See summary of dissertation in English - Baltijos regiono istorijos ir ...

capitalist world system (according to Immanuel Wallerstein) and local
world contexts.
The second important research problem is the differences between the
systems of periodization of Western and Central Europe and the search
for their compatibility. The question is essential in pursuit of integrity of
one’s country in the history of Europe. It has been determined that the
“practical” (introduced by C. Keller, G. Horn), Marxist (Karl Marx), malthusian
(R.T. Malthus) theories are not sufficient due to the strictness of
historical landmarks or they are hardly applicable to the Eastern European
region due to other specific characteristics of social and geographical
factors inherent to Western Europe.
The schemes of periodization based on gradual economic development
and evolutionist development of land-ownership forms applied
by K. Bücher, E. Meyer and representatives of the Annales
School are much closer to the topic under analysis. The model of periodization
of the Long Middle Ages introduced by Jacques Le Goff,
which enables the perception of development of land-ownership as a
solid process characterised by specific local characteristics, was chosen
for the interpretation of development of agrarian history of the
GDL and Samogitia. Also, this system of periodization best applies
for the discussion and solving of the problems of land-ownership in
the medieval Western Europe as a “maximum” region and Central
Europe as the region of lagging developments.
The third theoretical problem is the problem of interpretation of the
concept of feudalism and its application in land-ownership research. Even
though there are a number of available definitions of feudalism, the literature
of economic history construes it as the dominant social-economic
system of the Middle Ages with fief system and the divided ownership of
land as its basis. The formulation and application of feudalism models in
the discussion of social and economic relations may help historians determine
the social-economic characteristics of the region, country or land;
however, its overestimation may lead to the treatment of the phenomenon
of feudalism, which, in the opinion of some historians, has never even
existed as such, as the absolute rule. Nevertheless, researchers of landownership
forms find certain problems of this theoretical concept particu-
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