In the literature dealing with the history of Poland, one way or another, the word "gentry" is found. Most modern people have no idea what it is, but for the Poles the noble class has been an integral element of national pride for many centuries.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia in the third volume gives such a definition of the word "gentry" (pol. Szlachta, from ancient slata - breed, origin, genus) - in a number of Eastern European countries the name of the main part of the ruling feudal class, noble families of intellectuals who belonged to the elite of society ..
In Polish society, only persons of royal blood stood above the gentry. The gentry in the history of Poland is a noble class, the knights themselves or their descendants. Nominally, at the time of its appearance, the gentry represented the lower class of secular landowners - the knights. Soon, this class began to play an important role in Polish society and state.
The history of the formation of the gentry
At the beginning of the second millennium, a new rule for the appointment of knights appeared in Poland, which was not originally enshrined in written documents. The knights had to come from a certain clan, which would accept them into their ranks. The formation of clans took place on the basis of unification around powerful clans, which had extensive territorial possessions or great power in the country. Most of these clans accepted the Polish-speaking population; foreign knights, who wanted to join a noble family and thus secure a high position in society, came mainly from German lands and ended up in Poland as a result of expansion. Initially, the gentry did not have much influence on the political life of the country and was not very numerous, but over time it transformed into a powerful stratum of citizens, and by the 16th century Poland had the largest number of privileged citizens than any other European country. There were about 25 thousand noble families, which in total amounted to 6.7% of the total population of the country.
The Polish gentry was not homogeneous in its composition, it was divided into three unequal branches: the noble magnates, the middle gentry and the small gentry. Among the tycoons there were eight to ten families who owned the most important strategic territories in the state and held high positions in government. Among such genera the Pototskys and Radziwills can be distinguished. In addition to direct influence through senatorial posts and financial levers on state policy, they also had their own armies, which allowed them to actually feel unpunished, no matter what they did.
Each clan of those belonging to the middle gentry owned from one to six family land plots. They were not as rich as the magnates, but nevertheless, the bulk of clerical officials and other small managers in the state apparatus came out of this branch. The average gentry constituted approximately 10% of the entire gentry class.
The small gentry did not have significant land allotments. Their possessions were sometimes just part of the land. Bankrupt famous families often fell into this category, the lowest among the gentry. The main reason why all these people, who constituted about 70% of the gentry, could enjoy all the privileges of the gentry, consisted in the nobility of their origin and a good family tree. But after the Rzeczpospolita was divided between the Austrian state, Russian and Prussia, the gentry was obliged to prove documentarily its noble origin. However, most of the representatives of the small gentry did not have any written confirmation, and they were included in the list of estates subject to taxes, while losing, of course, their privileged position.
Systematic strengthening of the position of the gentry: privileges
For a long time, the gentry fought to increase their rights, in which they were gladly supported by the kings of Poland, trying, by expanding the privileges of the middle gentry, to reduce the power of the magnates, who actually seized all power in the state. The basis on which the power of the gentry was built were royal privileges and statutes (statutes).
In 1374, the ruler Louis of Anjou granted the nobility the Kosice privilege. According to its text, when carrying out military service, the gentry were exempted from paying all taxes, except for land taxes, established within the minimum limits. Also, the nobility was granted state positions as an exclusive right, that is, any legitimate nobleman could rightfully take a place in the government, moreover, not because of his personal merits, but only by birthright.
In 1433, Jagellon granted the right of personal inviolability to every nobleman. For murder, the death penalty or a fine was imposed, ten times higher than the fine for the murder of a person from any other class. The Cerekvitsky privileges, which received the final approval of the Neshava Statute in 1454, gave the gentry the right to change the country's legislative framework and influence the creation and approval of certain laws through the gentry Seimas.
Jan Olbracht in 1496 proclaimed the Petrkovsky privilege, which completely monopolized the land holdings for the gentry. In addition, the enslavement of the peasants was finally introduced. According to this privilege, the gentry class was also exempted from paying tax on goods imported from abroad. In fact, this opened the way for the monopolization of trade in foreign goods on the territory of Poland.
The year 1573 was marked by one of the most important extensions of gentry rights: Valois allowed them to take part in the royal elections. Thus, the political regime of Poland acquired the appearance of a gentry republic.
Throughout the history of Poland, the gentry played the role of not only a colossal political trigger, but also a cultural trigger, since all new trends penetrated the country precisely through the intellectual elite, which in Poland was the gentry.
And before the gentry in the states is revered
for the natural army, whose office is from Samago
age to old age to the sovereign and the state, not sparing
health and belly, to serve
V.N. Tatishchev. Conversation of two friends about the benefits of science and schools (1733)
1) Existing etymology
A) Wiktionary
Root: -shlyakht-; ending: -a. Meaning: a privileged estate in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, after the Union of Lublin in 1569, in the Commonwealth, as well as in some other states; in the Czech Republic (; lechta, Slovakia (Slachta), Poland, Belarus, Lithuania (Slekta) - nobility in general. Etymology - no.
B) Wikipedia (Polish), szlachta (Google translation)
In seventeenth century Poland from the German word wywodzono Schlachten (battle). … The existence of legal privileges, such as the right to bear arms, the right to own land and inviolability of property, the right to hold office or the right to vote, depend on the laws of the country and the privilege of the nobleman.
C) Wikipedia (Polish), Szlachta (Google translation)
* The term nobility derives from the Old High German word slahta (modern German Geschlecht), which means "(noble) family", just like many other Polish words pertaining to nobility are derived from German words - for example, the Polish "Rycerz" ( knight, cognate of German Ritter) and Polish "grass" (coat of arms, from German Erbe, heritage).
* Poles of the 17th century assumed that the "gentry" came from the German "schlachten" (slaughter or slaughter); also suggestive is the German "Schlacht" (battle). Early Polish historians thought that the term possibly derives from the name of the legendary Proto-Polish leader, Lech, is mentioned in Polish and Czech writings.
* "Gentry" became the correct term for the Polish nobility, starting from about the 15th century.
* Strong cultural ties with the Polish nobility led that in the 16th century a new term to name the Lithuanian nobility appeared slekta-a direct borrowing from the Polish gentry. In terms of historical truth, Lithuanians should also use this term, slekta (gentry), to call their own nobility, but Lithuanian linguists have banned the use of this Polish borrowing. This refusal to use the word gentry (in the Lithuanian language of the text slekta) complicates the whole naming.
D) Etymological Dictionary of Max Vasmer
I gentry, ukr., Bld. nobility, Old Russian gentry "petty nobility" (gram. 1563; see Srezn. III, 1597). Through Polish. szlachta (from the 15th century; see Brueckner 550) from the middle-century- n. slahte "genus, origin, breed, species"; see Mi. EW 341; Brueckner, ibid; Korbut 371; Trans., Proceedings I, 101. Similarly derivatives: nobility "nobility", in the era of Peter I (see. Smirnov 331), from Polish. szlachetnosc - the same; gentry (Repnin, 1704, Christiani 17) - from Polish. szlachecki - the same; gentry "nobility, gentry" (Gogol) - from Polish. szlachectwo is the same.
II gentry "carpenter's ax", gentry, gentry "cut by the gentry". Borrowing from nzh.-German. slichten "to plan" (Sass, Sprache d. ndd. Zimmerm. 7), cf. also above, splint, sanding.
2) National corpus of the Russian language
* Prophecy from Krakow about the death of Poland (1558–1665): "The nobility is decent with the peasants, and the honor and dignity will be abolished."
* Notebook of the Polotsk campaign (1562-1563): “And who are the children of the boyars and the hammering gentry and the townspeople who remain living in the posad in the prison beyond Polota, and those people in which court do not have any man, no Saadok, no saber, there was no sword, no military weapon ”.
* V.N. Tatishchev. A conversation between two friends about the benefits of science and schools (1733): “But these were twofold, some had to be hereditary in the war, and for that reason, horsemen, or cavalry, we have nobles, like court soldiers, the Poles have a gentry from the nobility, or the paths are named, but you must always be ready for the campaigns. "
* D.I. Ilovaisky. The beginning of Russia (1876): “In the same way, the popular name Lyakhi or Lehi is found among the Slavs in the class meaning; in this sense it was preserved later in the word noble. "
3) Historical sources
A) Gallus Anonymous. Chronicle and deeds of princes or rulers of Poland (around 1113)
http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus9/Gall/frametext1.htm
"eight. About the splendor and power of Boleslav the Brave
The acts of Boleslav are greater and more numerous than we could describe them or tell about them in artless speech. Indeed, what connoisseur of arithmetic could accurately count the iron ranks of his warriors or describe his countless victories and triumphs? Indeed, in Poznan he had 1300 knights with 4 thousand shields, in Gniezno - 1,500 knights and 5 thousand shields, in the city of Wloclawek 67 - 800 knights and 2 thousand shields, in Gedecz 68 - 300 knights and 2 thousand shields; all of them at the time of Boleslav the Great were very brave and skillful warriors in battle ”.
B) Oriental literature; http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus10/Meier/framevved1.htm
“B. Even in their outward appearance, in dress, they (the Jews) hardly differed from the Polish gentry. Cardinal Commendoni, who visited Ukraine in the second half of the 16th century, noted that the Jews who own the lands, in violation of the decrees of church councils, do not wear any signs on their clothes distinguishing them from Christians and even wear a saber - a sign of belonging to the gentry.
C) Koshytsky brought 1374; http://law.edu.ru/article/article.asp?articleID=1182888
King Louis of Hungary (1326-1382), after the death of Casimir the Great in 1370, freely (inherited) the crown of Poland; he lived permanently in Hungary and took little interest in the life of Poland. Nevertheless, in order to consolidate Poland for the dynasty, he attracted the most numerous knighthood (gentry) in the nobility, published in 1374 Kosytsky prively, in which he secured the rights of the juniors (a large feudal lord, baron) and chivalry (gentry). This was the first statutory act of the royal power, covering the entire mass of the gentry.
The knighthood-gentry was exempted: from all taxes and duties (only two pennies from the field as a sign of submission to the royal power), the obligation to build and repair castles, bridges and cities, to maintain the royal court in their territories; positions were occupied only by Poles. The nobility was left with the duties of military service in the event of an attack by enemies or campaigns in another state; for battles the gentry received salaries for soldiers, losses were compensated by the treasury. "Koshitskiy brought" turned the service nobility, depending on the king, into a political and military force, which the royal power and the magnates (the mozhnovolnikov) had to reckon with; further in time, the privileges of the gentry expanded.
4) Generalization and conclusion
* The etymology of the term "gentry" is not defined. Some researchers derive the term from the German language (battle, battle, slaughter, clan, noble), others from the legendary progenitor Lech (Lyakha) or "shlyha" (road). Polish historians have not defined the etymology and date of the term (c. 15th century).
* In European countries, the formation of the service nobility took place in approximately the same way. In the tribal society, groups of professional warriors were created who defended their fellow tribesmen in the event of an attack, carried out guard duty and guarded the nobility, for which they received a certain amount from the tribe. During the period of the separation of kings (princes), groups of warriors concentrated around the royal (princely) court, defended power, participated in the collection of tribute, legal proceedings and administration, made campaigns with the aim of expanding the territory and seizing property and slaves. Over time, a social stratum of the population (about 6-10%) was formed - the military class, earning a livelihood through military activities, it received the name - chivalry, serving the nobility, boyar children, and in a number of countries - the gentry. The main function is military service, the estate was maintained at the expense of land grants received from the authorities and the plunder of conquered territories.
The outward signs of the gentry are the obligatory wearing of edged weapons (sabers).
* Cm.
In the Middle Ages, the entire population was armed, such were the conditions of existence. Peasants and townspeople armed themselves with long knives (up to 60 cm in length were allowed), axes and used other working tools to protect themselves from animals or humans. To know - with swords and sabers (length 110-117 cm), actually a WEAPON, which has one purpose - the murder of a person.
Thus, on the basis of written sources, we can single out for the medieval period one characteristic (external) difference between a nobleman (nobleman) and a commoner - the nobleman always wore a saber (at least this is how the gentry is depicted in art). The constant wearing of edged weapons (sabers) is a distinctive feature of the gentry (nobleman), a free and independent person.
The term appeared on the Judeo-Christian territory; in the Middle Ages, large Jewish diasporas (Poland, Lithuania) also lived here. It is prudent to consider the word in connection with biblical terminology and imagery.
5) Hebrew terminology and biblical image
Let's bring the term into a form close to the Hebrew grammar and select the roots - SZLACHTA = SZLACH + TA. We immediately reveal two Hebrew terms characterizing the activities of the military class, "gentry" - sword + to establish the border; those. the gentry sets the boundaries (of the state) with weapons.
A) Terminology
SHLYAH + TA = SZLACHTA = SZLACH + TA = Hebrew. SHELAKH weapon (sword, spear) + TAA to designate, to set a limit, to establish a border; those. to set the border with weapons.
The main function of the military estate in medieval times, when the borders of states were not stable.
* See strong Hebrew 7973, SHELACH
http://www.greeklatin.narod.ru/hebdict/img/_491.htm
* See Strong Hebrew 8376, TAA
* See the Hebrew and Chaldean etymological dictionary to the books of the Old Testament, Vilna, 1878.
http://www.greeklatin.narod.ru/hebdict/img/_510.htm
B) Biblical image
* II Chronicles 23: 7: “And let the Levites surround the king on all sides, everyone with his weapon in his hand, and whoever enters the temple, let him be put to death. And be with the king when he comes in and goes out "... 2 Chronicles 23:10:" And all the people set, each with a weapon (SHELAH) in his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, at the altar and at at home, around the king. "
* Nehemiah 4:17, 18: “Those who built the wall and carried the burdens that they placed on them, with one hand did the work, and with the other they held the spear (SHELAH). Each of the builders was girded with a sword at his loins, and so they built. There was a trumpet player next to me. "
* Job 33:18: “(God speaks once) ... to take his soul away from the abyss and his life from being defeated by the sword (SHELAH).
* Numbers 34: 7: "to the north you will have a border: from the great sea lead (TAA designate, designate the limit) it to Mount Hor."
Thus, using biblical terminology and images, we revealed the content of the term "shlyakh + ta", which is not understood by etymologists. It contains the meaning (principle) of the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian military class - to establish (expand) the borders with the sword. Rzeczpospolita in the 16th century occupied the territory from the Baltic Sea to the borders of the Wild Steppe (Ukraine), from Smolensk to the borders of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation.
Shlyahtichs are a special caste of Poles, who justified their uniqueness not only by status, appearance or manners, but also by origin. There was no place for Slavic roots in the gentry pedigree.
Other Slavs
Recent events in Ukraine have renewed lively discussions on the topic of inter-Slavic relations. Today the ideas of Pan-Slavism, which were born in the 18th century and strengthened in the 19th century, are more than ever devalued. But even in the middle of the 19th century, the Czechs saw in the unification of the Slavs a powerful political force capable of resisting Germanism.
The Czech initiative was supported by Russia, but Poland reacted to it at least coolly. The union of the Slavs, with the dominant role of the Russian tsar, meant the collapse of hopes for a Polish independent state. Religion also played a role in the resistance of Poles to the ideas of Pan-Slavism: Catholic Poland traditionally acted as the antagonist of Orthodox Russia.
The Kingdom of Poland, of course, had its own Slavophiles. Prince Adam Czartoryski enthusiastically embraced the idea of Slavic unification, and the Decembrist Julian Lubinsky became the head of the Society of United Slavs, the first organization that openly proclaimed the ideas of Pan-Slavism.
Nevertheless, some of the Polish elite always had ideas about the special status of the Polish people, which in many respects prevented them from finding common ground with their Slavic neighbors. Ethnologist Stanislav Khatuntsev noted that in the course of their historical life, the Poles have largely lost many mental properties, components of the spiritual and material way of that ancient tribe and acquired instead the features of mental organization, material and spiritual culture, typical of the Celtic-Romanic and Germanic peoples.
The Polish historian Franciszek Pekosinsky, for example, put forward a theory about the dynastic origin of the Polish gentry, linking this with the reproduction of old Scandinavian runes in Polish coats of arms, as well as with Scandinavian expressions found in the so-called "overflows". However, at one time the gentry themselves had a hand to prove the uniqueness of their genealogy.
We are Sarmatians
In the 15th - 17th centuries, when the final stage of the formation of European peoples was taking place, interest in ancient literature was gaining momentum in the Old World. In ancient books, thinkers of the early modern era were searching for the origins of their states and nations. The Romanesque countries saw their roots in the Roman Empire, the Germans - in the ancient Germanic tribes, and the Poles found their ancestors in the Far East.
One of the first to put forward the idea of Sarmatism was the Polish historian Jan Dlugosz (1415-1480). He argued that ancient writers and historians called the territory of Poland the European Sarmatia, and the Poles were called "Saramats".
Later, this idea was consolidated by the astrologer Maciej Karpiga of Mekhov (1457-1523) in his famous treatise "On the Two Sarmatias", which was published in 14 editions in the 16th century. In his work, the author substantiated the significant difference between the Poles, as the descendants of the valiant Sarmatians from the Muscovites, descended from the barbarian tribe of the Scythians.
For the next several centuries, the idea of Sarmatism dominated among the Polish aristocracy, turning from a fashionable romanticized hobby into a conservative political ideal - the Gentle Republic, where broad democratic freedoms were available only to the elite.
The cornerstone of the gentry Sarmatianism was the "golden liberty", which was opposed to both servile despotic Asia and bourgeois business-like Europe. However, this did not prevent the gentry from combining both an oriental love of luxury and a purely European entrepreneurial spirit.
An echo of the ideology of Sarmatianism was the so-called "Polish messianism", which developed in the 17th-18th centuries, according to which Poles, by virtue of their origin, should play a special role in the fate of the world, and the Commonwealth should become "a stronghold of Christianity, a refuge of freedom and a breadbasket of Europe."
Emphasizing uniqueness
The Sarmatian myth has always been an important ideological base for Poland, acting as an unofficial national idea. Polish historians have done a lot to strengthen the idea that the Sarmatian tribes really lived on the territory of Poland and laid the foundations of Polish statehood.
The Sarmatian past served as a kind of standard by which the image of the ideal nobleman was cut. He, like his ancestor Sarmatian, is a courageous warrior, merciless to enemies, but at the same time a knight for whom honor and justice are not an empty phrase. Another hypostasis of the gentry is the Pole magnate, the keeper of the traditions of patriarchal antiquity, harmoniously fitting into the bosom of the rural idyll.
An important feature of Polish Sarmatianism is the cultivation of a chivalrous attitude towards women, one of the components of which was the gallant custom of kissing a woman's hand. Supporters of the Sarmatian theory referred to the fact that the high position of women in society was unusual for other Slavic peoples. According to historians, the special status of women in the gentry culture was influenced by the myth of the Sarmatian Amazons.
Over time, the image of the ideal nobleman became firmly embedded in the genome of Polish identity. “Fearlessness, bordering on almost insanity, when a person goes to certain death in a white uniform, in a Confederate woman proudly shifted to one side, with a rose in his teeth, he knows that he will be shot in a minute, but he does not allow himself to get out of this for a minute the image of an ideal Sarmatian knight is a reality of the Polish national character up to the 20th century, ”writes journalist Tamara Lialenkova.
We must not forget about the other side of the noble worldview - the irrepressible arrogance with which the arrogant nobleman distanced himself from the Lithuanians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and even a significant part of the Poles who lived in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a terminological sense, it looked like the opposition of the Sarmatian elite to the peasant "cattle" (Bydło - working cattle), with which the Slavs were also associated.
Little in common
Sarmatism still exists in Polish culture today, although it is rather a form of ironic self-identification. Sometimes this word is used to emphasize the uniqueness of the Polish character, any differences from the neighboring Slavs.
Nowadays, the differences within the Slavic family are obvious, and there are many reasons of a socio-political and cultural nature. One of them dates back to about the 6th century AD - it was then, according to researchers, that the Proto-Slavic language common to all Slavs began to fall out of use. As one of the thinkers put it, "the Slavs used national languages, rather, for separation than for unification."
However, the differences between the Slavs are explained not only through history or language. Polish anthropologist and bioarchaeologist Janusz Piontek writes that from a biological point of view, the Slavs can be attributed to different groups that originally inhabited Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, and they differ markedly from each other.
“Slavs and Poles have a lot in common. Poles with Slavs - nothing. They are uncomfortable in their Slavism, uncomfortable to realize that they are from the same family as the Ukrainians and Russians. The fact that we turned out to be Slavs is an accident, ”states the Polish writer Mariusz Schigel.
The events of the Second World War, the consequences of the collapse of the USSR, in many ways alienated the Poles not only from everything Soviet, but also, to some extent, from what is the basis of Slavic identity. The trend of recent decades, when the situation forces Polish citizens to seek work and better living conditions in the West, leads to the fact that Poles began to feel more in common with the people of Great Britain and Germany than with Belarusians or Ukrainians.
The journalist Krzysztof Wasilewski in his article "Slavs against Slavs" describes the post-Soviet period in the history of Poland as years of transformation, when Poles "tried at any cost to become like the West, dissociating themselves from everything that bore the imprint of the East."
It is quite natural that Polish historians are looking for theories of common roots with anyone - with Germans, Scandinavians, Sarmatians, treating with disgust the words of the author of the oldest Polish chronicle Gall the Anonymous: "Poland is part of the Slavic world."
An essential feature of the Polish gentry, like the Spanish nobility, was its large numbers. In the XVI century. for 7.5 million living in the Commonwealth, there were 500 thousand noblemen or 25 thousand noble families, that is, 6.6% of the total population, and in Mazovia, literally overcrowded with gentry, this figure was even more impressive - 23.4%. By the time of the partitions of the Commonwealth, the Polish nobility already accounted for 8-10% of the population.
Obviously, such a significant number of nobility could not be completely homogeneous. Processes of differentiation and stratification were constantly going on in her environment, most clearly manifested in the 17th-18th centuries.
Polish researchers conditionally distinguish within the nobility of the XVI-XVIII centuries. several groups.
The following groups belonged to the landowning gentry:
Magnateria(magnateria) - the richest and most influential families, the largest latifundists; they played key roles in state administration, their representatives constantly sat in the Seimas. Although officially none of the magnates had any special rights or privileges, in reality this gentry group had power that was not comparable to the number of its members.
Zamozhnaya gentry(szlachta zamożna) - a wealthy gentry who owned both land and peasants; its representatives were completely independent in their socio-political and economic activities (Sobie Pan).
Folvar gentry(szlachta fołwarczna) - owned one or several farms (small manor, estate) and peasants on them; she could manage her own farm herself or hire housekeepers.
"Shared" gentry(szlachta cząstkowa) - the owners of not entire estates, but their parts (often large estates were split into small shares for sale or lease); usually representatives of this gentry, together with their neighbors, used the labor of peasants and the material resources of the estate.
Zastenkovaya or circumstantial gentry(szlachta zaściankowa, szlachta okoliczna, szlachta zagrodowa) - small-scale gentry, whose representatives owned household plots, but did not have peasants and therefore worked on their own land; often they formed whole noble settlements - the so-called torture chambers (zaścianki) or "outskirts" (okolice), isolated from the rest of the plebeian world. The name “okolichnaya gentry” was typical for the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The landless gentry (szlachta bezrolna albo szaraczkowa) included:
Chinshevaya gentry(szlachta czynszowa) - did not have land and was forced to rent it on Chinshee conditions (quitrent) and work on it, although such work was considered shameful for a well-born person, since he likened it to a peasant. In the last two centuries of the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Chinsh gentry became the most numerous group of the Polish nobility.
Serving gentry(szlachta służebna) - served in the wealthy estates of magnates, church hierarchs or wealthy gentry as managers, economists, etc.
Golota(holota) - "nakedness", a poor gentry, who had neither land nor peasants; usually hired as workers, servants, went to the soldiers.
"Street" gentry(szlachta brukowa) - the smallest group of the gentry, leading a very poor life in the cities. "