The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas features one of the earliest symbols of Lithuania, which is one of its historical what?
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Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas is the Lithuanian Presidential Award which was re-instituted to honour the citizens of Lithuania for outstanding performance in civil and public offices. Foreign nationals may also be awarded this Order. The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas was instituted in 1928. It features the Columns of Gediminas, one of the national symbols of Lithuania.
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Columns of Gediminas The Columns of Gediminas or Pillars of Gediminas are one of the earliest symbols of Lithuania and one of its historical coats of arms. They were used in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, initially as a rulers' personal insignia, a state symbol, and later as a part of heraldic signs of leading aristocracy. During the period between World War I and World War II they were used by the Lithuanian Republic as a minor state symbol, e. g. on Litas coins and military equipment.
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Lithuanian–Muscovite War (1368–72) The Lithuanian–Muscovite War encompasses three raids by Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1368, 1370, and 1372. Algirdas organized the raids against Dmitry Donskoy in support of the Principality of Tver, chief rival of Moscow. In 1368 and 1370, Lithuanians besieged Moscow and burned the posad, but did not succeed in taking the city's Kremlin. In 1372, the Lithuanian army was stopped near Lyubutsk where, after a standoff, the Treaty of Lyubutsk was concluded. Lithuanians agreed to cease their aid to Tver, which was defeated in 1375. Mikhail II of Tver had to acknowledge Dmitry as "elder brother".
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Morta Morta (died c. 1263) was wife of Mindaugas, the first known ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. She was the Grand Duchess of Lithuania (until 1253) and later Queen consort of Lithuania (1253–1262). Very little is known about her life. Probably, Morta was Mindaugas' second wife as Vaišvilkas, the eldest son of Mindaugas, was already a mature man active in international politics when Morta's sons were still young and dependent on the parents. After her death, Mindaugas married her sister, the wife of Daumantas. In revenge, Daumantas allied with Treniota and assassinated Mindaugas and two of Morta's sons in 1263.
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Constitutional Court of Lithuania The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania (in Lithuanian: "Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinis Teismas" ) is a special court established by the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992; it began the activities after the adoption of the Law on Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania on February 3, 1993. Since its inception, the Court has been located in the city of Vilnius, Gediminas Avenue.
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Svislach Castle Svislach Castle (Belarusian: Свіслацкі замак ) was a castle that lay in the lands of present-day Belarus on the right bank of the Byarezina River in the place where it meets the Svislach River. Initially the castle was established as the center of the Duchy of Svislach; it later belonged to the Duchy of Minsk, and from the 14th century to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The castle came into the possession of the Radziwill family and one of its prominent owners was Bogusław Radziwiłł.
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Venskus Venskus, a common Lithuanian surname, is the shortened Lithuanian translation of the Polish name, Wenceslaus. Wenceslaus II (1271-1305), King of Bohemia, crowned himself King of Poland in 1300. In an attempt to strengthen the power of the Crown, Wenceslaus II undertook a series of initiatives to undermine provincial authority in Lithuania. Such policies threatened the very existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The name Venskus has served to strengthen the inherent natural rivalry between Poland and Lithuania, particularly in the Interwar period.
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Edvardas Gudavičius Edvardas Gudavičius (born September 6, 1929 in Kaunas) is one of the best known historians in modern Lithuania specializing in early history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1953 he graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute with a degree in engineering. Gudavičius started his career as a mechanic at one of the factories in Kaunas, but in 1958 moved to Vilnius. In 1962, he enrolled to Vilnius University this time seeking a degree in history. In 1991 he earned the title of professor. He is a full member of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
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Belarusians in Lithuania The Belarusian minority in Lithuania (Belarusian: беларусы , "biełarusy", Russian: белорусы , "byelorusy", Lithuanian: "baltarusiai" or "gudai") numbered 36,200 persons at the 2011 census, and at 1.2% of the total population of Lithuania, being the third most populous national minority. The Belarusian national minority in Lithuania has deep historical, cultural and political relations. Many famous Belarusians lived and created in Lithuania, mostly its capital Vilnius; it was in Vilnius that the first standardized Belarusian language grammar was printed in.
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Golden Liberty Golden Liberty (Latin: "Aurea Libertas" ; Polish: "Złota Wolność" , Lithuanian: "Auksinė laisvė" ), sometimes referred to as Golden Freedoms, Nobles' Democracy or Nobles' Commonwealth (Polish: "Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka" or "Złota wolność szlachecka", Latin: "aureă lībertās" ) was a unique political system in the Kingdom of Poland and, after the Union of Lublin (1569), in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Under that system, all nobles ("szlachta"), regardless of rank or economic status, were considered to have equal legal status and enjoyed extensive legal rights and privileges. The nobility controlled the legislature (the "Sejm" — the Polish parliament) and the Commonwealth's elected king.
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Vytautas Vytautas (c. 1350 – October 27, 1430), also known as Vytautas the Great (Lithuanian: "   ", Belarusian: "Вітаўт Кейстутавіч (Vitaŭt Kiejstutavič)" , Polish: "Witold Kiejstutowicz" , Rusyn: "Vitovt", Latin: "Alexander Vitoldus") from the 15th century onwards, was a ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which chiefly encompassed the Lithuanians and Ruthenians. He was also the Prince of Hrodna (1370–1382), Prince of Lutsk (1387~1389), and the postulated king of the Hussites.
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Battle of Saule The Battle of Saule (Lithuanian: "Saulės mūšis" or "Šiaulių mūšis" ; German: "Schlacht von Schaulen" ; Latvian: "Saules kauja" ) was fought on 22 September 1236, between the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and pagan Samogitians. Between 48 and 60 knights were killed, including the Livonian Master, Volkwin. It was the earliest large-scale defeat suffered by the orders in Baltic lands. The Sword-Brothers, the first Catholic military order established in the Baltic lands, was soundly defeated and its remnants accepted incorporation into the Teutonic Order in 1237. The battle inspired rebellions among the Curonians, Semigallians, Selonians, Oeselians, tribes previously conquered by the Sword-Brothers. Some thirty years' worth of conquests on the left bank of Daugava were lost. To commemorate the battle, in 2000 the Lithuanian and Latvian parliaments declared September 22 to be the Day of Baltic Unity.
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Lithuania Lithuania ( , Lithuanian: "Lietuva" ] ), officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: "Lietuvos Respublika" ), is a country in the Baltic region of northern-eastern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden and Denmark. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.8 million people as of 2017 , and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. Lithuanians are a Baltic people. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of only two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.
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List of early Lithuanian dukes Early dukes of Lithuania (including Samogitia) reigned before Lithuanians were unified by Mindaugas into a state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. While the Palemonids legend provides genealogy from the 10th century, only few dukes were mentioned by contemporary historical sources. All of them were mentioned in written sources the 13th century. Data about them is extremely scarce and is usually limited to few brief sentences. The primary sources are the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia and Hypatian Codex.
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Culture of Lithuania The culture of Lithuania combines an indigenous heritage, represented by the unique Lithuanian language, with Nordic cultural aspects and Christian traditions resulting from historical ties with Poland. Although linguistic resemblances represent strong cultural ties with Latvia in various historical moments Lithuania was influenced by Nordic, Germanic and Slavic cultures. Various cultural changes occurred throughout Lithuania's transformation from a former country of the Soviet Union to an independent Baltic state.
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Litvin In historical context, Litvin (Belarusian: літвін, ліцвін , "litvin", "litsvin"; Russian: литвин , "litvin", Ukrainian: литвин , "lytvyn"; Polish: "Litwin" ) referred to Slavic people identifying themselves with the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
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Golden age of Belarusian history The Golden age of Belarusian history is the metaphorical term, relating to the period of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Particularly, it is sometimes used in relation to the Belarusian history of the entire 16th century.
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Prowincja A prowincja (] ; plural: "prowincje") was the largest territorial subdivision in medieval and Renaissance-era Poland, and later in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The term designated each of the two largest constituents of the state: depending on the period, including "Wielkopolska" (Greater Poland), "Małopolska" (Lesser Poland) and (upon the formation of the Commonwealth) the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Ducal Prussia was often counted as part of the Greater Poland; Inflanty (Livonia) as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Ruthenian territories were split between Lesser Poland and the Grand Duchy.
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Sophia of Lithuania Sophia (1371–1453) was the only daughter of Vytautas the Great of Lithuania and his first wife, Anna. On 21 January 1391, while her father was engaged in the Lithuanian Civil War, she married Vasili I of Russia. She was the longest serving consort of Russia. After Vasili's death in 1425 she became regent for their ten-year-old son Vasili II. Her father supported Vasili's claim to the throne, which was disputed by his uncle, Yuri of Zvenigorod. Sophia was buried in the Ascension Convent; the sarcophagus was moved in 1929 to the Cathedral of the Archangel by Soviet authorities.
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Iron Wolf (character) The Iron Wolf (Lithuanian: "Geležinis Vilkas" ) is a mythical character from a medieval legend of the founding of Vilnius, the capital city of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania and modern Republic of Lithuania. First found in the Lithuanian Chronicles, the legend shares certain similarities with the Capitoline Wolf and possibly reflected Lithuanian desire to showcase their legendary origins from the Roman Empire (see the Palemonids). The legend became popular during the era of Romantic nationalism. Today Iron Wolf is one of the symbols of Vilnius and is used by sports teams, Lithuanian military, scouting organizations, and others.
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Union of Krewo In a strict sense, the Union of Krewo or Act of Krėva (also Union of Krevo, Act of Kreva) was a set of prenuptial promises made in the Kreva Castle on 14 August 1385 by Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, in exchange for marriage to the underage reigning Queen Jadwiga of Poland. The act was very limited in scope and in the historiography the term "Union of Krewo" often refers not only to the particular document but to the events of 1385–1386 as a whole. After the negotiations in 1385, Jogaila converted to Christianity, married Jadwiga, and was crowned King of Poland in 1386. The union was a decisive moment in the histories of Poland and Lithuania; it marked a beginning of the four centuries of shared history between the two nations. By 1569 the Polish–Lithuanian union grew into a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and lasted until the Third Partition in 1795.
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Litva Hoard Litva Hoard is a medieval treasure found in Litva (Літва) village in Maladzyechna Raion, western Belarus. It was discovered in the early 1990s and contained a large number of Prague groschens (6,168 of them were acquired by the Museum of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus) and a large gilded silver belt. It is the largest Prague groschen hoard found in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They were minted in Kutná Hora during the reigns of John of Bohemia, Charles IV, and Wenceslaus IV (1310–1419). The ornate belt is an example of Islamic art and must have been a gift from the Crimean Khanate. It became known as the Belt of Vytautas because of speculations that it might have belonged to Grand Duke Vytautas though there is no direct evidence to support the claim.