Litvin is a Slavic word for all residents of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

(Slavic: ''Litva''), which was the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

in the 13th–18th centuries, and began to be used no later than the 16th century mostly by the East Slavs. Currently, Litvin or its

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

s are used in many European languages for

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

Meanings

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

In the 16–18th centuries, the term "Litvin" was mostly used by East Slavs to refer to all inhabitants of Lithuania, i.e. Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Вячаслаў Насевіч
Літвіны
// Вялікае княства Літоўскае: Энцыклапедыя. У 2 т. / рэд. Г. П. Пашкоў і інш.Т. 2: Кадэцкі корпус — Яцкевіч. — Мінск: Беларуская Энцыклапедыя, 2005. С. 206—208. Several authentic sources, surviving from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, with expressed opinion of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania themselves prove that the

(founders, rulers of

from the Gediminids dynasty) were those who spoke Old Lithuanian and originated from the cultural regions of '' Aukštaitija'' and '' Žemaitija'', while their Eastern neighbours were

Rus' people The Rus, also known as Russes, were a people in early medieval Eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between t ...

( Ruthenians):

Ethnic group in Ukraine

Litvins are a small ethnic group in the area of the mid-stream Desna River (northern Ukraine). The ethnographic or cultural studies about Litvins are poorly noted and are traced to the beginning of the 18th century.Horlenko, Volodymyr
Litvins of the Ukraine North are possibly a fragment of legendary tribe of Siverians (Литвини півночі України - ймовірний уламок племені літописних Сіверян)
'. "Landmarks of Ukraine". 2001. The poet-monk who published several cultural studies noted that Litvins, perhaps after an older pagan tradition, worked on Sundays and rested on Fridays. More notes about Litvins were provided at the end of the 18th century by historians of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and . According to Markovych, Litvins are a regional group such as Gascons in France or Swabians in Germany. The name Litvin (Litvyak) owes its origin to political factors and is a

demonym A demonym (; ) or 'gentilic' () is a word that identifies a group of people ( inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place ( hamlet, village, town, city, region, ...

(politonym) referencing the

. Litvins in the Chernihiv region (

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

) call themselves Ruski, but not Moskals or Katsaps. They consider the term Litvin to be derogatory. According to the 2001 census, there were 22 Litvins in Ukraine.

Modern usage in Belarus

Since the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

in 1991, the term "Litvin" has been adopted by some Belarusian nationalists to claim the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as Belarusian. This is an alternative to the

"Belarusians" which is derived from White Rus' and, therefore, implies that it is somehow less than the Great Russia. Some Belarusians like Mikola Yermalovich and Viktor Veras () claim that the Grand Duchy was Belarusian and that modern

are "historical Samogitians" (the term Samogitia translates as Lowlands of Lithuania proper) who, despite being "not Lithuanians", somehow managed to usurp the name "Lithuania" for themselves. In other words, these writers in contrast to Lithuanian linguists claim that modern Belarusians are "the true Lithuanians" referred to in historical texts and not "modern Lithuanians". This theory is considered fringe and is not accepted by historians. During the 2009 census, 66 people identified themselves as Litvins in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Modern usage in Poland

The

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

still use the words ''Litwini'' and ''Litwa'' when referring to the

and

respectively. While the Belarusians and

are named as ''Białorusini'' and ''Białoruś'' respectively in Polish.

Modern usage in Ukraine

The

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

nowadays refer to Lithuania as «» (''Lytva'') in Ukrainian, which is its historic name from the

, and to the

as «» (''lytovtsi''). The

is called (''Velyke kniazivstvo Lytovske'').

Notes

a. ; ; ; ; b. ; ; ;

References

External links

* Litvin, I
''"Our "Lost world". Selected pages of Belarusian history'' ("Наш "Затерянный мир". Некоторые страницы белорусской истории")
{{in lang, ru

Demographic history of Lithuania Ethnic groups in Ukraine Slavic ethnic groups Social history of Belarus Social history of Ukraine