In the first decades of the XIV century. under the leadership of Grand Duke Gediminas (Gediminas), they marched on Belarus. And in the 1340s, during the reign of his son Algerdas (Olgerd), who resolutely proclaimed that “all of Russia simply belongs to the Lithuanians,” they entered Ukrainian lands.
By the 1350s, Algerdas extended his power to small principalities located on the left bank of the Dnieper, and in 1362 his army occupied Kyiv.
In 1363, the Lithuanians moved to Podillya, inflicting a crushing defeat on the Golden Horde. At that time, having subjugated most of Belarus and Ukraine (about half of the lands of Kievan Rus), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became the largest in Europe. Its formation was an outstanding organizational achievement, especially considering that it was carried out in less than 150 years.
One should not imagine the seizure of Ukrainian lands by Lithuanians as a total invasion of fierce hordes of foreigners. In fact, words such as penetration, inclusion, and accession are better suited to describe this purposeful process. During the advance of Algerdas into Ukraine, the population often welcomed his troops, which consisted mainly of Ukrainian subjects or allies. If fights broke out, it was usually with the Golden Horde.
Mendowg
Surrounded on all sides by enemies, Lithuanian tribes began to unite. The name of the first prince who started the unification is unknown, the chronicle calls him simply “the great king”. At the beginning of the XIII century, in 1219, the chronicle first mentions the names of princes, sons of the “great king”: Mendovga and Dovsprunk. The princes began a stubborn struggle with other princes: brothers, cousins; some perished, others were driven from their land.
In 1230-1240 Mendovh acted as the main representative of other princes, as a powerful king of the Lithuanians. In the 1260s, under the rule of Mendovh, Neman Rus’ united: Grodno, Vslonim, Volkovyisk, Novgorodok, some neighboring lands above Yasolda, Berezina.
The surviving princes act as servants, who – Mendovga, who – the prince of Volyn. Mendovga’s power grew. Even Danilo, who had formed a coalition against Mendovh with Mazovia, Prussia, the Yatvyags, and Zhmudy, failed to overcome Mendovh.
In 1251-1252, Mendowg, unexpectedly for Daniel, made an alliance with Prussia, was baptized and crowned King of Lithuania. Mendovg concludes a peace treaty with Daniel, ceding to him part of Black Russia with Novgorod (b. 1254), and Daniel marries his god. Mendovha’s son, Voishelk, gives Danylo Vslonim and Volkovysk. Daniel’s son, Roman, as mentioned above, married the daughter of the prince of Volkovysk. Opponents divided the lands of Jatvia: in 1254 Zemovit Mazowiecki concluded an agreement with Daniel on this occasion.
But the peace was not strong: in 1258 Mendovg broke the agreement with Daniel and took Black Russia. Mendowg begins to seize neighboring lands. In the 1250s he organized a joint campaign in Smolensk, encouraging petty Lithuanian princes; in 1258-1260 his cousin Tovtivil ruled in Polotsk. Before his death in 1263, Mendovh wanted to organize a campaign in Chernihiv.
With Mendovh’s death in 1263, a quarrel broke out in Lithuania. For a short time, by the will of Mendovh’s son Voishelk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania passed to his son Daniel, Divarn (b. 1267), but soon both Voishelk and Shvarno died and power passed to Prince Troyden (1270-1280). Little is known about his rule, but it is clear that the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands were slowly coming under the rule of Lithuania.
In Polotsk, after the death of Tovtivil, sat the Lithuanian prince Erdenya, who had supreme power over Polotsk and Vitebsk, although there remained small local princes. Gradually, the whole of Drehovytsia-Kryvyi Rih, and with it part of the Derevska land, came under the rule of Lithuania.
Gediminas (1316-1341)
Gediminas reunites the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and captures the Brest-Drohochyn land. Gediminas’ power also extended to the northern part of Kyiv region. In his policy of uniting the Belarusian and Ukrainian lands with the Lithuanian ones, Gediminas always emphasized that he was the heir of the Russian princes, and called himself “the king of Lithuania and Russia.”
Gedimin partially baptized his children – 7 sons and 5 daughters – and left the rest as pagans. Christians were: Olgerd, Yavnutivan Zaslavsky, Koriyat-Mikhail – Novgorod-Lithuanian, Lubart-Dmitry – Volyn.
The daughters were all Christians because they were married: Maria to Prince Tver, Elizabeth to Mazowiecki, Aldona-Anna to Casimir, King of Poland, Ofka to Yuri Wolslaw of Galicia-Volyn, and Augusta-Anastasia to Grand Duke of Moscow. Olgerd was married to the Duchess of Vitebsk, Lubart – to Volyn. Gediminas founded a new capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – Vilna on the river Vilija. There were pagan shrines and Christian churches – Catholic and Orthodox.
In 1325 the Romanovich dynasty died out. The election to the throne of Yuri II Voleslav, the son of Lithuania’s enemy, Troyden of Mazovia, did not bring enmity into relations between the states, and Gediminas gave his daughter, Ofka, to Yuri Boleslav.
Lithuania remained neutral during the prince’s struggle with the boyars. But it is possible that before the assassination of Yuri-Boleslav the Volyn boyars already had relations with Lithuania, and immediately after the death of Yuri-Bolestov, in 1340, Gediminas’ son Tyubart-Dmitry was elected prince of Volhynia and Galicia. married to the daughter of Yuri Boleslav. This formally gave him the right to act as an avenger for the death of his father-in-law and to defend his inheritance rights. Both principalities in the osss of their boyars gladly accepted his candidacy.
Olgerd (1341-1377)
After Gediminas’ death in 1341, his son Olgerd became the Grand Duke of the Lithuanian-Russian state, who proved to be a very talented organizer. D. Doroshenko called him a genius. Olgerd focused on the expansion towards the Russian lands to the south and southeast.
In the 1350s, the Lithuanian principality failed to seize Novgorod and Pskov, although the political situation there was very threatening; these cities were between two fires: the Swedes and the Livonian knights on the one hand and the Moscow principality on the other. This struggle required more forces than the Lithuanian state had, and the Lithuanian principality failed to establish itself there.
In the 1350s, as a result of the division between some weak principalities, most of Chernihiv region succumbed to the Lithuanian principality. Bryansk, Chernihiv, Novgorod-Siversky, Trubchevsk, Starodub, Novosil and others get individual princes, relatives of Olgerd’s brothers Dmitry, Korybut-Dmitry and cousin Narimundovich. In the eastern lands remained the old Ukrainian princes under his rule. In the territory of Chernihiv-Sivers’kyi, the Lithuanian principality entered the path of competition with the Moscow principality and initially defeated it.
In the 1360s, Olgerd conquered the Kyiv region and placed his son, Volodymyr, in Kyiv. At the same time, Pereyaslavshchyna passed under Lithuanian supremacy. History of Kiev in the thirteenth century. little coverage, but its dependence on the Tatars is indisputable. Subject to them and Prince Fedor, who is mentioned in the XIV century.
After the victory over the Tatars, Olgerd appointed to Podolia his nephews, sons of Koriat: Yuri, Alexander and Constantine. The chronicle preserves a very valuable indication that these princes “became friends with the atamans, began to defend the land of Podolsk, and stopped paying tribute to the Basques.” This instruction explains the success of the Lithuanian expansion in the Ukrainian lands: they did not come as occupiers, breaking old ideas for a personal narrative customs and behaving like conquerors, but as people looking for a common language with the population. The Koryatovychi came to terms with local communities, defended the population from the Tatars, and built fortresses – Bakota, Smotrych, Kamyanets, which became the capital of Podillya.
Jagiello-Jacob-Vladislav (1377-1434)
After Olgerd’s death in 1377, a quarrel broke out between his sons on the throne of the Grand Duke.
At the time of Olgerd’s death, Lithuania, all of Belarus, and a large part of Ukrainian lands were under Olgerd’s rule:
Brest region – Keystuta, Volyn region – Lyubart Dmytro, Turovo-Pinsk region – Narimunda-Gliba, Kyiv region with Pereyaslav region – Volodymyr, Chernihiv region – Korybuta-Diitra Podillya – Koriyatovychiv.During the division of lands Jagiello got Vienna and Vitebsk regions, Minsk, Mstislavl and Novgorod. The main reason for the quarrel was that Olgerd, bypassing his eldest sons, appointed Jagiello, the son of a second woman, as his heir.
Under Olgerd, strength and balance rested on the alliance and sincere solidarity of the three princely brothers: Olgerd, Lubart, and Keystut, who had many supporters among the representatives of old Lithuania. Jagiello won the battle, and Keystut was strangled in 1382 in prison. His son, Vytautas, escaped from prison to the Germans.
Simultaneously with the struggle against Keystut, Jagiello fought with other brothers: in 1377, offended by the will in favor of Jagiello, Andrew of Polotsk, the eldest of the Olgerdovichs, moved to Pskov and then to Moscow; In 1379 he took part in the Moscow campaign in the Sivershchina, and later made an alliance with the Teutonic Order against Jagiello.
In 1386 a large Lithuanian army opposed Andrew; he was taken prisoner and held in prison until 1394. During the march of the Moscow army on the Severshchina, Prince Dmitry of Bryansk sided with Moscow.
The Treaty of Kreva liquidated the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia and made it part of Poland. M. Hrushevsky asks: did Jagiello and his brothers understand the depth of the act that was signed? Jadwiga understood the Kreva agreement: she demanded money from Lithuania, distributed land, and Jagiello appointed Polish governors to Vilna.
This situation could not last long, it should have caused a protest. Vytautas, the son of Keystut, who was strangled by Jagiello’s order in prison in 1382, was a spokesman for the protest of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia against the arbitrary, anti-state act of Jagiello.
Vytautas (1382-1430)
Vytautas’ political activity began after his escape from prison in 1382. He was a talented politician, and all his activities were aimed at the abolition of the Krevsk agreement. After escaping from prison, Vytautas incited the Teutonic Order to march against Jagiello, but, at Jagiello’s request, reconciled with him.
