Lithuanian Expansion into Ukraine

The flow and timing of events worked to Ukraine’s disadvantage in the 14th century. Precisely at the time when it was sinking to a political, economic, and cultural low point, Ukraine’s neighbors – Lithuania, Poland, and Muscovy – were on the rise.

Among the first to take advantage of the opportunities that beckoned were the Lithuanians. In the mid 13th century, their relatively primitive, pagan and warlike tribes were united by Prince Mindaugas (Mendvog) in order to withstand the pressure of the Teutonic Order of the German crusader-colonizers that established itself on the Baltic shores. From this struggle the Lithuanians emerged stronger and more united than ever. In the early decades of the 14th century, under the leadership of Grand Prince Gediminas (Gedymin) they moved into Belorussia. And in the 1340s, during the reign of his son Algirdas (Olgerd), who flatly proclaimed, “All Rus’ simply must belong to the Lithuanians,” they pushed into Ukraine.¹

By the 1350s, Algirdas extended his sovereignty over the petty principalities on the left bank of the Dnieper and in 1362 his troops occupied Kiev.

One ought not imagine the Lithuanian takeover of Ukrainian lands in terms of a violent invasion by hordes of fierce foreigners. Actually penetration, co-option, and annexation are more appropirate descriptions of the manner in which the goal-oriented Lithuanian dynasty extended its hold over the Slavic principalities. Frequently, Algirdas’s forces, which consisted largely of his Ukrainian subjects or allies, were welcomed as they advanced into Ukraine. When fighting did occur, it was usually directed against the Golden Horde. Unfortunately, because of the dearth of sources from this period, historians have been unable to establish the details of the Lithuanian expansion. Nonetheless, there is general agreement on the major reasons for the rapid and easy successes.

First and foremost, for the Ukrainians, especially those in the Dnieper region, the overlordship of the Lithuanians was preferable to the pitiless, exploitive rule of the Golden Horde. Secondly, because they were too few to control their vast acquisitions – most of the Grand Principality of Lithuania consisted of Ukrainian lands – the Lithuanians co-opted local Ukrainian nobles and allowed them to rise to the highest levels of government. This policy greatly encouraged the Ukrainian elite to join the Lithuanian “bandwagon.” Finally, unlike the Tatars of the Golden Horde, the Lithuanians were not perceived as being completely alien. Still pagan and culturally underdeveloped when they expanded into Belorussia and Ukraine, their elite quickly fell under the cultural influence of their Slavic subjects.

Map 10 Polish and Lithuanian expansion

So thoroughly did the Lithuanian rulers adapt to the local conditions in Belorussia and Ukraine that within a generation or two they looked, spoke, and acted much like their Riurikid predecessors. Indeed, they came to view their expansion as a mission “to gather the lands of Rus’” and used this rationale long before Moscow, their emerging competitor for the Kievan heritage, also adopted it. It was for this reason that the Ukrainian historian Hrushevsky argued that the Kievan traditions were more completely preserved in the Grand Principality of Lithuania than in Muscovy.³ Other Ukrainian historians even claimed that the Grand Principality of Lithuania was actually a reconstituted Rus’ state rather than a foreign entity that engulfed Ukraine.⁴