LITHUANIAN STUDIES OF JULIUSZ BARDACH (1914–2010)

Abstract

The article analyzes the scientific achievements of the scientist-historian Juliusz Bardach (1914–2010), one of the most famous researchers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is indicated that his life path and scientific interests are closely related to the territories united within the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is noted that the formation of the scientific profile of Juliusz Bardach was influenced by well-known researchers of the history of law – Stefan Ehrenkreutz, Jan Adamus and the medievalist Henry Lovmianskyi. The first scientific explorations of the scientist in Lithuanian studies appeared already in the interwar period during his studies at the Stefan Batory Vilnius University. In the future, Lithuanian studies occupied a prominent place in the researcher’s scientific output, although the spectrum of his scientific interests included issues of the history of the state and law, historiography, historical methodology. The scientist was a co-author of generalizing works on the specified problems and individual studies. Using the achievements of Lithuanian studies in the Polish historiography of the interwar period, Juliusz Bardach expanded the research issues, analyzed known and introduced previously unstudied historical sources into scientific circulation, offering his own vision of source studies problems. He paid main attention to the functioning of the political and social mechanism of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the social structure of the population, the causes and consequences of the union processes, the history of the codification of Lithuanian law. Applying mainly positivist methodological approaches, the scientist showed the dynamics of the formation of territorial boundaries and state-building processes on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, analyzed the status of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the conclusion of the Union of Kreva and Lublin. The historian noted that some of the Lithuanian princes, starting with Vytautas, opposed the incorporation of Lithuania into Poland. Therefore, the Union of Kreva did not form a single state. Lithuania and Poland actually existed independently with their own legal norms. The only thing that united them was the person of the monarch. Instead, the Union of Lublin, despite the resistance of the Lithuanian princes, led to the incorporation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Kingdom of Poland. The autonomous rights obtained by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were revealed – a separate organization of government, the judiciary, its own treasure and the army. Juliusz Bardakh claimed that the mentioned factors determined the degree of independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Union events were considered by him in the context of pan-European trends. It is indicated that the models of the state system formed by the Unions of Kreva and Lublin at that time were characteristic of other European countries. Analyzing Lithuanian statutes, the scientist claimed that these legal acts were one of the best examples of officially codified law in Europe at the time. They combined elements of customary law of a multi-ethnic state, written legal sources, Western European ideas of humanism. It is indicated that the scientific school of Juliusz Bardach produced a generation of Lithuanian researchers who continued the work of their teacher.