Union of Krevo and its consequences. Signing of the Krevo Union

On August 14, 1385, one of the first unions, the Krevo Union, was signed in Krevo Castle (the territory of the Smorgon region of modern Belarus).

The Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello (1362-1434) and the Polish Queen Jadwiga (1373-1399) signed the notorious Krevo dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania, according to which the young Jadwiga became the wife of Jagiello, and he, having converted to Catholicism, under the name of Vladislav II became the new Polish king and founder of the new royal dynasty of the Jagiellons, who ruled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1572.

It would seem that what’s wrong with this, such dynastic marriages and unions were a completely ordinary phenomenon throughout Medieval Europe? But, alas, this dynastic union became the very “Rubicon” that for many centuries split all of Rus' into “Moscow” and “Lithuanian”.

What is the Union of Krevo and what consequences it had, we will tell in our article.

Before dwelling on the provisions of the Krevo Union, it is necessary to clarify what the word “union” means.

WHAT IS UNIA?

Union is a community, union, community of states, political organizations, religious denominations. Most often used in the sense of a monarchical unity of several powers under the leadership of one ruler.

Real union is an alliance that monarchies enter into, simultaneously accepting a single order of succession to the throne. The heir apparent is the future monarch for all countries party to the agreement.

Such a union - strong, reliable - can only be dissolved if one of the participants changes the form of government to a republican one.

The abolition of monarchical power in one or all member states entails the disintegration of the union or a reduction in its quantitative composition.

This form of unification is often equated to a confederation. It is worth noting that such an identification is not correct.

Firstly, union can only arise with the participation of monarchical states. This is its main feature. As for the confederation, republican state entities can also join such a union.

The existence of a union does not require close political or economic cooperation. Union agreements are not mandatory. The situation is different with the confederation. By signing an agreement, its members have certain obligations to each other. Participants in the union do not lose state sovereignty. A single ruler-monarch increases his power.

After signing the union, he is the bearer of the sovereign rights of each country included in the union. An important detail of the legal aspect of signing a confederation treaty is the existence of an agreement with specified mutual obligations. This guarantees political unity.

A union is a community that can be concluded without an agreement. An important feature also concerns the conduct of military operations between the parties to the agreement. Member states of the union cannot fight each other, since the ruler is one, therefore, by declaring war within the union, he undertakes to attack himself.

POLITICAL UNITY AND DYNASTIC AGREEMENTS

History knows many cases of concluding such alliances. One of the earliest, most famous and significant is the Krevo Union. Lithuania and Poland were parties to the agreement. Like many other unions, this one was sealed by a dynastic marriage, which was concluded by the Polish Queen Jadwiga and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello.

The Union of 1385, signed at Krevo Castle, introduced certain changes to the structure of both participating countries. The reasons for the conclusion of the union were the weakening of both states and the pressure that was exerted on them from the outside: from the Teutonic Order, Muscovy, and the Golden Horde. Even before the Union of Krevo, Lithuania signed several agreements with both the Moscow prince and the Teutons, which should have significantly influenced the course of events, but were not implemented by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Before dwelling on the essence of the Krevo Union, it is worth talking about the town of Krevo.

KREVO PLACE

If you carefully read the lines of history about the town of Krevo (on the road to Vilnius - our note), Krevo Castle and the famous Krevo Union, you can imagine an epic like Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” only several times thicker.

Krevo was first mentioned in German chronicles of the 13th century. Probably the Krevskoye settlement (2.5 km north of the western outskirts of the village, near the road to Smorgon) also belongs to this period (XII - XIII centuries). At the turn of the XIII and XIV centuries, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas Krevsky Castle was built - the first completely stone castle in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The town suffered greatly during the Russian-Polish War, after which its decline began. In the 17th - 18th centuries, the Jewish population of Kreva grew significantly; in the 19th century, a synagogue and a synagogue courtyard with a mikvah and cheder were built here.

According to the 1866 inventory, Krevo numbered 246 households and 1285 inhabitants, of which 639 Orthodox, 337 Catholics, 68 Muslims and 241 Jews. In 1883, the population was 1923 inhabitants, the Skarb estate, which offered its lands for redemption to the peasants.

There was a parish church of the Ashmyany deanery - one of eight founded during the reign of Jagiello, which had chapels in its subordination in the villages of Mileikovo and Krivske. In 1895 there were 2112 inhabitants, 249 courtyards, two Orthodox churches, a church, an almshouse, a school. One of the churches, namely the Church of Alexander Nevsky, has survived to this day.

Krevsky Castle is one of the first castels in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, built in the 14th century (there is reason to believe that construction began at the end of the 13th century) at the confluence of the Krevlyanka and Shlyakhtyanka rivers. The main part of the castle was built in the middle of a swampy floodplain, half of the defensive walls were built on an artificially widened sand dune.

Now all that remains of the castle are the ruins, which are preserved, surrounded by a net around the perimeter, and a sign says that it is unsafe to walk through them.

In 2005, the Local Charitable Foundation "Krevsky Castle" was created, the main goal of which is to promote the preservation of Krevsky Castle. The Foundation annually holds summer events and cultural events in Krevo and other localities.

BACKGROUND OF THE CONCLUSION OF THE KREVA UNION

The first stage, the first step towards the abyss, which laid the foundation for the further fall of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was the Union of Krevo on August 14, 1385.

In October 1381, Jagiello was dethroned by his uncle Keistut. In May-June 1382, Dmitry-Koribut Olgerdovich spoke out against Keistut, and already in July Jogaila managed to regain power with the military assistance of the Teutonic Order. Keistut was imprisoned in Krevsky Castle, where he was strangled on August 15, 1382.

In 1384, Jagiello, Skirgaila and Dmitry-Koribut concluded two preliminary agreements with Dmitry of Moscow and his cousin Vladimir of Serpukhov, which provided, among other things, for the marriage of Jagiello with the daughter of Dmitry Donskoy, subject to the subordination of the Lithuanian prince to the supreme authority of the Prince of Moscow and recognition of Orthodoxy as the state religion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which were never implemented.

Dmitry Ivanovich Moskovsky agreed to pay tribute to the Horde from the lands under his control and sent his eldest son Vasily to the Horde as a hostage.

Thus, the prerequisites that led to the signing of the Krevo Union were as follows.

The first reason is the struggle to preserve paganism against Christianization.

The second reason is the war for Olgerd's inheritance.

The Teutonic Order, taking advantage of the opportunity, played an important role in this war; it was during these years that Vytautas sold Samogitia to him in exchange for military assistance, and it was at the price of Samogitia that he became the Grand Duke of Lithuania.

As a result, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was actually engulfed in flames on all sides: from the inside it was split by a bloody civil conflict, from the outside it was subject to pressure from the Teutonic Order. Naturally, under these conditions, the country's resources were exhausted and it needed external assistance.

From a legal point of view, the act of the Union of Krevo implied the incorporation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Kingdom of Poland, in return the Grand Duchy of Lithuania received the necessary protection.

Having seized the grand-ducal throne in 1382, Jagiello was forced to strengthen his power, since he was not recognized by princes Andrei Polotsky, Dmitry Bryansky and his main rival, Vitovt, who began to bring troops of knights to the lands of the Grand Duchy.

Only in the summer of 1384 Jagiello and Vytautas came to an agreement. Vitovt returned from Prussia and received his Gorodenshchyna and Beresteyshchyna. However, Andrei Olgerdovich, together with the Polotchina subject to him, surrendered under the patronage of the Inflant Order. Thus, the Grand Duchy found itself in a very difficult situation.

Jagiello sought an alliance with neighboring states. There was an opportunity to choose rapprochement either with Moscow or with Poland.

Jagiello was in a precarious position, and the advantage was given to the bloc with Poland, with whose ambassadors negotiations were conducted back in 1383.

It is possible that a factor played a role that contributed to the predominance of a group close to Jagiel among the Lithuanian nobility, which was afraid of losing its dominant position in part of the lands of Rus', and therefore focused on the Kingdom of Poland.

In 1384, Jagiello concluded an agreement with the Teutonic Order in Dubyssy, in which he undertook to transfer Zhmud to the Order and accept Catholicism within 4 years.

The union of the Grand Duchy and the Crown then met the interests of both sides. It made it possible to unite the forces of the two states against a common enemy - the crusaders. German expansion in Poland reached alarming proportions. It was important for the Poles to ensure the peace of their borders on the part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, since in just one campaign in 1376, 23 thousand prisoners were taken out of Poland.

In the future, the Polish magnates apparently counted on their dominance in the neighboring power. They were especially attracted to the lands of Volyn and Podolia.

In January 1385, the Vilna delegation held negotiations in Krakow, and in the summer the Poles came to the Grand Duchy to sign the union.

The final approval of the union occurred in 1386, after Jogaila was baptized at the Wawel See in Krakow, married Jadwiga and was solemnly crowned on March 4. Officially, he began to bear the title of “King of Poland, Supreme Prince of Lithuania and Grand Duke of Russia.”

From the legal side, the act of the Krevo Union (by the way, some researchers consider this document a later falsification, since it was unknown during Jogaila’s life and there is no mention of it in the Belarusian chronicles) meant the incorporation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into Poland. However, in practice it was impossible to incorporate such a strong state.

Thanks to the political activity of social circles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania dissatisfied with the union, this plan never became a reality. Already in 1386, Prince Andrei of Polotsk rebelled, believing that after the adoption of Catholicism, Jagiello had no right to be the head of the Grand Duchy.

THE ESSENCE OF THE AGREEMENT IN KREVO

So, on August 14, 1385, the embassies of Poland and Lithuania, who met in the Lithuanian castle of Krevo (now Belarus), concluded an agreement on the marriage of the Polish Queen Jadwiga (the last representative of the Piast dynasty) and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello.

Lithuanian Prince Jagiello

The latter, at the same time, became the sovereign Polish king.

According to the agreement, Jagiello became the king of Poland.

This imposed a number of obligations on him:

The new ruler pledged to spread the Latin alphabet in Lithuania,

Jagiello had to pay Duke Wilhelm of Austria compensation for a broken marriage contract, according to which the latter had to marry Jadwiga,

It was necessary to introduce Catholicism in Lithuania,

Jagiello was supposed to return the lands of the former Rus', Lithuanian and Russian (modern Belarusian and part Ukrainian) to Poland and increase the territory of the kingdom,

The Lithuanian and Polish union obliged him to increase the number of prisoners,

use of the treasury for the needs of Poland.

Simply put, Jagiello became a single ruler for Lithuania and Poland, but at the same time the monetary system and treasury, legislation, customs rules remained separate, there was a border, there were separate armies for each member state of the agreement. The Union of Krevo caused disagreement on the part of the nobility of Lithuania and former Rus', but served as the basis for the union in Lublin. The territory of Poland increased.

CONSEQUENCES OF ACCEPTING THE KREVA UNION

Formalized by a special charter given by Jagiel on August 14, 1385 in the city of Krevo, the state-political union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania played a certain role in the history of both states, but had different consequences for them.

For Lithuania, the Union of Krevo meant the beginning of the deep socio-political and cultural influence of magnate-gentry Poland, which played a leading role in the resulting state association. Lithuania adopted Catholicism, and with it gradually adopted the Polish model of a feudal political system, which was very beneficial for the landowning class.

One of the main motives that prompted the ruling elites of Lithuania and Poland to enter into a union was their perceived need to unite the forces of both states to repel the aggression of a common enemy - the Teutonic and Livonian Orders. At the same time, each of the parties interested in the union sought to use it for their own purposes.

Thus, the Lithuanian ruling elite hoped to maintain, strengthen and expand dominance in the East Slavic lands with the help of the union. Polish feudal lords, primarily the magnate circles of Lesser Poland, viewed the Union of Krevo as an important means of expanding feudal expansion in Eastern Europe.

It was for this purpose that they achieved the inclusion in the act of union of Jogaila’s obligation to forever “annex” the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, together with its East Slavic territories, to the crown of the Kingdom of Poland.

For the population of Southwestern Rus', the implementation of the terms of the Krevo Union entailed increased political dependence on the ruling elite of the Polish-Lithuanian state and the transformation of the ruling class of the Polish Kingdom into an object of feudal colonization.

In the same year, 1386, the implementation of one of the main goals of the Union of Krevo began - the incorporation (inclusion) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Kingdom of Poland and the strengthening of the political dominance of Polish and Lithuanian feudal lords in it.

The main steps in this direction were the attraction of the Lithuanian boyars to the side of the Polish Kingdom and the securing of the appanage principalities of Rus' to the Polish crown through a number of special political measures:

weakening the cooperation of the Russian and Lithuanian feudal nobility and opposing them to each other along religious and class-legal lines by granting Lithuanian Catholic boyars in 1387 greater rights and privileges compared to the feudal lords of the East Slavic lands;

placement in the largest centers of these lands of Polish garrisons and military detachments of Lithuanian princes loyal to Jogaila;

oaths of appanage princes.

At the same time, other means were also used aimed at limiting and eliminating the appanage princely power in the localities. Of these, the most widely practiced was the removal from the jurisdiction of appanage princes of their individual vassals, followed by subordination to the authority of the king and the replacement of rebellious local dynasts with princes who remained loyal to Jogaila, or with royal governors.

In Southwestern Rus', the implementation of the terms of the Krevo Union began with the swearing of its appanage princes to Jogaila as the head of the Polish state, as well as to Queen Jadwiga and the Polish crown, which, in accordance with feudal law, meant the transfer of the princes and their possessions directly under the authority of the Polish king.

THE PROCESS OF POLONIZATION AND CATHOLIZATION OF THE POPULATION

As a result, the ambitions of the Polish gentry, associated with long-standing aspirations to penetrate deeper into Western Russian lands, were mostly satisfied, and the rights and privileges in their scope quickly surpassed the similar rights of the Russian nobility:

♦ the great appanage reigns in Polotsk, Vitebsk, Kyiv and other cities were abolished;

♦ self-government was replaced by governorship;

♦ the Lithuanian aristocracy changed its cultural orientation from Russian to Polish;

♦ active Catholic expansion began in the western lands of Rus'.

Polonization and Catholicization captured part of the Western Russian nobility, while at the same time the majority of the common population remained faithful to Orthodoxy and ancient traditions. National-religious enmity, which had not existed until the 80s of the 14th century, began to make itself felt, and subsequently it often developed into an acute political struggle

The next step towards rapprochement between Lithuania and Poland was the conclusion of the Gorodel Privilege in 1413, according to which the rights of the Polish gentry were extended to the Lithuanian Catholic gentry, who began to push the Russian princes (non-Catholics) away from participation in the supreme government of the state. The Lithuanian gentry received new land plots from the king, more often entered into marriages with the Polish nobility and converted en masse to the Catholic faith.

The boyars of Western Rus', not satisfied with their position, also actively sought equal rights with the Polish gentry, who, according to the Wislica Statute (1347) and the Koshitsky Privilege (1374), were exempt from taxes and duties.

The land began to be considered the full property of the gentry, and the peasants could only use plots of land and were under the full jurisdiction of their masters. In 1434, under the privilege of King Vladislav III, the Russian nobility was finally equalized in rights with the Polish and freed from all duties except military service, even the name boyar was officially replaced by pan.

The authorities actively pursued policies aimed at spreading Catholicism and limiting Orthodoxy.

The strengthening of the position of the Catholic Church was significantly facilitated by the fact that in 1387, under the privilege of Jagiello, the Catholic feudal lords were freed from all duties and payments to the Grand Duke. This led to the fact that the gap between the Catholic and Orthodox nobility became ever greater.

The conditions of the Krevo Union (in 1401 they were clarified by the Vilna-Radom Union) were in effect for 184 years, until 1569, when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland signed the Union of Lublin, which united both states into confederal limited elected monarchy.

And also one of the consequences of the Krevo Union was that the Catholic feudal lords received additional rights and liberties.

AFTERWORD

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania is a multi-ethnic state of four main peoples: Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians.

With the Union of Krevo, the penetration of Catholicism into the Belarusian lands began, while an alliance with the Moscow Principality was rejected.

The next year after the conclusion of the union, Jagiello made Catholicism the state religion of Lithuania. Thus, he knocked the ground out from under the feet of the Teutonic “missionaries”, but on the other hand, he significantly complicated life for the East Slavic peoples under his rule.

The Poles turned against the Hungarians and expelled them from Galicia. The policy of Polonization and Catholicization of the local population began. Polish feudal lords began to penetrate other Ukrainian and Belarusian lands.

Jagiello managed to obtain letters from a number of large Lithuanian magnates stating that they would be loyal to him as the Polish king. At that time, feudal loyalty was more important than any national interests, and this is what the initiators of the union tried to use. This agreement was, in general, personal and concerned Jagiello himself, but through it it was possible to annex the lands of all his vassals to Poland.

However, not all large Lithuanian landowners and, especially, the indigenous “Russian” Orthodox population were happy with the current situation; they understood that in the future they would find themselves in a subordinate position to the Polish lords.

In fact, the independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was not lost, but Jogaila issued laws giving special privileges to Catholic feudal lords. Pleased with his success, the Pope in the spring of 1388 sent Jagiello and Jadwiga his blessing and a congratulatory bull. This meant that the Lithuanian-Belarusian Grand Duke, who became the King of Poland, was recognized as equal to the kings of other powers.

As you can see, the Krevo Union of 1385 split Rus' into “Moscow” (Orthodox) and “Lithuanian” (Catholic).

Here is the opinion of leading Russian historian Evgeny Spitsin.

Thus, the end of the 14th century is characterized by important political events in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1385, the Union of Krevo was concluded with Poland, which, as it turned out, marked the beginning of a slow but progressive expansion of Poland's influence on the state-political, cultural-religious life of the principality.

It also contributed to the intensification of the internal political struggle between the Olgerdovichs and Keistut’s son Vitovt, which was accompanied by human losses and material destruction.

Until 1385, the development of the Grand Duchy was dominated predominantly by the Belarusian principle in general, Belarusian culture, which was manifested primarily in the state, official status of the Belarusian language. It was used not only by the office and the grand ducal court, but also by the feudal elite. But after the Union of Krevo, the process began that led at the end of the 17th century to the prohibition of the Belarusian language in official records and its replacement with Polish.

Ultimately, as a result of the union of Lithuania with Poland, a long-term conflict developed between Moscow and Poland. The political division was exacerbated by social and cultural changes and contributed enormously to the gradual division of the originally united Russian nation into three peoples - the Great Russians (now called simply Russians) in the east, the Little Russians (Ukrainians) and Belarusians in the west. For a long time, however, the peoples of each of these three branches continued to call themselves simply Russians.

Therefore, we are once again convinced that it was from the West, and yet from the West, that a constant threat was looming to the very existence of Great Rus'.

And, reading the ancient lines, trying to understand the unspoken and buried secrets of previous centuries, again and again acutely experiencing the Union of Krevo, which gave up Lithuania and all of Kievan Rus, which previously belonged to the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (Chervonnaya, Little and White Rus', in later terminology ), into the hands of the Catholic West, you think about what was in all this - both in the successful conversion of Lithuania to Catholicism, and in the failed, although similarly conceived, subordination of Muscovite Rus' to Rome - what was the role, will and responsibility of the shepherds of the peoples, and what is it like - a people obliged to listen to their rulers?

Why did it work there and not here? Who really makes history? What is the measure of opportunity and, therefore, the measure of responsibility of the country’s rulers in the hourly creation of history, the creativity of the people’s existence?

CONCLUSION

The Union of Krevo was the largest historical event in the history of Poland, Rus' and Lithuania. It predetermined the paths of their development and the relationships between these peoples for many centuries.

Poland became a conductor of Catholic aggression to the east and introduced a policy of forced Catholicization, Polishization and social oppression in the Russian lands, which ultimately led to the death of Poland itself.

In the Russian lands of the united state, the hope that the Russian-Lithuanian state would be the defender of Orthodoxy and the unification of Rus' was lost. The Russian element of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania turned from a leading one into a persecuted and persecuted one. And he reached out to the growing Moscow.

The historical role of the Russian-Lithuanian state was played. The completely objectively real possibility of uniting Rus' was not realized. The leadership of the united state ended up in the hands of Polish and purely Catholic hands, hostile to the original Orthodox Rus'.

The Union of Krevo was the end of the short golden age of Lithuania, the Russian-Lithuanian state.

Death of Olgerd. Jagiello

The death of Olgerd (1377) completely changed the further development of the Russian-Lithuanian state. First of all, the friendly cooperation between the Lithuanian government and its Russian part, which lasted throughout the reign of Olgerd, who shared power with his brother Keistut, was disrupted. Olgerd's heir, his son from his second wife (Princess Tverskaya) Jagiello (Jacob), did not get along with his pagan uncle Keistut and led a fight against him, concluding an alliance with the enemies of Lithuania, the Sword Bearers, with the help of whom he won and imprisoned, although a pagan, but the humane ruler of Lithuania Keistut and his son Vytautas. Grand Duke Keistut died (or was killed) in prison in Kyiv, and his son Vitovt managed to escape. He went to the Swordsmen, converted to Christianity and, with their help, began to prepare for the fight against Jagiel, counting on his great popularity among the Lithuanians. In the east, Jagiel also faced danger: the elder Gediminovichs, deprived of Olgerd in favor of Jagiel, openly went over to the side of Moscow and were preparing to defend their rights with its help. Jagiello, threatened from the west and east, begins to seek friendship from the Tatars and promises them his help against Moscow. How far the discord between the Olgerdovichs went can be seen from the fact that in the Battle of Kulikovo the Olgerdovichs - the Polotsk prince Andrei and the Bryansk prince Dimitri - fought on the side of Dimitri Donskoy, and Jagiello hurried to the aid of Mamai, but was late for the battle.

After the brilliant Kulikovo victory, the chances of Jogaila's opponents increased, and the danger to him from the east increased. The situation for Jagiel became threatening. The Lithuanians of his state were against him for the reprisal against Keistut; Russians - for helping Mamai.

A coincidence of historical circumstances helped Yagaila to his rescue. Just at this time, King Ludwik died in Poland (1382), who was also the King of Hungary. With his death, the personal union between Hungary and Poland ended, and Poland was faced with the question of who would take the throne. Supporters of the deceased King Ludwik managed to proclaim his daughter Jadwiga, a young girl, Queen of Poland.

Polish policy leaders decided to follow the path of a personal union, but this time not with Hungary, but with Lithuania. Jagiello was offered to marry Jadwiga and become both the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, for which he was promised full support of the Catholic Church. Jagiello agreed to this proposal and on August 14, 1385, an agreement on the unification of the two states was signed in the city of Kren. At the same time, Jagiello pledged to convert to Catholicism, baptize all Lithuanians into the Catholic faith and preserve this unification forever. Under the terms of this agreement - the “Union of Krevo” - all Russian lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania also became part of the united Polish-Lithuanian state. Their conversion to Catholicism was not mentioned in the agreement.

Fulfilling the conditions of the Krevo Union, Jagiello converted to Catholicism in 1386, took the name Vladislav, married Jadwiga and was crowned King of Poland (Vladislav II). Then he went to Lithuania, where within one year he converted all pagan Lithuanians to Catholicism and destroyed everything reminiscent of the previous cult: the sacred fire “Znich” was extinguished, sacred oak trees were cut down, sacred snake snakes were killed. The people accepted the new faith without complaint - the Lithuanians were accustomed to unquestioningly obeying their prince.

While Jagiello was baptizing the Lithuanians, Jadwiga, partly by force, partly by diplomacy, ended the Polish-Hungarian-Lithuanian dispute over the “Cherven cities” of Kievan Rus - for Galicia. Since 1387, Galicia became an integral part of Poland. Not Lithuania, which formally owned all Russian lands, and which laid claim to Galicia, but Poland. This made it possible for Poland to begin its Catholicization and Polishization activities in Galicia much earlier than in the rest of the Russian lands, although they were located in the Polish-Lithuanian state, but were part of Lithuania, not Poland. The results of this were soon felt: the Russian socio-cultural elite very soon completely disappeared - everyone became “Poles”.

In Lithuania, the process of spontaneous merging of the Russian and Lithuanian peoples stopped and discord and antagonism began to grow between them, generated by Catholic fanaticism and Polish chauvinism, which were quickly adopted by the Lithuanian upper classes. In the Russian lands of the united state, the hope that the Russian-Lithuanian state would be the defender of Orthodoxy and the unification of Rus' was lost. The Russian element of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania turned from a leading one into a persecuted and persecuted one. And he reached out to the growing Moscow.

The Union of Krevo was the end of the short golden age of Lithuania, the Russian-Lithuanian state.

Chronological table of the most important events of the Russian-Lithuanian state
from the beginning of the 13th century to its end in 1386

Beginning of the 13th century - Creation of the Lithuanian State by Mindaugas.
1252 - Mindaugas is crowned king of Lithuania and converts to Catholicism.
1263 - Death of Mindaugas and the beginning of the Troubles.
1263-1316 - Troubles and civil strife.
1316 - Gediminas comes to power.
1341 - Death of Gediminas. The beginning of the reign of Olgerd and Keistut.
1363 - Defeat of the Tatras near Blue Waters.
1377 - Death of Olgerd. Jagiello, His fight with Keistut.
1385 - Union of Krevo. The end of the independence of the Russian-Lithuanian state.

Union of Krevo(1385) – an agreement concluded between the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russia and Samogitia August 14, 1385 in the city of Krevo (Belarus).

The agreement provided for the unification of Lithuania and Poland into a single state through the marriage of the Polish queen Jadwiga and the Lithuanian prince. Under the terms of the union, Vladislav II Jagiello pledged to accept baptism according to the Catholic rite along with the pagan population of Lithuania, turn his grand ducal treasury in favor of Poland, return to the Polish crown all its territories seized at that time and, most importantly, permanently annex to it the lands of Lithuania and Lithuanian Rus .

The Krevo Union contributed to the unification of Polish-Lithuanian forces to fight against the aggression of the Teutonic Order, which resulted in the war of 1409-1411. The order, led by Ulrich von Juningen, fell noticeably after the Battle of Grunwald. Polish feudal lords tried to use the Union of Krevo to seize Ukrainian and Belarusian lands that were under Lithuanian rule.

The Union of Krevo was opposed by the Lithuanian-Ukrainian opposition, led by Prince Vytautas, Jogaila's cousin, which achieved the preservation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a separate independent state. In 1392, according to the Ostrov agreement, Jogaila was forced to recognize Vytautas as his governor, and in 1398 Vytautas proclaimed himself the sovereign Grand Duke of Lithuania under the nominal supremacy of the Polish king, thereby effectively breaking the Krevo Union.

Reasons for union

The desire of Lithuania and Poland to join forces in the face of danger from the powerful Teutonic Order, which dominated the Baltic coast, from the Moscow Principality, whose authority grew after the victory over the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, from the Crimean Khanate (split from composition of the Golden Horde, since 1475 recognized dependence on the Ottoman Empire).

The search by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiel (1377-1392) for an ally to strengthen his position. Jagiello, the youngest son of Olgerd, having taken the grand-ducal throne contrary to the principles of family seniority, found himself in a difficult situation. The elder Olgerdovichs and cousin Vitovt opposed him.

It was a marriage union - the Lithuanian prince Jagiello married the Polish queen Jadwiga and was proclaimed the Polish king; as a result, clashes between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ceased, and their armed forces united. The union envisaged the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Poland. However, as a result of the desire of the Lithuanian elite for political independence, Lithuania actually remained a separate state, power in which directly belonged to Jogaila’s cousin, Prince Vytautas (1392-1430).

Under the terms of the union, Lithuania, which was the last pagan country in Europe, converted to Catholicism.

Consequences of the union

Positive - the combined efforts of the two states helped to defeat the Teutonic Order and stop the advance of the Germans into the Slavic lands (Battle of Grunwald 1410).

Negative – the influence of the Poles in Ukraine increased, the forced imposition of Catholicism began. Poland sought to completely subjugate the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Since 1340, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania fought over the Galician-Volhynian inheritance. After the death of Olgerd in 1377, a struggle for power began in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Jagiello Olgerdovich became the Grand Duke, his brothers Andrei Polotsky and Dmitry Starodubsky and Trubchevsky went into the service of Dmitry Ivanovich of Moscow, becoming his governors in Pskov and Pereslavl-Zalessky, respectively, and participated in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 on the side of Moscow. In October 1381, Jagiello was dethroned by his uncle Keistut. In May-June 1382, Dmitry-Koribut Olgerdovich spoke out against Keistut, and already in July Jogaila managed to regain power with the military assistance of the Teutonic Order. Keistut was imprisoned in the Krevsky Castle, where he was strangled on August 15, 1382 (On August 24, the main forces of Tokhtamysh besieged Moscow).

In 1384, Jagiello, Skirgaila and Dmitry-Koribut concluded two preliminary agreements with Dmitry of Moscow and his cousin Vladimir of Serpukhov, which provided, among other things, for the marriage of Jagiello with the daughter of Dmitry Donskoy, subject to the subordination of the Lithuanian prince to the supreme power of the Prince of Moscow and the recognition of Orthodoxy as the state religion Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which were never implemented. Dmitry Ivanovich Moskovsky agreed to pay tribute to the Horde from the lands under his control in an increased amount and sent his eldest son Vasily to the Horde as a hostage.

It is possible that the prospect of a particularly heavy tributary dependence on the Horde influenced the political sentiments of the feudal lords of the principalities of Rus' subject to Lithuania and also played the role of a factor that contributed to the predominance among the Lithuanian nobility of a group close to Jogaila, who feared losing their dominant position in part of the lands of Rus' and was guided to the Kingdom of Poland

In 1384, Jagiello concluded an agreement with the Teutonic Order in Dubyssy, in which he undertook to transfer Zhmud to the Order and accept Catholicism within 4 years.

The Krevo Union was signed on August 14, 1385 in Krevo Castle (the territory of the Smorgon region of modern Belarus). As a result, Jagiello took on a number of obligations: to transfer Lithuania to the Latin alphabet; use all possible means and contribute to the return of the Lands lost by Poland; increase the number of prisoners; convert to Catholicism and convert all your brothers, boyars, and people to it; annex Russian lands to the Polish Kingdom; pay Jadwiga's ex-fiancé (Wilhelm (Duke of Austria)) 200 thousand as compensation for violation of the marriage agreement.

The troops, legislation and judicial system, as well as the treasury (including the issue of money) remained separate, and the border between states was maintained with the collection of customs duties.

Consequences

The signing of the Krevo Union, although it caused a wave of discontent among part of the Lithuanian-Russian nobility, became a stage towards ending the struggle between the two states for the southwestern Russian lands (the last stage of the war for the Galician-Volyn inheritance took place in the form of suppression of the independence of Prince Fedor by joint Polish-Lithuanian efforts Lyubartovich) and contributed to the expansion of their borders to the Black Sea coast.

The terms of the Union of Krevo (in 1401 they were clarified by the Vilna-Radom Union) were in effect for 184 years, until 1569, when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland signed the Union of Lublin, uniting both states into a confederal limited elected monarchy. And also one of the consequences of the Krevo Union was that the Catholic feudal lords received additional rights and liberties.