Alexey Venediktov- 18 hours and 8 minutes in Moscow. Alexey Venediktov and Natalya Ivanovna Basovskaya are at the microphone. Good afternoon

Natalya Basovskaya- Hello!

A. Venediktov- Happy belated birthday again! Well, you went on a spree, I must admit.

N. Basovskaya- Yes.

A. Venediktov- Our listeners are simply furious, I would say.

N. Basovskaya- Guilty. I'll fix it.

A. Venediktov- Here.

N. Basovskaya- And I’m starting today.

A. Venediktov- So. Natalya Ivanovna live. And, of course, we will have drawings. Our 8 winners will each receive 3 archived issues of the Dilettant magazine of their choice, and a guide to the Baltics from the Orange Guide series, Moscow, Eksmo, 2016. Here it is, fresh. I show it to everyone on the network. Well, the Baltic states... Today we have not only the Baltic states, of course. Well, our very first winner will receive this figurine of a winged hussar that I brought from northern Poland. Such a collectible figurine. There are... there is a whole museum like this. Yes? The military museum makes such hussars from approximately the same time. The question is very simple. Our hero today, Grand Duke Vitovt, was a nominal leader, including the Moscow State, for 5 years. In what capacity was he the head of the Moscow state? In what capacity was Grand Duke Vitovt for 5 years the head legally, by the way, by the way, the head of the Moscow state? Plus 7 985 970 45 45. Don't forget to subscribe. Well, or the “Call” account. Or via the Internet.

Natalya Ivanovna Basovskaya, I must tell you that since in our program we shy away from the history of Russian political figures, some people always appear at the junctions who are also the head of a foreign state...

N. Basovskaya- Certainly.

A. Venediktov- ... but a big player in the history of the Moscow or Russian state. I decided to look, to conduct a quick analysis of where the Lithuanian Prince Vytautas was mentioned for the last time now, today. Do you know where?

N. Basovskaya- No.

A. Venediktov- Now you will laugh. Announcement: “From August 8 to August 21, researchers will be excavating the Tyagin fortress and the tower built by the Lithuanian prince Vytautas in the Kherson region.” Where is the estate? Where is the water? Where is Lithuania? And where is the south of Ukraine? This is where our boy went.

N. Basovskaya- Of course, Vytautas... Years of life: approximately 1350, - there is no exact date, - 1430. We see about 80 years. And the latest information from sources is that, yes, he passed away at a very advanced age, simply incredibly advanced for that era.

A. Venediktov- ... old man, yes.

N. Basovskaya- In the history of Lithuania, he is absolutely mentioned only with the nickname Great Vytautas or Vytautas. No other way.

A. Venediktov- He is their Peter I.

N. Basovskaya- Yes. And this is really... This is the 2nd half of the 14th century, especially the 30s of the 15th century. This is the time when the Principality of Lithuania, squeezed on all sides by those who would not mind including it, and nominally included most of all, of course, in a unification, in a kind of unification with Poland, which then in the 16th century for some time became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , this unusual state. Literally a translation of what the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is – a state of 2 nations. An attempt to unite equally. It was always very difficult. It's always very painful. But this very XIV-XV century is significant in that it is precisely the exit not only of Lithuania, and we cannot talk about this, but of the north, the northwestern part. The whole of central, central and northwestern Europe entered the then world historical arena. If before that they were absolutely dominated after the fall of Great Rome, the emerging and formed France and Germany were absolutely dominant. Very different, but dominant. Italy. On the islands, of course, the role of the English kingdom increased. Then the rather distant, but noticeably knotted Spanish kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula joined. These were all undisputed leaders. And central Europe was generally considered some kind of wild land. But indeed the Lithuanians, and this is northern, not so much even central, northwestern Europe, are the last pagans in Europe. And this is important. Many pictures and iconographic materials from the late Middle Ages have been preserved, where the authors, without... hardly caricaturing, trying to do something evil, depict the Baltic peoples, here is the future state population, the future states of the Baltic states as savage peoples, quite very warlike.

A. Venediktov- In skins.

N. Basovskaya- Yes. But they look almost primitive. Not as hussar-like as on your collectible figurine. In fact, this is also, of course, a certain amount of exaggeration. There is no absolute adequacy in history at all, but that was the perception. And therefore, the reign of Vytautas, under which the role of the Lithuanian lands, namely the Lithuanian state, which arose in the 13th century, was not so early. If the formation of France as a whole, well, its foundation ends in the 10th century, in England - in the 11th century, then this is the 13th. It's a different pace. It is closer to our Russian pace. Well, in general, well, the Russian lands were also considered the region of absolutely wild people, quite scary, and terribly distant. This view through the lens of the former Western Roman Empire and the Western European region is what has long defined and continues to define the dominant thinking of Western Europeans even today: we will instill our values ​​in everyone. Oh God! Even the east. This is a pretty hopeless idea. They have such advanced thinking. But in fact, if you look closely at the XIV-XV centuries, it is central and northwestern Europe that burst into pan-European history. And Vitovt is a very characteristic figure in this sense. Like all the rulers of that era, and this is the Middle Ages, he also lived most of his life as a pagan. He adopted Christianity almost at the same time as his cousin Jagiello, but also too late. This is the 80s of the XIV century.

A. Venediktov- And I took different ones three times.

N. Basovskaya- Moved here and there. In this sense, he resembles Henry IV of Navarre. Paris is worth a mass. Vilna is worth a mass. Everything is worth...

A. Venediktov- Smolensk is worth a mass.

N. Basovskaya- Smolensk is worth... In order to talk better with the Russian lands, and he had big plans for the Moscow state, certainly big and generally not alien to reality, you can change your faith. Or rather, a confession, not a faith. Christian faith.

A. Venediktov- Yes, confession. Yes.

N. Basovskaya- He changed his confession. This is such a person. And this seems to be a typical figure. What did he do all his long life? Reflected enemy pressure on Lithuania. The matter is understandable and worthy. At the same time, he tried to annex as much as possible to the small - what would happen - to the small Lithuanian lands and fought with all opposition, fought against conspiracies. Moreover, there could be any methods here. And yet there is a bright spot in his biography, which we will return to later. This is, of course, his role in the Battle of Grunwald with the Teutonic Order in 1410. Here his role is indisputable, positive, noticeable, and not always appreciated, because formally his cousin Jagiello was considered higher, because Jagiello was also the king of Poland. But Vytautas never became king, although he really wanted to. So, what can we say, based on Alexei Alekseevich’s favorite expression, about our boy? After all, even Vytautas, the formidable Vytautas, was once a boy. He was born around 1350 in Trakai. He died there later, that’s how it happened. The circle of his life closed like this. Its origin? Father Kistutis, as Lithuanian authors write, or Keistut, as is customary...

A. Venediktov- Keistut. Yes.

N. Basovskaya- Yes, in our historiography. Yes, we understand, Keistut, Grand Duke of Lithuania. But, it’s true, he was a Grand Duke, he was called and titled for a very short time. In 1381-82. In fact, he was simply the brother of the more permanent Grand Duke of Lithuania, his brother Olgerd. Keistut was a descendant, came from a family... His father was the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas. This is the basis of the glory of the Lithuanian ruling house. Mother, Keistut's 2nd wife, named Biruta. Vitovt’s mother, very little is known about her except that she died tragically, and even the details of her death are given differently. But one very interesting detail slips through. There is a version that Biruta was a pagan priestess. And it's very real. It is very difficult for us to imagine...

A. Venediktov- So our mother is a pagan priestess?

N. Basovskaya- Apparently so, because this is precisely this line - the exit from paganism, from the most deeply patriarchal times to feudal civilization, let's call it that. That she was a pagan priestess, whom he forcibly took as his wife, and she, as a priestess, should not have been anyone’s wife, with this same Keistut, who in the future - there will be details about him now - is such a noble father of Vytautas, he is noble. But every medieval noble person has features that make you gasp. So, the earliest we know personally about Vytautas. At about 13 years old, he was forced, together with Keistut, his father, to flee from court conspiracies and danger. It must be said that we often approach Russian history, we Russians, are very critical, somehow acutely painful, we often say: “Oh, our princes, they say, are the worst. That’s how they fought each other, blinded each other, killed.” Believe me, the Lithuanian ones are even sharper. In a very small territory, unlike the Moscow Principality, there is a completely bloody court conspiracy history. And so he was apparently 13 years old when he and his father were forced to flee from the emerging court coup. Where to run?

A. Venediktov- Where?

N. Basovskaya- To the worst enemies. To the Teutonic Order.

A. Venediktov- Wait, there are all enemies there. The Horde is the enemy. Moscow is the enemy. The Poles are enemies. The Teutons are enemies.

N. Basovskaya- ... tried to make friends. The main enemy is still the order.

A. Venediktov- Then the order.

N. Basovskaya- At this moment the order.

A. Venediktov- It's clear.

N. Basovskaya- The Order was strong. Two words about the order. The Teutonic Order was formed in the 12th century, in 1128 in the city of Jerusalem. God! Where is Lithuania? Where is Jerusalem?

A. Venediktov- Well, yes.

N. Basovskaya- As you just said, where is this, where is this. Kherson. What is Kherson? Lithuania, Jerusalem. The goal is to help rich Germans, nobles, poor pilgrims who go to the holy lands to worship, as well as the sick. That is, the noblest ideas. In 1189, the son of Frederick I Barbarossa, the German Emperor, betrayed the military character of the order. And from then on he became more and more militant. Their white cloak with a black cross was simply a symbol of growing militancy. At the head is a man called the Hochmeister. In the 13th century, their residence was moved to Venice, but they did not gain a foothold there and moved their residence to Prussia, which they conquered by fire and sword.

A. Venediktov- But the Prussians were also pagans.

N. Basovskaya- The Prussians are pagans. Ethnically related, perhaps, to the Balts, the ancestors of the Lithuanians, and partly to the Slavs. There's a lot of controversy there. Well, a very distinctive tribe of Prussians. And there, having taken away the land from them, well, like the Spaniards did from the natives of America. They cleared the area and settled in. And essentially this order, created with such sweet tasks and peacekeeping, kind, noble, but turns into something completely different. Here's the correct way of Frederick II... And this was such a very curious ruler... an emperor and poet with romantic inclinations. Here I quote why he supports this order in Prussia, plants it there, resettles and encourages it: “To introduce there, among the Prussians, good customs, good customs, which means forcibly making them Christians, and laws to strengthen the faith and establishing a prosperous peace between the inhabitants.” This is the world we know. Once again I compare with the natives of America.

A. Venediktov- And they run there.

N. Basovskaya- The Order is becoming militant. The Order becomes dangerous for Lithuania and all its neighbors. But in a critical state and then more than once, Vitovt will seek refuge there. First of all, it's nearby. And, secondly, if they agreed that they would accept, then they will protect.

A. Venediktov- Knights.

N. Basovskaya- My God! Well, what if Finist the Falcon, a patriot of Athens, in the 5th century BC ended up running to the main enemies of the Greeks - the Persians. This is the life of this era. Everyone is against everyone. So there they took refuge. But then the situation changed, he returned with his father. We know that at about the age of 18 he begins to participate in military campaigns, and this becomes his lifelong occupation. To fight, to conquer, to resist conquerors, to seize lands that can be seized - this is his whole life. Father Keistut ruled jointly with his brother Olgerd. They were both called equal rulers. But in fact, Olgerd Keistut was officially titled Grand Duke only after his death for a very short time. They divided the spheres.

A. Venediktov- Well, very friendly, by the way. I looked there...

N. Basovskaya- They didn’t fight.

A. Venediktov- They never stood up to each other.

N. Basovskaya- Absolutely.

A. Venediktov- Well, I didn’t find it, you might say.

N. Basovskaya- It would seem that this will be the case between their sons. Yes? Vytautas and Jagiello. No.

A. Venediktov- No.

N. Basovskaya- These were peaceful. Olgerd is called the Grand Duke. Keistut doesn't mind. Olgierd gives Keistut responsibility for, so to speak, the northwestern part of Lithuania. And this is the most terrible border.

A. Venediktov- Well, Teuton.

N. Basovskaya- Hot Spots. Warband. And, nevertheless, there are no conspiracies or any bloody battle between them. And here Vitovt is a participant in Olgerd’s campaigns, several campaigns, including against Moscow. This is where the connection begins, which... Everything is interesting, amusing - or what? so to speak, in the life of Vytautas. Hostile military actions are intertwined, the era is such, with some other considerations. Over time, dynastic ties, changes in confessions, and so on will be added to this. In 1376 he is 26 years old. He takes part in the campaign against Poland. Poland is a terrible enemy. Who would have thought here in the 14th century that they would agree on a joint state, because Poland definitely has a chance of absorbing this small principality. It's small. Ethnically different. More economically backward. And Poland has more opportunities to annex it. Since 1377, he has carried out several independent campaigns, Vytautas, against the Teutonic Order. He was hiding there. I went there on hikes. And again he will hide. And in 1377 the same year...

A. Venediktov- Let me remind you, 3 years before the Battle of Kulikovo. Let's just put it into this story. It's all brewing...

N. Basovskaya- Yes, some...

A. Venediktov- Yes, it’s all cooking over there.

N. Basovskaya- This whole Eastern Europe is some kind of cauldron.

A. Venediktov- Yes.

N. Basovskaya- Olgerd, Vitovt’s uncle, is dying. And Father Keistut shows something...unprecedented nobility. The expression noble Keistut, noble father of Vytautas begins. He recognizes Olgerd’s son Jagiello as the Grand Duke instead of saying: “Well, now I am. I helped him all the time. I stayed". He recognizes the Grand Duke of Lithuania...

A. Venediktov- His nephew Jagiello.

N. Basovskaya- ... his nephew Jagiello, the absolute same age as our great Vytautas, his cousin. And in general, the step, of course, is so risky from a psychological, human point of view. And why? And why? And why is it better? And now he paid for it, so to speak...

A. Venediktov- Here, of course.

N. Basovskaya- ... nobility Keistut.

A. Venediktov- This is how it is accepted.

N. Basovskaya- I don’t know whether there was nobility behind this, it’s hard to say. You never know. It looks like this: he nobly admitted and paid very heavily. Having recognized him... Having given him the grand-ducal throne, having somehow answered, probably, Vytautas’s questions about why this was so, already in 1381 Keistut by chance from a secret informant, a servant of the crusaders - what a knot! - I learned that there was a secret agreement between Jagiello, his beloved nephew, and the order against Keistut. Well, actually I can imagine how upset he was. But he was upset in a businesslike manner. In November 1381, he immediately organized a campaign against Vilna, the future Vilnius, took this Vilnius, removed Jagiello from power, and proclaimed himself Grand Duke. And then he again took an oath from Jagiello not to covet the grand-ducal throne. He did not execute, did not torture, did not imprison and sent him to distant lands. These are Krevsky and Vitebsky. Familiar Belarusian places.

A. Venediktov- Well, they’re too far away...

N. Basovskaya- For them.

A. Venediktov- Distant for them. Yes. Distant for them.

N. Basovskaya- Amazing. The fact is that these same oaths appeared very often throughout the Middle Ages and in ancient history. Make a terrible oath.

A. Venediktov- On the Bible, if you are a Christian.

N. Basovskaya- If you are a Christian, on the Bible. The Greeks have a terrible oath in the face of Zeus the Thunderer. Well, now lightning is going to strike. Nothing happens when these terrible oaths are broken. Doesn't happen. But people take these oaths again. What about Jagiello sent? That's it, he left with his oath. A year later in 1382...

A. Venediktov- The year of the capture of Moscow by Tokhtamysh.

N. Basovskaya- How good...

A. Venediktov- I’m just connecting so that people understand, it’s nearby, it’s nearby.

N. Basovskaya- Great.

A. Venediktov- A horde is moving nearby.

N. Basovskaya- And the main thing is that Tokhtamysh will appear now.

A. Venediktov- Yes.

N. Basovskaya- He will appear in a very interesting relationship with Vitovt. So, mutiny. Jagiello starts a rebellion.

A. Venediktov- Well…

N. Basovskaya- He attracts 2 more of his brothers, very warlike, against Keistut. And on August 3, 1382, Keistut’s death was buried here. They met two Lithuanian troops, Keistut and the oathbreaker Jagiello. This is where the terrible end of Keistut began. And, probably, the idea of ​​vengeance for him, which will not leave Vytautas, although he will know, will be forced to get closer to Jagiello at times. These are typical friends-enemies.

A. Venediktov― Natalya Ivanovna Basovskaya, Alexey Venediktov in the program “Everything is so” about the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas. After the news we will return to the studio.

A. Venediktov: 18- 35 in Moscow. I asked you in what capacity our today’s hero, the Lithuanian prince Vitovt, governed, legally governed the Russian Moscow state. And it must be said that he was formally a regent, because he was the grandfather of the young Grand Duke Vasily II, the future Vasily the Dark. He was a grandfather and, accordingly... Dmitry Donskoy was the grandfather of this... Vasily II had two grandfathers. But Dmitry Donskoy was no longer there. He died in 1389. And Vytautas ruled formally until his death, until the year 30...

N. Basovskaya- Theoretically, yes.

A. Venediktov- Yes.

N. Basovskaya“And I wouldn’t mind making it more real if I could.” He is his only daughter, his only...

A. Venediktov- Now we will talk about this.

N. Basovskaya- ... extradited to Muscovy...

A. Venediktov- An only child, I would even say.

N. Basovskaya- Yes, this is his only child.

A. Venediktov- The heiress. Heiress. Our winners. A figurine of a Polish hussar and... on account... Lord, my God!

N. Basovskaya- Guide.

A. Venediktov― An orange guide to the Baltics was received... and plus the choice of three issues of “Diletant” was received by Victor, whose phone number ends with 15. The rest of our winners receive a guide to the Baltics and also magazines. This is Elena, whose phone number ends with 04, Evgeny - 50, Oleg - 49, Georgy - 10, Boris - 83, Alexey - 96 and Alexander - 43. He was the regent.

We'll talk about Moscow history later. Yes? But now we have...

N. Basovskaya- And we left our hero...

A. Venediktov- Yes. When dad died.

N. Basovskaya- ...before the break...

A. Venediktov- When dad died.

N. Basovskaya- ... at a dramatic moment. Now dad will die. It was August 3, 1382. Two Lithuanian troops met. Conspirator, oathbreaker Jagiello and father of Vitovt Keistut. Vytautas in his father's army. Near Vilna. They didn't want to fight each other. There have been situations when in these... Then everything somehow escalates. In general, it was worse in Western Europe. During the civil wars, the French sometimes killed the French so mercilessly until they found Henry of Navarre, ready to maneuver. At this moment they didn’t really want to fight, and the leaders understood this. Therefore, negotiations were started. It's a good thing. Noble Keistut arrived to negotiate with Jagiello. Not the other way around. Not Jagiello...

A. Venediktov- To the Jagiello camp.

N. Basovskaya- Oh, yes. To the Jagiello camp. Still, he had something special in the structure of his body.

A. Venediktov- He had the structure of his body that he considered him like a brother... Here is a brother. He never fought with Olgerd.

N. Basovskaya- ... Olgerd. And he believed in blood ties, in government.

A. Venediktov- Yes. Maybe yes.

N. Basovskaya- Moreover, he arrived there with his wife Biruta, son Vitovt and wife Vitovt. Here is a whole team - yes, - in a family way. Let's arrange negotiations. They are all captured during these negotiations. Everyone is imprisoned not in one place, but in different ones. And where his father and mother, these same Biruta and Keistut, were imprisoned in terrible conditions, they were killed. He was strangled. And there is a version - she was drowned in the river. So I think that there was something connected with past paganism, some kind of special idea. But all this is infinitely cruel. And Vitovt was lucky. He ran, of course, to the Master of the Teutonic Order, the Hochmeister, dressed in the dress of his wife’s maid. It’s very bad that the image of the mighty Vytautas in this woman’s attire is drawn in my mind. But it was. In his wife's maid's dress. The wife remained in captivity. He took a big risk with his wife. He got lucky. She survived because Jagiello realized very quickly... I say they have a very strange relationship, rapprochement - divergence, friendship - enmity. Realizing that he had completely fallen into a rage, Vytautas quickly gathered troops in Samogitia, the westernmost part of Lithuania. There was an ethnically unique population there, which greatly revered Geistut, who protected them... for many years, defending them from the orders of the order and encroachments. And therefore Jagiello was afraid and let his wife go. In 1383, a year after these dramatic events, Vytautas was baptized according to the Catholic rite and received the name Vigant. But I must say, under this name he is absolutely not in history...

A. Venediktov- I could not resist.

N. Basovskaya- ... did not appear. This remains in theory. And just a year later - what a dramatic life! - in 1384, Vytautas suddenly broke off relations with the Teutonic Order. There are still 26 years until the Battle of Grunwald, where the order will be defeated essentially forever. He suddenly, with the help of a conspiracy, pretends that he will go on a campaign there on the border of Lithuania, arranges a feast with the people of the order, as if with allies. At the feast they are killed. And he captured several order fortresses, including Marienburg. That is, he could be insidious. Still, many authors, well, there are not many of them who have written about them, try to sculpt two opposite images: the insidious, bad Jagiello... Well, it’s not for nothing that he became the king of Poland. This is having an impact. But Vitovt, our Vitovt is still better. They are very similar, these friends and enemies. Vytautas breaks not only with the order, but also with the Catholic Church. True, only for 2 years. In 1384, he was baptized again, now according to the Orthodox rite. What is this? What is this? And he gets the name Alexander. He, probably, these plans of Moscow... plans connected with the Moscow principality are pushing him to such a step that, perhaps, he will overtake and outstrip his Jagiello, because in his constant campaigns, repelling dangers, he, however, However, it does not forget to grab Russian, relatively speaking, Belarusian, Ukrainian lands and territories. There are more and more of them.

A. Venediktov- Well, they sent me that by the middle of his reign, apparently, when he was already the Grand Duke, about 80 percent of the population were Slavs, future Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians.

N. Basovskaya- Absolutely correct. He captured...

A. Venediktov- There are a few Poles.

N. Basovskaya- ...Russian-Belarusian lands to Mozhaisk.

A. Venediktov- Where is Mozhaisk? Is it here?

N. Basovskaya- Well, here is the Moscow region.

A. Venediktov- Yes. His…

N. Basovskaya- ... will go there soon.

A. Venediktov- The Grand Duchy of Lithuania extended to Mozhaisk.

N. Basovskaya- To Mozhaisk. I went on trips to Moscow several times. Moreover, he captured Kyiv, but did not make it his residence. Smolensk, Vyazma. I really appreciated the annexation of Smolensk, because the border was so widened, it was such a wall against Poland.

A. Venediktov- Yes.

N. Basovskaya- This is protection from the Poles. Vyaz and a number of areas in the upper Oka. Now this is Kaluga... Well, not within the exact boundaries. Sample areas. Kaluga, Tula, Oryol. That is absolutely incredible. And he returned to Catholicism in 1987. Still, he did not bring Orthodoxy to these Slavic lands. But at the moments of capture, this person, who was, as it were, on the border of Orthodoxy, should have evoked in them something like that this was the worst thing. They didn’t have much choice, yes. And these are huge territories for a small Lithuanian principality. His authority is growing. But in fact, great successes. And here he has a probable, very interesting ally - Takhtomysh.

A. Venediktov- The same one.

N. Basovskaya- Who burned Moscow.

A. Venediktov: At 82- M.

N. Basovskaya- Which, of course, caused enormous damage to the Russian lands. But he was expelled from the horde. And now he is an exile. And he, seeing this warlike Vytautas, goes to some kind of battle with him... The campaigns of Timur and Tamerlane are also mixed in here. In general, times are crazy.

A. Venediktov- Yes Yes.

N. Basovskaya- XIV century. He enters into negotiations with Vitovt as with a strong sword. Need a sword. Here he is, Vitovot - the sword man. And he promises, a label has been preserved, a document has been preserved in which Tokhtamysh, who had nothing at that moment, promised Vitovt all the Moscow lands if their joint campaign was successful. That is, alternatives to European history, which today seems so clear, so alternative...

A. Venediktov- Linear.

N. Basovskaya- ... linear, it was not at all like any other story.

A. Venediktov- But Vitovt chose a different move, the one you were talking about.

N. Basovskaya- Yes. He actually chose the dynastic move. This is the year 1391. But he tried to take joint action with Tokhtamysh. They were just very unfortunate. And the dynastic move is peaceful. Marriage of the only daughter Sophia. He, Vytautas, had, as far as I remember, three marriages and an only child from the 2nd marriage. This is the child Sophia from his 2nd wife Anna Smolenskaya. In general, it must be said that Russian princesses enjoyed more and more attention in European history in dynastic politics. So I sometimes called it so harshly “dynastic goods,” but in reality it is so. These dynastic marriages, especially those concluded with minors, were often only a fiction, only a political game. But Anna Smolenskaya turned out to be different. This was a real political figure who tried to use Vytautas, so to speak, for the benefit of his son Vasily. Terrible... The formidable shadow of the Grand Duke of Lithuania... In reality, this did not mean anything, but it meant a potential alliance, and, of course, Vitovt gave birth to the idea of ​​uniting and leading the Lithuanian and Moscow lands.

A. Venediktov- Moreover, 2 years before this, Dmitry Donskoy dies.

N. Basovskaya- Yes. And now we need a figure. You need a charismatic figure. But Jagiello also understood this.

A. Venediktov- So.

N. Basovskaya- Our famous cousin. In 1392 - everything was on the heel - Jagiello suddenly declared Vytautas also the Grand Duke of Lithuania, but under his supremacy.

A. Venediktov- Like those Olgerd and Keistut.

N. Basovskaya - Yes Yes. It follows from the document that the supremacy is practically nominal. In response, Vitovt spends the next 3 years still doing the same thing - fighting, fighting. In 1395 he took possession of Smolensk and turned Smolensk into a real vassal possession of the Principality of Lithuania. Now he seems to be approaching the Moscow lands. But the order’s threat... Here it’s like a problem of choice, what’s worse, what’s worse, what’s more dangerous? The order was more terrible. And I can give you a version of why. The Catholic Church, a branch of the Christian church since 1054 compared to the Orthodox branch in politics, in its confessional policy was much more prone to violence, converting everyone, the entire subject population, only to this denomination. Orthodox in this sense... Well, I can’t say anything special, or even explain why. Byzantium had a terrible political central power, but the church was somewhat suppressed by it. Maybe that’s why the Orthodox Church is not so totalitarian. And so, when peoples found themselves between threats, they perceived the threat from Catholicism, and the knightly Teutonic Order, spiritual-knightly, became very energetic and strong, as the main threat. Both Jagiello and Vytautas came to this conclusion, becoming closer again. Jagiello began to involve his brother, whom he called the Grand Duke, in solving administrative issues. Obviously, things were heading towards a lasting reconciliation, because the order’s threat became inevitable. The fact is that in their order lands, in this territory of former Prussia... There are special works, very interesting, on this topic. They busily organized farming and trade in German. They became very rich. And therefore their army is well armed and energetic. Have money. There are funds. And there is a threat of expansion of these territories, because this is how the entire civilization of this era lives. They develop extensively. More land, more producers, more wealth. And therefore a decision is made to try to create some kind of coalition, some kind of unification of the Slavic peoples of any confession and the Catholic one - this is Poland - and those who will support with some nuances. Well, there is a version that Jan Zizka personally took part among the Czech volunteers. This is an ethnic slogan. This is a slogan against the harsh totalitarianism of the order. And this is hostility to the order, which has become sinister. The old ideas of poverty, helping the poor and the sick have long been forgotten. Many figures appeared at the top of the order, violating all these vows, principles, covenants. Man is weak, he violates many things. But when something very important is trampled upon, people grow in protest, protest against the top of the order, behaving like predators under the former slogans of charitable assistance to believers, great hostility has grown. And this is reflected in the descriptions of the famous Battle of Grunwald given by Slavic sources. The brightest is, of course, the Polish chronicler Jan Dlugosz, a wonderful person. Years of life 1415-1480. Graduated from Krakow University. He was Archbishop of Lviv, educator of the children of King Casimir IV. Participated in negotiations with the Teutonic Order of the Czech Republic and Hungary. I saw the order with my own eyes. And he wrote the famous “History of Poland”. 12 books in Latin. This is the birth of the Polish literary language. And he described the Battle of Grunwald. This is a picture... This is a script, a movie script. If you are very loving people who understand history, then you will see how he describes it in...

A. Venediktov- We must remind you that Vitovt is the commander-in-chief.

N. Basovskaya - So, Vi... Officially leads the battle Jagiello. It symbolizes, it stands on a hill with a banner and symbolizes this unity of peoples, troops. And Vitovt really, Vitovt really commands. They always had something like this... like between Keistut and Olgerd. Dlugosz described how crows, a flock of crows, flew over the field, precisely towards the knights, predicting their defeat. It rained and the crows flew by. And suddenly the Slavic warriors saw a cross in the sky. They are predicted to win. All this is described in a completely medieval way. Of course, the roar of the battle lasted 3 days... It lasted, of course, continuously for 3 days. But the rivers were stained with blood. Epic description. And Vitovt personally played a very interesting and important role in this battle. Vytautas, like a normal medieval cynic, placed 3 lines of Russian knights, heavily armed knights from the Smolensk land, in the center of his army. Dlugosh, who has no sympathy for the Russians, writes that they covered themselves with immortal glory. He placed the knights dismounted on the ground. This was already done in the 100 Years' War. Henry II Plantagenet did this in battles against the French. They had to take on the 1st main blow of the strongest part of the order's army - the cavalry. Many thousands of people took part. We will never be able to say for sure. But it is quite possible that it is no less than 30-40 thousand on each side. The main attack by heavy cavalry is scary. They must die because they cannot leave. Knights in heavy weapons of the 14th century, early 15th century - this armor is heavy, not very ... not ideally mobile. Not even they can not run away, not leave. They should stand like a wall. They stood as Dlugosz describes. They died line after line. But he writes how they died, fighting to the end. And at that moment there was light infantry, and these were Lithuanian warriors... These were lightly armed from the peasant masses and lower knighthood, of course, frightened by this cavalry... And there was Polish cavalry too. And then they faltered. The Polish knights seemed to freeze neither forward nor backward. And the Lithuanian light infantry felt that in a minute they would be trampled by the horses of the knights, and they ran away and ran. Vitovt knew, knew the area very well. And he knew that there was a lake ahead of them, and they would not run far. He caught up with them, rebuilt them and returned them. And I say: “Film script.” As Dlugosz writes: “It flashed over the field...” Over the field, where it was unclear who was winning, where the situation was very dubious. People are dying on both sides. It is unclear who will defeat whom. He almost killed Jagiello... A boy saved him there. A German knight almost killed him. “It flashed over the field: “Lithuania is coming back!” Lithuania is back! I hear it as a symphony of hope, as a symphony of joy. Well, this is one of the best descriptions of medieval battles. It even seems to me that the French descriptions, which I read a lot in chronicles, are weaker, because the French always have this desire to embellish - well, croissard-like - to decorate with such colors as a child’s coloring of the valor of knights, it prevails. This victory was very important for Vytautas, for his fate. But what he apparently dreamed of all his life did not happen. He is a victim... There is only one colossal battle that I did not mention. In 1399, together with Tokhtamysh, he was beaten on the Vorskla River. Otherwise victorious, he wanted to die with a crown on his head.

A. Venediktov- Well, yes.

N. Basovskaya- Jagiello is the king.

A. Venediktov- Yes, Polish.

N. Basovskaya- And I want to be a king. And the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund I promised him the crown. The coronation was scheduled for 1430. And the crown was brought according to orders...

A. Venediktov- A specially made crown.

N. Basovskaya- And a special crown was brought from Hungary, it was made there, through Poland. Polish magnates stole the crown.

A. Venediktov- Intercepted.

N. Basovskaya- Intercepted...

A. Venediktov- Gopniks.

N. Basovskaya- ... to ... Hooligan prank. Well, what do you want? If in that era when the Duke of Burgundy wanted to be crowned, to become king, the Pope was kidnapped for several days.

A. Venediktov- And here is some kind of crown.

N. Basovskaya- But here’s the thing. The crown was stolen and the coronation could not take place. Sigismund was also discouraged. He is the son of Emperor Charles IV the famous, who gave the golden bull to the Luxembourg dynasty. And it so happened that it’s sad to say, the great warrior Vitovt, he is a warrior, failure was only with Tokhtamysh... Well, there was no need to be friends with Tokhtamysh. The Battle of Vorskla... It’s not even clear why he was so defeated there. Well, the authors I have read cannot explain this. He died, I am convinced, of grief.

A. Venediktov- At 80 years old.

N. Basovskaya- When he learned that there was no crown, he immediately took it and died. Amazing life.

A. Venediktov- But we must remind you that his descendant through his daughter, who married Vasily Dmitrievich, is Vasily II the Dark - right? - and Ivan the Terrible is his descendant. All these Rurikovichs...

N. Basovskaya- There is in our history...

A. Venediktov- ...they are his descendants. Yes.

N. Basovskaya- ... his trace. Well, in the Battle of Grunwald, and throughout Slavic and Central European history. In his own way, he is a wonderful person, reflecting all the features of the era. But it’s somehow very sad that he died of grief.

A. Venediktov- We also read and watch films based on Henryk Sienkiewicz, read Henryk Sienkiewicz, if you like. Thank you very much. It was the “Everything is So” program. Natalya Ivanovna Basovskaya returned to duty. And Alexey Venediktov. Every Saturday, every Saturday at 16:00... Oh! We'll be with you at 6 p.m.

On the monument “Millennium of Russia”, installed in the Novgorod Kremlin in 1862, sculptor Mikhail Mikeshin depicted the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas among the figures of Russian history. There was also a place for his father Keistut, and for his uncle Olgerd, and for his grandfather Gediminas. This emphasized the significant role that these Lithuanian rulers played in the history of Russia.

The exact date of birth of Vytautas, who was to expand the borders of Lithuania to Tula and Crimea, is unknown. The German chronicler Konrad Bitshin mentioned that in 1370 Vytautas was 20 years old, and the Polish historian Martin Kromer in 1430 determined the venerable age of the Grand Duke at 80 years. Therefore, it is generally accepted that Vytautas was born in 1350. His parents were the Lithuanian prince Keistut and the former vadelot (that is, pagan priestess) Biruta. Vytautas the Great's grandfather Gediminas had seven sons, who after the death of their father divided Lithuania into seven appanages. The brothers alternated between fighting and forming alliances. Keistut inherited a narrow strip along the border of Lithuania with the possessions of the militant Teutonic Order, so his life was spent in constant battles. However, when in 1363 a dispute arose between the prince and his brother Olgerd, Keistut and 13-year-old Vitovt found refuge in the order’s possessions. A few years later, the brothers reconciled and began to rule the Principality of Lithuania together.

Prince Keistut. Romanticized portrait by A. Penkovsky, 1838. Source: Wikipedia.org

From a young age, Vitovt went on military campaigns with his father and uncle. In 1370 they fought Poland and Prussia, and in 1372 they moved east. The army of Olgerd and Keistut, who stood up for the Tver prince Mikhail in his conflict with Moscow, besieged Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and took Dmitrov. There was no general battle with the Moscow army: the Lithuanians and the army of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (the future Donskoy), after standing for several days on opposite sides of a deep ravine, settled the conflict peacefully. The Lithuanians returned to the borders of their principality. It must be said that this campaign was not considered long-distance: the eastern border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania then passed not far from Moscow, and Mozhaisk and Kolomna were in the possession of Olgerd.

In 1377 Olgerd died. The crown of the Grand Duke was inherited by his son Jagiello. Keistut did not object to this. The old man was already approaching 80, but he, apparently, considered himself a man in the prime of his life - his youngest daughter was only 8 years old. For some time, peace and friendship reigned between uncle and nephew, until Keistut learned that Jagiello had concluded a secret agreement with the Order directed against him. The crusaders had long looked askance at the old prince: he never accepted Christianity, and paganism flourished in his domains, especially in Samogitia. Having secured themselves with a secret agreement with Jogaila, the order attacked Keistut. The mighty old man repelled the attack and, having exposed the insidious intrigues of his nephew, went to war against him.

Vladislav II Jagiello. 1863, Mikhail Godlevsky Source: en. wikipedia.org

Jagiello was captured, but was pardoned at the request of Vytautas. Keistut was proclaimed Grand Duke of Lithuania. However, his reign was short-lived. Jagiello, released on parole not to claim the throne, with the support of the Order, started a civil war. His brothers stood at the head of the riots that broke out throughout Lithuania.

Vytautas wandered around the country, not having time to suppress the riots against his father. In August 1382, the parties agreed to begin peace negotiations, but Keistut and Vytautas, who arrived at them, were captured right in Jogaila’s tent and locked in prison. A few days later, the old prince was strangled, and Vitovta managed to escape, dressing in a woman’s dress as his wife’s servant. His mother Biruta was accused of organizing the escape, and Jagiello, who again became the Grand Duke, ordered her to be drowned.

Vitovt and Keistut are captured by Jogaila. Painting by Wojciech Gerson en. wikipedia.org

Not finding refuge with numerous relatives, Vitovt headed to the capital of the Teutonic Order, Marienburg. This did not seem very logical, but quite in the spirit of medieval politics, when everyone fought with everyone, and allied treaties were renegotiated several times a year. The Crusaders decided to use the guest as a counterweight to Jogaila, who began to pursue a policy too independent of the Order. Together with the army of the crusaders, Vytautas, who received Catholic baptism under the name Viganta, invaded his native lands, and the civil war began with renewed vigor.

It ended somewhat unexpectedly. Nobody defeated anyone. Poland ran out of kings, and in August 1385 Jogaila was invited to the Krakow throne. Having concluded a marriage with Princess Jadwiga, the Union of Lublin with Poland and taking the name Vladislav, Jagiello placed the Polish crown on his head, and left Lithuanian affairs to Vytautas, who had reconciled with him. He joyfully drove out the Teutons who were left in fools from the Lithuanian land and began to rule. Nominally he was considered a vassal of his cousin, but in fact he was absolutely independent.

Portrait from the Brest Augustinian monastery. Unknown author, second half of the 17th century. Source: Wikipedia.org

Vytautas began to build a strong state. Skillfully supporting anti-Polish sentiments in the Lithuanian aristocracy, he increasingly strengthened the informal independence of his country. In 1391, Vitovt married his daughter Sophia to the Moscow Prince Vasily Dmitrievich. New family ties did not stop him from biting off large chunks of Russian lands. Strict adherence to principles and established rules was not at all characteristic of Vytautas. When the need arose, he was easily baptized a second time, this time according to the Orthodox rite, and took the name Alexander. True, no one called him by that name. For his contemporaries and descendants, he always remained Grand Duke Vytautas, or, in the Lithuanian manner, Vytautas. But no matter what his name was, the prince did everything for his country. The territory of the Principality of Lithuania rapidly expanded under him. He captured Smolensk, Orsha and Kyiv, pushed the eastern border to the upper reaches of the Oka, and constantly interfered in the affairs of Novgorod and Pskov. Having conquered Podolia from the Tatars, he reached the shores of the Black Sea and founded settlements on the site of present-day Odessa and Ochakov.

Great seal of “Alexander, otherwise Vitovda - Grand Duke of Lithuania, Russia, etc.,” 1407. Source: Wikipedia.org

In 1395, Vytautas' troops successfully fought the Tatars. The Lithuanians reached the lower reaches of the Volga, invaded the Crimea, and inspired such respect in the Horde that when Tamerlane defeated the Golden Horde, its khan Tokhtamysh took refuge in Lithuania. He begged Vytautas to help him regain his lost power, promising vassal submission. The Lithuanian prince (by that time already baptized for the third time, again according to the Catholic rite) turned to the Pope with a proposal to organize a crusade to the east to conquer the Russian and Golden Horde lands. But I never received a response from the Vatican. Then he gathered an army that included Lithuanians, Poles, crusaders, Russians and the Tatars who fled with Tokhtamysh. This army headed south, but on the Vorskla River it came across the barrier of Khan Timur Kutlug and the temnik Edigei. The Golden Horde captured Vytautas's army in a pincer movement, pressed it to the river and completely defeated it. The wounded prince barely managed to return home with a handful of soldiers.

His enemies were quick to take advantage of Vitovt’s weakening. Jagiello forced his cousin to sign a document according to which Vytautas could not pass on the grand ducal crown to his descendants. Ryazan prince Oleg Ivanovich captured the Smolensk lands, although not for long. Already in 1404, the ruler of Lithuania recovered and returned Smolensk.

Battle of Vorskla. Miniature from the 16th century. from the Facial Chronicle. Source: Wikipedia.org

In May 1409, an uprising broke out in Samogitia, which had been under the rule of the Teutonic Order for several decades. The crusaders began to pacify the rebellious province with fire and sword. In response to this, Vytautas supported his fellow tribesmen, and Jagiello declared a “pospolitan ruin,” that is, a gathering of militia.
A war began between the Order and the united Poland and Lithuania. The decisive battle took place on July 15, 1410 near the village of Grunwald.
Each of the opposing armies consisted of approximately 30-40 thousand soldiers. The Crusaders called upon chivalry from all over western Europe. The bulk of Jogaila's troops were Poles and Lithuanians, but together with them the Smolensk regiments, a Czech detachment under the command of Jan Zizka and the Tatar cavalry of Khan Jalal ad-Din entered the battlefield. Although the Polish king was formally considered the head of the army, direct command belonged to the experienced commander Vytautas.

Three lines of Smolensk regiments took the main blow of the crusader cavalry. While the brutal battle was going on, the Lithuanian army, mainly consisting of peasant militias, wavered and ran. Vitovt knew the area well and understood that there was a lake on the way of the fugitives; he caught up with his fellow tribesmen, brought them to their senses, rebuilt them and led them back to the battlefield.

"Battle of Grunwald". Painting by Jan Matejko. 1878.

Jagiello transferred the grand-ducal throne to his cousin Vytautas in 1392. In 1399, Vytautas (ruled 1392 - 1430) once again tried to annex the Moscow principality, this time in alliance with the Horde khan Tokhtamysh, who fled to Lithuania and dreamed of regaining the khan's throne, but suffered a severe defeat in the Battle of Vorskla. This defeat greatly weakened Lithuania, and in 1401 it was forced to confirm the regime of “personal union” with Poland, which led to the strengthening of the position of the Polish nobility (gentry) in the lands of the principality.

In 1405, Vytautas attacked the Novogorod and Pskov lands, and they turned to Moscow for help. War was brewing, but the forces of Lithuania and Moscow were approximately equal, and besides, the conflict was not beneficial to either side, and in 1408, after standing with the troops on the Ugra, Vitovt and the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich made peace. At this time, in the west, the Polish-Lithuanian state waged a fierce struggle with the Teutonic Order. Peace on the eastern borders largely contributed to the fact that in 1410 the united troops of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania inflicted a crushing defeat on the Order in Battle of Grunwald(Battle of Tannenberg). A direct consequence of this victory was the final refusal of the Order in 1422 from Samogitia and the final liquidation of the Order under the Second Peace of Torun in 1466.

Once again Vytautas tried to intervene in Moscow affairs in 1427, when a dynastic feud began in Moscow, called the Shemyakin Troubles. Vitovt, relying on the fact that the Grand Duchess of Moscow, together with her son, people and lands, had surrendered herself under his protection, seriously laid claim to the throne of the King of Lithuania and Rus'. The matter was for official recognition by the Holy Roman Emperor. Recognition of Vytautas as a king and, accordingly, his country as a kingdom, would mean a radical change in the status of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the international arena. This was completely unprofitable for Jagiello and the Kingdom of Poland, which sought to expand its influence on its eastern neighbor. According to legend, the crown of Vytautas was stopped on the territory of Poland, and Jagiello personally cut it with a sword. The no longer young Vytautas could bear such a blow and died in 1430.

Perhaps this was the last attempt to establish the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an independent power. The decisive inculcation of the Catholic faith and the expansion of the influence of the Poles, although it contributed to the rise of the economy, culture and science, at the same time firmly tied the country to the more developed Catholic Poland, and the system of privileges granted to the Catholic gentry broke the internal unity of the country. The transition of the Orthodox nobility to Catholicism and its Polonization became widespread. The enslavement of peasants in the first half of the 15th century added fuel to the fire. The response was mass peasant movements. The Orthodox majority, especially the lower strata of the population, increasingly oriented towards Rus'. An outflow of Orthodox Christians began from the Lithuanian lands: they went to empty lands in the east and southeast, the former Wild Field, where the owners were nomads. This was the beginning of the Cossacks in the lands bordering the Crimean Khanate.

In the 14th century, they fought over the division of land and power not only in Europe. To the east, where large territories were divided between small but quite strong and powerful principalities, there was also a serious struggle. The Slavs had little desire for unification. Almost all of them were satisfied with the situation when each principality was independent and capable of independently solving its problems. However, smaller entities were constantly attacked by the growing Principality of Moscow or Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, or by the Tatars, who periodically raided the Slavic lands, ravaging them and turning them into desert.
During such a difficult time for the Slavic states, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt came to power.

The son of the Lithuanian pagan prince Keistut, Vitovt was baptized at birth according to Christian custom and received first the name Wigand, and then (for some reason) Alexander. In the late 80s of the 14th century, it was this man who had to find himself in the very center of the whirlpool that engulfed the awkward but huge Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

First, his uncle Algirdas (Olgerd) died, and a struggle begins in Lithuania between his son Jogaila and Keistut, Vytautas’ father.

Vitovt's path to the grand ducal crown was not easy. In 1376, Keistut transferred to him the Principality of Grodno with the cities of Brest, Kamenets, Drogichin on the Bug. Already at that time, Vitovt distinguished himself with military valor in battles with the crusaders. Chroniclers call it “Młodzańsk Udatny”. Several times Vitovt, at the head of the Grodno squad, repelled the order’s attacks. So, in 1377 he drove the enemy out of Troki, and in 1380 he defended Drogichin on the Bug. It was Vytautas Keistut who wanted to transfer the entire Troki principality to rule. But Grand Duke Jagiello had other plans - to seize the Principality of Troki and put his brother Skirgailo in charge. Having invited Keistut and Vytautas to Vilna for peace negotiations in 1382, he killed Keistut. A similar fate awaited Vytautas, whom Jagiello threw into the same dungeon of Krevo Castle where his father died. Vitovt was saved by his wife, the daughter of the Smolensk prince Anna, and the maid Alena, who visited him. In the dungeon, the maid Alena turned to Vitovt: “Prince, you must run away as quickly as possible. Jagiello will destroy you, just as he destroyed Keistut. Put on my clothes and go with the princess, and I will stay here. It’s already dark and no one will know.” Vitovt protested: “What are you saying? Do you know what awaits you then? “I know what awaits me, but no one will feel my death, and your death would be a misfortune for Lithuania. Run away, prince! Vytautas refused, and then the courageous girl replied: “I wish to serve my homeland - I would be pleased to die for Lithuania. Once you are free, you will do so much good for her, let me participate in this. When you love Lithuania, then listen to me.” Vitovt accepted Alenin’s sacrifice and put on her clothes. The princess, together with Vytautas in disguise, left the dungeon. The guards mistook him for a maid. The prince lowered himself from the castle wall using a rope and escaped from captivity. He went to Mazovia to Prince Janusz, who was married to his sister Danuta. Later, Princess Anna arrived in Chersk, where Vitovt was. In 1383 and 1384 Vytautas, with the support of the Order, fought against Jagiello. The Grand Duke was forced to reconcile with Vytautas and return the Principality of Grodno to him, although the Principality of Troki went to Skirgailo.

As a result of all the upheavals, Jagiello, who by that time had received the Polish crown, decided to come to an agreement with Vytautas on the terms that the latter would rule Lithuania for life, but after his death the grand duchy would go to the Polish king. Vitovt agreed.

In subsequent years (from 1392), Vytautas significantly strengthened his position in Eastern Europe. He gave his daughter as a wife to the Moscow sovereign Vasily Dmitrievich, thereby strengthening the alliance with Russia. In 1410, he personally commanded the Lithuanian army, playing a major role in the defeat of the Teutonic Knights - a defeat from which the Teutonic Order never recovered. And in 1429, the Pope granted Vytautas the title of King of Lithuania. And only the death of the Grand Duke prevented him from receiving it.

It was under the rule of Vytautas that numerous principalities were able to unite. Legends were made about the power of Vytautas. Even now, historians believe that this politician and ruler played a significant role in the formation of an independent Slavic statehood. Torn apart by civil strife, attacked from the east by Tatar hordes, and from the west by German Teutonic knights, the Slavic land required a competent leader who could cope with troubles.

This is how Vitovt became. The Grand Duke of Lithuania called for the union of neighboring lands into one state in order to repel all enemy attacks with the help of military force. So Vytautas’s army repelled the Tatar Golden Horde. The fighting with the Tatars led to the fact that their troops stopped robbing and enslaving the Slavs.

Having solved one problem, another remained - these were the Teutonic knights. The Teutonic Order, under the cover of the Crusades, sought to conquer the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and nearby lands. Vytautas's great achievement was the victory and complete defeat of the German troops at Grunwald. But the prince, having gathered an army and enlisted the support of Poland and other principalities, defeated the knights, closing their path to the Slavic lands for a long time.

Vytautas did a lot for his lands. During his reign, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became a fairly powerful and wealthy country. Vytautas was able to conquer lands outside the principality, expanding his possessions. The prince paid a lot of attention to the military training of young people, as well as education. In addition, special collections of laws were written in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, according to which all people of the principality were supposed to live.

“And the great prince Vytautas was a strong ruler and famous throughout all the lands, and many kings and princes served at his court” ─This is what it says about him in the chronicle. During the reign of Vytautas, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia reached its power and stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from Brest to the Ugra River - a real empire. This is the result of the life and political activities of Vytautas. It seemed that he knew no peace and devoted himself entirely to caring for the state.

The ambassador of the Teutonic Order, Konrad Kyburg, who arrived in Vilna in 1398, wrote the following about Vytautas: “The Grand Duke works a lot, he himself is involved in governing the region and wants to know about everything; Having attended frequent audiences, we ourselves saw his amazing activity: while talking to us about business, he at the same time listened to the reading of various reports and gave decisions. The people have free access to him, but anyone who wants to approach him is first interrogated by a specially appointed nobleman, and after that the request to be submitted to the monarch is either briefly stated on paper, or the petitioner himself goes with the said nobleman and orally conveys her Grand Duke. Every day we saw a lot of people coming with requests or coming from remote areas with some errands. It is difficult to understand how he has time for so many activities; every day the Grand Duke listens to the liturgy, after which until lunch, he works in his office, has lunch soon and after that for some time, also not for long, remains with his family or is amused by the antics of his court jesters, then he rides on horseback to inspect the construction of a house or ship or anything that attracts his attention. He is formidable only in wartime, but in general he is full of kindness and justice, he knows how to punish and have mercy. He sleeps little, laughs little, is more cold and reasonable than ardent; whether he receives good or bad news, his face remains impassive.”

The wise reign of Vytautas was remembered in the following centuries as the golden times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The 16th century poet Nikolai Gusovsky inspiredly glorified Vytautas:

Torchbearer of wars with the weak,

and with a strong peacemaking angel
He placed his naked sword,

like a border post,
Before the invasion of enemies from the south and east.

P about materials from the sites http://great-rulers.ru andhttp://www.belarus.by/ru/belarus/history

Vytautas - Grand Duke of Lithuania

Vytautas - Grand Duke of Lithuania since 1392. Son of Keistut, nephew of Olgerd and cousin of Jagiello. Prince of Grodno in 1370-1382, Lutsk in 1387-1389, Troki in 1382-1413. Proclaimed king of the Hussites. One of the most famous rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, nicknamed the Great during his lifetime.

Relying on the Lithuanian and Russian boyars who lived in the Russian regions of Lithuania, he fought for the independence of Lithuania from Poland and achieved recognition from the Polish King Jogaila for himself (as governor) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Obstructed the unification policy of the Moscow princes; concluded agreements with the princes of Tver (1427), Ryazan (1430), Pronsky (1430) hostile to Moscow; captured Smolensk (1404); intervened in the affairs of Novgorod and Pskov and three times (1406-08) invaded the boundaries of the Moscow principality.

He was baptized three times: the first time in 1382 according to the Catholic rite under the name Wigand, the second time in 1384 according to the Orthodox rite under the name Alexander and the third time in 1386 according to the Catholic rite also under the name Alexander.

Lithuanian possessions under Vytautas reached the upper reaches of the Oka and Mozhaisk. Vitovt took Southern Podolia from the Tatars and expanded his possessions to the Black Sea; stubbornly fought with the German knights.

Vytautas and Jagiello were the organizers of the defeat of the German knights in the Battle of Grunwald 1410. Vytautas Lithuanian prince coronation

In 1422, Vytautas returned Samogitia, which had been captured by the order (1398), to Lithuania. Relying on his service people, he tried to eliminate the appanage princes of Gediminovich in Rus' and install his own governors. Vitovt's abolition of local principalities in Podolia, Kyiv, Vitebsk, etc. led to an increase in the political importance of the Lithuanian boyars.

Grand Duke of Lithuania Keistut

Vitovt, the son of the Trotsky and Zhmud prince Keistut from the vaidelot Biruta, who was forcibly taken as his wife, was born around 1350. From a young age, Vitovt became acquainted with the vicissitudes of fate and with the marching, combat life: in 1363 he hid with his father in the domain of the order, in 1370 he was in the campaign of Olgerd and Keistut against the Germans, in 1372 - against Moscow, in 1376 he again went against the Germans. In 1377, Olgerd was succeeded by his son Jagiello, whom Keistut recognized as the Grand Duke. Soon, however, clashes arose between Keistut and Jagiel, which ended with Keistut being treacherously taken prisoner by his nephew, sent to Krevo and strangled there, and Vytautas was kept captive in Vilna (1382). Having changed into the dress of his wife's servant, Vitovt fled to his son-in-law, Prince. Mazovia Janusz, and then went to Prussia to the Master of the German Order.

From Marienburg, Vitovt communicated with the Zhmudi, and his successes among the Zhmudi frightened Jagiel; he freed Vitovt's wife, who went to her husband. At the same time, many Lithuanian princes and boyars gathered to visit Vytautas. Jagiello protested, recalled treatises, and the master made orders for a campaign against Lithuania (1383), having previously obtained from Vytautas consent to be baptized (at which Vytautas took the name Wigand) and rule over Lithuania in fief dependence on the Order. The knights took Troki and, leaving a German garrison there, gave them to Vytautas, along with the Marienburg fortress, to house Lithuania, which was flocking to Vytautas from everywhere, there. But the Germans were driven out of Troki Jagiello and Skirgaila; Vitovt himself had to retire to Konigsberg and again raise the Order, yielding to it Zhmud, through which the route from Prussia to Inflyany ran, and from which the Order surrounded Lithuania.

Great (“maestat”) seal of Vytautas

Soon Vitovt won a victory over Jogaila, but there was no benefit from it. In the aforementioned agreement, the question of Lithuania’s heritage after Vytautas was framed in such a way that it was difficult for the Principality of Lithuania to escape German hands. Soon, however, relations between the enemy brothers took a new direction: Vytautas sought to take possession of Lithuania, and Jogaila, due to his relationship with Poland, wanted to calm him down one way or another. Secretly, through the boyars, Jagiello offered his brother an inheritance from Brest, Drogichin, Melnik, Bedsk, Surazh, Kamenets, Volkovysk and Grodno. Vitovt, for his part, had to swear allegiance and filial respect to Jogaila, warn him about conspiracies against him, not to join his fatherland, not to communicate with anyone by embassy. Vitovt's fatherland, Troki, was left to Skirgail.

Vytautas accepted the conditions and decided to solemnly throw off the guardianship of the Order. Having prepared, as it were, for a campaign against Lithuania, he moved to Jurgenburg and invited the local commander von Kruste to a feast.

During the feast, Vitovt's relative, Sudemund, attacked the fortress, burned it, slaughtered the garrison, and then burned Marienburg; the same fate befell Marienwerder, Neuhaus and others (July 1384). Before this campaign, one must think, Jagiello gave Troki to Vytautas: the latter gives this city on August 23, 1884 a privilege written in Russian, in which he calls himself “named Alexander in Holy Baptism.” Obviously, having severed political ties with the order, he also severed religious ones, converting to Orthodoxy. The master of the order, Zollner von Rothenstein, tried in vain to win Vytautas to his side; the brothers left for Krakow, where Vytautas again converted to Catholicism, continuing, however, to be called Alexander.

The agreement between Jagiello and Vytautas soon broke down: Jagiello declared Skirgaila the Grand Duke of Lithuania and signed an act on this during the hunt, secretly from Vitautas; at the same time, Skirgailo also remained Prince Trotsky, which should have especially outraged Vitovt, since the Trotsky principality was considered his homeland. Vytautas remained only with his Podlasie and was called the Prince of Grodno. Finally, on May 3, 1388, he resigned all obligations towards the king and the Polish crown. Then Jagiello increased his inheritance with lands in Volyn, giving him Lutsk and Vladimir. But soon (1389) mistrust and ill will on the part of Jogaila were again revealed. Vitovt gathered a secret council of boyars and, seeing the latter’s sympathy for himself, made a plan to seize Vilna by cunning.

Vytautas Church in Kaunas, built around 1400

The trick failed, and he had no choice but to rush back into the arms of the Order.

At the beginning of 1390, he signed a treaty with the Order, taking upon himself all the previous obligations in relation to the Order. Vitovt turned to Zhmudi, where his father’s memory was still fresh. The congress of the Zhmudins and Prussian knights in Konigsberg ended with the union of the two nationalities against common enemies and the establishment of trade relations. In the acts of this congress, Vytautas is called a king, but he also calls himself the Prince of Lithuania.

Soon after, the marriage of Vitovt’s daughter, Sophia, with the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily took place (Jan. 1391). A new campaign against Lithuania took place under Master Konrad Wallenrod (1392). The knights set up two fortresses near Kovno, which, together with Rittersvert, were given to Vitovt and, leaving him part of the army, they advised him to extract Lithuania himself and ask for help from Moscow. Soon Vitovt took possession of Grodno; his affairs went in such a way that it seemed that all of Lithuania would soon be in his hands. Jagiello began negotiations with his brother, promising to give him his father's inheritance. Hoping to gain even more over time, Vytautas, having accepted the king’s offer, under plausible pretexts, freed from the hands of the Order all the relatives and friends who were hostages there, and left, to eliminate suspicion, one brother, Conrad.

Suspecting nothing, the knights built new fortresses for him, in which they planted their garrisons, when suddenly Vytautas turned against them. Then the Germans burned Surazh and destroyed Grodno. Vytautas could not interfere with them, because, on the instructions of the king, he went against Koribut and Skirgail, whom he expelled from Vitebsk. Fulfilling the king’s instructions, Vytautas acted in his own favor: he took Vitebsk for himself. Having installed Skirgaila in Kyiv, Jagiello declared Vytautas Grand Duke of Lithuania, under his supremacy, which was almost only nominal.

Wojciech Gerson, Keistut and Vytautas captured by Jagiello, 1873

The borders of Lithuania began to expand: Vitovt took Orsha, conquered the Drutsk princes and captured Smolensk in 1395; at that time almost the entire land of Vyatichi was in his hands; in the south he took Podolia from the Koriatovichs, and then received from Jogaila the crown Podolia, so that his Dominions, adjoining Chervonnaya Rus in the west, in the south and east reached almost to the very Tatar uluses, to which he strongly made himself felt. He hosted expelled khans (Tokhtamysh), once he himself installed a khan in the horde, near Azov he took an entire Tatar ulus, which he resettled not far from Vilna along the river. Vake. But, in turn, he suffered a terrible defeat on the banks of the river. Vorskla, from Timur and Edigei (1399). The Ryazan prince Oleg took advantage of this and delivered Smolensk to his son-in-law, Yuri Svyatoslavich, but three years later (1404) Vitovt took possession of it again; then he turned to the Pskov region, why there was a break with Moscow: Moscow troops went to Lithuania.

Vytautas opposed Moscow, but peace was concluded on the Ugra, perhaps because the Moscow prince already knew about Edigei’s intention to march on Moscow (1407). Meanwhile, Jagiello was preparing for war with the Order and called Vytautas to his aid. On July 15, 1410, the Battle of Grunwald (near Tannenberg) broke out, in which the master and many knights laid down their lives. Although Vytautas, it seems, was ambitious, and did not want to continue a further attack on the Order to destroy it, and the latter remained quiet for now, nevertheless, this battle was a harbinger of the fact that Poland would have Prussia, and Lithuania the Infants.

Jan Matejko. “Battle of Grunwald”, 1878. Fragment of a painting depicting Vytautas

Now Vytautas’s cherished dreams begin to emerge: having previously eliminated the pretender to Lithuania, Svidrigail, and feeling solid ground under him politically, he decided to isolate the state in church terms, and for this he wanted to have a special metropolitan for his Orthodox subjects. The Novogrodsky Council (1414) elected Gregory Samblak from among the Orthodox bishops to this title.

By the end of the first quarter of the 15th century, Vitovt’s affairs developed in such a way that the Moscow, Tver and Ryazan princes concluded agreements with him that were very beneficial for him: the Moscow prince promised not to help Novgorod and Pskov, the Tver and Ryazan princes promised to be his allies, the enemies of his enemies.

In 1426, Vitovt went to Pskov, in 1428 - to the Novgorod region, from which a large ransom was taken. Now he only lacked the royal crown, but he decided to achieve the latter, in which Emperor Sigismund assisted him in his plans for Poland. Under the pretext of forming a coalition against the Turks, Vitovt invited neighboring sovereigns to Lutsk.

At the beginning of 1429, Sigismund came to him with the goal of placing a royal crown on his head and at the same time quarreling him with Jogaila.

The Polish gentlemen made every effort; to destroy Sigismund's plans. Jagiello had previously and now ceded his crown to Vytautas, but he did not want to take it from his brother and again invited his neighbors to Vilna, already for the coronation, in 1430. Among the few princes whom Vytautas was expecting, Jagiello unexpectedly appeared. Feasts began in Vilna and Troki. But the Polish lords did not sleep: the pope was reinstated against Vytautas’s idea; the royal crown intended for him by Sigismund was intercepted by the Polish lords on the way from Hungary, and the feasts ended in nothing. Weak and ill for a long time, Vytautas died of frustration and grief that same year.

Lithuania, at the end of his reign, begins to take on the appearance of a strong and well-organized state: he destroys appanages, gives self-government to many cities (Magdeburg law), equalizes the rights of nationalities and even, after acquiring Lutsk, gives Jews the same rights as their brothers enjoyed in Lvov. Separating himself politically from Poland, he allows, through its mediation, strong European influence to soften the morals and customs of his land.

One day in the life of Grand Duke Vitovt

On the banks of the Vorskla River, not far from present-day Poltava, almost in the same place where, 310 years later, the brilliant Peter would defeat the invincible Charles of Sweden, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Zhmud and Russia Vitovt was preparing for battle. It was a clear morning on August 12, 1399. In a few hours, the fate of the vast territory of Eastern Europe from the Danube to the Urals, from the Crimea to the upper reaches of the Don was to be decided. Vitovt acted at the head of a hundred thousand army, consisting of Russian, Lithuanian and Polish squads and banners. There were many mercenaries and crusaders from the Order, Germany, Hungary and other European powers in the united army. And, of course, there was a large detachment of the Tatar Khan Tokhtamysh, who concluded a military alliance with Vitovt in Kyiv last summer. It was because of Tokhtamysh that this war began. Defeated by the formidable Timur, he did not lay down his arms and found allies in the north-west.

Vytautas was opposed by the troops of two Tatar military leaders - Edigei and Timur Kutlug, who united immediately before the battle. The forces were approximately equal. The best weapons of the heavy cavalry spoke in favor of the Christian army, and in favor of the Tatars - strict discipline, which was absent in the motley army of Vytautas. Polish and Western European knights treated the Tatars with contempt, not considering them worthy rivals. The negotiations ended in nothing, and Vitovt gave the order to advance. The first blow of the heavy cavalry, which crossed the Vorskla on the move, seemingly crushed the Tatars. Edigei's vanguard began to retreat in disarray. The allied cavalry rushed headlong into pursuit, without adhering to any formation. The Tatars retreated several miles, and then suddenly turned around and attacked the horsemen stretched out across the steppe in a heavy knightly terrible. The entire flower of the knighthood of the Lithuanian-Russian state perished in the battle. Participants in the Battle of Kulikovo, brothers Andrei and Dmitry Olgerdovich and their close relative, one of the main heroes of the Don battle Dmitry, laid down their lives in weapons not very suitable for maneuverable combat. The massacre was Bobrok Volynsky.

Tokhtamysh and Vitovt managed to save not only their lives, but also their freedom. The Tatar Khan, well acquainted with the tactics of his fellow tribesmen, was the first to realize that things were heading towards defeat, and managed to leave in time along with his close retinue. Vitovt survived literally by a miracle. According to one version, he was brought out of the battle by a descendant (grandson or great-nephew) of the famous Tatar temnik Mamai, who died in the fight against Vitovt’s current ally Tokhtamysh. The Grand Duke thanked his savior by giving him possession of local lands with the Glina tract, and subsequently the princely title. So a descendant of the ruler of the Golden Horde became Prince Glinsky. It is possible that it was he who served as one of the prototypes of the popular character of Ukrainian folklore, the steppe knight Cossack Mamai.

Subsequently, Vytautas will have both victories and defeats. He will become one of the heroes of the Battle of Grunwald, in which it will be possible to forever undermine the power of Lithuania’s eternal enemy, the Teutonic Order. For more than 30 years he will rule the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia, stretching from sea to sea. Well, the descendants of “Cossack Mamai” will go into the service of the Moscow sovereign. Elena Glinskaya will become the wife of Grand Duke Vasily and the mother of the future Tsar Ivan the Terrible. So, it is quite possible that the blood of one of the most powerful and dangerous rivals of the Moscow state flowed in the veins of the famous Russian sovereign.

The painting by the Lithuanian artist Rimas Matskevičius, “Vytautas the Great at the Congress in Lutsk,” painted in 1935, hangs in the residence of the presidents of Lithuania. A copy of the painting was transferred to the Lutsk castle.

At the beginning of the 15th century. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in addition to modern Lithuania, occupied Belarus and most of Ukraine - right up to the Black Sea. The Polish kingdom, which included Galicia, was half the size. In 1385, the ruler of Lithuania, 34-year-old Jagiello, married the 11-year-old Polish queen Jadwiga, and also became the Polish king. Then he accepted the Catholic faith and received the name Vladislav. Lithuania faced the threat of absorption by Poland. The opposition to Vladislav was led by his cousin Vitovt. After many years of struggle, he achieved that Jogaila recognized him as the ruler of Lithuania.

But the best opportunity to assert his power was coronation. Only the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund could do this. Therefore, an alliance with Vitovt was beneficial. The Lithuanian crown would distract him from encroaching on the Czech Republic, the crown of which he claimed along with Sigismund. In addition, the Lithuanian prince was on good terms with the Tatar khans, who remained a threat to Europe. Sigismund suggested that Vytautas hold a congress of monarchs at the beginning of 1429, at which, among other issues, a decision on coronation would be made. Lutsk was chosen as the meeting place. Vitovt went there from the Lithuanian capital Vilna (now Vilnius) in advance - to personally invite as many influential nobles of the state as possible to the congress.

The invitees began arriving in Lutsk in early January. Almost 15 thousand people gathered - more than lived in Lutsk itself at that time.

The main participants of the congress - Sigismund, Vladislav Jagiello and Vitovt - gathered with their advisers in three chambers of the Lutsk castle. Sigismund, in particular, proposed dividing Moldova between Poland and Hungary, uniting the Orthodox and Catholic branches of Christianity, and asked for support from Poland and Lithuania in the fight against the Turks. The most misunderstandings arose when it was finally time for Vytautas’s coronation. The Polish representatives protested and left the congress. After meetings, Vytautas and Sigismund decided that the coronation could take place without Vladislav’s consent. Then they exchanged valuable gifts. In particular, Sigismund left Vytautas good horses. And he gave me an old aurochs horn in a gold frame. At the beginning of February, the congress participants left Lutsk.

The coronation of Vytautas was first scheduled for August of the following year, but was later postponed to September. However, the Poles detained the emperor’s delegation, which was bringing crowns made in Nuremberg to Vilna. And a month and a half later, on October 27, 1430, Vytautas unexpectedly died. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania never became a kingdom. Over the next 140 years, both states were ruled by the descendants of Jogaila. And in 1569, Poland and Lithuania merged into one state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.