Pastabos dėl kai kurių Lietuvos miestų raidos viduramžiais ypatybių

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Kolonistai iš Rusios žemių; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Algirdas, 1296-1377; Lietuvos didžiojo kunigaikščio Gedimino laiškai; Lietuvos miestai XIV-XV a.; Magdeburgo teisė; Miestai; Viduramžiai; Vokiečių pirkliai; Vygando Marburgiečio kronika; Chronicle of Wigand of Marburg; Cities; Colonists from the Russian lands; German merchants; Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas; Letters from the Grand Duke Gediminas; Lithuanian cities in the 14th-15th century; Magdeburg right; The Grand Duchy of Lithuania; The Middle Ages.

ENThe present article is a discussion of some problems of social - political development in the fourteenth - fifteenth century of Great Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) Lithuanian lands - cities which were generated by the develpoment of Lithuanian state and political situation in the region and which to a certain degree distinguished the Lithuanian cities from the cities in the neighbouring states. The state and development of the Lithuanian and the Russian lands of the period under consideration, therefore, it is reasonable in a certain stage of research to investigate these regions separately. A rather late appearance of cities (the second half of thirteenth - the second half of the fouteenth century) and a particularly slow develpoment of their network till the turn of the fifteenth century, determined by internal and external (a war with the Theutonic order) factors, must be pointed out. Besides, the Lithuanian cities avoided the great flow of neurommers from Germany that befell in the thirteenth - fourteenth century the cities of Czechia, Poland, Hungary and the states of Livonia and Theutonic order. Notwithstanding that the Lithuanian sovereigns invited colonist - Gediminas' action of 1322 - 1324 is the most famous one among such actions - the response was inactive due to political circumstances. Nevertheless, at the end of the fourteenth century there sesided in Vilnius few in number German merchants and a somewhat greater number of colonists from the Russian lands of GDL. The latter can be traced Kernavė and Trakai. We may assume that the young Lithuanian cities received colonists, though few in number, both from the East and from the West. This can be attributed to their peculiarities.There exists a view in historiography that the Lithuanian city residents were not ready - in the period under consideration - for self-government, and the Magdeburg right that appeared in Lithuania at the end of the fourteenth century was a result of prestigious aspirations of Lithuanian rulers rather than mirrored the real state of cities and aspirations of citizens. Having in mind the sparse network of cities, few colonists and slow introduction of self-government in the fifteenth century we may partly accept this view. Howewer, the development and structure of Vilnius citizens' community in 1387 - the year of granting the Magdeburg rightreveals that this kind of evaluation is irrelevant to Vilnius. Neither we can have doubts as to the urban character of Kaunas in 1408 when it was also granted the Magdeburg right. On the other hand the seals of Vilnius and Kaunas found on treatie, between Lithuania and the Theutonic order, of 1422 and 1432 did not reflect the actual place of these cities in the state structure and position in the public life. We have to agree that they were rather an expression of prestigious aspirations. Even in this case we may trace modest attempts of Lithuanian rulers to extend the social basis of their power, i.e., to find alliesin the state. However, the course of state and social development of Lithuania determined that already in the second half of the fourteenth century the Lithuanian cities lost their strategicalally - the powerful grand duke - and failed to become subjects of social - political life of the state. [From the publication]