Wiele historii jednego państwa: obraz dziejów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego do 1569 roku w ujęciu historyków polskich, rosyjskich, ukraińskich, litewskich i białoruskich w XIX wieku

ENThe 19th century was a time when the science of history flourished greatly. The development of research standards, discoveries and publications of new source materials and popularisation of methodological reflection had made history a real science. It was also the time when history or, as a matter of fact, historians writing it became the creators of collective memory being the most important - besides of language, religion and own state, if there was such a case - factor consolidating the emerging at that time national com munities and communities of inhabitants of one state. On the pages of their own books historians gave the answers to fundamental questions concerning historical tradition of their own community, its right to its lands, its position in the contemporary world. The answers that were of special importance at the time when history of many communities - already formed or in a state of formation - was associated with the same region or state. In Central Europe a prime example of such a state with the history of which many communi ties associated their past was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The example is the more interesting because in the 19th century that state did not exist any longer, thus the interpretations of its history put forward in the 19th century did not make the memory of a community - a heir of the state, since such had not formed itself, but made the memory of it a part of a collective memory of the communities related to it or created on its former territories: Polish one - related to it in the past; Russian - holding dominion over it at the present time; and Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belarusian - formed in its territories. These memories not only differed greatly but also - as in the case of the Polish and Russian ones - were mutually exclusive.Historians of each created their own visions of the Duchy’s past in accordance both with current objectives and aspirations of national communities or states they represen ted, and at the same time with their own methodological ideas or political opinions. In consequence, the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was presented in many various ways. The present book analyses the most important depictions - these with the greatest impact on the shape of historical memory of the contemporaries - formulated in the 18th and 19th century by Polish, Russian, Ukrainian And Belarusian historians. However, special attention was paid to the opinions of Polish and Russian historians, since they represented the most developed historiographies, and at the same time the radically different perspectives. On the very concrete and important example I have revealed how diffe rent could be scientific interpretations of the same facts and processes presen ted by historians representing different methodological approaches, political opinions and also representing different national historiographies. I have also shown that many of interpretational attitudes developed in the 19th century still influence the depictions formulated nowadays. It is worthwhile then to gain a better understanding of contemporary science to return to its roots.