Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės naujųjų pavietų seimelių vietos parinkimo ir įrengimo problema 1792-1794 metais

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Gardino seimas; Ketverių metų seimas; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštija, XVIII a.; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); 18 amžius; Parapinė bažnyčia; Pavietas; Reformos; Seimeliai; Seimelis; Dietine; Four Year Diet; Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 18th century; Grodno Diet; Lithuanian XVIII c. history; Parish church; Powiat (county, district); Reforms; The Great Duchy of Lithuania.

ENBased on the resolutions from the Four Year and Hrodno Diet (parliaments) and newly established dietine (local parliament) documents from powiats in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, this article presents a discussion of the issue of selecting and preparing a location for newly established dietines in powiats, as regulated by the laws of 1791 and 1793. The aim is to find out how the diet requirements were actually implemented in new administrative units (powiats) in Lithuania during the February dietines (regular parliamentary sessions held on Candlemas on 2 February) in 1792 and 1794. Having analysed the diet constitutions and material from separate powiat dietines, the author concludes that the diet laws in both 1791 and 1793 foresaw that places for the assembly of representative institutions in new powiats would be in religious buildings, among which parish churches dominated. However, it was not just the nobility in new powiats that assembled in Catholic churches. Of the 33 newly established dietines that were held in February 1792 in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 26 were held in sacred buildings. Fourteen dietines were held in parish churches, 5 were in former Jesuit churches, 2 each were held in the Bernardine and Piarist monastery churches, and one each in the Franciscan, Dominican and Carmelite monastery churches. According to the law of the Hrodno Diet of 1793, parish churches were allocated as the location for newly established dietines for all new lands, except for Merkinė.Both the Four Year Diet and the Hrodno Diet recognised that the decision to hold dietines in religious buildings was only temporary, until a facility especially for holding these assemblies was prepared, or buildings needed for the dietines to conduct their work were built. The diet of 1793 determined a two year term for the preparation of a dietine location, and detailed procedures for collecting funds to carry out the work that had to be done. The analysis of how dietines functioned showed that there were cases when private funds were used for the construction of public buildings for local institutions (e.g., the obligation made by Benedykt Wawrzecki to the nobility of the Breslau voivodeship). The dietine location had to be fitted out only very minimally - the room had to have only a table so that the dietine council could do their work. The progress of the dietines of 1792 and 1794 shows that as part of the implementation of the diet resolutions, the procedures as set out in the laws were basically followed: the time set for the assembly, the opening procedure, the account of how officials would be elected, etc. Realisation of the construction project for special buildings for holding dietines as set out in the regulating law was interrupted by the intervention of foreign states and the eventual partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. [From the publication]

• Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės egzuliantų integracijos problemos XVIII a.: Smolensko vaivadijos atvejis / Robertas Jurgaitis. Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė: giminė, bendrija, grupuotė / sudarytoja Ramunė Šmigelskytė-Stukienė. Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos institutas, 2021. P. 293-311.
• Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės egzuliantų Smolensko vaivadijos seimelių vietos lokalizavimo problema 1667–1794 m / Robertas Jurgaitis. Istorija. 2019, Nr. 115, p. 28-51.