In the XIV-XVI centuries. in the Belarusian-Lithuanian state, the military service class finally took shape with its rights and privileges, which had only one duty: to go on a campaign, defend the Motherland, drive the enemy from his native land to where he came from (Pursuit). These were the descendants of tribal elders, tribal princes and - in the majority - successful warriors of the commonwealth militia. The word "gentry" comes from the German schlagen - to beat, and the German word Schlacht means "battle". The literal translation of the word "gentry" means: people of battle, warriors, warriors. There is a second, scientific definition of the origin of this word. It came to the Belarusian language through Polish from the old German slahte, which means "genus, origin, breed."
The bulk of the Belarusian feudal lords were the descendants of the specific princes of Polotsk, Turov and Smolensk principalities, boyars and warriors of these principalities, to whom in the XIV century. Lithuanian (and in the 15th century also Zhamoit) nobles and warriors joined. Some of the latter settled in the administrative centers of Belarus and received estates here. By the end of the 14th century the bulk of the feudal lords (with the exception of the princes) in the Belarusian-Lithuanian state were called boyars. This name remained until the 16th century. The meaning of the Belarusian term "boyars" is completely different from the meaning of the same word in the Moscow principality.
Starting from the Gorodel privilege of 1413, in state acts, along with the name "boyars", "boyars-gentry" or "gentry" (according to the Polish model) is increasingly found. In the XV-XVI centuries. in the Brest land and in Podlasie, feudal lords were also called "zemyany", again in Polish terminology. This name is used in the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1529 for the feudal lords of the entire state, as well as "boyars" and "nobility". But from the second quarter of the XVI century. the name "gentry" constantly takes place in state acts to define the feudal estate.
In the XVI century. 80 percent of the feudal lords in Belarus were of Belarusian ethnic origin, 19 percent of Lithuanian, 1 percent of another. However, there were no big contradictions on an ethnic basis. All the nobility together defended their state, acted as a single estate, proceeding not only from corporate, but also from state interests. The unity of the nobility, its rights and privileges was manifested in the feudal codes of the Belarusian state - the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russia and Zhemoytsky in 1529, 1566 and 1588.
The noble estate rights of the clan passed to male heirs and their descendants in the male line, as well as daughters (but not their children, since it was already a different clan). When a woman married a non-gentry, she retained her own nobility, but did not pass it on to her husband and children. A woman of a simple class, marrying a gentry, became a gentry for life, even if she married a non-gentry a second or third time. The nobility could be obtained from the Grand Duke of Lithuania and Russia, as well as from the hetman on the battlefield for courage. From the Union of Lublin in 1569, the nobility was granted by the Seim of the Commonwealth (nobilitation). The Sejm recognized the title of nobility for foreign nobles as well. The nobility could also be passed on to adopted children.
By the 16th century all the nobility of the state, including the grand dukes of Lithuania (they are usually the kings of Poland), used the Belarusian language - both as a state language and in everyday life. Even on the territory of Samogitia, the Belarusian language was used everywhere in the courts and cities. And only from the XVI century. the Polish language gradually enters the environment of the magnates, especially after the Union of Lublin in 1569, when Poland and the Belarusian-Lithuanian state formed the federal Rzeczpospolita. Only in the 17th century the nobility begins to speak Polish, but the smaller nobility always uses Belarusian.
From a religious point of view, too, at first there was no difference. Belarusian and Lithuanian boyars in Belarus in the XIV century. were Orthodox. After the baptism of pagan Lithuanians in 1387, the Catholic Church gradually gains ground in Belarus, primarily among the gentry. In the XVI century. A significant part of the Belarusian nobility, both from Catholics and Orthodox, during the Reformation goes over to Calvinism (led by the Radziwills) and other Protestant movements, but in the last quarter of the 18th and early. 17th century under the influence of the Counter-Reformation, the gentry converted to Catholicism. At the end of the XVIII century. By the accession of Belarus to Russia, almost all the nobility of Belarus was already Catholic, and predominantly of the Latin, and not the Greek Catholic rite, unlike the rest of the population of Belarus. But the Orthodox gentry (Pinsk, David-Gorodok, in Slutsk, Mogilev) and Calvinist gentry also survived. Thus, for a long time in the gentry environment, multi-confessionalism and tolerance were preserved. This, by the way, affected the diversity of elements of noble culture. Tolerance was based on the decision of the Seim of the Commonwealth in 1573.
Back in the XIV century. in Belarus there were coats of arms of princes or family signs of other feudal lords. To permanent gentry traditions from the beginning. 15th century (Gorodelsky privilege of 1413) owns the use of coats of arms, the same (or with modifications) with the coats of arms of the Polish gentry. It was in 1413 that the armorial brotherhood began with the Polish gentry families. In total, there are about 5,000 coats of arms of the Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian gentry in the Commonwealth. Many of them survived in Belarus in the 20th century.
One of the achievements of the noble political culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia, which was reflected in subsequent events, was the introduction in the middle of the 16th century. enshrined for centuries in the laws of the right of the gentry to self-government, to free elections of deputies (ambassadors) to county sejmiks and nationwide sejms, to courts of all levels up to and including the Main Tribunal of Lithuania. At the same time, until the very inclusion of Belarusian and Lithuanian lands by Catherine into the Russian Empire, candidates for judicial positions had to know the Belarusian language as the state language, since acts were written in it. In the Commonwealth, the entire gentry could choose the king. Each gentry had the right to participate in the electoral (electoral) Sejm, in which the king was chosen for life. Therefore, the election of the king sometimes took place in an open field. The nobility, which went on a campaign and was already at war, could gather in the army for a separate, field diet, in order to make an important decision of a state nature. This happened in 1562 at the field diet near Vitebsk - the Belarusian gentry decided to unite with Poland into a federal state to fight against the army of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, who threatened the existence of an independent Belarusian-Lithuanian state.
In the Commonwealth, all the gentry were equal in rights. The titles of princes and counts were recognized mainly as foreign ones (among the Radziwills, Sapiehas and others), since they were usually bestowed by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. Only for the descendants of ancient princely families retained princely titles. But all these titles did not give the owners advantages over the rest of the gentry. Even the poorest gentry, who sometimes did not have land and his own peasants, was theoretically equal to a magnate, for example, Radziwill. Hence it is clear why the richest man in the Commonwealth in the second half of the XVIII century. - Prince Karol Radziwill - called an ordinary gentry "pan-brother". Theoretically, every gentry could be elected king. All this testifies to the breadth of gentry democracy.
The gentry, according to the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, could not be arrested and wrongly punished without valid evidence of guilt, and only his peers, that is, the gentry, could judge him. The right of personal immunity was developed in the laws of the Belarusian lands, and the guarantees of property involved in the creation and observance of the traditions of gentry dignity - in the generations of the Belarusian gentry. Not without reason in the Commonwealth there was a saying: "Schlyakhtsіts on the back of the vavadze swamp." courage, responsibility, patriotism... The honor of the gentry was natural and inalienable for the gentry.
When it was necessary to resolve issues of corporate interests, in the Commonwealth, the right allowed the gentry to unite in confederations (armed unions with political and social goals) and achieve their goal by force of arms without the king and the Sejm.
Another distinctive feature of the Belarusian gentry, which is also inherent in the Polish and Lithuanian, is plurality. If in the neighboring states - Russia, Prussia, Austria - in the XVII-XIX centuries. the proportion of the nobility was about 1% of the population, then in Belarus at the end of the XVIII century. the gentry was 10-12%, which is explained by constant wars and the need to have a widely represented military class.
It was these circumstances that led to an early conflict between the nobility and the tsarist government of Russia after the three partitions of the Commonwealth in 1772, 1793 and 1795. and forceful, predatory accession of Belarus to Russia. Although the tsarist government extended the rights of the nobility of the Russian Empire to the gentry of Belarus, but at the same time abolished gentry self-government, transferred the numerous small gentry to the merchant class, petty bourgeoisie and peasantry, began to test this freedom-loving and restless (from the point of view of the government) class, trying to delete many from the Russian nobility or not immediately allowed into its ranks.
As before, the nobility in Belarus played an important role in the 19th century, in the development of its economy both before the peasant reform of 1861 and after it. The specialization of farms, the hiring of labor in the estates, the proposal of the gentry to the tsarist government as early as the first half of the 19th century. free the peasants, as in neighboring Poland, Prussia, the Baltic states (which, by the way, the tsarist government rejected) - all this created the conditions for the transition to market-capitalist development. As for the petty gentry, who lived mainly in the gentry outskirts and dungeons - gentry villages, then its economic situation in the 19th century. very close to the peasantry.
Many gentry in Belarus suffered after the suppression of the uprisings of 1794, 1831 and especially 1863 by the tsarist troops. Entire gentry villages were evicted to Russian provinces or to Siberia, and property was taken away by order of Governor-General Muravyov (the hanger). However, the nobility of Belarus initiated a liberation movement, the noble (gentry) period of which falls on 1794-1863. It was the nobility who began the struggle for the liberation of Belarus from Russian oppression. The leaders of the Belarusian national liberation movement and the revival of the late 19th - early 20th centuries also predominantly came from the gentry. - brothers Lutskevichi, V. Ivanovsky, Alaiza Pashkevich, Yanka Kupala and others.
After the bourgeois reforms of the 60-70s. 19th century The Russian nobility had managerial positions in provincial and district zemstvos - bodies of limited local self-government. However, the tsarist government did not introduce zemstvos in the Belarusian provinces, not trusting the local nobility. Only in 1911 was self-government introduced in the Belarusian provinces and districts, even more limited than in the Russian lands. Everything was also done not to give advantages in the zemstvos to the local nobility of the Catholic faith. Zemstvos did not fail to develop extensive activities here.
The nobility in the Russian Empire since the last quarter of the 18th century. had corporate structures in provinces and counties. The same organization was introduced in Belarus: the nobles of the province and, accordingly, the county elected the provincial noble deputy assembly and the county noble deputy assembly, subordinate to the provincial one. The meetings were headed by provincial and district marshals ("leaders of the nobility"). Both marshals and deputies were elected at meetings on an alternative basis by secret ballot, putting white (for) and black (against) bullets into special boxes. The nobility's deputy assemblies resolved all class issues, including pedigrees. The provincial assembly had relations with the governor, the minister of internal affairs and, if necessary, with the emperor himself, defending their corporate interests. This structure remained until 1917.
The February Revolution of 1917 in Russia deprived the noble organizations in the provinces and districts of political influence. In the western part of Belarus, occupied in September - October 1915 by the German army, they also did not operate. After the defeat of the conspiracy of General L. G. Kornilov and the proclamation of Russia as a democratic republic on September 1, 1917, changes also occurred in the atmosphere of noble organizations. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, by a circular dated September 5, 1917, announced the imminent destruction of the nobility and the liquidation of noble institutions (although they did not have time to do this). In October 1917, the "Union of persons recorded in the genealogical books of the Minsk province" was created in the Minsk province with the chairman Georgy Chapskikh, the owner of Stankovo (near Dzerzhinsk), the Assembly of marshals and deputies of the nobility of the Minsk province on October 16, 1917, this union owned everything property, capital, archives and genealogical books, as well as the building of the Minsk provincial noble assembly and the noble club. Income from property and capital went to cultural, educational and charitable activities for the sake of those recorded in genealogical books. On November 11 (24), 1917, after the October coup in Petrograd and the establishment of Soviet power, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars by decree abolished the nobility and its corporate organizations in all provinces and districts. In Minsk, for example, 100 days before the beginning of the German occupation in February 1918, local Soviet authorities led by the Bolsheviks stopped the activities of noble organizations. But only formally, because so far they did not have enough time for more: the organizations were not liquidated, their property was not confiscated.
Therefore, on April 16, 1918, the activity of noble institutions in the Minsk province was recreated at a meeting of marshals and deputies of the nobility of the province, headed by the acting marshal of the Minsk nobility, the Borisov district marshal of the nobility N. N. Burnashov. On July 14, 1918, the Commander-in-Chief of the Tenth German Army, General of Infantry von Falkengan, allowed the activity of the noble assembly in the Minsk province to be resumed, but only in matters directly related to the nobility. The nobility assembly was not allowed to engage in any political activity. On September 29, 1918, at a meeting of the Minsk provincial noble assembly, which was attended by 117 people, new leaders were elected. Count G. Chapsky was elected provincial marshal of the nobility from 3 candidates. His competitors were Eduard Adamovich Voynilovich (who built the Red Church in Minsk) and Lev Lvovich Vankovich. The activity of the noble organization was again terminated in December 1918, after the withdrawal of the German army from Belarus, the arrival of the Reds and the restoration of Soviet power. But after the occupation of most of the territory of Belarus by the Polish army in August 1919, the noble institutions of the Minsk province, headed by Count G. Chapskikh, revived again. The Minsk provincial noble assembly was formally dissolved after the signing of a peace treaty in March 1921 in Poland. There after the end of the Russian-Polish war of 1919-1920. managed to move in the fall of 1920 part of the members of the meeting. The reasons for the self-dissolution were the natural impossibility of further activities of the gentry institutions.
During the revolution and the civil war, the Belarusian nobility-gentry suffered heavy losses from the terror of the Bolsheviks. These losses were incredibly strong in the first decades of Soviet power, and for the western part of Belarus in 1939-1941. and after the war. In fact, we can talk about the genocide of the nobility and the loss of the gene pool of one of the estates of the Belarusian people. Those of the noble landlords who did not have time to move to Poland during the civil war were destroyed, and in subsequent years the same fate befell many other nobles. However, due to the fact that in Belarus there was also a mass of poor nobles-gentry, who did not differ much in life from peasants or townspeople, many people survived, working like everyone else. In Western Belarus they were engaged in economic and cultural activities. The gentry shared the fate of the people during the Second World War. The history of the nobility is inseparable from the history of the entire Belarusian people.
Finally, after a long - seventy-year - break, the organization and self-government bodies of the Belarusian gentry are restoring their activities. The Organizing Council of the Assembly of the Belarusian gentry convened the Constituent Seim of the Association. The restoration of the organization of the Belarusian gentry should play a significant role in the revival of Belarus and our patriotic traditions.
If you dig into history, every tenth Belarusian can turn out to be a gentry. And now there is an opportunity to find their famous ancestors. How to do it? For an answer, the Znamenka correspondent turned to the chairman of the Minsk Assembly of the heirs of the gentry and nobility, Igor Chekalov-Shydlovsky, and at the same time learned about her roots.
During the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the gentry made up 10-15 percent of the population - set a goal, approximately the same number of their descendants can be found now. But in order to find your roots and make a family tree, you will have to work hard.
– The starting point for searches is the gentry encyclopedic dictionaries, which contain more than 20,000 surnames, that is, business cards of the family. The coat of arms is also placed in these books,” explained Igor Chekalov-Shydlovsky. – It should be remembered that almost all of this literature is in Polish. Therefore, before searching, it is better to find out how the surname is written in several languages. Not so long ago, Ukrainian armorials also appeared. In 2002, the National Historical Archives of Belarus began publishing the Armorial of the Belarusian Nobility. So far, volumes with the letters "A" and "B" have been published, but due to small print runs, these books are in limited access.
Having opened a huge Talmud, which is not only difficult to hold in hands, but also difficult to lift, Igor Vladimirovich professionally ran through the names. Less than five minutes later, he found my last name, and with it, two coats of arms. I am surprised to learn that I belong to the famous Prokopovich family! The specialist did not delve into the symbolism of color and images, but he told in detail the next steps in the search for ancestors.
Lost people
- The next step is to search for documentary evidence of noble roots in the National Historical Archives. But even here, not everything is so simple - the documents cover only a small part of the gentry families. The thing is that after the partition of the Commonwealth, the re-registration of the gentry into the Russian nobility began. As a result of this re-registration, about 75 percent of the gentry (poor representatives, odnodvortsy. - Approx. Aut.) were struck out of the noble class and rewritten as philistines and peasants.
In Russia, the nobles were less than one percent of the population, so the Russian government was worried about the large concentration of the gentry, who got used to their rights, demanded respect for themselves, had their own ambition. In addition, for more than four centuries, it was the gentry who chose the entire vertical of power, including the king.
The October Revolution of 1917 completely cleaned up the gentry. Then many descendants of ancient families hastily left Belarus or changed their surnames and destroyed documents certifying their belonging to the noble class. Therefore, now there are so many Belarusians who do not even know about their noble origin.
A letter of nobility in ... a shell?
Today, people who are interested in family traditions and decide to check them often turn to the Minsk Assembly of the heirs of the gentry and nobility. Or they found an original family item - a brooch, a box, a faded photograph.
“Someone remembers how, after the death of their grandmother, a letter of nobility was found behind an icon,” recalls Igor Chekalov-Shydlovsky. - They got it ... And it crumbled into dust - the paper decayed from old age. Others recall how for several years they were looking for a buried shell casing, in which a letter of nobility was hidden. In the third, in the 70s, the parents burned their archives of the nobility. They no longer shot, imprisoned, exiled for the nobility, but the father of the family took a nomenklatura position and was afraid for his career.
Family traditions remained in the family of the Znamenka correspondent. After the October Revolution, a total dispossession took place, under which our family fell: the estate with the estate was taken away, the stables with thoroughbred horses were given to the collective farm. The only consolation is that the family was left alone. But for the future, the selected "extra luxury" did not work. All the noble horses refused to pull the plows. Neither the stick nor the carrot helped, so the collective farmers had to send them to the meat-packing plant. The estate without an owner fell into disrepair. Now the foundation can hardly be found.
fake documents
As Igor Vladimirovich noted, even if the surname is in the gentry armorials or a natural letter of the beginning of the 19th century was found recognizing the ancestor as a nobleman, then the probability of gentry is still not equal to 100 percent.
As soon as in the 18th century the nobility was forced to present documents certifying their origin, “masters” appeared who forged letters. And the supporting document could be issued on the basis of a snag.
Nothing definite can be said about the surnames contained in the noble lists of the Russian Empire, since the nobles gave their surnames to entire villages, peasants and servants. The gentry kept their surname as a banner.
Modern nobility
“First of all, by gentry we mean the inheritance of this tradition,” Igor Vladimirovich noted. - Ideally, a gentry is a person with strong moral principles, responsible and active, living in accordance with the code of gentry honor. Gentry - in relation to their past. Gentry - in observance of the code of gentry (knightly, noble) honor. Gentry - in behavior. Gentry - in self-esteem.
Therefore, the chairman of the Minsk Assembly of the heirs of the gentry and nobility is sure that gentry traditions can become the foundation for a national idea:
- The memory of one's ancestors guarantees the connection of times, turns history from the dry pages of a textbook into a living part of the family, clan. A person is imbued with a sense of common history and the land on which his ancestors lived and his descendants will live. This is what is called patriotism. People are increasingly beginning to be guided by the following codes: I serve - the Fatherland, I answer - God; good - a reward, evil - retribution, dignity and nobility; generosity and justice.
The interest of Belarusians in the history of their family is increasing. For several years, more than three thousand people applied to the Minsk Society. Many remained active participants in thematic evenings, balls, excursions, and further historical research. And this is good news. Together with the search for ancestors, history and states, culture, and spiritual values are carefully studied. The true traditions of chivalry are being revived: the ideas of honor, nobility, serving high ideals.
Looking for ancestors
Belarusian gentry
The gentry (from the Old High German slahta - family, or German Schlacht - battle) - a privileged military estate in the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as well as some other states. It played a big role in the political life of the country, eventually formed the concept of the "gentry nation" and asserted its right to an elective monarchy.
"Shlyakhtsich on the fence of the Vayavodze". Any gentry elected as a deputy of the sejs or sejmik had the right of Liberum Veto. Liberum veto- the principle of parliamentary structure in the Commonwealth, which allowed any member of the Seimas to stop discussing the issue in the Seimas and the work of the Seimas in general, opposing it. It was adopted as obligatory in 1589, in 1666 it was extended to voivodship sejmiks.
In contrast to neighboring countries, where the nobility made up ~3% of the population, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania the gentry made up 10-15% (in different voivodeships). By Union of Horodel 1413 boyars Grand Duchy of Lithuania entered the Polish gentry armorial brotherhood - "act of adoption". This time is taken as the starting point of the modern Belarusian heraldry.
According to the property status, the gentry was divided into:
- magnates
- foreign gentry (ownership of one or more villages)
- farm gentry (ownership of one or several farms / estates /)
- behind-the-wall (zagrodkovy, suburban) gentry (had its own economy, but did not have peasants)
- nobility-golota (landless)
The lower property layer of the gentry vaguely merges with earthlings and armored boyars. The gentry, zemyanye, armored and worthy boyars were a military estate (baptisms were not called up for service). To this day, the name has been preserved "List of the Lithuanian army" 1528-67, where everyone can find familiar surnames.
Sarmatism
The gentry ideology that dominated in the 16th - 19th centuries. Sarmatism elevated the nobility to the ancient Sarmatians, thereby separating itself from the mass of commoners. Sarmatism predetermined many features of the culture of the nobility of the Commonwealth and its difference from the Western European aristocracy: conditionally “eastern” style of ceremonial clothes (zhupan, kontush, Slutsk belt, saber), special manners, Sarmatian portraits, etc.
On the maps, Sarmatia was localized around Wends And Seas of Herodotus(now Polissya).
This tradition - to define the gentry as a "separate ethnographic group" - is continued in the academic publication of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society "Russia. Full geographical description" 1905.
Gente Lituane, natione Polonus
"- most of the local nobility knew about their Lithuanian or Belarusian ethnic origin, but perceived the linguistic and cultural Polonization of their ancestors as an act of their voluntary political and civilizational choice[analogue of national elites in the USSR] ." Juliusz Bardach, Doctor honoris causa of the University of Warsaw, Vilnius University, University of Lodz
Since 1696, Polish has become the state language in the Commonwealth. It became the language of the townspeople (analogous to Russian today), along with Latin, was used in educational institutions (Vilna University, Polotsk Jesuit Academy, etc.).
[However, even in the 19th century, Polish-speaking philomaths called themselves not Poles, but Litvins, turned to the images of "historical Lithuania" (ON) in their literary works, introduced elements of the "tuteishaga" language ("Dziady" of Mickiewicz) into their literary works.
Typical representatives of the tuteishai gentry were Khodzko coat of arms "Kostesh", Skirmunts coat of arms "Oak", Voynilovichi - "The Voynilovichs did not come from either the East or the West - they are indigenous, local, bone from bone, blood from the blood of the people who once buried their ancestors in these barrows (today - in rural cemeteries) and plow their native Belarusian land "."Memories", E. Voinilovich (fundator of the construction of the Minsk Red Church)
Gentry & Russian Empire
After the Partitions of the Commonwealth and the accession of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Russian Empire, the gentry class, together with local self-government, was rapidly liquidated.
The work of the Imperial Academy of Sciences is interesting "Description of all peoples living in the Russian state" 1793, compiled after the Second Section of the RP. He calls all the inhabitants of our Land "Poles". Describes the peasants and the nobility of the "Polish people". What is characteristic, without lamentations about the "hard fate of the Belarusian peasant" - everything is still ahead.
Lists of the nobility
Name lists of the gentry and gentry families - "Collection of names of the gentry", summary lists of participants in the uprising of 1830 and the uprising of 1863, other sources - you can see.
Gentry democracy
The gentry - a social stratum, much more significant than the nobles of neighboring countries - gave rise to the term gentry democracy. Gentry democracy can be considered as a variant of representative democracy, with the only difference being that not the entire population, but only the gentry, was considered a people in the Commonwealth.
The final formation of "gentry democracy" was approved in 1573 Heinrich articles- the oath of the elected kings of the Commonwealth. They not only limited the power of the king, but also gave the gentry the legal right to oppose him.
“In the event that we (from which, God forbid!) do not fulfill these articles or conditions, or do something contrary to them, laws and liberties, then we declare all the inhabitants of the kingdom and the grand duchy free from due obedience and loyalty to us ".
§17 ...A ieslibysmy (czego Boze uchoway) co przeciw prawom, wolnosciom, artykulom, kondycyom wykroczyli, abo czego nie wypelnili: tedy obywatele Koronne oboyga narodu, od posluszenstwa y wiary Nam powinney, wolne czyniemy."
[200 years later, in 1776, similar words were written into the US Declaration of Independence:
"But when a long series of abuses and violence, invariably subordinated to the same goal, testifies to an insidious design to force the people to accept unlimited despotism, the overthrow of such a government and the creation of new security guarantees for the future becomes the right and duty of the people."
]
The complex relationship between the monarchy and the nobility, as well as the far-reaching privileges of the nobility, became one of the main reasons for the decline of the Commonwealth in the 18th century.
http://www.gutenberg.czyz.org/word,60867
http://www.arche.by/by/page/science/6866
Now it's time to take a look at the most noticeable manifestations of activitydomesticcompradors for plantingpseudo-historicalconsciousness and self-consciousness in Belarus, which, however, are just the tip of the iceberg. Nationalist mythology and the propaganda of anti-historical lies and false spiritual and historical self-awareness of the people based on it is quite structured and, among other things, has its own “koshcheevo egg” - axial "sacred" era, from the false image of which the dark rays of perverse interpretations diverge in different directions - retrospectively and perspectively: through the prism of this era, all the events and faces of the previous and subsequent history are refracted. This - the era of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, smoothly flowing into the era of the Speech Commonwealth . Why this particular era? Not only because of the historical fracture and gap between Western Russia and Eastern Russia. It was at this time that the birth of a social group took place, which is not just a class, social class, but a spiritual class - polonized and Catholic gentry. The essence of this group is by no means landownership and professional military affairs, not even a dominant position in the state with immeasurable privileges, but a betrayal of God and the holy faith, language and culture, fathers and the whole people, which was committed by a significant part of the Western Russian aristocracy. It is her spiritual, and often physical descendants and successors, who together are the creators of all the "contradictions" of Belarusian history,intergenerationalcollaborators and scribes of the history of White Rus' itself. All their practical-political and theoretical-ideological activity (as well as that of the Polish nation, which they worship) up to this day is based on Judaic betrayal and is a passionate self-justification - a hopeless attempt to justify betrayal, including to themselves. Behind this activity is an anti-Christian essence, since the entire activity of the devil and the angels who followed him consists precisely in an attempt to justify their initial and subsequent betrayals with a lie and draw as many people as possible into it.
Thus, exaltation of the image of the Western Russian aristocracy, which turned into a Polish Lithuanian the gentry (and at the same time the Polish gentry itself), as well as its “accomplishments” from the time of the apostasy to the present day, and constitutes the core of a distorted picture of the history of the Belarusians and the poisonous folk-historical self-consciousness imposed on them. And here we should focus on one landmark TV project - a TV series prepared by the team of authors of the main ideological department of Belarusian television - the TV News Agency of the first national TV channel “BT. Belarus 1”, sponsored by the current head of the all-Belarusian public association “Belaya Rus” Gennady Bronislavovich Davydko. In this "creation" released for viewing by the whole people, all the salt of the anti-Christian and anti-historical Russophobicpro-Western-nationalist ideology, which until relatively recently sounded exclusively from the corners of the opposition swamp and the humanitarian intelligentsia related to them, and now has become in many ways the canon of the official ideology, designed to turn Belarusians into Litvins in the likeness of today's Ukrainians. The name of this series, designated as a "historical saga", is "Szlachta. Brutal story"(in 5 episodes). As its authors themselves say, “the new project is dedicated to the elite of our lands - the gentry. This term, unfortunately, and today many mistakenly translate as "nobility". What to do, because a whole generation grew up on textbooks, where our history was presented through the prism of Russian historiographers. If in the eastern neighbor the nobles were at court and were subordinate to the reigning persons, then our gentry, on the contrary, even chose the king during the time of the Commonwealth. The estate also stood out among other Western aristocracy. In general, in this announcement, an understanding person can read in advance the entire content of the television series, and with it, the now dominant official historical ideology. However, we will delve into the details.
The series was filmed, of course, by order of the ideological leadership of the country, dating back to the Presidential Administration, in which, at least during the development and filming, the same gentlemen Yanchevskiy, Yakubovich and his comrades reigned. However, the “creative team” by no means reluctantly carried out this assignment without gritting their teeth. The main director of "Brutal gentry" was Mihas Rawucki - as it is written in Polish commentary, "a cult journalist, ingenious with bardzo ingenious texts about culture and art". A year before the release of this “masterpiece”, the same team led by Revutsky received from the hands of A.G. Lukashenko himself an award as part of the Christmas awards “For Spiritual Revival” for the creation of such documentaries as “The Radziwills. Secrets of the family”, “National dilogy. Statute ON”, “Slutsk Belts. Secret signs. Separately, we emphasize that both the awarding and the development and filming of the series took place even before the events of Euromaidan and the Russian Spring, so it will not be possible to connect their appearance with a nervous reaction to the latter. And here The “brutal” gentry appeared on TV screens on the border of spring and summer of 2014 - just in the days when other “brutal gentry” from the “national elite”, molded contrary to “Russian historiography”, bombed Lugansk with aircraft, demolished hospitals in Donbass with rocket artillery and burned alive hundreds of people in Odessa.
To match Revutsky and the idea of the series, the whole team of expert historians, who already represent the flavor in themselves, is a classic Polish-Jewish union that dominated the Belarusian lands of the 16th-18th centuries, now accounting for several percent of the population. Heads the "expert council" Anatoly Butevich- in the midst of the nationalist orgy, he held the posts of chairman of the State Committee for the Press (1990-1992), Minister of Information (1992-1994), Minister of Culture and Press of the Republic of Belarus (1994-1996), after which he worked not just anywhere, but in embassy departments Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Poland and Russophobic Romania), and now demanded by the authorities as “deputy chairman of the board of the Belarusian Cultural Fund, chairman of the Belarus-Poland partnership”, deputy chairman of the Republican Public Committee for Culture and Art under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, chairman Public Monitoring Commission under the Ministry of Culture for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage. As we will see later, the director of the museum of the Mir castle complex, which is a cult for Litvinists, will especially prove himself. Olga Popko, who later became not just a deputy of the Belarusian "Verkhovna Rada", but the deputy of that same V. Voronetsky in the parliamentary commission on international affairs. Such a commission will undoubtedly make its "contribution" to the construction of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and in defense against the American-German-Polish expansion. Finally, TV Series Producer Marat Markov later (a little over a year ago) he headed as much as the second republican and first most popular TV channel in Belarus.
Generally The “brutal gentry” can be described as a laudatory hymn to the Polish-Lithuanian gentry, a model of perestroika (more precisely, a turning point) in the national-historical self-consciousness of Belarusians and, at the same time, as a manifesto of the Belarusian “new gentry” - a pro-Western elite that has firmly taken up ideology. Moreover, it should be noted that at the same time the series (especially if you do not allow it and others like it to remain unanswered) also serves brilliant session of self-disclosure: throughout its length it is filled with contradictions and lies - and not so much insidious as absurd - and comical small-town vanity. The cross-cutting meaning of the series is also Russophobia - with a clear disgust for everything tsarist and Soviet- moreover, with a clearly bulging inferiority complex (the same infringed pride and shameful ambitions). At the same time, it protrudes the intention of the authors and customers of the "masterpiece" (and their foreign advisers and patrons) in every possible way to kindle pride among Belarusians, and to involve the most successful of the "disciples" in forging a new "elite". Neurolinguistic technologies are skillfully involved here: Western European medieval music of mysteriously alluring and promising (that is, vain) motives constantly sounds, periodically the violin takes the microphone, which, as you know, is not a Belarusian, but a typical Jewish musical instrument (in the tone of half of the experts ).
The main message of the series, to which the artists of meanings constantly return: how beautiful and elitist the “Belarusian gentry” used to be, until the damned Russians came and stole “our everything”, taking power from him and at the same time insidiously depriving even their own name, and therefore, we need to remember about “our gentry”, revive it (in the person of the customers of the series and the helpers of the intelligentsia, including the author’s team of the series and its experts) and transfer to it the most unlimited powers of authority. To this it remains only to add “when we finally get rid of this collective farm president, who does not even understand that we are organizing a Maidan for him on his own television,” and the picture will be complete. At the same time, until the last minutes of the series not a word is said about the fact that since the 17th century the “Belarusian gentry” spoke only Polish, was only Catholic and never called themselves Belarusians anywhere- until the end of the 19th century, when they had no other way to maintain power over the simple Belarusian people. Obviously, until the last minutes, the customers of the "Brutal gentry" are not going to tell the Belarusians (and A. Lukashenko himself) that they are not forging the Belarusian "brutal elite" for the benefit of Belarus at the budget expense on the country's main TV channel.
Already in the first part, one can find a logically completed passage that combines all the slyness, vanity and hidden grievances of the customers who created the ideological bomb: census Belarusians, though not many, will be lucky to defend their status or gain at least some respect under the new administration. And they did not recognize themselves as any Poles, despite the labels: about 40% of the entire imperial gentry called themselves that way in their language - Belarusians ”(Ch.1 .: 14.10). In fact, it is impossible to find a single (!) "arrogant gentry" who would call himself a Belarusian (as well as such a combination among the pre-revolutionary figures of the "national revival"): the cloppers who appeared after the defeat of the Polish revolt of 1863 either concealed from the people in every possible way ( including, in their writings) their gentry, or they convinced the people that the Belarusian peasant was always wonderful under the Polish gentry, "until the Muscovites came." As if to confirm the “Belarusian” nature of the gentry, the authors, without hesitation, point out that “the very term “gentry” comes to us from the territory of Poland, along with the rights that part of the gentry of Belarus and Lithuania received from the Polish gentry following the results of the Gorodel Union of 1413 ”(Ch.1 .: 16.26), and, moreover, that “the very concept of “gentry” comes from the Old Low German Schlaht - clan, origin, breed” (Ch.1 .: 15.16). From there, we note, not only the concept, but also the proud Catholic militantly idle class itself.
How and under what conditions did the Belarusians suddenly have such a Polish-Old German public education? After all, they also had their own upper class: “No matter how they were called in the pre-gentry era - our knights are combatants ..., brave boyars. With the latter, it doesn't work for you. But we are still talking about Ancient Rus' - on the political map of the world the GDL had not yet arisen, we had not joined the Western alliance, when the gentry were selected from Germany through Poland to certify the boyar lords” (Part 1: 17.07). So, not only the source of the “ancient Belarusian gentry” opens up before us, but also idols and aspirations of the newly-minted "sovereign gentry": to join the Western alliance, to receive attestation with a label from German teachers through Poland, together with the teachers themselves - as overseers. So how did the “Belarusian gentry” squeeze the Western Russian boyars out of their own home? “At the legislative level, the term "nobility" is prescribed in 1529 in the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the first European constitution, however, so far we read through the hyphen "boyars-gentry". Here you have the first manifestation of the "Belarusian model" - no shock therapy! ... True, with the second and third Statutes, the gentry are in the forefront" (Part 1: 22.25). Here we are (except that the series also serves as a message from a pro-Western group in power to its owners) and a frank clarification plans of "brutal authors" on soft de-Russification And Westernization Belarus: through a hyphen, gently, without shock therapy, with a quiet copying of international norms into the national legislation under the guise of an allegedly sovereign first and unique (the ancient Romans would have been surprised by the “first European constitution” in the 16th century A.D.!).
Who was the "hero" who paved the way for the gentry from Germany through Poland to the Republic of Belarus? " The gentry owes its riseJagiello, or vice versa: he - to her. It is the nobility that asks the Grand Duke of Lithuania to become the King of Poland ... Under the Union of Lublin, when the Federation is created, the Belarusian gentry is under the threat of reprisals and confiscations from the Crown, and Polish troops will control our territories,- they will be restrained by the Statute of ON. And then the fourth wife of Jogaila, Sophia Golshanskaya, became queen ... The Polish gentry did not want to crown her for a long time, fearing such a “Belarusian influence” ”(Ch.2 .: 11.11). Here it becomes clear that and the new "Belarusian gentry" wants to make their secret enemy A. Lukashenko an ally and a new Judas-Jagiello, asking that, if not to become the "King of Poland", then in some other way handing over White Rus' into the hands of the European Union and the State Department. It is not clear only what Statute the “Belarusian gentry” hopes for to protect against repressions and confiscations and deter their patrons, when, during the new Lublin Euro-Association, Polish troops will control our territories (like now Ukrainian ones, which were also occupied by Poland before the Unia of the 16th century )! But the “Belarusian cattle” must be sure that, according to the logic of the Makeev-Voronetsky-Yakubovichs, these repressions and military control are nothing more than a “fear of Belarusian influence”, which the current pans intend to overcome with decisive European integration actions, perhaps even by proposing A .Lukashenko honorary coronation in the style of Gorbachev.
The desire to inflame the vanity of Belarusians with the most absurd declamations and win them over to those who have renounced their faith, language and peopleLithuanianthe gentry is filled with the whole crafty television project. It turns out that “the residences of our Belarusian aristocracy are not only lush parks, these are not only chic palaces, but they are museums and colossal collections of books ... So, since those times, the fame of Belarusians has been stretching, as about the most reading nation. And professional librarianship can definitely consider the year 1510 as its origin - the collection of Albrecht Gashtold, Grodno Geranyons on the border with Lithuania ”(Part 3 .: 7.15). Everyone thought that the famous census of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk in the 12th century laid the foundation for librarianship in White Rus'. and even earlier - monastic rich theological and annalistic collections! But no, it turns out, the “Belarusian” Albrecht Gashtold in the 16th century .. True, they would also tell us in what language all these books were written, and how much reading (and not decorating the walls of the maontki with shelving) was generally included in the lifestyle of the gentry! The main reason for pride in the noble “ancestors of the Belarusians” is, of course, their “peramogiabovemaskalsi”, and the opposition to the Russians is, in general, the main prowess of the “Belarusian gentry”. Among the heroes of the latter, the Turkish vassal, the Hungarian Jesuit Stefan Batory, who “was especially feared by the Crimean Tatars, stands out. Therefore, the later name "Belaya Rus" - and his merit, Batory ... He took care of the local gentry and hired foreign legionnaires. Hence - victories on all fronts. Mercenaries acted harshly. Even then he founded the Higher School in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As they say, Lomonosov and his university have not yet been born” (Part 1: 2.44). Recall that the "father of White Rus'" S. Batory, who did not know either Polish, much less Russian, was one of the main military opponents of Rus' in history, who captured the Smolensk and Chernihiv regions and besieged the Pskov-Caves Monastery. Of course, one can “admire” the release of the gentry military class from military service to preserve the “color of the nation” with its replacement by cruel mercenaries (it is easy to guess that S. Batory simply could not rely on Belarusians and Little Russians in the war with Moscow). But the "Higher School" in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a number of Jesuit collegiums, including Polotsk, Nesvizh and Vilna, promoted to the university, which, in contrast to the "not standing next to" Lomonosov, taught not so much the sciences (and, moreover, not prayer and theology), and the art of lies and political technologies of the struggle for power - to fight Orthodoxy and the Western Russian people.
No less valor was shown by the “Belarusian gentry” with their, this time, French brethren in the “war of 1812”. Napoleon, as a very subtle psychologist, played on the gentry's arrogance, on the self-consciousness of aristocrats, genetically tied to the Belarusian lands. If the gentry goes over to the side of the French, will fight with, again, a historically established enemy, with whom they have always fought, - well, why not fight again (Ch.5 .: 0.39) ... Was Napoleon going to keep his word and return the lands before the division (of the Commonwealth) - today it is impossible to say, but the main goal of his promises was achieved. So, only Razdivill took the side of France with his 5000th army” (Ch.5: 2.57). True, in the "War of 1812", which the authors of the film categorically do not recognize as Patriotic (and they are not ready to talk about the fact that for them it is domestic, only on the side of the French and Polish Lancers of Jozef Poniatowski), they failed to win, but the transition of the haughty Radziwills, "genetic Belarusians", on the side of the invader and revolutionary atheist Napoleon for the "war against the historical enemy" Russia should not escape the admiration of modern Belarusians. Moreover, " the self-consciousness of the Belarusian aristocrats will be manipulated more than once ... almost before the revolution of 1917 ..., throughout the fascist occupation also, during the division of Belarus into Western and Eastern. In the early 1990s, they tried to unleash the situation in the post-BSSR on this front as well, making all the neighbors with whom they lived in the ON within the same borders worry - Lithuanians, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians ... Envoys of the houses of the Romanovs and royal associations in exile began to visit the Minsk regions. Imagine what was happening then in the minds of ordinary Belarusians, who will have to get rid of the dogmas for a long time to come, that the history of their country does not originate from 1917, and culture is not limited to popular prints and folklore traditions” (Ch.5: 1.14). As you can see, collaboration with the Nazi Third Reich, according to the pro-Western part of the inner-power elite of the Republic of Belarus, was only a consequence of the manipulation of the “pure self-consciousness” of the “innocent-naive” heirs of the “Belarusian aristocracy” (from Napoleon to Hitler is not so far away, in any case case, the Kaiser and the BNR have already reached). What a waste of "insidious Orthodox monarchists" who prevented (and prevent) ordinary Belarusians from realizing "their" genetic nobility and historical continuity to the Catholic Polish-speaking servants of Stefan Batory, Janusz Radziwill, Napoleon, Wilhelm and other non-Christians and murderers of Orthodox Belarusians and Great Russians!
And after all, the valor of the “Belarusian gentry” is not limited to this! Even “in the new Belarus, not a single case of acquiring a gentry for money was registered ... Belarusians are just starting to show interest like “What did the family become famous for in the pre-October period”, when every city is the capital of the principality and heroic lands, in a word, - not clogged, lubok province. Fashion for its elite-authentic is on the rise. What can not be said about Russia: the business of distributing the nobility is flourishing - as is the acquisition of plots on Mars ... A title of nobility could also be acquired under the Empire, but a gentry title - on Belarusian lands - could only be won. He was honored only by real Belarusian knights ”(Ch. 1: 8.23). Meanwhile, “when these lands (the Commonwealth) became part of the Russian Empire, about 16% of the population were gentry and, by the way, this surprised the Russian authorities very much, since in Russia, according to statistics, 1.5-2% (were nobles)” (Ch.4.: 8.39). In other words, while the Polish and “Belarusian” knights of the decaying Commonwealth chimera in battles reached 16% of the population, 1.5% of the “Russians who bought the nobility” meanly built the greatest Empire in the world. But the gentry had something to answer to this: as the future deputy of the Belarusian House of Representatives O. Popko informs us, comically turning up his nose, nodding and pouting his lips, “We spoke with the Russians either in French, or not at all. And, you know, this is also some kind of ambition for me - maybe national, maybe gentry ”(Ch.3 .: 16.55).
What other virtues, besides the transition from the boyars to the gentry, treacherous defection to the side of Napoleon and Hitler, conversations in French and the large number of "Belarusian gentry" became famous? Undoubtedly, their spiritual and moral character, about which the experts of the brutal series themselves will tell us. First of all, his "modesty" and "honesty". Already at the very beginning, we learn that “it was possible to obtain gentry dignity in an official way, or you could just invent it ... And then a gallery of portraits, mythical invented ancestors was ordered from a local artist ... The portrait played the same role as, say, a signet and a letter testified to a high dignity ”(Ch. 1: 3.16). It is not clear the truth - but what about "knights who could only conquer the nobility"! But this is not so important, given that “within the Commonwealth, both the Poles and the Belarusians of the ON from the gentry considered themselves direct descendants of the ancient Sarmatians - they were described by the Greek historian Herodotus: they came from Iranian lands - and so, here you are, direct connection with the Slutsk belt in the manner of Persian ... Genetic memory? (Part 1: 19.12). We still need to try to reach the genetic memory of the ancient Ukrainians, but the fact that this is the merit of not only the current political technologists (as in Ukraine), but also the “Belarusian-Sarmatian gentry” themselves is the absolute truth. It is only unclear how are the authors going to classify the Polish-speaking and considering themselves Sarmatians as Belarusians?
The spiritual and moral image of a social group, glorified and elevated to the rank of "national elite", is of particular importance (for Christians, as well as for their Western adversaries), since it is set as an ideal and an object of imitation and reverence (for many, even pride ) for the whole people, especially for children and youth. The moral image of the gentry (naturally, embellished) presented by the Belarusian customers of the series as a kind of “bright image”, in fact, can cause nothing but disgust, and the fact that the pro-Western elite in power, the authors of the film and experts do not realize this, very accurately characterizes their own spiritual and moral image. Let’s make an introductory quote from the same current deputy head of the international commission of the parliament of Belarus O. Popko: “But this noble arrogance, this feeling of being superior to others, maybe sometimes not entirely fair - this has the right to exist” (Part 2: 22.12). After such words, a serious question arises about the need for not only spiritual, but also psychiatric treatment for a bright representative of the country's ideological leadership. The pride and "nobility" of the gentry was expressed mainly, as is known, in a contemptuous attitude towards the simple Belarusian people, the peasants - as cattle (cattle), claps - in the same way as the current "neo-gentry" in power and the "national-priest » intelligentsia. The only difference is that their predecessors could afford to openly demonstrate this: “The gentry wanted to emphasize his difference ... When the gentry went to the field to take out manure ... he would definitely stick a saber into the manure to demonstrate that it was not a peasant who was driving, but the gentry ”(Part 2 .: 24.11). The Polish-speaking lords certainly did not feel like one people with the Belarusians: “That petty gentry from the same palaces who lived in the village did not want to be assigned to the peasants, for her it was insulting - they were recorded in the middle class” (Ch.5 .: 23.29). Unfortunately, Alexander Grigorievich forgot that he himself came from these peasants, and that for "neo-gentry”(like their owners) he is by no means his own, but the one to whom, under other conditions, they would not even shake hands.
On what Lifestyle Should the Belarusian patriotic youth be equal, contemplating the creations of Belarusian ideologists and TV journalists? “Wine flowed like a river: they drove a barrel through the streets of the city - Radziwill himself sat on it, said “Pane-kokhanka” and poured endless cups to his gentry” (Ch.3 .: 18.44). At the same time, “nomad aristocrats settle in family estates and palaces ... Knightly battles were replaced by secular balls - well, why not the glorious Renaissance and Revival . The "brutal gentry" have time for the castleglamor: the high society and the elite of the ON - everything, as in the progressive countries of Europe, if not better ”(Part 2 .: 16.05). Here it is - the dream of the Makeevs-Voronetskys-Yakubovichs, which, in their opinion, the Belarusian people, “freed from the illusions of the Russian world” should serve! "Honor" and "nobility" of the "Belarusian gentry" brutal directors bury in the bud: " It is clear that they were manipulated - it was easy to bribe them: there, with a cup, crackling ordenyuzhka. They could not, for example, begin to contradict the judgment of their patron, in whose yard they live - it was unrealistic. The richest magnates actually controlled the mass of the gentry ... and through informal channels they could achieve the decisions they needed” (Part 3: 17.27). A wonderful image of the "Belarusian elite" - both in the past and in the present! The gentry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania also sets an incomparable example for “Belarusian patriotism”: “The petty gentry often adopted traditions, habits, even wanted to be like magnates in language, wanted to speak Polish and therefore inserted suchOld Polishwords in your languagePolonizingher, which at times even looked comical” (Ch.3: 16.40). Through such comedies, the gentry quickly forgot their native language and was soon able to communicate with the Belarusian peasant only through clerks and tenants.
Attention is also drawn to the attitude of the “Belarusian gentry” towards a woman, which cannot be called anything other than exemplary obedience to the requirements of gender equality and feminism: “A gentry could not raise a hand against a woman. Although it was fitting for a peasant to beat his wife and educate her. The nobleman could not break his word - this is a word of honor. A peasant ... could cheat, it was considered a normal way of survival ”(Ch.1 .: 11.42). The power that the Polish-Catholic women had in secular gentry society became legendary and best of all depicts the consequences of the rejection of the generalization of the Christian way of the family written by the pious monk in the book Domostroy. As you can see, the authors also, on any occasion, try to humiliate and slander the Belarusian peasant, whose loyalty to the word in his circle was certainly stronger than that of the pans, and the desire to fool the latter is nothing but a constant “frozen” war and maneuvers, can not be explained. The status of a woman in the truly “advanced” (from the point of view of the current pro-Western elite) “Belarusian” Rzeczpospolita is not limited to this: “A gentry woman had approximately the same rights as a gentry ... In general, for the Sarmatians, a woman from ancient times is a real goddess” (Part 2: 1.49). Recall that we are talking about an ethnic-class group that claimed the status of Christians and, moreover, the role of "enlighteners of Eastern schismatics." In fact, these children of EuropeanneopaganRenaissance were none other than prodigal idolaters.
Diagnostics the religious spirit of the nobility in general is a key point, because it is faith that, in the final analysis, fully explains the entire moral system, and all the social behavior of the “Belarusian gentry” as a class. It is best described by the words:“And there were people like, for example, Bekish Kaspar, a Hungarian who was a hussar at the court of King Stefan Batory ... He ordered in his will that they put such an epitaph on him: "I don't believe in God or the devil, there is nothing in the next world"... His will was fulfilled ... Such a story is impossible either in France, or even more so in Spain, or even more so in Russia. And one can only rejoice for these countries, for which godlessness was savagery, in contrast to the "progressive" Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth. The scriptwriters are trying to adjust the very religious situation in the gentry state to the one created by their customers in Belarus props in the form of "inter-confessional consent" with the corresponding legend from the “Belarusian heritage”: “Vytautas was Orthodox and achieved privileges for the rest of the (non-Catholic) gentry - this will be the beginning of interfaith peace, what we will call "famous Belarusian tolerance" (Part 2: 14.40). True, right there, in some way, “even after Vitovt, until 1563, the highest positions in the Pan-rada were closed for the Orthodox gentry” (Part 2: 15.31). Recall that we are talking about almost all Western Russian boyars who owned land on the territory of White Rus'! But in the Russian Empire, the “famous Belarusian tolerance”, as the same deputy Popko complains to us, disappeared: “After that famous uprising of 1863, there were significant restrictions in relation to the Catholic gentry, it was forbidden to acquire land and estates, everything is Catholic on ethnic Belarusian lands for a long time will be in the minds of the Polish” (Part 5: 20.04). And then he adds: “When we are talking, for example, about the 19th century, as part of the Russian Empire, then, of course, most of the gentry were Catholics, that small part of the Orthodox were newcomers, usually from the territory of the Russian Empire.” Where, after 300 years of “tolerance” and “multi-confessionalism” of RechCommonwealththe Orthodox aristocracy has gone almost without exception?! This is from the 16th century, when Catholicism throughout Europe was already turning into a laughingstock and crumbling into dust!
And how, if not Polish, was “everything Catholic in the ethnic Belarusian lands”, if everything spoke only Polish and a little French! An anecdotal answer to this question is given by the authors of the series themselves when they want to demonstrate the "Belarusian nature" of the gentry - contrary to the "Moskal slander". First, “in order to debunk the Soviet book myth that representatives of the gentry are exclusively Polish panship, paradoxically, we are going to Warsaw ... Here is an example of the Rodultovsky family” (Part 2 .: 4.13), which in the next story fervently express themselves exclusively in pure Polish. Not resting on their laurels, Rawucki and the kahal tell us a story about another “Belarusian gentry” in Poland with a characteristic surname - the Brzhozovskys - speaking, as you might guess, purely in the same impeccably Polish language (Ch.3 .: 11.50). In the last part, the Brzhozovskys, disturbed by the Belarus-1 film crew, are already moving to Belarus under the walls of Mir Castle, native to the deputy Popko (Part 5 .: 13.27), where they say in the same purely Polish: pshiedzem". Touched by the TV series, they add that "being under the Mir walls, the couple was ready to recite Adam Mickiewicz's poem "Pan Tadeusz" from memory."
Enthusiasm for the surviving "Belarusian" lords turns their admirers from television and, accordingly, the Presidential Administration all the way to St. Petersburg, where the story of another "Belarusians" by the name of Dzyakonsky ends with a proud epitaph: "Grandfather suddenly stopped speaking Russian before his death: in only the Polish language sounded at home” (Ch.5: 13.02). But at the top of the gentry pantheon are, of course, the Radziwills, whom the “enlighteners of the Belarusian cattle” simply idolize. Especially when one of them is a prince! Maciej Radziwiłł, with the air of a noble winner in a great battle, humbly speaks (of course, in the same pure Polish): “There is no need to talk too much about the nobility. A person should just live, and not think: "I am a prince and something belongs to me." Nothing belongs. In addition, you receive one more obligation: you must be an example” (Ch.4: 2.13). As the voice-over tells us, “of course, only a person whose family is the history of all Belarusian lands - the ethnic center of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and RechCommonwealth, - Maciej Radziwill». Here, it turns out, who is the personification of the Belarusian people, according to the ideological authorities of the Republic of Belarus! As if to give weight to this thought, Prince Radziwill’s friendly meeting with A.G. Lukashenko himself is shown with the words: “It was he, Matsey, who humanitarianly advised scientists on the renovation of the Nesvizh Palace, was at its opening and is generally often present in Belarus at high-profile cultural events "(Ch.4.: 3.05). And right there, the “Belarusian prince” even tried to talk to the Belarusian people (literally): “We are very much connected with this land, with this city, and this is the most important thing.” At the same time, the construction of speech and the voice of Maciej painfully resembled the German occupation authorities in the summer of 1941.
Having entered the excitement, the gentry begin to simply burn the entire beau monde of the “great Belarusians”, whom they are strenuously trying to present to students in the lessons of “Belarusian literature” in schools as “folk scribes”, Belarusian Pushkins and Gogols: “Some gentry collected libraries, others wrote. We are about Janku Kupala: As you know, we have not called him a peasant poet for a long time. The Lutsevich family is ancient, albeit impoverished ... The ancestors of Yanka Kupala had land from the Radziwills and ... they also had the right to a privileged class, to gentry origin ... Yanka Kupala did not write anywhere that he comes from a small family gentry, but his father was a rented gentry ”(Ch. 3 .: 9.34). But what about: “I am a Belarusian man, pan plows and braids”? Having smashed the “most sacred” into fragments, the authors develop their success: “Writer KarusKaganets- himself from the nobility. Parents after the Uprising were exiled to Siberia. He was in prison together with a native of the common people, Yakub Kolos. Kaganets and described gentry-Belarusian, who "both not there and not here." It is clear that neither the East nor the West, nor the new (Russian) authorities liked the play. They gave it underground - at "Belarusian parties". gentryin general, he was a kind of collective type of Belarusian of those times, who found himself between two fires - hiding and adapting - well, why not "dimming"in the bud!" (Ch.1.: 4.38:). Having completedmoral portrait of an unprincipled chameleon from the “Belarusian parties”, passing off the Polonized traitors as “great Belarusians”, the supreme ideologists tried to simultaneously substantiate the doctrine of “multi-vectorpolitics" panMakeya, which is precisely expressed by the concepts of “not there and not here” and “not yours and not ours”, although it serves only as a transitional stage on the way just “there” and to “theirs” - while the majority of Belarusians just stretching "here" and to "ours". And in the series itself, using the example of another “outstanding Belarusian”, it is confirmed that such a situation is dragging on - with all the tales of “national unity” - from afar: “ Dunin-Martinkevich the nobility itself was either confirmed or not. The peasants even wrote anonymous letters about the forgery of documents. He was involved in a high-profile case of falsification” (Part 4: 12.43). The Belarusian peasants had national unity - but not with the local Polish and Polonized gentry, but with the Great Russian official and officer.
However, the most curious thing happens when the authors of the film begin to describe with admiration socio-political and economic-legal status of the "Belarusian gentry". Most - because this is happening against the backdrop of the still surviving image of the Belarusian authorities headed byA.G. Lukashenko, as power for the people - anti-oligarchic, serving, responsible, ascetic- what it should be, and was precisely in the Russian monarchy. Here we are offered the naked truth about gentry democracy and at the same time an essay on the topic “My ideal social system” from a pro-Western Belarusiandomesticelites. So, what kind of system do they want to see in the new Belarus? First of all, “if we take an estate identical to the gentry in France, then it was approximately 5% of the population, as for the percentage on the territory of our lands ..., then this is about 20%” (Part 1 .: 5.08). Previously, as we remember, in relation to Russia, the percentage was more modest - 16%, but before "progressive Europe" it was impossible to fall face down in the dirt. One can only imagine what it cost the peasants (especially Belarusians) to feed this horde of idlers (remember, about “balls” and “castle glamour” instead of “knightly tournaments”) and their own oppressors.
And now - the main thing: "SpeechCommonwealthin fact, it was a gentry democracy, a gentry republic. After signingHeinrichovsarticles, the power of the king was generally limited in the SpeechCommonwealth. The gentry chose this or that candidate for the position of king (Part 2: 21.29)... The gentry in general, in fact, led this country... It was she who was part of the Sejm, which made decisions. The Sejm was the main governing body, not the king. The king had to obey any decisions of the Diet. The power of the king was limited through the gentry (Part 2: 25.09) ... Only the king could judge the gentry themselves, from the beginning of the Renaissance - the Great Seim, and there their people were placed: from each district of the GDL two candidates were nominated - persons who were popular on the part of the nobility (Ch.3.: 0.54)... All the fullness of the judicial, in fact, and executive power, legislative power - all three branches of power belonged to them, and this also has no analogues in world history: such rights! Indeed, complete immunity” (Part 3: 2.43). If Alexander Grigorievich does not understand, then this is about him, and about him in the first place. As a consequence of this political situation, the "Belarusian gentry" and, in particular, « Radziwillsclaimed the throne and had the same income as the whole SpeechCommonwealth(Ch.3.: 3.29) ... IncomeKarol Radziwillwas above all Rechi's incomeCommonwealth- he had his own fortresses, his own private army ”(Ch. 3: 25.38).
So, unlimited oligarchic dictatorship under the guise of democracy, with a decorative president, an inviolable business elite with private fortresses and troops and bathed in money - this is the ideal and the immediate goal behind the series and all ideological politics (as well as liberal reforms in general) domestic grouping, strongly encouraged to achieve this goal by the Western masters. Worse than in the Russian Federation under Yeltsin and Gaidar. This is Ukraine Poroshenko dear to their hearts. Who is the thorn in their eye? The one for Poroshenko is the Russian world and Russian statehood: “According to their capabilities, the gentry in the Commonwealth chose the king, in the Russian Empire the nobility was an exclusively service class, which was completely subordinate to the will of the Emperor or had to obey ... Cities (as part of of the Russian Empire) have lost the Magdeburg Law, the abolition of elections and self-government, officials and ship employees are sent here ”(Part 4 .: 11.56). Imagine how crazy the upper class is subordinate to the king, exclusively serves the state, instead of balls,glamor, worship panenki-goddesses, officials begin to work in the regions and even courts are opened, and the head of state receives the right to appoint governors in them (ifA.G. Lukashenkodid not understand, they intend to deprive him or his successor of this right as well)!
But the fault of the Russian Empire is by no means limited to the deprivation of the “property of all Belarusians” of unlimited freedom. She encroached on the "holy" - on the very the name of the nobility! From the very first sentence of the series, we learn that “during the census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897, of all Belarusians,” 1.5% called themselves nobles - less than the Cossacks ..., under 80% - peasants, a little more than 10% - philistines... The gentry were banned, as their class was merged with the simple peasantry, but the inhabitants of entire Belarusian towns continued to consider themselves gentry, having a certain ambition and often nothing more ”(Ch.1 .: 0.31). The ruthless tsarist tormentors with the Cossacks, obviously hated by the “creative team” and the Makei-Yakubovichs, tried to take Gonor away from the unfortunate gentry, despite the heroic resistance: “Cases of self-denial (from the gentry) were rare and did not have what the royal authorities, forcing, punishing and taking away property, exiling” (Ch.4.: 10.05). As all historians know, the attitude of the authorities of the Russian Empire towards the Polish aristocracy has no historical analogues in terms of generosity and connivance of the hostile foreign and heterodox elite in their state, with the sacrifice of the local simple Russian people subordinate to it. And only vile and bloodthirsty uprisings forced the authorities to gradually take measures to curb them (and only confirmed rebels) and, in particular, to depolonize the Belarusian region. But for the Belarusian ideologists, these were “innocent victims of tsarism”: “It was possible to take the path of confiscation, which happened very often - any resistance to the imperial, Russian authorities was punished ... The same Radziwills were forced to immigrate, travel to Western Europe, for a certain time to live, for example, in London or Paris (Part 4: 1.23)... After the uprising of 1863, the authorities used fairly harsh penalties for the category of petty gentry... Hundreds of thousands of gentry...were exiled to Siberia. That is why beyond the Urals, in the depths of Russia, there is the greatest and most patriotic diaspora of Belarusians... Even there, they dictated the terms of what to call them in order to emphasize their status” (Ch.5: 21.19). As you can see, the “Belarusian sufferers” tormented by “inhuman punishments” found the strength in themselves even in the “torments” to arrogantly emphasize their social status.
In order to instill in the Belarusians faith in the existence of the “Belarusian gentry” and the insidious attempts of the “Russian chauvinists” to erase the “truth from their memory”, the customers and producers of “Brutal History” already in the first minutes of the series imply that “Thanks to literature, the stereotype aboutfanaticaland eccentric gentlemen, but about Belarusians - exclusively as a peasant nation. Further, the gentry disappeared from our lexicon altogether ... They immediately thought of translating the word "gentry" from Belarusian into Russian as "nobility", misleading a whole generation. But there was a gentry: Belarusians were called a gentry nation!” (Ch.1.: 1.05). Belarusians will never be able to find out from any source who and when called them a “gentry nation”, but already in the first series they are shown, this time, the “ascetics” of our time, who, with titanic efforts, are trying in their own person to revive the “national heritage of the great Belarusian gentry nation. Turns out, “Five years ago, well-born descendants, let’s call them modern gentry, officially registered as the “Minsk Assembly of the descendants of the gentry and nobility”” (Part 1: 7.02). They “in society, it is customary to address each other as “pan” or “master” ... For each month they make a plan of gentry actions: holding salons, balls with their own dress code (Part 1 .: 9.22) ... To some, these costumed salons will seem like role-playing games of adults who did not play enough in childhood, only they do not reconstruct anything, but live ... - the history of the motherland acquires specific features ”(Part 1: 10.45). “Concrete features of the history of the Belarusian motherland” for some reason take on the appearance of orthodox Masonic vestments on the masters. Only these games are not at all harmless, especially since even now “in such Minsk salons you can meet both the great marshal and the chancellor of Minsk, the chief treasurer and the lead judge” (Part 1: 6.23). Of course, the people shown on the air are mostly adults who have not played enough in childhood, sick with the passion of vanity, but it is quite obvious that behind them are hiding other, by no means game “great marshals ”, “chief treasure hunters”, “judges” and “chancellors”, who are only waiting in the wings and need the prepared consciousness of Belarusian citizens.
As the series began with the brutal drive into Belarusians of belief in the existence of the “Belarusian gentry” and the centuries-old war with the “Muscovites” with it, this is how it ends: “February 19, 1868, with the transfer of single-palace residents to peasants, can be considered the date of the final liquidation of the gentry class in Belarus [where the “Belarusian” multi-yard Radziwills and Sapiehas have gone?!] - the process took almost a century. Now, by right, the ethnically Belarusian lands, the center of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, are called a peasant nation. All further painting, literature and, of course, cinema will support this stereotype in the minds of more than one generation... It will take a century and a half, until in the new Belarus, when the forgotten layers of national history are discovered, having heard the word "nobility", the Belarusian will not take up the translation "(Ch.5.: 23.48). Of course, it will not - because after watching this film alone, having heard this word, every reasonable Belarusian, a descendant of Orthodox Western Russians and Soviet partisans, will take up not a translation, but an automatic machine.
Does A. Lukashenko himself understand what a shame he is personally covered in the eyes of Belarusians and Russians who see this “brutal” Polish-gentry propaganda, and in what scam directed against himself, not to mention White Rus' and the Russian world, he complicit? Allowing the descendants or adherents of the Polonized and Catholic nobility, A. Lukashenko and the Belarusian authorities as a whole (excluding the sixth column of ideological clap-lovers-neo-gentry ) does not at all unite them with the Orthodox Belarusian majority, becoming his own for everyone and everyone, but, not becoming his own for the first (which he cannot do under any conditions), betrays and renounces the second, losing their support. For it is impossible to unite the faithful sons of Orthodox White Rus' with its traitors and comprador collaborators neither 1385, nor 1569, nor 1596, nor 1648, nor 1794, nor 1812, nor 1918, nor 1941, nor 1991 and the corresponding centuries, nor the present century of the XXI- go. And here raise narcissistic, morally corrupt idiots andde-Belarusianizedmankurtov this series can be quite. It seems that series "Shlyakhta. Brutal story" if it deserves to be scrolled and watched carefully, it is, first of all, in the Parliament and the Public Chamber of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, preferably in the presence of the expert heroine of the series and the deputy head of the commission on international affairs of the Belarusian parliament Popko , her advanced boss Voronetsky and the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself Makeya together with the mister Russian unfortunate ambassador Surikov and the entire Moscow leadership of the flawed " Rossotrudnichestvo ».
One of the most worthy responses to "Brutal History", which forestalled the very emergence of a neurolinguistic "masterpiece", is article-report all the samementionedformer brain of the analytical ideology of the Presidential Administration, ProfessorL.E. Krishtapovich "The myth of the existence of the "Belarusian" gentry" confirming all of the above. The retrospective idea of the "Belarusian gentry" belongs to Polonophile crap lovers c.p. . XIX century and their heirs XX - XXI centuries: “Belarusian historian Mikhail Koyalovich noted in 1884 that the Poles seek to get along with the local people and win them over to their side. They speak of their respect for the Belarusian people and wish that this people develop and create their own script, print books in their own language. But at the same time they say that only the Polish nationality is a creative people and should move to the East, while a Belarusian, receiving an education, should become a Pole. Thus, behind all this imaginary concern of the Polish gentry about the Belarusians, the same Polish chauvinism with its anti-Belarusian policy was hiding - the restoration of Poland within the borders of 1772.
In reality, “The whole hitch is that there was no “Belarusian” gentry either in the 18th or 19th centuries on the territory of Belarus ... The absence of the Belarusian gentry proper as the upper class in the then society on the territory of Belarus was due to the peculiarity of the historical development of our land ... The specificity of the formation of the Belarusian nationality over a long historical development was expressed in the fact that by the middle of the 17th century the Belarusian people consisted only of the lower class - peasants and petty bourgeois - and lost the upper class - the gentry ... She became Polonized and became Catholic . Already in the petition of the Lviv Orthodox Brotherhood to the Russian Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich dated June 15, 1592, the denationalization of the Orthodox Russian gentry is said with sadness. “Because in the Polish countries we find ourselves in great sorrows, and all the noble ones have fallen into various other faiths; we, as having no shelter, flow to you, merciful, quiet and trustworthy. ". And the famous author of the Slavic Grammar, Melety Smotrytsky, in his famous Frinos, or Lament of the Eastern Church (1610), finally states the death of the upper class of the Russian people, who died in Polonism, Latinism and Jesuitism. “Where is now,” asks Meletiy Smotrytsky, “the house of the princes of Ostrozhsky, who excelled everyone in the bright brilliance of his ancient Orthodox faith? ?" The upper (Russian) class disappeared, it was denationalized. Only peasants and philistines remained Russian in their mentality. Only the Polish gentry, ethnically alien to the Belarusian people, remained, which economically, administratively, ideologically dominated White Rus' until the October Revolution of 1917.
And the general conclusion already familiar to us in meaning, summing up the entire study of the Polish-gentry root of the entire current ideological strategy of the pro-Westerndomesticelites for the restructuring of the national-historical self-consciousness of Belarusians: « In their struggle against the all-Russian nature of the Belarusian people, the falsifiers of national history constructed a myth about the "Belarusian" gentry. The purpose of this falsification by replacing the Polish gentry with the "Belarusian" gentry is to oppose Belarusians and Russians on cultural, civilizational and mental grounds and present the Polish uprisings at the end of the 18th century and in the 19th century as a "Belarusian" national movement. Why is our history being falsified? Then to destroy the civilizational unity of the Belarusian and Russian peoples, deprive the Belarusians of their all-Russian root base, impose on the Belarusians anti-Russian views on our all-Russian history and thereby realize dehistoricization Belarusian national identity in order to transfer it to the position of alien historical, more precisely, anti-historical fabrications. By falsifying our past, the goal is to deprive us of the present and the future. As a result, the Belarusian people, deprived of their history, which includes the past, present and future, becomes a convenient material for the implementation of anti-Russian and anti-Belarusian ideas in today's world... And here a natural question arises. What are the falsifiers of national history counting on when they replace the Polish gentry with the "Belarusian" gentry?... The falsifiers, who break their foreheads in front of the so-called European values, praying to the Western showcase, are real Pharisees both in politics and in culture. They correctly realize that under a certain set of circumstances, power may be in their hands. With their historical falsifications, on the one hand, they further destroy the self-consciousness of our people and thereby make it more susceptible to the perception of anti-national tales on the topic that the Radziwills are Belarusian princes, and on the other hand, if they suddenly find themselves in power, they prepare an ideological platform to justify anti-historical policy of the Polish chauvinists. Turns out , the Polish gentry and the "Belarusian" gentry are one and the same, and therefore the Belarusian society should treat Russia as an enemy country and in every possible way support the restoration of Poland from sea to sea. This is the ideological background of the creation of the myth about the existence of the "Belarusian" gentry ».
Panteleimon Filippovich