Lithuania proper refers to a region that existed within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania where the Lithuanian language was spoken. The primary meaning is identical to the Duchy of Lithuania, a land around which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania evolved. The territory can be traced by Catholic Christianity parishes established in pagan Baltic Sea lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania subsequent to the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387. Lithuania proper ( Lithuania Propria) was always distinguished from the Ruthenian lands since the Lithuanians differed from the Ruthenians in their language and faith (Paganism in the beginning and Catholicism since 1387).
Lithuania proper is sometimes also called Lithuania Major, particularly in contrast with Lithuania Minor.
The Lithuanian geographer Kazys Pakštas wrote that Lithuania proper was known since the administrative division of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1566, when the name was assigned to the palatinates of Vilnius and Trakai. The name was used in documents and maps. Lithuania proper also included the Duchy of Samogitia.
Evolution of the term
Before the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
A few
Balts confederations from the second half of the 12th century and the 13th century are known.
Historians designate Lithuania proper (or the Land of Lithuania in a narrow sense) as a Lithuanian land that existed prior to Grand Duchy of Lithuania, near other lands: Land of Nalšia, Land of Deltuva, Land of Upytė.[Насевіч В.Л. Працэс утварэння Вялікага княства Літоўскага (13-14 стст.) // Актуальныя пытанні гісторыі Беларусі ад старажытных часоў да нашых дзён. Мн., 1992. С. 54-63.]) Lithuania (, literary: Lithuania of chronicles) was in the upper Nemunas region,[ ][ ] now in modern Belarus.
In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Scholars often use the term
Lithuania proper to refer to lands inhabited by ethnic Lithuanians
as opposed to lands controlled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania inhabited by Ruthenians (ancestors of modern Belarusians and Ukrainians), Poles,
Lithuanian Jews or many other nationalities. Already during the Grand Duchy times, Lithuania proper was a term designated to land where Lithuanians live.
Administratively, it consisted of Vilnius Voivodeship, Trakai Voivodeship and the Duchy of Samogitia.
[ Viduramžių Lietuva . Retrieved on 2007.04.11] This division continued even after the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned.
[Authentic maps showing Lithuania Propria:]
Thus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided into the historical regions
Samogitia (literally
Lower Lithuania), Lithuania proper and
Ruthenia.
Eastern part of Lithuania Propria
For centuries, eastern and southern lands of this territory, that had direct contacts with Ruthenia and Poland, initially inhabited by ethnic Lithuanians were slowly Ruthenised,
Polonisation and
Russification, and the Lithuanian-speaking territory shrunk. Eastern parts of Lithuania Propria suffered heavy population losses during the Deluge, and further on during the Great Northern War and following
Black Death in 1710–1711. Subsequent immigration of Ruthenians and Poles into these territories accelerated the process. A significant push to the de-Lithuanisation ensued when Lithuania became a part of the
Russian Empire, and especially, after Lithuanian language books were forbidden to print in
Latin letters in 1864. The process continued at the time of Polish rule, as Lithuanian language schools and libraries were closed, and later under
Soviet Union rule, as no Lithuanian schools were in these territories at all. Nowadays significant "islands" of Lithuanian-speaking people remain in eastern and southern parts of Lithuania proper (modern Belarus (see and in
Grodno Region) and
Poland (see
Punskas in Podlaskie Voivodeship). Many people of these territories now speaking Belarusian still refer to themselves as Lithuanians.
File:LithuaniaHistory.png|Map showing territorial changes of Lithuania from the 13th century to the present day
File:Lithuanian language in the 16th century.png|Area of the Lithuanian language in the 16th century
File:Litvania map 1570.png|Lithuania on a 1570 map
File:Carte des Estats de Suede, de Dannemarq, et de Pologne; sur la Mer Baltique.jpg|Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1700 with Samogitia ( Samogitie), Lithuania proper ( Vraye Lithuanie) and Lithuanian Belarus ( Russie Blanche ou Lituanique)
File:Nicolas de Fer, Les êtates de la couronne de Pologne (FL35472138 2572223).jpg|1716 map of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with Lithuania proper (Vraye Lithuanie)
File:Regni Poloniae Magnique Ducatus Lithuaniae (3741150) (cropped).jpg|Map of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1720 with Lithuania proper
File:Karta över Polen, från 1700-talet - Skoklosters slott - 97979.tif|18th century map of Poland–Lithuania with Lithuania proper
File:Polonia and Lithuania at the time of Augustus II the Strong.jpg|1733 map of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the time of Augustus II the Strong with Lithuania proper
File:Nicolas de Fer, Carte pour l'inteligence des affaires presente des Turcs des Tartares, de Hongrois, des Polonois, des Suedois, et des Moscovites (FL36380653 2622070).jpg|Map of northern, central and eastern Europe in 1737 with Lithuania proper (Lithuanie Particuliere)
File:Mappa Geographica Regni Poloniae ex novissimis quotquot sunt mappis specialibus composita et al L.L. Stereographicae projectionis revocata a Tob. Mayero. . . . MDCCLXXIII.jpg|1773 map of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with Lithuania proper
File:Poland map (1814).jpg|1814 map of the partitioned Commonwealth with Lithuania proper (Duchy of Lithuania)
File:Mapa Polski za panowania Jana III Sobieskiego wydana z okazji 200 rocznicy odsieczy wiedenskiej.jpg|1883 map of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with Lithuania proper (Litwa)
File:Poland at the end of the 14th century.jpg|1886 map of Poland and Lithuania during the 14th century with Lithuania proper (Litauen)
File:C. 1560 Poland and Lithuania.jpg|1888 map of Poland and Lithuania circa 1560, before the Union of Lublin (1569) with Lithuania proper
File:Borders of Poland before 1660 (128904766).jpg|1890 map of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1660 and 1667 with Lithuania proper
File:439 of 'Geografija arba Żemēs Apraszymas. Pagal Geikie, Nalkowskį ir kitus. Sutaise szernas' (11290675693).jpg|1899 map of Lithuania Proper (Lietuva tikroji) from a Lithuanian language atlas "Geografija arba Żemēs Apraszymas. Pagal Geikie, Nalkowskį ir kitus. Sutaise szernas".
File:Poland in 1770s-1790s (partitions).jpg|1910 map from the Historical Atlas of Poland with Lithuania proper (Litwa)
File:Litauen BV044875323.jpg|1918 ethnographic map of Balts by the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies with Lithuania proper and Lithuanian Ruthenia
File:Lithuanian state - project - 1920 AD.jpg|A territorial project of Lithuania in 1920 with Vilnius Voivodeship, Trakai Voivodeship and Samogitian Eldership listed under Lithuania Proper
Modern developments
At the end of World War I, the Council of Lithuania declared an independent Lithuanian state re-established in the ethnic Lithuanian lands.
After negotiations with Bolshevik Russia, a large part of Lithuania proper was acknowledged by Soviets as part of the Lithuanian Republic by signing the Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920. Some of these territories were also claimed by the Second Republic of Poland. This led to series of military conflicts and eventually to war.
In 1943, Antanas Smetona (in exile at the time) began working on a study "Lithuania Propria".
Currently the Republic of Lithuania has no territorial claims.[Claudio Carpini, Storia della Lituania: identità europea e cristiana di un popolo, Città Nuova, 2007, , p.199]
See also
-
Duchy of Lithuania
-
Bruno of Querfurt
-
Ethnographic Lithuania
-
Lithuanians in Belarus
Notes
Sources
