No Picture
History

The 1655 Union of Kėdainiai: from Poland to Sweden

Because of Moscow’s aggression against the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth that started in 1654, when the aggressor obtained considerable achievements and successfully continued its marches the following year, Sweden also decided to cut off a slice of the spoils from the collapsing state. In the summer of 1655, Swedish Armies invaded Poland from the West and threatened to invade Lithuania from the North. […]

Lukiškių Square
History

The development of the Lukiškės suburb during the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Lukiškės, which today is part of the city centre of Vilnius, for a long time was one of the oldest suburbs of the city, or to be more precise, a settlement near the city. It is a territory with one of the most unclearly defined territories in the city that has caused a number of conflicts and problems, which was fated to sooner or later become a part of the city due to its location. […]

Cossacks
History

The Chmelnitsky Uprising and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

In early 1648, a Cossack uprising led by Bogdan Chmelnitsky broke out in Polish-ruled Ukraine, which the country’s leaders did little to suppress. As was usual in the first half of the 17th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania did not keep a standing army, only garrison units in Smolensk and Daugpilis. Whenever the threat of war loomed, it had to form a new army from scratch each time, so the private armies of the nobles were always the first to go into war, and were only later joined by conscripts. […]