LIETUVOS DIDŽIOSIOS KUNIGAIKŠTYSTĖS SIENŲ STEPĖSE XIV–XVI AMŽIUJE SAMPRATA
The conception of territorial borders in steppes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th–16th centuries

Summary/Abstract: One of the significant indicators of the statehood of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the GDL) in the 14th–16th centuries was the process of state formation. Borderline delimitation agreements among the neighbor states show the development of this process: it legally embeded the dependence of the territories. In the 14th–15th centuries, especially under the rule of the king Vytautas the Great, the GDL covered a wide territory “from the Baltic to the Black Sea”. The structure of the territory was eclectic; there was also a dualism of the political core and periphery. The outer lands reached the coast of the Black Sea (Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia, Bratslav territories). The difficulty in explaining the integration of these territories in the common GDL spatial system depends not only on being them a political periphery, but also because of the specific steppes’ ecosystem. The latter influenced the lifestyle of the people, their social and political development. In the diplomatic affairs, a mix of the GDL domination nature in the settled territories and of the conception of the political authority around the nomad tatars is noticeable. The research of the state formation in the steppes detects the evolution of the delimitation concept between the reasons and amount of the political connection with the governed territories. The steppes were a natural barrier that separated the GDL from the other countries for a long time. The way of life there was usually nomadic. The GDL nearly reached the Black Sea under the rule of the Vytautas the Great. At the same time, the conception of the abstract borders with Moldova and Tartars showed up: the border matched the Dnieper and Dniester rivers till the Black Sea. In the 15th–16th century tatar khan jarligs, granting lands to the governing of the GDL, are mentioned as units with the pointed main centers. The “limit” mentioned in the jarligs is the Dnieper river watercourse from Kiev up to the Black Sea. The “border” for the nomads wasn’t so relevant as for the sedentary inhabitants. In the second half of the 15th century, there appeared the description of the “Semen Olelkovich (Simonas Olelkaitis) borders”, was which probably initiated by the ruling elite of the GDL. The political situation in steppes changed in the end of the 15th – the beginning of the 16th centuries. The khan’s self-government was formed in the outskirts of the colonized territories, and the conception of the “outskirt castle” appeared. Steppes spread behind these fortresses. In 1538, this territory was captured by the Ottomans. In the beginning of the fifth decade of the 16th century, the delimitation processes between the GDL and the Ottoman Empire took place, according to which the latter got the unpopulated steppes.

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