On the Way to a New Structure

Poland, Lithuania, and the Western Parts of the East Slavic Area in the Thirteenth‒Fifteenth Centuries

Abstract

During the second half of the thirteenth century when the Mongols occupied the centre of the former Kievan Rus’ and the princes of the North-Eastern region became dependent on them, Polish and Lithuanian influence increased in the western areas (Galicia, Volhynia, Smolensk, Polotsk). During the first decades of the fourteenth century the dynasties of Poland and Lithuania contended with each other for the hegemony. According to the negotiations in the 1340s, Galicia and a part of Volhynia belonged to Poland, and another part of Volhynia to Lithuania. In the following years, because of the expansion, Casimir the Great acquired Podolia, and the Lithuanians occupied the surroundings of Kiev. The chronicler of the Teutonic Knights pointed out that “omnis Russia ad Letwinos deberet simpliciter pertinere”. Władysław Jagiełło, King of Poland (1387−1434) and Witold, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1392−1430) started to organize the new administration on the East Slavic territory. The part belonging to the Polish Crown voivodships (wojewódstwo) were organized, just like in the Polish territory in general. Another part of the territory belonging to Lithuania there were either organized units similar to the Polish system, or the former principality tradition was conserved. In most cases, new administrative centres emerged. The Mongolian-Lithuanian border remained a less organized form of military administration. The Polish-Lithuanian rule contributed to the development of the Belarusian and the Ukrainian identities. The patriarchal Greek and Polish ‒ Lithuanian Latin chancelleries created the terms Russia Minor and Russia Alba.