# The historical jazz of the Karamzin's colleague under the shadow of the Livonian War and the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A historical essay

Henry de Overwood

MMMDXLIII. The historical jazz of the Karamzin's colleague under the shadow of the Livonian War and the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A historical essay. - September 21, 2024.

The historical jazz of the Karamzin's colleague under the shadow of the Livonian War and the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A historical essay.


Late night (from September 20th to September 21st, 2024) I heard a radio program about Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1530 - 1584).


It was more or less natural to hear complimentary remarks about the historian Nikolay Karamzin (1766-1826).


(Under the wise leadership of Emperor Alexander the First, the grandson of Empress Catherine II, - she carried out the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita), with the simultaneous liquidation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (December 14 (25), 1795), - Nikolay Karamzin created a special historical concept - under the (book) cover of a huge historical work.


(The murder of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania took place in the dead of historical night, in the historical darkness and in the silence of the victim, with practically no external witnesses and without unnecessary noise; a huge state with complex legal and political systems, with a significant and diverse state apparatus, with a diverse population, seemed to disappear into nowhere, as if it did not exist).


The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were made (by the historian Karamzin) "transparent", almost invisible.


The notion "Grand Duchy of Lithuania" was replaced (substituted) by the notion of "Lithuania".


The notion "Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth" was replaced (substituted) by two notions: by the notion of "Poland" or by the notion of "Lithuania".


These substitutions were made in order to purge from the historical memory of the Russial population a long period of life in forms close in many characteristics to the pan-European ones.


Disenfranchisement (lack of rights), submission, and defenselessness before the authorities became not one of the possible options, but a not-alternative form of existence. The Romanov dynasty also became "uncontested".).


The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) was mentioned once. Naturally, not a word about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which included the lands of Kievan Rus, the lands that managed to escape the yoke of the Mongol conquerors. Karamzin's colleague did not mention this yoke, but was there anything wrong with this yoke? And the postal service? And borrowing all sorts of useful things? (However, it is difficult to recall these useful things). The most useful effect was the tradition of complete disenfranchisement (tradition of lack of rights), absolute submission of the population, and defenselessness of the population before the authorities.


The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was mentioned once (or two or three times; although without the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), and Novgorod, the Novgorod Republic (a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries), was not mentioned at all, as I understood it.


In general, it is not worth talking about the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - in connection with the era of Ivan IV, otherwise you can accidentally mention the University of Krakow (the Jagiellonian University; founded in 1364) and the University in Vilna (Vilnius) - the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (this University was founded in 1579). The inhabitants of Novgorod (which was part of the sphere of activity and influence of the Hanseatic League), it must be admitted, were literate people (they could read, write; archaeologists still find birch bark writings; everyone reads them with pleasure, and everyone talks about them with delight), but they, the inhabitants of the Novgorod Republic, were passing along with other wards are other universities (for example, the massacre of Novgorod in 1570: the Volkhov River was flooded with corpses; more people died from the subsequent terrible famine - more than at (from) the hands of the oprichniks).


And by 1917, Russia arrived with a massively illiterate population. Lunacharsky, Krupskaya, Dzerzhinsky, Krzhizhanovsky (and others) got down to wide social efforts, and by the end of the 30s of the 20th century, the Russial population for the most part became literate.


And not only with the mass illiteracy of the population, but also with several lost wars, for example, the wars of 1853-1856, 1877-1878, 1904-1905. There were, of course, positive prospects in the First World War, especially in the spring of 1917, when the United States entered it. However, until the spring of 1917, many were dissatisfied with the course of military operations, there were no special successes on the western battle lines, on the contrary, many were disappointed...


Very briefly, a few words were said on the radio program about the Livonian War (1558-1583). But nothing especially bad happened, Russian state lost some of the outlying lands. Is the outskirts a something valuable?


And the Baltic coast, which belonged to Novgorod? And why talk about such loss? It is necessary to feed everyone with Pushkin's words "about the window to Europe that was cut through by Peter," and this phrase is enough for simpletons.


The son of Ivan IV, - such idea was explained to us in the radio program, - he restored the situation, he regained the outskirts lost by Russia during the Livonian War.


And why was the almost endless Great Northern War (1700-1721) necessary? (Peter the Great won this war, and Russia has returned the direct access to the Baltic Sea).


Karamzin's colleague did not say anything about the reason for the Livonian War. An uncomfortable topic.


Karamzin's colleague came very close to the version according to which Ivan the IV descended from Genghis Khan along one of the lines. The participant of the radio broadcast did not voice this version himself, but he said that in that era, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the idea of a new Large Yurt' was in the air. (a Yurt' - in the meaning of "a form of social, state organization"). This idea, as we learned (from the radio broadcast), was implemented in a new form by Russia, but Russia became not a (new) Big (Large) Yurt', but a Third Rome and a Second Jerusalem.


What does Karamzin's colleague offer us to be proud of?


(1) Makaryev Sobors (1547 and 1549) (somehow they are not very widely known, but ... we will be proud ... if it is necessary),


(2) The capture of Astrakhan and the everything related to such action (it is difficult to even imagine how much goods were coming through Astrakhan at that time. But we will try to imagine it and we will be proud)...


If I understood correctly from the radio broadcast, then the biblical King Saul did not repent, but elements of repentance were visible in position, in views of Ivan the IV (at the end of his life).


Maybe Karamzin's colleague told us that the Livonian War (and other interconnected events) were followed by the famine, wars, and a Time of Troubles? I didn't hear that (from him).


In this essay, I did not set out the task of expressing my personal opinion about Ivan the IV.


I don't know if the invited figures are getting payments for their radio efforts. But even if they don't get payments, then a radio appearance is a kind of application for a rating upgrade. Some people can invite a speaker - a figure who has shown himself in a right way - to participate in the preparing of a new history textbook - but this is also an important matter and a task paid for from public funds. Moreover, this is a creative activity, and restrictions on additional income for civil officials may not apply to receiving money for the preparation of history textbooks. Actually, the money may be enough for civil servants and for historical professors - Karamzin's colleagues.


("Enjoy, bratva, while there is botva!" - a historical research has established that such a proverb was in use at the Khitrov marketplace (Khitrovka) in Moscow).


("(If) You won't cheat, you won't sell" is a modern folk wisdom).


September 21, 2024 02:43


Translation from Russian into English: September 22, 2024 19:11

Владимир Владимирович Залесский ' Исторический джаз Карамзинского коллеги под тенью Ливонской войны и раздела Речи Посполитой. Историческая заметка '.


{ 3572. Исторический джаз Карамзинского коллеги под тенью Ливонской войны и раздела Речи Посполитой. Исторический очерк. - 21 сентября 2024 года.

MMMDXLIII. The historical jazz of the Karamzin's colleague under the shadow of the Livonian War and the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A historical essay. - September 21, 2024.


Vladimir Zalessky Internet-bibliotheca. Интернет-библиотека Владимира Залесского. }