. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. CHAPTER UPPER DVINA AND NIEMEN BASINS. Lithuania (Litva), Grodno, Vitebsk. IKE that of Poland, the name of Lithuania is an historical expression, which has constantly shifted with the vicissitudes of treaties, con- quests, and partitions, and which must by no means be confounded with the " Land of the ; The term Litva comprises ethnologically but a very small portion of West Russia in the Dvina and Niémen basins, whereas Lithuania has been applied historically to a far more extensive region, whose rulers at one time aspir
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. CHAPTER UPPER DVINA AND NIEMEN BASINS. Lithuania (Litva), Grodno, Vitebsk. IKE that of Poland, the name of Lithuania is an historical expression, which has constantly shifted with the vicissitudes of treaties, con- quests, and partitions, and which must by no means be confounded with the " Land of the ; The term Litva comprises ethnologically but a very small portion of West Russia in the Dvina and Niémen basins, whereas Lithuania has been applied historically to a far more extensive region, whose rulers at one time aspired to become masters of all the Slav lowlands between the Baltic and Euxine. The Lithuanian princes, thus governing populations mostly of Russian stock, claimed also to be regarded as Russian sovereigns. Before its union with Poland the Lithuanian state reached across the continent from sea to sea, and in the fifteenth centurj^ the name was apjjlied to all the land between the Dvina and the Euxine, and between the Western Bug and the Oka. For the Muscovite Russians, the Minsk, Kiev, and Smolensk Slavs were at that time politically Lithuanians. But in the sixteenth century, after the final union with Poland, the expression " Principality of Lithuania " was restricted to the true Lithuania and to White Russia. Even still the custom prevails in Poland and Russia of calling Lithuanians the White Russians cf the old political Lithuania, distinguishing the Lithuanians proper by the term " ; After the dismemberment of Poland the provinces of Grodno and Yilna were still called Lithuania, and although its official use was proscribed in 1840, it has continued current to our times, being now somewhat vaguely applied to the three governments of Kovno, Vilna, and Grodno. The last named, formerly peopled by the Yatvaghes, presumably of Lithuanian stock, no longer belongs ethnographically to the Lithuanian domain, being now chiefly peopled by White and Little Russ
Size: 1524px × 1640px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
