Zasięg osadnictwa ruskiej społeczności etniczno-wyznaniowej w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim od końca XVII do połowy XVIII wieku (w świetle materiałów wizytacji generalnych cerkwi unickich)

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltai; Bažnytinės vizitacijos; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); 17 amžius; 18 amžius; Ortodoksų bažnyčia; Ribos; Ritus graeci parisches; Rusėnų bendrija; Slavai; Tautiškumas; Unitų bažnyčia; Balts; Border; Borders; Canonical visitations; General; Nationality; Orthodox Church; Ritus graeci parishes; Ruthenian community; Slavs; The Great Duchy of Lithuania; The Lithuanian XVII-XVIII a. history; Uniate Church.

ENThe problem of the extent of the Ruthenian ethnic-religious settlement in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has attracted scholarly attention for a long time. It is possible to identify two basic research approaches: a linguistic analysis (J. Karski, J.A. Karłowicz, K. Garšva, P. Gaučas, and Z. Zinkevičius) according to which the borders of the settlement area of the Balts and Slavs could be determined on the basis of the usage area of the Baltic or Slavic dialects in that or other periods, with the use of toponymical and anthroponomical data; and archaeological research (L. Aleksieiev, A. Luchtanas, V. Ušinskas, A. Kraucevich, L. Kurila) based on the evidence on the ethnicity of archaeological records in given settlements. In research into the problem a special place is occupied by the studies conducted by J. Ochmański, who used several methods to reconstruct the settlement area of the Ruthenians and determine the borderline between the Slavs and the Balts in the region, including the religious factor. The purpose of the present analysis is to reconstruct the Slavonic-Baltic border in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the end of the seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century on the basis of a network of Catholic parishes of ritus graeci (Greek Catholic Church), in their vast majority Uniate, but also Orthodox ones. To this end, protocols of general canonical visitations from the 1680s to 1760s were used, and occasionally from the 1780s.Research made it possible for us to determine a clear linear border of the Ruthenian ethnic and religious settlement within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the end of the seventeenth–mid-eighteenth century run along the line of the following villages and towns: Oświeja (Asvieya), Druja (Druia), Brasław (Braslau), Koziany (Kaziany), Miadzioł (Myadzyel), Smorgonie (Smorgon), Krewo (Kreva), Wołożyn (Valozhyn), Rubieżewicze (Rubezhevichi), Ławryszewo (Lavrishevo), Lida, Małe Możejkowo (Malaie Mazheikava) – Grodno (Hrodna) – Sopoćkinie (Sapotskin). Thus, the border was ca. 70 km east and 90 km south of the capital city Wilno (Vilnius). [From the publication]