ENContemporary Belarusian historiography originating from the se cond half of the 1980s includes the issue of ethnical and political nature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) in the canon of the national history topics as defi ned by Rainer Lindner (2003: 445). The objectives of our historiographical reviewdo not include analysis ofthe Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s origin concepts. However, these works have a directrelation to our subject, and therefore the conceptual provisions of such studies shall be noted.