Life strategies in a wartime borderland: problems of identity of people "in between" on the Eastern border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Livonian War
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Pasienio kraštas; Livonijos karas; Maskvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė; Smolenskas; Orša. Keywords: Borderland; Livonian War; Grand Duchy of Moscow; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Smolensk; Orsha.
ENThis article is written on the basis of my PhD research, which was devoted to Filon Kmita Czarnobylski – Captain (Starosta) of the borderland Castle of Orsha and Palatine (Voivode) of Smolensk (b. 1530, d. 1587). This person was chosen for the purposes of researching an identity which faced global challenges: born an Orthodox Ruthenian nobleman in the pre- Reformation Grand Duchy of Lithuania, he took part in military confl icts against Russia ruled by Ivan the Terrible, and was an eyewitness to the Union of Lublin and the Reformation. Above all, however, the very fact of being a citizen of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth can be said to have made him a man of the borderland, as it has been a common approach to consider this entire territory as a borderland (Kenevich 2011, 98–103). [Extract, p. 137]
