Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/726

 702 LITHUANIANS Even at that time the Lithuanian stem was divided into three main branches: the Borussians or Prussians; the Letts (who call themselves Latvis, whilst the name under which they are known in Russian chronicles, Letygola, is an abbreviation of Latvin-galas, &quot; the confines of Lithuania &quot;) ; and the Lithuanians, or rather Lituanians, Litva, or Letuvininka i, these last being subdivided into Lithuanians proper, and Jmud (Zmudz, Samoghilians, or Zemailey], the &quot;Lowlanders.&quot; To these three main branches, which have maintained their national distinctions uninterrupted until the present time, must be added also the Yatvyags, or Yadzvings, a warlike, black-haired people who inhabited the thick forests at the upper tributaries of the Niemen and Bug, and the survivors of whom are easily distinguishable now as a mixture with White-Russians and Mazurs in some parts of the governments Grodno and Plotsk, and in several north-eastern parts of those of Lomza and Warsaw. Nestor s chronicle distinguishes also the Jemgala, who later became known under the name of Semigallia, and inhabited in the 10th century the left bank of the Duna. Several authors consider also as Lithuanians the Kori of Russian chronicles, or Courons of Western authors, who inhabited the peninsula of Courland, and the Golad, a clan settled on the banks of the Porotva, tributary of the Moskva river, which seems to have been thrown far from the main stem during its migration to the north. 1 The Krivitchi, who inhabited what is now the government of Smolensk, whose name recalls the Krive-Kriveyto, and whose ethnological features recall the Lithuanians, seem to belong to the same stem ; but now these are rather a mixture of Lithuanians and Slavonians. All these peoples are only ethnographical subdivisions, and each of them was subdivided in its turn into numerous independent clans and villages, separated from one another by forests and marshes ; they had no towns or fortified places, a feature which has struck many earlier Occidental writers. The Lithuanian territory thus lay open to foreign invasions, and the warlike Russian Kniaz es, as well as the German crusaders, availed themselves of the opportunity. The Borussians soon fell under the dominion of Germans, and ceased to constitute a separate nationality, leaving only their name to the state which later became Prussia. The Letts were driven farther to the north, mixing there with Livs and Ehsts, and fell under the dominion of the Livonian order. Only the Lithuanians proper, together with Samoghitians, succeeded in forming an independent state. The early history of this state is but imperfectly known, all the more that the old Lithuanian chronicles have suffered from subsequent alterations (Antonovitch, loc. cit.). During the continuous petty war carried on against Slavonic invasions, the military chief of one of the clans, Ryngold, acquired, in the first half of the 13th century, a certain preponderance over other clans of Lithuania and Black Russia (Yatvyags), as well as over the republics of Red Russia. At this time, the invasions of the Livonian order becoming more frequent, and always extending southward, there was a general feeling of the necessity of some organization to resist them, and Ryngold s son, Mendowg, availed himself of this opportunity to pursue the policy of his father. He made different concessions to the order, ceded to it several parts of Lithuania, and even agreed to be baptized, in 1250, at Novograd Litovsky, receiving in exchange a crown from Innocent IV., with which he was crowned king of Lithuanians. He ceded also the whole of Lithuania to the order in case he should die without leaving offspring. But he had accepted Christi- anity only to increase his influence among other clans ; and, 1 W. B. Antonovitch, A Sketch of History of the Great Principality of Lithuania, and Professor Barsoff, Russian Historical Geography, both in Russian. as soon as he had consolidated a union between Lithu anians, Samoghitians, and Cours, he relapsed, proclaiming, in 1260, a general uprising of the Lithuanian people against the Livonian order. The yoke was shaken off, but internal wars followed, and three years later Mendowg was killed. About the end of the 13th century a new dynasty of rulers of Lithuania was founded by Lutouver, whose second son, Gedymin (1316-1341), with the aid of fresh forces he organized from his relations with Red Russia, established something like regular government ; he extended at the same time his dominions over Russian countries over Black Russia (Novogrodok, Zditoff, Grodno, Slonim, and Volkovysk) and the principalities of Polotsk, Tourovsk, Pinsk, Vitebsk, and Volhynia. He named him self Rex Lethowinorum et multorum Ruthenorum. In 1325 he concluded a treaty with Poland against the Livonian order, which treaty was the first step towards the union of both countries realized two centuries later. The seven sons of Gedymin considered themselves as quite independent; but two of them, Olgerd and Keistut, soon became the more powerful. They represented two different tendencies which existed at that time in Lithuania. Olgerd, whose family relations attracted him towards the south, was the advocate of union with Russia ; rather politician than warrior, he in creased his influence by diplomacy and by organization. His wife and sons being Christians, he also soon agreed to be baptized in the Greek Church. Keistut represented the revival of the Lithuanian nationality. Continually engaged in wars with Livonia, and remaining true to the national religion, he became the national legendary hero. In 1345 both brothers agreed to re-establish the great principality of Lithuania, and, after having taken Vilna, the old sanctuary of the country, all the brothers recognized the supremacy of Olgerd. His son Yagello, who married the queen of Poland, Yadviga, after having been baptized in the Latin Church, was crowned, on February 14, 1386, king of Poland. At the beginning of the 15th century Lithuania was a mighty state, extending her dominions as far east as Vyazma on the banks of the Moskva river, the present government of Kaluga, and Poutivl, and south east as far as Poltava, the shores of the Sea of Azoff, and Hadji-bey (Odessa), thus including Kieff and Loutsk. The union with Poland remained, however, but nominal until 1569, when Sigismund Augustus was king of Poland. In the 16th century Lithuania did not extend its power so far east and south-east as two centuries before, but it con stituted a compact state, including Polotsk, Moghileff, Minsk, Grodno, Kovno, Vilna, Brest, and reaching as far south-east as Tchernigoff. From the union with Poland, the history of Lithuania becomes a part of Poland s history, Lithuanians and White-Russians partaking of the fate of the Polish kingdom. After its three partitions, they fell under the dominion of the Russian empire. In 1792 Russia took the provinces of Moghileff and .Polotsk, and in 1793 those of Vilna, Troki, Novgorod-Syeversk, Brest, and Vitebsk. In 1797 all these provinces were united together, constituting the &quot;Lithuanian government&quot; (Litovskaya Gubernia). But the name of Lithuanian provinces was usually given only to the governments of Vilna and Kovno, and, though Nicholas I. prohibited the use of this name, it is still used, even in official documents. In Russia, all the White-Russian population of the former Polish Lithuania are mostly considered as Lithuanians, the name of Jmud being restricted to Lithuanians proper. The ethnographical limits of the Lithuanians are quite undefined, and their number is estimated very differently by different authors. The Letts occupy a part of the Courland peninsula (according to M. Rittich, they numbered there 305,300 in 1870, to which several authors add 185,800 Cours), of Livonia (416,400 at same date), and of Vitebsk (185,600), a few other settlements being spread also in the governments of Kovno (18,500), St Petersburg (2700), and