600th anniversary of Grunwald victory

Dwellers of Polatsk and Mstislau went to the battle of Grunwald, but it was the Belarusians who came out of the battle.

600 years ago, on July 15, 1410, the battle of Grunwald took place. The Belarusians made their great contribution to the victory.

Historian Anatol Taras told Rado Svabda about the heroic events of those years on an anniversary of the glorious date.

– You have mainly studied the Belarusian-Russian historical relations. What did inspire you on writing a book about the Battle of Grunwald?

– We should popularize the outstanding evens and figures of the Belarusian history. Grunwald is an excellent victory. It has a great impact on the history of our country as a part of ht Great Duchy of Lithuania, Rzeczpospolita and even the Russian Empire. We need to popularize the victories and achievements, prominent people so that one cannot say the Belarusians lived n poverty and illiteracy in many centuries.

Upbringing of the youth, upbringing of the nation should base on outstanding events, achievements, on the thing we can be proud of. The Battle of Grunwald is the most important event.

– A defeat is a orphan, but any victory has many parents. 100 years ago, a monument to Jogaila was erected in Krakow. Jogaila rides a horse and Vytautas found his place under the horse’s hooves. It was an attitude to the Battle of Grunwald in Poland 100 years ago. How do Polish historians treat the battle today?

– They haven’t changed their treatment. They say ancestors of the Belarusians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians took part in the battle, but the Poles played the most important role. Read Sienkiewicz, he wrote about this. Poles were fighting like lions, the rest were just present. Poland, Poland, and again Poland. That’s all. Every nationalist should think in such a way. The Belarusians should learn many things from the Poles, because we a re so shy to speak about great role of the Belarusians in history. Belarus and Belarusians were participants of a large number of historical events.

– If we learn from the Poles, we should erect a monument of Vytautas riding a horse with Jogailo under the hooves…

– It won’t be our style. We need to seek objectivity in scientific researches. But if we speak about propaganda for masses, we should act like the Poles. Who cares about the details? People don’t need this.

– The Lithuanians also claim victory in the battle. Let us not go deep. Just tell the number of banners in the field representing the territory of today’ Belarus and today’s Lithuania.

– The figures are very simple. 23 banners represented the lands of modern Belarus. These were the lands of Orsha, Ashmyany, Brest, Bykhau, Vaukavysk, Vitsebsk, Hrodna, Drahichyn, Drutsk, Zaslauye, Kobryn, Krychau, Kreva, Lida, Lukoml, Mahilou, Minsk, Mstislau, Navahrudak, Nyasvizh, Pinsk, Polatsk, Slonim and Slutsk. Eights banners represented the historical Belarusian territory, the lands of Vilnius, Medininkai, Melnik, Smolensk, Staradub, and Trakai. Present-day Lithuania sent three banners from the lands of Vilkmerge, (now Ukmerge), Kovno (now Kaunas), Uzpol (Ukmerge district). Only one banner was under command of Samogitian Javnis, the other commanders were our ancestors.

– You write that dwellers of Polatsk, Hrodna, Vitsebsk, Mstislau went to the Battle of Grunwald, but it was the Belarusians who came out. Is this right to call those people Belarusians?

– It is right to use this term in popular works. Our ancestors had different names, so what? They remain our ancestors. Alyaksei Mikulich showed in his book “Belarusians in Genetic Area” that our ancestors haven’t changed genetically and anthropologically over 3000 years. This land is the ancient territory of the Belarusians. There wasn’t such a name in those times. So what? We have the right to say so to popularize or historical conceptions.