Gudijos istorija. Baltarusijos istorija

LTIki šiol nė vienas Lietuvos istorikas nėra publikavęs išsamios Gudijos istorijos sintezės. Nėra net vertimų iš užsienio kalbų. Taip nutiko nepaisant fakto, kad nuo XIII amžiaus šiandieninių lietuvių ir gudų protėviai šimtus metų gyveno bendroje valstybėje – Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje. Pirmą kartą istorijoje abi tautos viena nuo kitos buvo atskirtos tik tarp Pirmojo ir Antrojo pasaulinio karo. Antrą kartą politinė atskirtis įvyko po 1990-ųjų ir tęsiasi iki šių dienų. Žvelgiant iš tokios perspektyvos jokia kita kaimyninė tauta – nei latviai, nei lenkai, nei rusai – neturėjo tokios ilgos bendros istorijos su lietuviais. Ši Gudijos istorija nėra parašyta pagal principą „kaip iš tikrųjų buvo", vardinant įvykius ir procesus, kurie kadaise įvyko. Jos tikslas yra palyginti lietuvišką ir gudišką pasakojimą apie iš esmės bendrą praeitį, apimančią Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės laikus. Kodėl šie pasakojimai skiriasi? Kas lemia, kad Lietuvoje nusistovėjo vienos, o Gudijoje kitos „tiesos"? Kokią įtaką tai daro tautų formavimuisi ir bendravimui vienai su kita? Išskirtinis dėmesys skiriamas XIX, ypač XX, amžiaus abiejų tautų istorinio kelio vyksmui – kokie buvo šio kelio panašumai, kaip radosi ir plėtojosi skirtumai? Knygoje siekta papasakoti Gudijos istoriją per mūsų pačių praeities matymo prizmę ir istorinį kontekstą. [knygos.lt]

ENThis is the first book on the history of Belarus in the Lithuanian language. Many reasons have caused such uniqueness. First of all, the academic Lithuanian historical approach formed in the interwar period, when there was no sovereign Belarusian state. Looking from the perspective of the young Lithuanian Republic separated from the Belarusian lands with political borders, there had been nothing to study or describe. Second, through the 1950s and the 1980s, when both nations coexisted in the same political body - the Soviet Union - the history of Belarus and especially its national perspective were suppressed, marginalized, and ignored by the communist pro-Russian authorities. In the general context of degradation of historical studies, nobody undertook the job to write about the Belarusian past. Finally, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of independent Lithuanian and Belarusian Republics, paradoxically, there had appeared other reasons not to write about the closest neighbors: the problem of the shared past and the fatal failure to share the legacy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Until now, none of the Lithuanian historians has written any History of Belarus. There have been no translations of Belarusian or any other foreign authors into the Lithuanian language either. Belarus is the closest historical neighbor to Lithuania: neither Latvians, Russians, nor Poles have had more intensive cultural, social, and political relations. Since the thirteenth century, Lithuanians and Belarusians have coexisted in one state with only two short breaks: the 1920s through the 1930s and since 1990.Most of the shared history had been related to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a multinational state that dominated in East-Central Europe through the mid-thirteenth century till 1795, where Ukrainians, Jews, Tatars, Germans, and many other nations lived next to Lithuanians and Belarusians. To make it more complicated, the Grand Duchy was in close political and cultural alliance with Poland since the times of Jogaila (Jagiełło, King of Poland in 1386-1434), and in a single political body - the Commonwealth of Two Nations - starting from the Lublin Union in 1569 and through 1795. The legacy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has not been easy to share among its successor states and nations through the nineteenth and the twenty-first century. The claimants appeared to be numerous: first of all, Lithuanians, Poles, Belarusians, but also Russians, Jews, and Ukrainians to some specific extend. The most dramatic tension happened between Lithuanians and Poles and between Lithuanians and Belarusians. The Polish case reached its culmination in the interwar period with the international conflict on Vilnius (Wilno). Later, however, the contradicting Polish and Lithuanian narrations have been pacified, retreats made on both sides, though the two nations have not formulated common denominators until now. The Belarusian case has appeared to be much more complicated. The Lithuanian and the Belarusian national narrations remain openly conflicting and not synchronized, whereas all attempts to find a peaceful compromise have failed.The first Lithuanian book on Belarusian history does not aim to create the narration on the shared past that would fit the two - Lithuanian and Belarusian - conflicting traditions. It does not favor any single one of them either. The study's main objective is to explain why the two national narrations are so incompatible, to indicate the conflicting points, to present and analyze the argumentation of the two sides. This study deconstructs and exposes the inner logic of the two neighboring visions of the past. The Belarusian perspective of their history, the first time critically presented in length in the Lithuanian language, is being confronted with Lithuanian interpretations and the parallels of the Lithuanian history. The primary addressee of the book is a Lithuanian reader: well-known facts and constructions of the past are confronted with "exotic" and sometimes even "shocking" visions of the Belarusian perspective. The reader critically approaches reality when discussing the same phenomenon from such radically different points of view. The result is a better understanding of the Lithuanian past, especially that of the Grand Duchy. Additionally, such an approach contributes to the better understanding of neighbors - the Belarusians - because analysis of their historical narration helps penetrate their identity issues. Finally, a reader is forced to self-reflect and, hopefully, modify his/her own incarnated notions of the past. [From the publication]