Baranavichy dwellers meet a history professor from Sweden (photos)

The Movement for Freedom (MFF) activists arranged the presentation of the book by Andrey Katlarchuk In the Shade of Poland and Russia.

On June 4, the Baranavichy town supporters of the MFF and the amateurs of national history arranged the meeting with the Sweden professor of history Andrey Katlarchuk.

Andrey Katlarchuk – a Belarusian by nationality – is the citizen of Sweden. He successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the problem of mutual relations between the Great Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden at the times of the European crisis of the 17th century.

Katlarchuk came to Baranavichy with the purpose to present his new book In the Shade of Poland and Russia. The author noted that the book mainly tells about the Kieydany Union of 1655 in accordance with which the Protestant Sweden became the main ally of the Belarusian Lithuania. The Great Duchy of Lithuania was actually occupied by the Russian army in the war of 1654-1667 between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Tzardom, and the tzar Aleksey Mikhaylovich declared himself the Great Kniaz of Lithuania. In order to save the state, Yanush and Bahuslau Radzivils and 1,134 representatives of the Belarusian nobility had to sign the Union with Sweden.

Katlarchuk who thoroughly researched historical archives of Vatican, Stockholm, Hamburg, London, Florence, and Paris, argues that the Kieydany Union of 1655 could have changed the balance of power in the entire Eastern Europe and, in particular, in the Baltic region. After this event, the entire Baltic coast was included in the borders of the Sweden Empire, and the Baltic sea became “Sweden’s inner lake”. Thus, owing to the Kieydany Union the Belarus-Lithuania (in contrast to the hetman Ukraine) remained on the map of Europe till 1795.

Katlarchuk answered the numerous questions of the meeting’s participants. At the end of the event, those who wished bought interesting books on the Belarusian history.

 

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