HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Ruthenian nobility ( uk, Руська шляхта, be, Руская шляхта, pl, szlachta ruska) refers to the nobility of Kyivan Rus and Galicia–Volhynia, which found itself in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...
,
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ...
and later Russian and
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...
s, and became increasingly polonized and later russified, while retaining a separate, cultural identity. Ruthenian nobility, originally characterized as East Slavic language speaking and Orthodox, found itself ruled by the expanding Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where it rose from second class status to equal partners of the Lithuanian nobility. Following the Polish–Lithuanian union of the 14th century, the Ruthenian nobles became increasingly polonized, adopting the Polish language and religion (which increasingly meant converting from the Orthodox faith to
Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
). Ruthenian nobility, however, retained a distinct identity within the body of the Polish-Lithuanian szlachta, leading to the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
expression ''gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus'' or ''gente Rutheni, natione Poloni'' (translated as "of Polish nationality, but Ruthenian origin", "of Ruthenia race and Polish nation", or in various similar veins), although the extent to which they retained and maintained this separate identity is still debated by scholars, and varied based on time and place. Eventually, following the Union of Lublin in 1569, most of the territories of Ruthenia became part of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The transfer of Ruthenian lands from the Grand Duchy to Poland occurred with the strong support of the Ruthenian nobility, who were attracted to the Polish culture and desired the privileges of the Polish nobility. Thus the Ruthenian nobility gravitated from the Lithuanian noble tradition towards the Polish noble one, described by Stone as a change from "wealth without legal rights" to "defined individual and corporate rights". The Lithuanian, Polish and Ruthenian nobility gradually became more and more unified, particularly with regards to their standing as a socio-political class. By the 19th and 20th centuries, the Ruthenian aristocracy became so heavily Polonized, that the eventual national resurgence of
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
and
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
was mostly spurred by middle and lower classes of the nobility, that later was joined by the growing national consciousness of the new middle class, rather than of the former upper class of Ruthenian nobility. Despite polonisation in Lithuania and Ruthenia in the 17th-18th centuries, a large part of the lower szlachta managed to retain their cultural identity in various ways. According to Polish estimates from the 1930s, 300,000 members of the common nobles -''szlachta zagrodowa'' - inhabited the subcarpathian region of the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...
out of 800,000 in the whole country. 90% of them were Ukrainian-speaking and 80% were Ukrainian Greek Catholics. In other parts of the Ukraine with a significant szlachta population, such as the
Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...
or the Ovruch regions, the situation was similar despite
russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
and earlier polonization. Some of the major Ruthenian noble families (all of which became polonized to a significant extent) included the Czartoryski, Sanguszko, Sapieha, Wiśniowiecki,
Zasławski The House of Zasławski (plural ''Zasławscy'') was the name of a Polish–Ruthenian noble family and a cadet branch of the Ostrogski family. The Zasławski family had its power base in Volhynia, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (today in Uk ...
, Zbaraski and the Ostrogski family.


History

Ruthenian nobility were usually of Eastern Slavic origin from incorporated lands of principalities of former Kyivan Rus and Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia into Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland, which mostly compromise today's
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
and
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
. Much of the upper class of the Grand Duchy called themselves Lithuanians ( Litvin), yet spoke the
Ruthenian language Ruthenian (Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularl ...
(also referred to as Old Ruthenian language). Some of the Lithuanian nobility was Ruthenianized. The adapted Old Church Slavonic and later the Ruthenian language, acquired a status of a main chancery language in the local matters and relations with other Orthodox principalities as '' lingua franca'', and Latin was used in relations with Western Europe. According to the Belarusian historian Anatol Hrytskievich, in the 16th century, within the territory of what is now Belarus, 80% of feudal lords were of Belarusian ethnic origin, 19% of Lithuanian, and 1% of other. He states that no major ethnic conflicts between them and the quality of their rights was also guaranteed by the
Lithuanian Statutes The Statutes of Lithuania, originally known as the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, were a 16th-century codification of all the legislation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its successor, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The S ...
of 1529, 1566 and 1588.


Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

After Union of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland into
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ...
, the non-Polish ethnic groups, especially the Ruthenians and
Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Ame ...
, found themselves under the strong influence of Polish culture and
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
.
Nataliia Polonska-Vasylenko Nataliia Polonska-Vasylenko ( uk, Наталія Полонська-Василенко; 12 February 1884 in Kharkiv, Russian Empire – 8 June 1973 in Dornstadt, near Ulm, West Germany) was one of the foremost Ukrainian historians of the 20th cen ...
, History of Ukraine, "Lybid", (1993), , v.I, Section: "Ukraine under Poland"
Natalia Iakovenko, Narys istorii Ukrainy s zaidavnishyh chasic do kincia XVIII stolittia, Kyiv, 1997, Section: 'Ukraine-Rus, the "odd man out" in Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodow The Polish influence in the regions started from the 1569 Union of Lublin, when many of the Ruthenian territories formerly controlled by thePolonska-Vasylenko, Section: Evolution of Ukrainian lands in the 15th and 16th centuries
Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...
were transferred to the Polish Crown. In the climate of the colonization of sparsely populated Ruthenian lands by the Polish or Polonized nobility, even peasants from central Poland moved to the East. "Transferred as a result of the Union of Lublin from the grand duchy of Lithuania to the more ethnically homogeneous Crown, Ukraine was “colonized” by both Polish and Ukrainian great nobles. Most of the latter gradually abandoned Orthodoxy to become Roman Catholic and Polish. These 'little kings' of Ukraine controlled hundreds of thousands of 'subjects from ''Wladyslaw IV Vasa'' in "Poland, history of". (2006). In
Encyclopædia Britannica The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...
. Retrieved June 3, 2006, from
Encyclopædia Britannica The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...
Premium Service

/ref> Until the 16th century the Ruthenian language was used by most of the szlachta of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, including the Grand Dukes and including the region of Samogitia, both in formal affairs and in private. By the end of the 16th century under a number of circumstances like Union of Brest, following the prohibition of the Orthodox church, increasing number Jesuit Schools, which became one of the main places for szlachta to get education etc. Polish language became more actively used, especially by Magnates while minor szlachta remained Old Ruthenian-speaking. Since that time the Ruthenian szlachta actively adopted Polish noble customs and traditions, such as Sarmatism. However, despite that, the nobility stayed politically loyal to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and defended it autonomy in disputes with the Polish crown within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


Ruthenian nobility in the 17th century


Cossack Hetmanate

Following the Pereyaslav Council on Left-bank Ukraine was created Cossack Hetmanate. The ruling class in the state became Cossacks. Despite the fact that a large number Cossacks didn't have official (granted or confirmed by
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...
and Sejm) noble background, they tended to identify themselves as szlachta and considered those Cossacks who did, as equal. This could be seen in the way of life, art, clothes etc. Following the end of
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...
a large number of Ruthenian, Polish (e.g. Zavadovsky, Dunin-Borkovsky, Modzalevsky), Lithuanian (e.g. Narbut, Zabily, Hudovych), Tatar (e.g. Kochubey), Serbian (e.g. Myloradovych), Greek (e.g. Kapnist) etc. noble families moved to Hetmanate. Via intermarriage between Cossacks, Ruthenian and other nobilities, and by nobilitation by reaching high positions in both Hetmanate state and Russia, Cossacks formed Cossack nobility, also known as Cossack Starshyna. Cossack nobility played a large role in the history of both Ukraine and Russia. By the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, they became part of
Russian nobility The Russian nobility (russian: дворянство ''dvoryanstvo'') originated in the 14th century. In 1914 it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members (about 1.1% of the population) in the Russian Empire. Up until the February Revolutio ...
.


Russian Empire


Ruthenian nobility of modern Ukraine in Russian Empire

Ever since the end of the 16th-century Ruthenian nobility moved to Russia because in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth they were suppressed by the Catholic Polish szlachta and were unable because of that reach high social and political status. After Khmelnytsky Uprising and
Pereyaslav Treaty The Pereiaslav AgreementPereyaslav Agreement
was signed, a large number of Ruthenian nobility and Cossacks became citizens of the Hetmanate state, which was self-governed but was part Tsardom of Russia. Following the merge of Cossacks and Ruthenian nobility into Cossack Nobility, a lot of them sought to receive larger political, social and military status in Russia. From the beginning of the 18th century and until the beginning of the 19th century they played a large role in the Tsardom of Russia, and then the Russian Empire. Families like Razumovsky and Bezborodko became one of the wealthiest families of the Empire. By the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the Hetmanate state despite the Pereyaslav Treaty was abolished by Catherine II. Some Cossacks were forced to move to the region of Kuban, where they formed Kuban Cossacks, while most of the Cossacks stayed. Most of those who were of nobility descent reached needed rank of Table of Ranks or was nobilitised by Russian Emperors became part of Russian Dvoryanstvo. Those who were unable to confirm at the moment were allowed to do it later. After the partitions of Poland, the Ruthenian nobility from Ukrainian and other lands of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were also incorporated into dvoryanstvo. The same way that the Ruthenian nobility had been incorporated in Polish nobility, high nobility of Ruthenian and Cossack descent more and more associated themselves with the Russian nation, rather than Rusyn (Ruthenian, Cossack, Ukrainian) nation. Because most of the education was primarily taught in Russian and French, and soon Ruthenian nobility started speaking Russian instead of the Rusyn language. Through intermarriages and service, the Ruthenian nobility became a large donor for Russian nation. People like
Peter Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...
,
Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
,
Fedor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
, Ivan Paskevich, Mykhaylo Ostrohradsky were great contributors of Russian cultural, scientific and political life.


Ruthenian nobility of modern Belarus in Russian Empire

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Belarusian szlachta were active participants of anti-Russian uprisings on the territory of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Tadeusz Kościuszko (Tadevush Kastsyushka), a nobleman from what is now Belarus, was the leader of the Kościuszko Uprising in 1793.
Kastus Kalinouski Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski, also known as Kastuś Kalinoŭski ( be, Касту́сь Каліно́ўскі also be, Вінцэ́нт Канстанці́н Каліно́ўскі, lit=Vincent Kanstancin Kalinoŭski, lt, Konstantinas Kalinau ...
was the leader of January Uprising on the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. By the 19th century polonization of the szlachta on one hand and
russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
and violent introduction of Russian Orthodoxy to the peasantry, on the other hand, led to a situation where the social barrier between aristocracy and peasantry on Belarusian lands became in many aspects an ethnic barrier. In the 19th century, local intellectuals of peasant origin and some szlachta people like
Francišak Bahuševič Francišak Bahuševič ( be, Францішак Багушэвіч, pl, Franciszek Bohuszewicz, – () was a Belarusian poet, writer and lawyer, considered to be one of the initiators of modern Belarusian literature. Biography Bahuševič wa ...
and
Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich Vintsent Dunin-Marcinkievič ( be, Вінцэнт (Вінцук) Дунін-Марцінкевіч; pl, Wincenty Dunin-Marcinkiewicz; February 8, 1808 – December 21, 1884) was a Polish- Belarusian writer, poet, dramatist and social activist ...
contributed to Belarusian nationalism. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Belarusian nobility has been primarily politically active in the Krajowcy political movement. Still, some of them, like Raman Skirmunt or
Madeleine Radziwiłł Princess Maria Madeleine Radziwiłł (born Marie-Eve-Madeleine-Josephus-Elizabeth-Apollonia-Catherine Zawisza-Kierżgajło; 1861 Warsaw – 1945 Fribourg) was a Polish–Belarusian aristocrat who financed many Catholic works and Belarusian nation ...
, have been sympathetic to the Belarusian national movement and have supported the creation of an independent Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1918. Regimental Commander Pyotr Kazakevich later joined the army with 2000 professional Russian Cossacks. Pyotr Kazakevich was a Regimental Commander for the Russian Empire before he joined the
Belarusian National Army The Belarusian People's Republic (BNR; be, Беларуская Народная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Narodnaja Respublika, ), or Belarusian Democratic Republic, was a state proclaimed by the Council of the Belarusian Democratic R ...
. After the October Revolution, the Belarusian nobility was severely hit by Bolshevist terror. Eastern Belorussia faced Soviet terror already since the early 1920s, while most noble people living in
Western Belorussia Western Belorussia or Western Belarus ( be, Заходняя Беларусь, translit=Zachodniaja Bielaruś; pl, Zachodnia Białoruś; russian: Западная Белоруссия, translit=Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of mod ...
were repressed only upon the territory's annexation by the USSR in 1939. Belarusian historians speak of a genocide of the Belarusian gentry carried out by the Bolsheviks. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, many minor nobles in Belarus were hardly distinguishable from usual peasants, only the top aristocracy faced repressions because of their noble origin.


Austrian Empire


Ruthenian nobility today

Upon Belarus regaining independence in 1991, remaining descendants of noble families in Belarus have formed certain organizations, particularly the Union of Belarusian Noble People (Згуртаванне беларускай шляхты). There is, however, a split between the noble people identifying themselves rather with the Polish-Lithuanian szlachta and the Russian dvoryanstvo.


Naming

Initially, the Ruthenian noble people were called '' Boyars'' ( uk, бояри, boyary, rue, бояре, boyare, be, баяры, bajary). In the territory of what is now the Republic of Lithuania the word ''bajorai'' was used). After passing of the Horodło privileges along with the word ''bajary'' the term ''bajary-szlachta'' (баяры-шляхта) or simply '' szlachta'' (шляхта) was used in documentation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that was predominantly written in Ruthenian. In the 15th and 16th centuries nobility in Polesia or Podlacha was also often called ''ziamianie'' (зямяне). Since the second quarter of the 16th century the word ''szlachta'' (шляхта) became the dominant Belarusian term for noble people.


Religion

By the 14th century the majority of the Belarusian nobility, both Baltic and Ruthenian, were
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canoni ...
. After the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387, more and more nobles converted to Roman Catholicism which became the dominant religion among the aristocracy. In the 16th century a large part of Belarusian nobility, both Catholic and Orthodox, converted to
Calvinism Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
and other Protestant churches following the example of the Radziwills. However, under the influence of counter-reformation in the late 16th century and early 17th century, most of them converted to Roman Catholicism. By the annexation of modern Belarusian lands by the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
at the end of the 18th century the Belarusian gentry was predominantly Roman Catholic while the rest of the population was mainly
Eastern Catholic The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of ...
with a small
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canoni ...
minority living in the east of modern Belarus. Still, there was also Eastern Orthodox szlachta in the surroundings of
Pinsk Pinsk ( be, Пі́нск; russian: Пи́нск ; Polish: Pińsk; ) is a city located in the Brest Region of Belarus, in the Polesia region, at the confluence of the Pina River and the Pripyat River. The region was known as the Marsh of Pi ...
, Davyd-Haradok, Slutsk and Mahiliou as well as
calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
szlachta.


Heraldry

''See Polish heraldry'' Belarusian aristocrats had their family symbols already in the 14th century. One of the privileges introduced to the gentry by the
Union of Horodlo Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ' ...
was the usage of Polish (sometimes modified) coats of arms. There are about 5 thousand coats of arms of Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian szlachta.


Notable Ruthenian noble families

* Jełowicki * Sapieha * Ogiński *
Pac Pac or PAC may refer to: Military * Rapid Deployment Force (Malaysia), an armed forces unit * Patriot Advanced Capability, of the MIM-104 Patriot missile * Civil Defense Patrols (''Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil''), Guatemalan militia and paramili ...
* Ostrogski * Radziwiłł * Chodkiewicz


See also

* Boyars * Polish-Lithuanian (adjective)


References


External links


Association of the Belarusian nobility



Sources

* * {{European nobility