The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

CHAPTER V.UPPER DVINA AND NIEMEN BASINS.LiTiirAxiA (Litta), Grodno, Vitebsk.]IKE that of Poland, the name of Lithuania is an historical expression,which has constantly shifted with the vicissitudes of treaties, conquests,and partitions, and which must by no means be confoundedwith the "Land of the Lithuanians."The term Litva comprisesethnologically but a very small portion of West Russia in theDvina and Niemen basins, whereas Lithuania has been applied historically to afar more extensive region, whose riders at one time aspired to become masters of allthe Slav lowlands between the Baltic and Euxine.The Lithuanian princes, thusgoverning populations mostly of Russian stock, claimed also to be regarded asRussian sovereigns.Before its imion with Poland the Lithuanian state reached across the continentfrom sea tosea, and in the fifteenth century the name was applied to all the landbetween the Dvina and the Euxine, and between the Western Bug and the Oka.For the Muscovite Russians, the Minsk, Kiev, and Smolensk Slavs were at thattime politically Lithuanians. But in the sixteenth century, after the final imionwith Poland, the expression " Principality of Lithuania " was restricted to thetrue Lithuania and to White Russia. Even still the custom prevails in Polandand Russia of calling Lithuanians the White Russians of the old politicalLithuania, distinguishing the Lithuanians proper by the term " Jmudes." Afterthe dismemberment of Poland the provinces of Grodno and Vilna were still calledLithuania, and although its official use was proscribed in 1840, it has continuedcurrent to our times, being now somewhat vaguely applied to the three governmentsof Kovno, Vilna, and Grodno.The last named, formerly peopled by the Yatvaghes,presumably of Lithuanian stock, no longer belongs ethnographically to theLithuanian domain, being now chiefly peopled by White and Little Russians.With better right the government of Vitebsk might be included in this domain,since from 1,500 to 2,000 Letts dwell in its western districts. Still even here themajority of the population are White Russians.