Bitwa pod Grunwaldem w pracach historyków litewskich

Abstract

The author of the article explores the onomastic conceptions of the battle of Grunwald appearing in the Lithuanian literature. The name „Žalgirio mūšis,” which is a translation of the German “Grünwald” into Lithuanian, was adopted. The author discuses the works of the Lithuanian historians which were developed in a strong opposition to the Polish apprehension written by Karol Szajnocha. The main reason for the criticism of Szajnocha’s work, as well as of numerous other Polish studies, was that they uncritically adopted Długosz’s version about the Lithuanians’ abandonment of the battlefield. The Lithuanian historiography has always been sensitively reacting to any attempts of belittling the importance of the Lithuanian army and Vytautas’ role in the battle of Grunwald. Instead, the Lithuanian historians were developing a conception of a diversionary flight manoeuvre which was generally accepted before Sven Ekdahl published the famous letter of a Teutonic commander. For a long time, a thesis that the Polish army was unwilling to fight and the whole burden of combat in the battle of Grunwald was borne by the Lithuanians was prevailing in many works of the Lithuanian historians. The author shows that the tense Polish-Lithuanian relationships during the interwar period had influence on the historiography. The Lithuanian literature attaches much importance to the account of Bychowiec’s Chronicle which is usually disregarded by the Polish historians and considered rather unreliable. With the course of time, analyses of various aspects of the battle conducted mainly from the military point of view, started to appear (the place of the battle, the route of the march, the strength of the army, the art of the warfare and the course of the battle). Many aspects, i.e. the strength of the army, are still discussed in the works of the Lithuanian authors. In the most recent literature the issue of the diversionary flight manoeuvre still arouses controversy. The manoeuvre is almost commonly accepted as a historic fact, however, the historians dispute whether the Lithuanians culled it from the Tatars or was it an immanent feature of their art of warfare. The author concludes his article with a discussion of the latest treaties by M. Jučas, R. Batūra, E. Gudavičius, K. Gudmantas, R. Petrauskas. The significant role of the Lithuanians in the initial and final stages of the battle is contemporarily commonly accepted. The author concludes that for a long time the Lithuanian historiography has been presenting the battle of Grunwald as an epoch-making event that led to the destruction of the power of the Teutonic Order.