Editors’ foreword

Abstract

Dear readers!

Since the 16th century, when the Baltic region became an arena of fierce rivalry between a number of European powers (the “Battle for the Baltic”), it has become an object of attention for historians – first Livonian and then others. At present, it continues to exist in this capacity, invariably present in the field of both public and scientific discourse, which provide for the historicization of many modern ideas about the economic, socio-political and cultural development of this region, located at the junction of Western, Northern and Eastern Europe and which received pan-European recognition in the Middle Ages and early modern period (until the mid-17th century). The popularity of the Baltic theme among historians is based on  the scale and duration – from the “Viking Age” to the present day – of its presence as an international and interstate contact zone, the study of which, in fact, is what the “Caurus” scientific journal is intended to promote. The collection of articles by Russian and foreign historians contained in its previous issues corresponds to the general methodological focus of modern Baltic historical research, which presupposes a significant expansion of their thematic and problematic format by attracting diverse sources, original analytical approaches and the competent use of historical context. The latter is also important because the dynamic development of historical science often forces researchers to face a wide field of interpretations and treatments of various historical phenomena, where the historical context helps to navigate and identify the degree of their objectivity.

A narrow focus on the subject under study without taking the circumstances that accompanied it into account, even those that seem insignificant or peripheral at first glance, usually reduces the effectiveness of historical analysis and is fraught with erroneous conclusions. In this regard, one cannot but agree with the opinion of the outstanding French historian of the Lucien Febvre, who argued that the culture of memory, the main  vocation of the professional historian, presupposes constant self-renewal, expressed not only in the construction of mental models of social behavior of people of the past, but also the elimination, sometimes extremely painful, of outdated historiographical cliches. The success of resolving this dual task directly depends on the volume and quality of scientific research in a particular area of ​​historical knowledge. In order to optimize this process when studying the medieval and modern history of the Baltic region countries, the editorial board offers articles of various thematic focus, and strives within the framework of one issue to form quite definite plot composition.

Based on these considerations, it was decided to devote this issue to certain moments in the history of the Teutonic (German) Order and its division in Livonia, better known in Russian historiography as the Livonian Order. The choice of topic was determined mainly by the rather limited successes in its studying in Russian historiography, within which, using the words of the Estonian historian P. Raudkivi, the Order theme, as it has been since the times of the Soviet Union, “if it was not banned, then the attitude towards it was clearly and unambiguously defined: until recently, it has had a system of contrasts “black-white”, “bad-good” – problem-free and easy to apply.”^[1]. The revision of the Russian historians’ attitude to the spiritual and knightly orders, which played an important part in the history of the medieval Baltics, is dictated by the times, since without this it is impossible to reconsider the legacy of the extremely ideological “political historiography”, as well as to eliminate the enormous lag of Russian historical science in this regard from Western European colleagues[2]. At the same time, we are referring not to borrowing other people’s work, but rather to our own achievements in the study of the Order Prussia and the Livonian Order in different contexts of time.

 This issue opens with an article by Yu. N. Kezhi from Belarusian State University “Social ties between political actors in the Baltic Territory in the late 12th – early 13th centuries (according to the “Chronicle of Livonia”). The article is devoted to the initial stage of the formation of a special, “confederate” form of statehood in Old Livonia during its German and Danish conquest in the 1280s – 1320s, which is presented in the light of one of the most famous Livonian narrative monuments, the “Chronicle of Henry of Latvia” (Heinrici Cronicon Lyvoniae). The researcher focuses on the mechanism of establishing contacts between the main figures of Livonia feudal development of the specified period – the Riga Bishop Albert and other representatives of the Livonian episcopate, the spiritual and knightly order of the Brothers of the Sword, the Danish King Valdemar II, the princes of Polotsk and Pskov, in the context of their interactions with local tribal leaders. The construction of a complex system of relationships between them, which included the exchange of gifts, the formation of political alliances, and relations of political mediation, contributed significantly to the stabilization of the situation in the region and became an integral part of the historical entourage, imparting additional nuances to the preventive phase of state building in the Eastern Baltic, associated with the emergence of the so-called herrschaften or feudal estates.

The internal organization of the Teutonic Order, which largely predetermined the success of the formation of the Order states of Prussia and Livonia, is the subject of the study by A. S. Kotov (Tomsk State University) “The German Order officials movement in the 13th – first quarter of the 16th centuries through the prism of visualization methods”. The attitude to the spiritual and knightly order as a power institution that predetermined the main definitions of the Order states forces us to turn to the functional features of its knightly brotherhood. The knight brothers of the Teutonic Order, who acted as managers (officials) of the Order-Landsherr (sovereign), formed within it a hierarchical, balanced, effectively functioning management corps, on which the functioning of all the Order corporate and state structures depended to a large extent. In the process of studying the Order’s administrative institutions, the author of the article draws attention to the nature of the order officials’ career growth and the dynamics of their movement from position to position in the 13th – early 16th centuries, trying to identify their patterns and functionality within the Order’s state. The lack of information on career advancement in the Order, which is contained in written sources, is compensated for by the visualization method underlying the recently developed Gephi-matrix. It allows to describe the career advancement of the knights of the Order using prosopographical tables of graphs constructed on their basis, samples of which are presented. Among the data provided, unique indicators are distinguished for determining the degree of stability of official appointments, allowing one to problematize the formal intra-order hierarchy, identify and interpret the most stable career trajectories.

Continuing the theme of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, F. D. Podberezkin (Belarusian State University) turns to the personality of Margrave Dietrich von Landsberg and the motives for his trip to Prussia to participate in the crusade of 1272 organized by the Order. The answer to the question “Why did Dietrich von Landsberg go to Prussia?”, which is included in the title of the article, is given taking the crusading customs of the Wettin dynasty and the Meissen Margraviate into account, as well as the conflict situation in which the hero of the essay found himself on the eve of his trip. A quarrel with his father, Margrave Henry the Illustrious, as well as with the Bishop of Merseburg, Friedrich von Torgau, because of whom Dietrich was proclaimed a “persecutor of the Church”, as well as problems with the legitimization of the Margraviate of Landsberg, which contradicted imperial law, prompted Dietrich to seek a way out of the situation in acquiring the title of a crusader and a “good Christian”, which he completely succeeded in doing. The example of the landgrave, who solved his purely secular problems, in no way connected with the Order, serves as proof that already during the period of the highest flourishing of the crusader movement in the Baltics, religious motivations in the behavior of noble crusaders gave way to mundane considerations and participation in the affairs of the Teutonic Order turned into a kind of “symbolic capital” that helped solve problems with family and the Church.

The Livonian division of the Teutonic Order has been studied much less thoroughly than the Order in Prussia due to objective reasons (primarily due to the relative scarcity of surviving documentary material) and is therefore often presented as an exclusively military organization that posed a threat to the northwestern Russian lands. M. B. Bessudnova and V. A. Yakunina (Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University) oppose this point of view in their article “Narva in the economic system of the Livonian Order state: towards the formulation of the problem”. The researchers turned to the problem of the economic structure of the Livonian Order state, which they consider through the prism of the trade and entrepreneurial activity of Narva as a small city under the Order’s subordination. It is particularly stressed that the attention of the Order’s vogts to its economic situation was predetermined by their personal responsibility for meeting the needs of the Order castle and the city, which, given their border location, was of great strategic importance. This forced the employees of the Order to practice various forms of entrepreneurship, although the limited resources of the Order’s domain economy in the district (gebitt) of Narva and the little support from other Livonian cities forced the leadership of the Livonian Order and the vogts representing its interests to focus on Narva’s external trade, in particular, on its Russian trade. By granting Narva trade privileges and patronage from the vogts, the Order managed to strengthen the economic position of Narva and its role in the Russian-Hanseatic trade, which partly compensated for its lack of Hanseatic status, the restrictions on its trade from the Hanseatic cities of Livonia, and also ensured close cooperation between the Order and municipal authorities. During periods of heightened Russian-Livonian tensions, Narva’s non-Hanseatic status was used by its administration for trade in violation of the Hanseatic ban on trade with Russians, thereby contributing to the transformation of Narva into a stronghold of Russian-Livonian informal or “unusual” trade. The vogts guaranteed the uninterrupted supply of Russian export goods to Narva bypassing Reval and the Hanseatic League by protecting Russian-Livonian merchant transactions both at the local level and at the level of the Reval magistrate.

The article by E.V. Salmina and S.A. Salmin (Archaeological Centre of the Pskov Region) “The Estate of the “Lnyanik” (Flax Handler): Archaeological Research of the Flax Processing Complex of the 16th-17th Centuries in the Petrovsky End of Pskov” goes beyond the context of the Order but is important for understanding the significance of the Russian Northwest economy for the development of trade contacts with the adjacent Livonian territories. The export of flax through Pskov and Livonia to the markets of Western Europe, which increased significantly as a result of the Order’s leadership opening a road between the Order city of Marienburg (Aluksne) and Pskov for Russian trade, was an important factor in interstate relations during the late Middle Ages and the New Age. In this regard, the authors of the article raised the issue of flax processing in Pskov, using written and archaeological evidence to solve the problem, in particular, excavation materials from a city courtyard with a complex of structures for flax processing (soaking pits with arrays of flax husks, structures for flowing flax mass, sheds for primary drying). Since the activities of the courtyard owners remained associated with flax processing for more than a century, it was named the Estate of the “Lnyanik” (Flax Handler). The stable nature of production indicates the high profitability of flax processing despite price instability, unfavorable weather conditions, periodic blocking of trade routes due to military or political circumstances, etc. The location of this site in close proximity to the Flax Gostiny Dvor (Market Yard) suggests that the owners of estates similar to the the Estate of the “Lnyanik” (Flax Handler) not only supplied their own commercial products there, but also processed flax raw materials delivered there by other persons.

The Chronicle section contains an overview of the All-Russian scientific conference with international participation, the Sixth Leichoudes Studies, on the topic of European Traditions in the History of Higher Education in Russia: from the Pre-University Model to Universities, which was held on April 18–20, 2024, at the Humanities Institute of the Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University with the participation of the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve and the Russian National Library. The topics of the Studies were traditionally devoted to studying the activities and scientific legacy of the brothers Ioannikios and Sophronios Leichoudes, the history of the educational institutions they created in Russia, the traditions of education and book culture in Russia and abroad, from the Middle Ages to the New Age. In total, the conference program included 53 reports by historians, philologists, philosophers, teachers, archivists, librarians, graduate and undergraduate students from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Pskov, Ufa, Tambov, Tver, Lipetsk, Arzamas, Veliky Novgorod, as well as scholars from Beijing and Vienna. The Sixth Likhudov Studies were dedicated to the anniversary of Distinguished Employee of Novgorod State University, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor Inna Lvovna Grigorieva, who was the initiator and organizer of three Likhudov Studies conferences at Novgorod State University (1998, 2001, 2010), the creator of a research group in Veliky Novgorod studying the history of Russian education and books, as well as the prehistory of Novgorod State University.

M. B. Bessudnova, A. V. Ushakov

[1] Raudkivi P. Historia zakonu inflanckiego jako część historii Łotwy i Estonii. (XIII w. – 1. połowa XVI w.) // Ekspansja niemieckich zakonów rycerskich w strefie Baltyku od XIII do polowy XVI wieku. Toruń, 1990. S. 86.

[2] Бессуднова М. Б. Ливонский орден в современной зарубежной историографии // Средние века. Вып. 79/1. 2018. С. 103–125.