BETWEEN RUSSIA AND EUROPE

Center-Eastern Europe at the Time of the Livonia War

Poland, Sweden,Belarus,Baltic States, Ukraine, Moldova, Turkey, had tight contacts among them in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
По́льша,Шведска,Беларус,Приба́лтика,Украи́на,Молдова,Турция  были тесно связанные в XVII и XVIII веке
Nel XVII e XVIII Secolo, Polonia, Svezia, Bielorussia, Paesi Baltici, Ucraina, Moldova e Turchia erano strettamente interconnesse
Aux Siècles XVII et XVIII, la Pologne,  la Suède,la Biélorussie, les Pays Baltes, l'Ucraine, la Moldavie et la Turquie étaient étroitement enchevetrées
In den XVIIen und XVIII Jahrhundert, waren Polen,Schweden,Belarus,Baltikum, Ukraine, Moldova und die Tuerkei, dicht miteinander gebunden. 
 

During and after the Mongolian domination, different parts of the Russian territory were subjected to the determinant influences of other, European and Asiatic, Kingdoms, and, in particular,Tataria,  Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Sweden and Turkey, so further increasing the cosmopolitan character of Russia.

1.     German Knights

Simultaneously with the Mongolian attack, also the German Knights of the Holy Cross tried to subdue the Novgorod Republic. However, Alexander Nevsky succeeded to defeat and to expel them by the battle of the Peipüs Lake.

The contacts with Germany continued nevertheless, thanks to the membership of Novgorod and other Northern Towns in the Hansa, thanks also to the family connection between the Russian princes and German aristocracy, thanks to the presence of a German heritage in the Baltic States, and, finally, thanks to the important immigration into Russia of German settlers, especially under the kingdom of Catherine II.

2.     Lithuania

During the Mongolian invasions, towns in the Western part of Kievskaja Rus, such as Novohradec, Brest, Mogilev, Minsk, were exposed to the influence of the Lithuanian princes. The latter, being still heathen, were exposed to several pressures to convert. As a consequence, there is, in Lithuanian history, a long-lasting trend toward Christian influences. The latter found their expression, in a first step, in the adoption of Greek Orthodox Faith and of Church Slavonic; later on, in the adoption of Catholicism and of Latin.

In the same time, the South-Western territory of the Kingdom of Halić fell under the influence of the King of Poland.

During the XV and XVI Centuries, the whole territory of present-days Belarus and Ukraine became part of a “Lithuanian Great-Duchy”, which, with its Orthodox Faith and its Slavonic language, could be considered as a sort of replica of the previous Kievan Rus’(and in fact, was still denominated also al “Zemlia Russka”).

3.     Poland

However, the personal union (Polish-Lithiuanian Rzeczpospolita) which, in the form of Unia Lubelska, transformed itself into a Polish hegemony, substracted force to Lithuania, and, hence, also to its previous Orthodox character. Ukraine became a part of the Polish Crown; Catholicism, Latin and Polish gained momentum.

During the period of the “Riots” (“Smutnoe Vreme”, Poles tried even to subdue Russia, arriving at conquering the Moscow Kremlin.

During that period, the Orthodox part of the former Great-Ducky of Lithuania, presently part of the Polish Crown, fell under the control of the Cossacks (the Hetmanate). In a first stage, the Cossack Hetmans governed this region (which stretched between Ukraine and Belarus) on behalf of the Polish King. However, at a certain moment, Hetman Chmel’nicky pretended to get a full autonomy from Poland, and, therefore, was attacked by the same. Chmel’nicky tried to resist Poland with the support of the Tatar Crimea Khanate and of the Ottoman Empire, but the Khan allied with Poles, so that Chmel’nicky was obliged to address himself to Russia.

As a consequence of the lack of success of the Polish tentative, the Muscovite Prince gained further influence also in Ukraine, and, during the XVII Century, with the Jaslav Convention and the Andrusovo Treaty, Kiev became a part of the Muscovite State. This situation gave rise to a growing Ukrainian influence in Muscovy, thanks also to the high level of theological development reached in Kiev’s Seminary.

4.     Sweden

Once the Polish influence finished, another threat was felt by the fledging Russian State: the power of the Kingdom of Sweden.

Following to the Reform and the Religious Wars, Sweden, during the Thirty Years War, had become able to reunite around it all Scandinavian States, more the Baltic States and the North of Germany, becoming a European great power.

Within this framework, the Swedes tried also to extend their power, from the Baltic territories, to Ukraine, across the previous lands of the Lithuanian State, thanks to the alliance with Hetman Mazepa, who tried to become independent from Poland, Russia and Turkey.

Also this tentative was unsuccessful. On the contrary, Paul the Great succeeded in defeating  the Swedes in Poltava and even to conquer all the stretch of Swedish territories on the Baltic, presently corresponding to the St. Petersburgkaja Oblast, to Estonia and Latvia. However, the Swedish influence on Russia did not cease with the Nordic Wars, but, on the contrary, went on also in the following centuries. In fact, in the Baltic States, besides the previous German aristocracy, originating from the German Knights of the Holy Cross, also a Swedish upper class had been created, which influenced the cultural life of the country and of Russia in general. For instance, the Admiral Vrangel’, one of the leaders of the White Russian Army during civil war, was of recent Swedish origins. Later on, in 1809, one of the reasons for the secession of Finland from Sweden, and the accession of the same to Russia, had been that Count Bernadotte, which, under French influence, had been appointed, by Napoleon,  as the King of Sweden, did not guarantee to maintain, to Finnish aristocracy (which was, in fact, nationally Swedish), the privileged guaranteed, under the previous dynasty, as the outcome of the “Constitution” of the “Borga Estates”.

So, Swedish-Finnish legal régime was “transferred” into Russia together with the Grand-Duchy of Finland, so constituting a basis for the reforms prompted later on, for the whole Empire, by Prince  Czartoryski.

This historical period had been also of paramount importance for the formation of the Finnish culture. At the moment of the passage of Finland from Sweden to Russia, and of the creation of the “Grand Duchy of Finland”, the need was felt to create a Finnish culture, instead of relying uniquely on the culture of Sweden, which had been, for the past, the almost sole culture of Finland. In fact, the ancient Ugro-Finnic population had been subjected to the Christian Swedes since the XIV Century, and did not have either a literary language, or a literary tradition.

At that moment in time, Lonnröth, going on the same path as Herder with Latvian ancient poetry, traveled intensively across Carelia, a Russian province inhabited by Finns, where he collected, from the voices of peasants, ancients legends, that he unified into the “Kalevala”, the national epos of the Finns. In so doing, he followed the same path of Macpherson, who, for his “Ossian”, collected Irish popular songs, unifying them into only one poem, and, then, pretending they were “Scottish”.

On the other side, the work of Lonnröth arouse an interest also on the other part of Botnia, in Estonia, where the Kalevi Poeg was composed, an epical cycle connected with the Kalevala.

5.     The Ottoman Empire

Whilst all these transformations were under way in the northern parts of Russia, in the South-Eastern part of it, and also in Ukraine, the influence of the Mongol and Tatar “Great Khans” had left place to the one of Turkey.

Both the Khanate of Crimea and the Nogai Horde had become vassals of the Ottoman Empire. This Turkish/Islamic influence is perceivable already now in those territories. In fact, all the Cis-Caucasian area was inhabited, together with Cossacks, by various smaller peoples, many of them, like the Daghestani and the Chechnyans, of Islamic faith. This area, formerly occupied by Tatars and by Mongols, Islam was often of recent date (like, for instance, in Ingushetia). For this reason, the cultural language was even Arabic, and the connections with Arabia were frequent.

These Islamic populations contributed heavily to revolts, including, i.a. to the one of Pugačiov, who, on the other side, had even an Arabic secretariate for drawing appeals and legislative instruments in that language.