeting”) by Malaniuk that transforms the history of Fedorovyches family in an artistic way. Ukrainian princely family of Fedorovyches spread all over the Europe creating its history, culture and contributing to its economic development. The line in which Karolina Ivanna Fedorovych-Malytska was the last representative remained Ukrainian. Other lines dissolved in other national cultures (often Polish). Yevhen Malaniuk left a brief memoir about Dariia Vikonska within an episode of his visit to the estate of Malytskyis in Podillia region. Some fragments of conversations and reminiscences in the fi rst part of the poem “Meeting” supplement the description of this visit. The poem was  written in 1939–1941 and consists of three parts although its structure is somewhat obscure. The fi rst part of the poem artistically describes the fate of the Ukrainian princely family of Fedorovyches in historiosophical perspective. This family is rooted in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The second and third parts of the poem are oneiric visions of the lyrical character. The poet tells about the meeting with the general Vasyl Tiutiunnyk, the deceased chief of the Armed Forces Headquarters of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and premonition of a mysterious meeting with already deceased parents and grandparents that should happen after the death of the character. The mystical third part of the poem describes the transition of the human soul to eternity in a lyrical literary way.

scholarly journals Western European Military Practices and Technologies in Ukraine in XVIII Century

2019 ◽  
pp. 183-202
Author(s):  
Oleksii Sokyrko
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Military Technology ◽  
Gradual Loss ◽  
Regular Army ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Western European ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
Military Innovations ◽  
Technical Capacity ◽  
The Military

The “Military Revolution”, which became a concentrated manifestation of Europe’s political leadership during the XVIIth – XVIIIth centuries, produced new realities in the military sphere: regular armies, subordinated and held by centralized states, unified arms and clothing, division into types of military forces, special drill and education for soldiers and officers. Leadership in military technology consisted of fortifications and artillery that developed in the direction of increasing technical capacity, unification and standardization of new weapons. New approaches to the organization of the armed forces changed the character of wars. If in the XVIIth century East and West of Europe had a kind of parity in their military achievements and technologies, then in the XVIIIth century it finally moved to the West. In this context, an important issue is how Western European achievements were spread in Ukraine, in particular the Cossack Hetmanate, whose military-political model was clearly structured for military purposes. The analysis of these influences and borrowings shows that they were heterogeneous in nature. In the Cossack army, elements of the regular troop duty and sentry service and even drill instructions were gradually being appeared. The Cossack starshyna (officials) faced with the practice of the regular army during the Russian imperial wars. However, all these influences were episodic and spontaneous, without changing the essence of the military institutions of the Hetmanate. In artillery, technical innovations were implemented more actively, but were hampered by lack of funding. In the fortification area, the control of which was completely transferred to imperial power, Western technologies and specialists, were used by metropolitan power in their own defensive projects. It is significant that the acquaintance and borrowing of any military innovations in the XVIIIth century occurred almost exclusively through Russian mediation. This tendency was fully in line with the gradual loss of the Hetmanate’s sovereignty, the destruction of its army.

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