Sarmatian scale armor. Bas-relief on Traian's Column in Rome.
Sarmatism(Polish Sarmatyzm) - gentry ideology that dominated the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th-19th centuries. Sarmatism elevated the gentry to the ancient Sarmatians, thereby separating itself from the mass of commoners of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Slavs and Lithuanians). 
Portrait of Adam Sariusz Stokowski. Hood. Jakub Usazhevsky. Around 1783
In Polish historiography, there are two theories for resolving the issue of the origin of the gentry:
- the theory of the natural evolution of socio-political relations in the life of Polish tribes, which denies the fact of conquest from the outside. State organization preceded, like all primitive peoples, by the clan, and the clan also represented an economic union on the basis of collectivity. A further form of social integration was the group of clans, which corresponded to the South Slavic brotherhood and laid the foundation for the territorial union, which was later called “opole”. The affairs of the opole were managed by a council of elders who stood at the head of the individual clans that made up the opole. From the connection of opoles, tribes arose, ruled by princes. The war strengthened the princely power and contributed to the separation from the general mass of free people of a special permanent class of warriors, which formed the core from which the gentry class gradually developed (see. military democracy).
- theory of Professor Pekosinsky. Conquest of Poland by the Polabian Slavs at the end of the 8th or beginning of the 9th century. One of the arguments in favor of this hypothesis is the presence of runes in the coats of arms of the Polish gentry. In modern historiography it is considered unlikely due to the fact that there is no evidence of the conquest of Poland by foreigners. However, the appearance in the territories of the Western Slavs of coats of arms with specific eastern markings, as well as the appearance monetary unit“denarius” coincides with the period of Svyatopolk’s accession to the Moravian princely throne, who can be identified with the descendant of Prince Svyatoslav of Kyiv Svyatopolk Yaropolkovich. This event also echoes the legend mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years about the alien rulers of Slavic Rus', the Varangians, called upon to help local tribes during a period of war and fragmentation. Reinforced by the Sarmatian and Polovtsian squads, the nephew of Prince Rostislav Moimirovich Svyatopolk Yaropolkovich, invited by him to strengthen the Moravian state against the threat of invasion by German tribes, became the founder of the dynasty of Moravian, Polish and Lithuanian Svyatopolkovichs - Chetvertinsky and Mirsky.
Coat of arms of the princes Svyatopolk-Chetvertinsky
T.N. "Goluchowski Table" with types of Polish costumes and weapons, around 1620 (National Museum in Poznań)
Sarmatism predetermined many features of the culture of the nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its difference from the Western European aristocracy: the conventionally “eastern” style of ceremonial clothing (zhupan (from the Arabic “jubba”, kontush, Slutsk belt, saber), special manners, and so on. A later manifestation of Sarmatism in The clothes were confederate, borrowed from the lancers.
The political ideal of Sarmatism is a conservative and aristocratic gentry republic. Democracy extended only to the “elected”, to the gentry, while the simple, Slavic population were perceived as slaves and cattle.
Nobility (Polish Szlachta from Old High German slahta - genus or German. Schlacht- battle) - a privileged class in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, after the Union of Lublin 1569, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as some other states.
Lev Sapega. Portrait of an unknown artist. 1616
The Polish gentry was initially an exclusively military class, which over time managed to assert the right to an elective monarchy. The complex relationship between the monarchy and the gentry, as well as the far-reaching privileges of the gentry, became one of the main reasons for the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century.
Portrait of Stanislav-Antony Shchuka. 1709, left. On the right is a portrait of Prince Mikhail Borisovich Konets.
The nobles are depicted in a typical national costume - kuntush, zhupan, colored boots, with a sash and a saber. The gentry wore short hair and a mustache. Wigs, fashionable in Europe, were not widely used in Poland and were worn exclusively with Western European dress.
The gentry was an open class of warring gentlemen who opposed themselves to the common people. A true nobleman was ready to die of hunger, but not to disgrace himself with physical labor. Representatives of the gentry were distinguished by the so-called “arrogance” (honor and self-esteem, from lat. honor"honor") and courage.
Among the gentry, the idea of universal equality within the class (“gentry brothers”) was preserved, and even the king was perceived as an equal. This period went down in history as the “Golden Liberty”. The gentry was distinguished by respect for the opinions of others, expressed in the fact that each of those asking questions had the right of veto, that is, decisions had to be made with general consent. Subsequently, this moment influenced the ideal of the Polish rebel rebel. The gentry reserved the right to revolt (rokosh).
Typically, the gentry refers to the Polish knighthood, but there was a distinction between them that arose in the 14th century:
- The gentry was strongly imbued with a corporate spirit, a sense of class solidarity and energetically defended its class interests, which were often in conflict with the interests of other classes.
- The economic basis of the dominant position of the gentry was feudal ownership of land. The relationships between different layers of the gentry were based on the principles of hierarchy. Access to the gentry class was possible only in exceptional cases for great merit through nobilitation, option and indigenat.
- The gentry had immunity: they owned property, were exempt from certain duties, and had judicial power over the peasants. According to the Košice privilege of 1374, the gentry were exempted from all state duties, with the exception of payment of land taxes in the amount of 2 groschen per fief, and received the exclusive right to occupy the positions of governor, castellan, judges, sub-knights, etc. Knighthood could be ordinary (miles medius, scartabellus); in addition, there were knights who came from peasants and salts (miles e sculteto vel cmetone). The price for killing a nobleman was set at 60 hryvnia, for a private knight 30 hryvnia and for a knight of the last category - 15 hryvnia.
- The nobility had coats of arms.
Noble coat of arms of Byalynya princes Svyatopolk-Mirsky (Svyatopolkovichi)
Noble coat of arms Sas Leliva (Polovtsian)
Noble coat of arms of Leliva Vysotsky (Polovtsian)
Coat of arms of Dolenga-Horseshoe-Yastrebets (coat of arms of Sas Leliwa)
Coat of arms of Abdank Khmelnitsky
Sarmatian coat of arms "Grif-Rogal" Leshko II and the Popelid dynasty
- In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the bulk of small owners in the XIII-first half of the XVI century. were called boyars. For the first time, the boyars were called gentry in the Gorodel Privilege of 1413. The composition of the gentry in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at that time was heterogeneous: some were almost magnates in their ownership of large hereditary estates; from the 15th century were called lords. Others were almost no different from the peasants in their property status.
In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 16th-18th centuries, the gentry occupied a dominant position. Given the weakness of royal power, the country was essentially a gentry republic. The right of free prohibition (liberum veto) at the Sejm was considered one of the most important rights of the gentry and contributed to gentry anarchy, which intensified in the second half of the 17th and first half of the 18th century.
While the Russian nobility did not exceed 1% of the population, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the time of its division the gentry made up 8-10%, reaching 20% in some areas (for example, in Mazovia 23.4%).
The form of organization of the gentry was the sejmik - a meeting of all the gentry who belonged to the same local community (communitas), as one social whole.
Neshava legislation placed the gentry on the same level as one could own: to publish new law, establish a new tax or convene zemstvo militia(“Pospolitoe Rushanye”), the king was obliged to apply to the gentry’s sejmiks for permission. At the same time, the gentry acquired important privileges even earlier that guaranteed the property and personal integrity of the gentry (Tserekvik privilege).
The Sarmatists opposed themselves to both servile despotic Asia and bourgeois Europe. The category “Fatherland” is central to the ideology of Sarmatism.
"Nobleman and Death." Painted relief from the 17th century.
It behooves a Sarmatian to be a knight and a warrior, a good rural magnate (with some neo-Stoic traits), an educated man with an interest in the world. The main occupations of the guardians of the “Sarmatian traditions” were: war, hunting, polonaise. The Protestant work ethic was alien to the Sarmatian ideal. The gallant custom of kissing a woman’s hand was also developed, since the woman’s status was high, which pointed to the myth of the Sarmatian Amazons.
Armor of a hussar of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Sarmatian style from Karacena, stylized as the armor of a Sarmatian cataphract
During the era of the dominance of the Sarmatian myth in Poland, Catholicism continued to persist and even intensified on the basis of the Counter-Reformation. However, the universal religion was refracted in the Sarmatian guise. The cathedrals of the apostles resembled noble diets, and the Sarmatian hero became the ideal of a devout Catholic. Catholicism was largely about ethnic identification. However, during the era of the dominance of the Sarmatian mentality, relative religious freedom reigned in Poland, which was secured by the Warsaw Confederation and the Treaty of Sandomierz.
The ideology of Sarmatism was reflected in art: the corresponding style of depicting a nobleman was called the Sarmatian portrait.
Sarmatian portrait- Baroque portrait painting in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which came into fashion under Stefan Batory in 1576. The name of the portrait is associated with the mindset of Sarmatism.
King Stefan Batory
Such a portrait was an important element of collective memory - they were exhibited in special halls to testify to the nobility of their origin.
TO distinctive features The portrait can be attributed to specific attributes: the nobleman was depicted in full growth, he was always wearing a kuntush and zhupan, and a saber was always hanging on his belt. The hetman was depicted with a hetman's mace, and the chancellor with a seal. The gentry in portraits wore short hair and a mustache (there were no European wigs or Moscow beards). Red dominated the color.
A special type of Sarmatian portrait was the so-called. called “trumen portrait” - funerary images of the face of the deceased, resembling the famous “Fayum portraits”.
“Trumnel Portrait” by Stanislav Wojsha, unknown. art., 1677. Warsaw, Wilanow Palace Museum
Sarmatian architecture is characterized by deliberately simplified, primitive forms, associated with monuments of medieval antiquity.
Farny Church in Novogrudok
Sarmatism was glorified by many writers: steppe motifs appear in the works of Vaclav Potocki, Jan Krzysztof Pasek, Andrei Zbylitowski and Hieronymus Morsztin.
) One of the arguments in favor of this hypothesis is the presence of runes in the coats of arms of the Polish gentry.
Story
- The gentry had immunity: they owned property, were exempt from certain duties, and had judicial power over the peasants. According to the Kosice privilege, the gentry were freed from all state duties, with the exception of payment of land taxes in the amount of 2 groschen per fief, and received the exclusive right to occupy the positions of governor, castellan, judges, sub-comories, etc. Knighthood could be ordinary (miles medius, scartabellus); In addition, there were knights who came from peasants and Soltys (miles e sculteto vel cmetone). The price for killing a nobleman was set at 60 hryvnia, for a private knight 30 hryvnia and for a knight of the last category - 15 hryvnia.
- The gentry possessed coats of arms.
- The gentry was an exponent of the national consciousness of the Poles.
- The gentry was imbued with a strong corporate spirit, feelings of class solidarity and energetically defended their class interests, which were often in conflict with the interests of other classes.
Ukrainian gentry
Ukrainians very often fraternized with Poles, which led to the Polonization of magnate families. At the same time, the small gentry, which dominated the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was always quite close to the peasants.
Ruthenian nobles were often oppressed on religious grounds, which resulted in a gradual cultural and then military confrontation with the Catholic (Polish) nobility. A significant part of the Ukrainian gentry joined the ranks of the Zaporozhian Army: some went to the registered Cossacks, and others to the Sich. At different times, the leaders of the Sich Cossacks were the gentry Bogdan Zinovy Khmelnitsky, Kryshtof Kosinsky, Nedashkovsky, Dmytro Baida Vishnevetsky, Yuras Khmelnichenko, Timush Khmelnitsky, Ivan Vygovsky, Petro Konashevich Sagaidachny, Ivan Mazepa. Less well-known gentry from the Ruthenian nobility, but who played a certain role in the history of the Zaporozhye Sich, were, for example, Korobki, Loboda and Volevachi. Such a gentry was often called “show-off”, but later they began to call it “Cossack foreman” to distinguish it from ordinary Cossacks who merged with the authorities.
It should be noted that the Ukrainian nobility did not play a significant role in the popular consciousness of Ukrainians, but the Cossack authorities, who were mostly of the gentry family, were the core of the national elite.
Noble self-government
The form of organization of the gentry was the sejmik, a meeting of the entire Sh., which belonged to the same local community (communitas), as one social whole. Neshava legislation put Sh. on the same level as the rulers: in order to issue a new law, establish a new tax or convene a zemstvo militia, the king was obliged to apply to the gentry sejmiks for permission. At the same time, Sh. acquired important privileges even earlier that guaranteed the property and personal integrity of the nobleman (see Tserekvitsky Privilege). This political growth of the class depended on economic reasons. Poland was an agricultural country, therefore, Poland, as a landowning class, was an important factor in the state life of the country.
Nobility and peasantry
In the XIV and XV centuries. The acquisition of Chervonnaya Rus and the annexation, at least partial and temporary, of Podolia and Volyn, opened up vast spaces for Polish colonization, since these lands were sparsely populated. Huge latifundia of Polish magnates were formed here, who, feeling a shortage of workers, tried to attract peasants to their estates with various benefits. The emigration of the peasant population from Poland had a detrimental effect on the economy of the gentry class. It was in his interests to detain the peasants on the spot. In addition, general economic development Europe, by the end of the Middle Ages, expanded markets for the sale of Polish agricultural products, which encouraged the Polish landowner to intensify the exploitation of the land, but this could be achieved, of course, only through changes in farming and by increasing the exploitation of peasant labor. Having political force in her hands, Sh. first limited the self-government of peasant communities, subordinating them to her control, which she achieved
acquisition of the position of Soltys, who stood at the head of the peasant community. The Warta Statute of 1423 contains a resolution on the basis of which the landowner could deprive the Soltys of his position for disobedience and take this position himself. Having severely constrained peasant self-government, Sh. then limited the freedom of peasant migrations, established corvée and, finally, reduced the peasant to a state of serfdom. According to the Petrokovsky Statute of 1496, only one peasant had the right to leave the landowner’s village, and a peasant family had the right to send only one son to education; The law allowed the landowner to pursue, seize and return a fleeing peasant. The diets of Bydgoszcz (1520) and Torun (1521) established corvée at the rate of one day per week, and the Warsaw Confederation of 1573 gave the landowner power over even the lives of serfs. Economic interests prompted Sh. to also issue restrictive laws in relation to the urban class. The above-mentioned Petrokovsky Statute prohibited the bourgeoisie from acquiring land estates under the pretext that the bourgeoisie did not take part in military campaigns and tried in every possible way to evade military service, and yet it was on land property that military service gravitated. The philistinism tried to fight Sh., but was unsuccessful. In the second half of the 16th century, city representation was already excluded from participation in the country's legislation, although representatives from some cities sometimes appeared at the diets back in the 17th century. Moreover, Sh. subordinated industry and trade to the power of governors and elders, which completely killed the city’s well-being. From the beginning of the 16th century. Sh. was already the all-powerful master in the state and remained such a master until the end of the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. She legislated, judged, elected kings, protected the state from enemies, waged wars, concluded peace agreements and treaties, etc. Not only was the political and social organization of Poland gentry, but the gentry worldview reigned supreme in the mental life of the country. See Chinsheva S., Polish Sejm, Poland, Four-Year Sejm.
Noble culture
Literature
- M. Bobrzyński, "Geneza społeczeństwa polskiego na podstawie kroniki Galla i dyplomatów XII w.";
- Fr. Piekosiński, "O powstaniu społeczeństwa polskiego w wiekach średnich i jego pierwotnym ustroju";
- St. Smolka, “Uwagi o pierwotnym ustroju społecznym Polski Piastowskiej” (these three works are included in “Rozprawy i sprawozd. wydz. histor. filozof. Akad. Um.”, vol. XIV);
- A. Małecki, "Studja heraldynne" (Lviv, 1890, 2 vols.);
- A. Balzer, "Rewizja teorji o pierwotnem osadnictwie w Polsce" ("Kwart. Hist.", 1898, vol. XII);
- Fr. Piekosiński, "Rycerstwo polskie wieków średnich" (vol. I-III);
- A. Prochaska, "Geneza i rozwój parlamentaryzmu za pierwszych Jagiellonów" ("Rozpr. Akad. Um. wydz. hist. filozof.", vol. XXXVIII);
- Fr. Piekosiński, "Wiece, sejmiki, sejmy i przywileje ziemskie w Polsce wieków średnich" (ib., vol. XXXIX);
- A. Pawiński, "Sejmiki ziemskie" (Warsaw, 1895);
- Wł. Smoleński, "Szlachta w świetle w łasnych opinji" ("Pisma historyczne", Krakow 1901, vol. I);
- R. Hube, "Prawo polskie w w. XIII" (Warsaw, 1874);
- his, "Sądy, ich praktyka i stosunki prawne w Polsce etc." (Warsaw, 1886).
See also
- Familiarity
Links
- Official website of the international noble club "SZLACHTA"
- Official website of the noble club "Szlachta" version 2009
- Official website of the noble club "Szlachta" version 2006
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
See what “Polish gentry” is in other dictionaries:
Belsky ... Wikipedia
I. Literature of the gentry of Poland. 1. Medieval Poland (X-XV centuries). 2. Noble Poland (late 15th and 16th centuries). 3. Decomposition of the gentry (XVII century). 4. Decomposition of the gentry state (XVIII century). II. Polish literature of modern times. 1.… … Literary encyclopedia
The gentry are a special caste of Poles, which justified their uniqueness not only by status, appearance or manners, but also origin. There was no place for Slavic roots in the noble family tree.
Other Slavs
Events taking place in Lately in Ukraine, renewed lively discussions on the topic of inter-Slavic relations. Today, the ideas of Pan-Slavism, born in the 18th century and strengthened in the 19th century, have been devalued like never before. But even in the middle of the 19th century, the Czechs saw in the unification of the Slavs a powerful political force capable of resisting Germanism.
The Czech initiative was supported by Russia, but Poland reacted to it at least coolly. The union of the Slavs with the dominant role of the Russian Tsar meant the collapse of hopes for an independent Polish state. Religion also played a role in the Poles’ resistance to the ideas of Pan-Slavism: Catholic Poland traditionally acted as an antagonist to Orthodox Rus'.
The Kingdom of Poland, of course, had its Slavophiles. Prince Adam Czartoryski enthusiastically accepted the idea of Slavic unification, and the Decembrist Julian Lubinski even headed the Society of United Slavs - the first organization that openly proclaimed the ideas of Pan-Slavism.
However, some of the Polish elite always had ideas about the special status of the Polish people, which in many ways made it difficult to find common ground with their Slavic neighbors. Ethnologist Stanislav Khatuntsev noted that in the course of their historical existence, the Poles largely lost many mental properties, components of the spiritual and material structure of that ancient tribe and instead acquired features of mental organization, material and spiritual culture, typical of the Celto-Roman and Germanic peoples.
The Polish historian Franciszek Piekosinski, for example, put forward a theory about the dynastic origins of the Polish gentry, linking this with the reproduction of old Scandinavian runes in Polish coats of arms, as well as with Scandinavian expressions found in the so-called “zavolani”. However, at one time the nobles themselves took a hand in proving the uniqueness of their pedigree.
We are Sarmatians
In the 15th – 17th centuries, when the final stage of the formation of European nations took place, interest in ancient literature was gaining strength in the Old World. In ancient books, early modern thinkers searched for the origins of their states and nations. The Romance countries saw their roots in the Roman Empire, the Germans - in the ancient Germanic tribes, and the Poles also found their ancestors in the far East.
One of the first to put forward the idea of Sarmatism was the Polish historian Jan Dlugosz (1415-1480). He argued that ancient writers and historians called the territory of Poland European Sarmatia, and the Poles were called “Saramats”.
Later, this idea was consolidated by the astrologer Maciej Karpiga from Miechów (1457-1523) in his famous treatise “On the Two Sarmatias,” which went through 14 editions in the 16th century. In his work, the author substantiated the significant difference between the Poles, as descendants of the valiant Sarmatians, from the Muscovites, descended from the barbarian Scythian tribe.
Over the next few centuries, the idea of Sarmatism was dominant among the Polish aristocracy, transforming from a fashionable, romanticized hobby into a conservative political ideal - a Gentry Republic, where broad democratic freedoms were available only to a select few.
The cornerstone of gentry Sarmatism was “golden liberty,” which was opposed to both servile despotic Asia and bourgeois businesslike Europe. However, this did not prevent the nobles from combining the Eastern love of luxury and purely European enterprise.
An echo of the ideology of Sarmatism was the so-called “Polish messianism”, which developed in the 17th-18th centuries, according to which the Poles, by virtue of their origin, should play a special role in the destinies of the world, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth should become “a stronghold of Christianity, a refuge of freedom and the breadbasket of Europe.”
Emphasizing uniqueness
The Sarmatian myth has always been an important ideological basis for Poland, acting as an unofficial national idea. Polish historians have done a lot to strengthen the idea that the Sarmatian tribes actually lived on the territory of Poland and laid the foundations of Polish statehood.
The Sarmatian past served as a kind of standard by which the image of the ideal nobleman was cut. He, like his Sarmatian ancestor, is a courageous warrior, merciless to his enemies, but at the same time a knight for whom honor and justice are not an empty phrase. Another incarnation of the nobleman is the Pole tycoon, the keeper of the traditions of patriarchal antiquity, who harmoniously fits into the bosom of the rural idyll.
An important feature of Polish Sarmatism is the cultivation of a chivalrous attitude towards women, one of the components of which was the gallant custom of kissing a woman’s hand. Supporters of the Sarmatian theory referred to the fact that the high position of women in society was unusually different Slavic peoples. According to historians, on special status Women in the gentry culture were influenced by the myth of the Sarmatian Amazons.
Over time, the image of the ideal nobleman became firmly embedded in the genome of Polish identity. “Fearlessness, bordering on almost madness, when a man goes to certain death in a white uniform, in a Confederate cap proudly tilted to one side, with a rose in his teeth, he knows that he will be shot in a minute, but he does not allow himself to get out of this for a minute image of the ideal Sarmatian knight is the reality of the Polish national character right up to the 20th century,” writes journalist Tamara Lyalenkova.
We must not forget about the other side of the gentry’s worldview - the irrepressible arrogance with which the arrogant gentry distanced himself from the Lithuanians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and even a significant part of the Poles living on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a terminological sense, this looked like a contrast between the Sarmatian elite and the peasant “cattle” (Bydło - draft animals), with which the Slavs were also associated.
Little in common
Sarmatism still exists in Polish culture today, although it is more of a form of ironic self-identification. Sometimes this word is used to emphasize the uniqueness of the Polish character, any differences from their Slavic neighbors.
Nowadays, divisions within the Slavic family are obvious, and there are many reasons for this of a socio-political and cultural nature. One of them dates back to approximately the 6th century AD - it was then, according to researchers, that the Proto-Slavic language, common to all Slavs, began to fall out of use. As one thinker put it, “The Slavs used national languages more to divide than to unite.”
However, the differences between the Slavs are not explained only through history or language. Polish anthropologist and bioarchaeologist Janusz Piontek writes that from a biological point of view, the Slavs can be classified as different groups that originally inhabited the Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, and they are noticeably different from each other.
“Slavs and Poles have a lot in common. Poles and Slavs - nothing. They are uncomfortable in their Slavic origins, uncomfortable to realize that they are from the same family as Ukrainians and Russians. The fact that we turned out to be Slavs is an accident,” states the Polish writer Mariusz Szczygiel.
The events of World War II and the consequences of the collapse of the USSR largely alienated the Poles not only from everything Soviet, but also, to some extent, from what is the basis of Slavic identity. The trend of recent decades, when the situation forces Polish citizens to look for work and better living conditions in the West, leads to the fact that Poles began to feel more in common with residents of Great Britain and Germany than with Belarusians or Ukrainians.
Journalist Krzysztof Wasilewski, in his article “Slavs against Slavs,” calls the post-Soviet period in the history of Poland years of transformation, when the Poles “tried at any cost to become like the West, dissociating themselves from everything that bore the imprint of the East.”
It is quite natural that Polish historians are looking for theories of common roots with anyone - with the Germans, Scandinavians, Sarmatians, treating with disgust the words of the author of the oldest Polish chronicle, Gallus Anonymous: “Poland is part of the Slavic world.”
And since then the nobility is revered in the states
for the natural army, whose position is from the samago
age to old age to the sovereign and the state, without sparing
health and belly, serve
V. N. Tatishchev. A conversation between two friends about the benefits of science and schools (1733)
1) Existing etymology
A) Wiktionary
Root: -gentry-; ending: -a. Meaning: privileged class in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, after the Union of Lublin in 1569, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as some other states; in the Czech Republic (;lechta, Slovakia (Slachta), Poland, Belarus, Lithuania (Slekta) - nobility in general. Etymology - no.
B) Wikipedia (Polish), szlachta (Google translation)
In seventeenth century Poland from the German word wywodzono Schlachten (battle). … The existence of legal privileges, such as the right to bear arms, the right to own land and property, the right to hold office or the right to vote, depends on the laws of the country and the privilege of the nobleman.
B) Wikipedia (Polish), Szlachta (Google translation)
*The term szlachta comes from the Old High German word slahta (modern German Geschlecht), which means "(noble) family", just as many other Polish words related to nobility come from German words - for example, the Polish "Rycerz" ( knight, cognate with German Ritter) and "grass" Polish (coat of arms, from German Erbe, heritage).
* 17th-century Poles assumed that "szlachta" came from the German "schlachten" (to slaughter or slaughter); Also suggestive is the German "Schlacht" (fight). Early Polish historians thought that the term may have come from the name of a legendary proto-Polish leader, Lech, mentioned in Polish and Czech works.
* "Szlachta" becomes the correct term for Polish nobility starting around the 15th century.
* Strong cultural ties with the Polish nobility led that in the 16th century a new term to name the Lithuanian nobility appeared slekta—a direct borrowing from the Polish gentry. From the point of view of historical truth, Lithuanians should also use this term, slekta (gentry), to name their own nobility, but Lithuanian linguists banned the use of this Polish loanword. This refusal to use the word szlachta (in the Lithuanian text slekta) complicates the whole naming process.
D) Max Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary
I Nobles, Ukrainian, blr. gentry, other Russian gentry "small nobility" (gram. 1563; see Srezn. III, 1597). Through Polish szlachta (from the 15th century; see Brückner 550) from the Middle Ages. slahte "genus, origin, breed, species"; see Mi. EW 341; Brückner, ibid.; Korbut 371; Preobr., Proceedings I, 101. In the same way, derivatives: gentry “nobility”, in the era of Peter I (see Smirnov 331), from Polish. szlachetnosc - the same; gentry (Repnin, 1704, Christiani 17) - from Polish. szlachecki – the same; gentry "nobility, gentry" (Gogol) - from Polish. szlachectwo - the same.
II gentry “carpenter’s axe”, gentry, gentry “hew away with gentry”. Borrowing from English-German slichten "plane" (Sass, Sprache d. ndd. Zimmerm. 7), cf. also above, shlintik, sander.
2) National Corpus of the Russian Language
* Prophecy from Krakow about the death of Poland (1558–1665): “The gentry will settle down with the peasants, and honor and dignity will be abolished.”
* Notebook of the Polotsk campaign (1562-1563): “And those children of the boyars and hammer gentry and the townspeople will remain to live in the settlement in the fort behind Polota, and those people, in any courtyard, will not have a saadok or a saber, there was no sword, no military weapon.”
* V. N. Tatishchev. A conversation between two friends about the benefits of science and schools (1733): “But these were twofold, some had to be hereditary in the war and for this purpose, some were horsemen, or cavalry, while we have nobles, like court warriors, among the Poles, nobles from nobles, or the paths are named, you must always be ready for campaigns.”
* D. I. Ilovaisky. The beginning of Rus' (1876): “In the same way, the popular name Lyakhi or Lehi is found among the Slavs in a class meaning; in this meaning it was later preserved in the word gentry.”
3) Historical sources
A) Gall Anonymous. Chronicle and deeds of the Polish princes or rulers (around 1113)
http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus9/Gall/frametext1.htm
"8. About the splendor and power of Boleslav the Brave
The deeds of Boleslav are greater and more numerous than we could describe them or talk about them in artless speech. Indeed, what expert in arithmetic could accurately count the iron ranks of his warriors or describe his countless victories and triumphs? Indeed, in Poznan he had 1300 knights with 4 thousand shield guards, in Gniezno - 1500 knights and 5 thousand shield guards, in the city of Włocławk 67 - 800 knights and 2 thousand shield guards, in Gdecz 68 - 300 knights and 2 thousand shield guards; all of them in the time of Boleslav the Great were very brave and skilled warriors in battle.”
B) Eastern literature; http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus10/Meier/framevved1.htm
"B. Even in their appearance and clothing, they (the Jews) were almost no different from the Polish gentry. Cardinal Commendoni, who visited Ukraine in the second half of the 16th century, noted that Jews who owned lands, in violation of the decrees of church councils, did not wear any signs on their clothes that distinguished them from Christians and even carried a saber - a sign of belonging to the gentry.
B) Koshitsky led to 1374; http://law.edu.ru/article/article.asp?articleID=1182888
King Louis of Hungary (1326-1382) after the death of Casimir the Great in 1370, unopposed (inherited) received the crown of Poland; lived permanently in Hungary and had little interest in the life of Poland. However, in order to secure Poland for the dynasty, he attracted to his side the most numerous knighthood in the noble class (szlachta), and issued the Koszycki Privoley in 1374, in which he secured the rights of the possible owners (large feudal lord, baron) and knighthood (szlachta). This was the first normative act of royal power covering the entire mass of the gentry.
The knighthood-gentry was exempt: from all taxes and duties (only two pennies per field as a sign of submission to royal power), the obligation to build and repair castles, bridges and cities, and maintain the royal court in their territories; Only Poles held positions. The gentry remained responsible for military service in the event of an attack by enemies or campaigns in another state; For battles, the gentry received soldiers' salaries, losses were compensated by the treasury. The “Košice Privilej” turned the serving nobility, dependent on the king, into a political and military force, which they were forced to reckon with royalty and magnates (possible owners); further in time the privileges of the gentry expanded.
4) Generalization and conclusion
* The etymology of the term “gentry” is not defined. Some researchers derive the term from German language(battle, battle, slaughter, clan, noble), others from the legendary ancestor Lech (Lyakha) or “road” (road). Polish historians have not decided on the etymology and date of appearance of the term (c. XV century).
* In European countries, the formation of the service nobility occurred in approximately the same way. In the tribal society, groups of professional warriors were created who defended their fellow tribesmen in case of attack, performed guard duty and protected the nobility, for which they received a certain allowance from the tribe. During the period of the emergence of kings (princes), groups of warriors concentrated around the royal (princely) court, defended power, participated in the collection of tribute, legal proceedings and administration, and made campaigns to expand the territory and seize property and slaves. Over time, a social stratum of the population was formed (approximately 6-10%) - the military class, earning its livelihood through military activities, it received the name - knighthood, servants of the nobility, boyar children, and in a number of countries - gentry. Main function – military service, the class was supported by land grants received from the authorities and the plunder of conquered territories.
The external signs of a nobleman are the obligatory carrying of bladed weapons (saber).
* Cm.
In the Middle Ages, the entire population was armed; these were the conditions of existence. Peasants and townspeople armed themselves with long knives (length up to 60 cm was allowed), axes and used other working tools to protect themselves from animals or humans. To know - with swords and sabers (length 110-117 cm), actually WEAPONS, which have one purpose - killing a person.
Thus, based on written sources, we can identify for the medieval period one characteristic (external) difference between a nobleman (gentry) and a commoner - the nobleman always carried a saber (at least this is how the gentry is depicted in art). Constantly carrying a bladed weapon (saber) – distinguishing feature gentry (nobleman), a free and independent person.
The term appeared in Judeo-Christian territory; in the Middle Ages, large Jewish diasporas also lived here (Poland, Lithuania). It is advisable to consider the word in connection with biblical terminology and imagery.
5) Hebrew terminology and biblical image
Let's put the term in a form close to Hebrew grammar and highlight the roots - SZLACHTA = SZLACH+TA. We immediately identify two Hebrew terms characterizing the activities of the military class, “gentry” - sword + to establish a border; those. The gentry establishes the borders (of the state) with weapons.
A) Terminology
SHLYAH+TA = SZLACHTA = SZLACH+TA = Hebrew. SHELAH weapon (sword, spear) + TAA to designate, assign a limit, set a boundary; those. to set the border with weapons.
The main function of the military class in medieval times, when the borders of states were unstable.
*See Strong Hebrew 7973, SHELAH
http://www.greeklatin.narod.ru/hebdict/img/_491.htm
*See Strong Hebrew 8376, TAA
* See Hebrew and Chaldean Etymological Dictionary of the Books of the Old Testament, Vilna, 1878.
http://www.greeklatin.narod.ru/hebdict/img/_510.htm
B) Biblical image
* 2 Chronicles 23:7: “And the Levites shall surround the king on all sides, every one with his weapon in his hand, and whosoever shall enter into the temple shall be put to death. And you shall be with the king when he comes in and goes out”... 2 Chronicles 23:10: “And he appointed all the people, every one with his weapon (SHELAH) in his hand, from right side temple to the left side of the temple, at the altar and at the house, around the king."
* Nehemiah 4:17, 18: “They that built the wall, and carried the burdens that were laid upon them, did the work with one hand, and with the other held the spear (SHELACH). Each of those who built had a sword girded around his waist, and so they built. There was a trumpeter next to me.”
* Job 33:18: “(God speaks one day) ... to lead his soul from the abyss and his life from being struck by the sword (SHELAH).
* Numbers 34:7: “To the north shall your border be: from the great sea ye shall draw it (TAA destined, assigning a limit) unto Mount Hor.”
Thus, using biblical terminology and images, we have identified the content of the term “way + ta”, which is not understood by etymologists. It contains the meaning (principle) of the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian military class - to establish (expand) borders with the sword. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century occupied the territory from the Baltic Sea to the borders of the Wild Steppe (Ukraine), from Smolensk to the borders of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation.
The word "gentry" comes from the Middle High German Geschlecht (kind, breed), or fromSchlaht (battle). From German toIn the 13th century, it, along with many other terms from the field of state-legal relations, penetrated first into the Czech and then into the Polish language. In Poland inXIII –In the 14th centuries, the word “gentry” began to be used to describe the military service class that was emerging at that time.
With the conclusion of the Union of Krevo in 1385 and the beginning of the publication of the first zemstvo privileges, this term also spread to the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). Here at this time other terms were in circulation to designate the military service class, among which vital role belonged to the "boyars". DuringXV –XVI centuries various terms existed in parallel in state legal documents. But with the evolution of the political structure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the formation of the gentry as a single class, a gradual unification of terminology occurred.
Origin of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
In the process of formation of the gentry class on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, several stages can be distinguished. The first corresponds to the period from the mid-13th to the end of the 14th centuries. At this time, continuing the tradition Old Russian state Princely warriors and warriors who came from the territory of the Polotsk, Turov and Smolensk principalities were still called “balyars” or “boyars”. From the second half XIII centuries, the warriors of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, as well as the warriors of appanage princes and even large landowners, were also called.
Battle scene on one of the miniatures of the Radziwill Chronicle of the 15th century
The belonging of all these people to general group was determined by the common duty for all to serve their prince, which, in turn, gave them the right to receive feeding from him and the opportunity to acquire and hold land property. This category included persons of various social and property backgrounds. Among them were the descendants of small Lithuanian princes, as well as the senior druzhina nobility, who were rich hereditary owners-patrimonial owners of their lands, and the prince’s servants who were personally dependent, who received from him table, allowance, clothing, weapons and gifts for their service, as well as part of the war booty.
Research shows that the vast majority of boyars were poor people in terms of their property status. As a rule, they owned only a small estate and one or two dependent servants, or did not have their own land property at all.
The second stage dates back to the time between the end of the 14th and the first half of the 16th centuries and is associated with the legal registration of the military service class. This process began in 1387 with the publication by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello of the first zemstvo privilege to commemorate the conclusion of the Krevo Union with Poland. It states that military service in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania applies not only to “men bearing arms, or boyars” (armigeri sive boyarines), but to all men capable of it.
Those boyars who accepted the Catholic faith, as well as their heirs, received the rights to own, hold, sell, donate, and change their lands of their own free will. The peasants living on these lands had to perform in his favor those duties that were supposed to be performed in favor of the prince. They were also exempt from performing all other forced labor, with the exception of castle duties. Priviley guaranteed these rights both in relation to the boyars themselves and their direct heirs, and in relation to their widows.
In 1413, the Gorodel Privilege was issued, the addressee of which was “lords, nobles and boyars” (nobiles, barones, boyares) of the Catholic faith. Priviley confirmed their old ownership rights and provided new ones: to occupy zemstvo and court positions, to participate in meetings of the Grand Duke's Rada and in the activities of general diets, to manage income from the Grand Duke's estates received as grants, i.e. the same rights that by that time the Polish lords and gentry already enjoyed. In order to strengthen the military brotherhood, the Poles gave their coats of arms to the Lithuanian boyars. Families sharing the same coat of arms were considered relatives of each other.
Although the above-mentioned rights were initially granted only to Catholic boyars, as a result of the internecine war of 1430–1434 in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, they were also extended to the Orthodox. The corresponding decisions were carried out in the privileges of Jogaila in 1432 and Sigismund Keistutovich in 1434.
Casimir IV Jagiellon, Grand Duke Lithuanian in 1440 - 1492, King of Poland in 1447 - 1492
The privileged nature of the military service class of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was consolidated in the privilege of Casimir IV Jagiellon, published in 1447. This document confirmed the rights of the boyars to lands and property granted to them by Casimir’s ancestors; the basic rights to ownership, inheritance, sale, pledge and exchange of estates were guaranteed. After the death of a boyar, his possessions could not be confiscated, but were transferred to his heirs. In addition, the daughters and relatives of the boyars could get married without the knowledge of the prince or his governor.
One of the most important provisions of the privilege was the release of dependent peasants living in the possessions of the boyars from paying any duties in favor of the state authorities with the transfer of the right to receive the corresponding income to their owner. The rights of judicial immunity also extended to the boyar estates, which made their owner the only judge for his peasants. Priviley confirmed the personal freedom and integrity of the boyars, guaranteed the principle of personal responsibility in judicial conflicts, and provided the boyars with a number of other privileges, including the freedom to travel abroad for service.
Rights and obligations of the gentry
The legal status of the gentry class, created by the grand ducal privileges of the 14th – 16th centuries and which received final formalization in the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1529, 1566 and 1588, was sharply different from legal status other categories of the population. The gentry could own land as personal property, had the right to trade the products of their estates duty-free, including exporting them abroad, were exempt from paying customs duties on goods purchased abroad for personal use, as well as from all other taxes and duties, in addition to the obligations of military service during the war and the payment of funds for military needs, which were collected by decision of the general council.
Shlyakhtich had the right to leave the service of one tycoon and move to another, as well as to freely travel outside the country. He retained his freedom no matter how long he was in the service of a particular magnate or lived on land rented from him. Legislative acts proclaimed the inviolability of the personality of the nobleman, who could not be imprisoned before trial. He could only be judged by other nobles equal to him. Only the gentry had the right to hold government positions and participate in council meetings. To protect common interests, the gentry had the right to unite in political unions-confederations.
The main occupation for most gentry in peacetime was hunting, feasts and dancing, which formed a special type of gentry culture in the 16th – 18th centuries.
The main duty of the gentry was military service. In 1502, at the Sejm in Novogorodka, it was established that every landowner must register his people and give the lists to the Grand Duke under oath that he had not hidden anything. From every ten services (peasant households) he had, the nobleman had to field with him a warrior in a “zbro” (armed - editor’s note), on a horse and with a spear. Beginning in 1528, a warrior in full armor had to be deployed from every eight services. Those who only had eight had to go out themselves. In the documents they were called “horse-mounted boyars who don’t toil like people,” or “foot gentry.” Those who had fewer people or none at all had to equip a warrior from the corresponding number of peasant households in their property.
It was established that those who did not show up at the assembly point on time were subject to a fine of 100 groschen, those who did not leave a week later lost their property, and the death penalty was imposed for desertion. In 1528, it was established how a warrior should be equipped on a campaign: “on a good horse in the wild, with an ensign on which there would be a panzer, a prylbita, a sword, or a cord, colored cloth, a paveza and two forts.” In the same year, a list was drawn up of who and how many horsemen should be sent to the militia. The largest number of soldiers was fielded by the Vilna Voivodeship (3,605 people, of which 466 horsemen from all his estates should be fielded by the Vilna Voivode Goshtovt), the Troka Voivodeship (2,861 people, of which the Troka Voivode put up 426 horsemen), as well as the Zhmud land (1,839 people, of which 371 horsemen were exhibited by the Samogitian elder). The total number of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth could reach 10,178 soldiers.
These and other data from censuses of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania troops in 1528, 1565 and 1567 clearly show a huge difference in property between different representatives of the same class. At a time when large feudal lords could field entire cavalry detachments into the army, representatives of the small gentry did not even have the required weapons. Based on the number of warriors fielded by the gentry, they can be divided into five main categories depending on the size of land holdings. The first group includes the smallest gentry (1 horseman), then small (2 - 10 horsemen), medium (11 - 50 horsemen), large (60 - 100 horsemen), magnates (more than 100 horsemen).
The absolute majority of gentry liable for military service belong to the group of the smallest and smallest landowners. In 1528, they amounted to 2,562 people, or 81 percent of all nobles who came to the review from Belarusian povets (districts). At the same time, they exhibited 53.6 percent of all (3873) horses from Belarusian povets, or 10.5% of all (19817) horses of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Categories of gentry
The most noticeable group of the ruling class was the highest nobility, which included the descendants of appanage Russian and Lithuanian princes and senior warriors, wealthy patrimonial owners, and large landowners, the largest hierarchs of the church. From about the middle of the 15th century, the term “lords” began to be used to designate it in state legal acts. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and other documents distinguish the following categories:
- “Rada lords” - the highest nobility, whose representatives held court positions and sat as part of the Rada of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania;
- “Pan banners” - the largest landowners who went on campaigns under their own banners (banners) at the head of their own detachments;
- “Panyata” were rich landowners who went to war under a special banner as part of a special detachment, separate from the povet militia of the gentry.
As a rule, the rada lords and banner lords were representatives of the same families. In the second half of the 16th century, this group, following the Polish model, began to be called “magnates”. The “Popis Troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania” of 1528 numbered 23 magnate families, a similar document of 1567 – already 29 families, each of which owned more than a thousand peasant smokes.
Magnates of the First Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth half XVII century. Fragment of a painting by Tomasz Dolabella
At a lower level in comparison with this group were the “noble boyars”, or from the second half of the 16th century - simply “gentry” - who were also internally a very heterogeneous group. Its backbone consisted of medium and small owners who were well settled and owned one or more estates with their own lands and dependent peasants cultivating them. They, as a rule, had hereditary coats of arms, or were endowed with them after receiving the nobility from the king. Subsequently, in the XVII – XVIII centuries, this group was called the “farm gentry.”
An even lower step was the largest group of poor gentry, who owned only 5–10 tracts of land (volokas - 21.36 hectares), which, in the absence of dependent peasants, they cultivated on their own. Not at all different from the peasantry in terms of property, the land-poor gentry enjoyed all the basic privileges of their class and had a characteristic corporate culture. Often entire gentry settlements were formed, the so-called “dungeons” or “outskirts”, which were isolated from neighboring peasant settlements. Their population is known as the “closet”, “outlying” or “corral” gentry.
Finally, at the very bottom were the landless gentry (“golota”), who lived by renting state or magnate lands on the terms of paying quitrent (“Chinsheva gentry”), or from service (“service gentry”).
“The nobleman on the fence is equal to the voivode.” Poor nobleman, drawing from the 18th century
A feature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the presence of a significant intermediate group, occupying a position between the gentry and the peasants. Such an intermediate status, for example, was possessed by the “armored boyars” or “armored servants”, who were recruited from free people, peasants and townspeople and settled in areas bordering the Moscow Empire. Under the conditions of free use of allotments and a number of other privileges, they had to participate in campaigns “from their estates with the boyars”, as well as carry out border and garrison service. Between campaigns they had to obey the local castellan.
Another similar group were the “good boyars” (“good servants”, “rural travelers”), who performed “good service”, i.e. trips on behalf of the administration and for this they received similar rights to use the land plot received from the Grand Duke. While the borders of the gentry remained open, these peasants liable for military service often sought, and in most cases they actually succeeded, to join its ranks. However, opposite cases are also known, when boyar-servants who could not fulfill their duties were transferred to the category of dependent peasants.
Literature:
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- Loika P. A. Nobles of the Belarusian lands in the towns of the city of Rechy Paspalitay of the other fells of the XVII – first trec of the XVIII century. – Mn., 2002. – 99 p.
- Saganovich G. M. Troops of the Vyalikag of the Principality of Lithuania in the XVII – XVIII centuries. – Mn.: Navuka and technology, 1994. – 79 p.
- Selitsky A.I. Polish gentry in the socio-legal system Russian Empire// Poles in Russia: XVII – XX centuries: Materials of the International scientific conference. – Krasnodar: “Kuban”, 2003. – p. 105–128.
- Gritskevich A.P. Formation of the feudal class in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its legal foundations (XV - XVI centuries). // First Lithuanian Statute of 1529, Vilnius, 1982.
- Grytskevich A.P. Nobles. // Encyclopedic histories of Belarus, vol. 6, book. 2. – Mn.: Belarusian Encyclopedia, 2003. – pp. 220 – 223.
- Grytskevich A.P. Bayars. // Encyclopedic histories of Belarus, vol. 1. – Mn.: Belarusian Encyclopedia, 2003. – p.338.
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