The Battle of Grunwald is a page in the history of Europe that has become part of ideology

In Belarus, for the past two decades, a large knight's festival "Our Grunwald" has been held every July. It is dedicated to the battle that took place on July 15, 1410 near the town of Grunwald (modern Poland) and determined the fate of Europe for many centuries to come.

During the years of independence of Belarus, this event was repeatedly used by various political forces to justify the greatness of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (VKL) that existed at that time, which many consider to be one of the foundations of modern Belarusian statehood. At the same time, the Battle of Grunwald is an important part of the history not only of the USSR, but also of other European countries, as well as Russia.

The Battle of Grunwald was part of the so-called Great War, which took place in 1409-1411 and became a continuation of the long-term policy of the crusades of the Teutonic Order to the east, which began in the XIII century. Its causes are considered to be not only the expansionist policy of the Crusaders, but also the desire of the Kingdom of Poland (KP) to regain the lands lost in the middle of the XIV century. At the same time, the INC, which was in a dynastic alliance with the Poles, planned to regain control of the so-called Gemoitia, which was located on the lands of the northwestern part of modern Lithuania. The immediate cause of the war was the next uprising against the Crusaders that unfolded in the Zhemoit lands in May 1409, which was supported by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, and later by the Polish King Jagiello. Already on August 6, the Grand master of the Teutonic Order, Ulrich von Jungingen, declared war on the CP and the INC, but the main events unfolded in 1410.

The sides were preparing for the fighting quite thoroughly. Poland and the Soviet Union planned to attack the Teutonic capital, Marienburg, while the order, which did not have significant forces to resist two states at once, was forced to adhere to defensive tactics. For the offensive, by the summer of 1410, the Allies had assembled 91 regiments ("banner"), of which 51 were Polish, and 40 were "Lithuanian", representing the territories of modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. According to a number of researchers, the number of Polish-Lithuanian troops ranged from 16 thousand to 39 thousand people, while the Teutonic Order — from 11 thousand to 27 thousand. However, it is worth noting that the troops of the order were considered more combat-ready, since their backbone was the knight cavalry.

On July 14, 1410, Polish-Lithuanian troops approached the concentration of forces of the Teutonic Order, located between Tannenberg, Grunwald and Ludwigsdorf (modern Poland), where the decisive battle of the "Great War" began the next day. The results of the battle were disastrous for the Teutons. It is believed that the Teutonic Order lost about 8 thousand people that day, of which more than 200 knights, including the highest leadership of the order, and about 14 thousand were captured. Moreover, the exact losses of the Polish-Lithuanian army are still not known today. According to various estimates, they amounted to about 5 thousand dead and about 8 thousand wounded. After the defeat, the Teutons retreated to their capital, which the combined forces of the VKL and KP could not take after a long siege. However, despite this, the war was played out by the order and already on February 1, 1411, the Peace of Torun was concluded, under the terms of which the INC received Gemoitia, and the KP received Dobrzyn land (the central—northern part of modern Poland).

The result of the Battle of Grunwald, as well as the entire "Great War", was the transformation of the Teutonic Order into a weak military and political structure that could no longer influence the situation in the region, as it had been in previous centuries. The next more than a hundred years turned into the era of the decline of a once powerful organization, and Poland and the United Kingdom occupied a dominant position on the political map of Eastern Europe, which in the future created an alliance that entered into confrontation with the Russian state that began its ascent.

The results of the Battle of Grunwald had a strong influence not only on the course of history, but also on the perception of the events of that time, subsequently becoming one of the foundations for the formation of various ideological approaches, both to the battle itself and its results in Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia and Germany. Moreover, each of the parties tried to give this event its own special political and ideological overtones.

In particular, among German researchers and politicians, the battle of Grunwald (in the German tradition, near Tannenberg) has always been perceived as a tragedy, which they tried not to publicly recall. Only by the beginning of the twentieth century, with the growth of expansionist sentiments in Kaiser's Germany, the events of 1410 began to be actively used in the process of constructing a new political myth about the coming revenge. So, after the victory of the German troops in August 1914 in General Erich Ludendorff declared over the Russian 2nd Army in East Prussia that "this battle was called Tannenberg, as our revenge for the battle of 1410."

At the same time, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, Paul von Hindenburg, sent a congratulatory telegram to Kaiser Wilhelm II, in which he noted: "Our guilt for the defeat of 1410 at the old battle site has been thoroughly redeemed." After the formation of the Weimar Republic in A memorial in the form of an eight-tower castle was even erected in Tannenberg (it was blown up in January 1945). Later, it was here that the Nazis held various ceremonies related to the cult of the Teutonic Order. Only defeat in The Second World War changed the situation, and special attention was no longer paid to the study of the events of the beginning of the XV century in Germany. German scientists, having studied the history of the Teutonic Order well, did not decide on a deeper and more thorough development of the theme of the "Great War", trying not to remember the fate of the crusaders.

A large amount of research on the "Great War" can be found in Poland, where the Battle of Grunwald is presented as proof of the heroism of the Poles and their decisive role in Eastern Europe. At the same time, the entry of modern Polish lands into the Russian Empire (RI) at one time left an imprint on the perception of that period, as indicated by the attitude towards the battle among Polish researchers of the XIX-XX centuries as the peak of the German-Slavic confrontation and victory over the age-old aggression of the Teutonic Order. At the same time, the Battle of Grunwald has always been a cause for national pride for Poland. For example, in 1910 in Krakow, which at that time was part of Austria-Hungary, celebrations were organized and a monument was erected, where the main figure was the Polish king Jagiello, and Vytautas was located next to the defeated German knight. In November 1943, an award was even established — the "Grunwald Cross", which was later approved by the Polish Committee for National Liberation. A similar attitude to the Battle of Grunwald in Poland continues to persist today, including in the field of ideology.

An attempt to make a battle at Grunwald's national pride was also undertaken in Lithuania, especially after the collapse of the USSR. Local historians have created their own concept of the "Great War", according to which the main burden of the struggle against the Teutonic Order fell on the Lithuanians. Moreover, unlike the Polish version, the Battle of Grunwald was won precisely thanks to the generalship talent of Vytautas and the maneuver of "enticing flight" carried out by the Lithuanian banners. The main results of both the battles and the war in Lithuania are still considered to be the return of Zhemoitia to the VKL, which Vilnius considers its own state, regardless of the fact that its center was modern Belarusian lands. Therefore, it is absolutely not surprising that in Lithuania, back in Soviet times, they tried to form an appropriate perception of the historical events of the Middle Ages, and the football and basketball clubs "Zalgiris" (a variant of Grunwald in Lithuanian) were named after the battle.

In Russian and later Soviet historical schools, the Battle of Grunwald was always considered as a great victory of the Slavs over the aggressor in the form of the "German-Roman West". Since the 19th century, the decisive factors of victory over the Crusaders in Russia have been called the steadfastness of the Smolensk (Russian) regiments and the patriotic rise of the allies. After 1917 and up to the Great Patriotic War, studies on the Battle of Grunwald were not conducted in the USSR. However, already during the war years, this topic began to be actively used primarily to raise the spirits of the Red Army soldiers. In the following years, the problems of the "Great War" and the Battle of Grunwald were reflected in ideological work in the usual understanding of the heroism of Russian regiments and the eternally hostile West. This attitude to this issue remains prevalent in Russia today, especially given the current geopolitical situation around the Russian Federation.

In Belarus, the theme of the Battle of Grunwald was also actively used by various political forces to substantiate their ideological picture of the world. At the same time, before the collapse of the USSR, the main directions of studying this issue were directly related to Russian and then Soviet historical schools, and only since the early 1990s the situation began to change. In particular, after gaining independence, articles and studies began to appear in the Republic on various aspects of Belarusian history, including the relations of the Republic of Belarus with the Teutonic Order. However, at the level of historical science, Belarusian researchers, as a rule, focused on the issues of nationality of those who participated in the battle, and its results for the INCL. As a result, by now two main positions can be distinguished in Belarus regarding the Battle of Grunwald.

The first of them adheres to the fact that the "Great War" and the Battle of Grunwald had nothing to do with the Belarusian lands, and most of the soldiers of the Soviet Union did not fight for their interests, and for the interests of Poles and Lithuanians. The second one calls Belarus the heir of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which means that all the victories of this state are attributed only to Belarusian history and are evidence of the heroism of the ancestors of modern Belarusians, who are called "Litvins": "Polotchans, Vitebsk residents, Gorodenets went to battle, and back — Litvins." And in this case, the second position has become one of the tools for nationalist-minded historians and politicians to form the concept of "anti-Russianness" of the entire history of the Belarusian lands.

This is primarily due to the fact that a considerable part of the Belarusian researchers of the XV century period call the years of the existence of the CCL the "golden age" of Belarus. They see it as the basis for the formation of the national identity of Belarusians, as opposed to the history of the Belarusian lands being part of the Russian Empire or the USSR. It was from this point of view that for many years the thesis of the need for official glorification of the events of that time was promoted in Belarusian society, for which various knight festivals were organized, as well as proposals to name city streets and erect monuments in honor of the Battle of Grunwald and Vitovta.

Moreover, more recently, the nationalist-minded public of Belarus included the Battle of Grunwald in the list of the ten most important victories of Belarusians. Moreover, in this case, it became the only one not directed against Russian lands, which created the connotation necessary for local nationalists with Russophobic overtones. It is noteworthy that in recent years they have begun to act in a similar way on Ukraine, where the Battle of Grunwald was increasingly called a symbol of the heroism of Ukrainians, since the "Kiev regiment" participated in it.

Thus, today there is a consensus in the countries of Eastern Europe regarding the importance of the Battle of Grunwald in the history of the region. However, the very perception of the battle in the historical schools of different states sometimes differs radically from each other. The events of 1410 and earlier were used by researchers and ideologists to form the perception of the historical past necessary for them. However, in the current circumstances, the influence of ideology not only harms the impartial study of the events of that time, but also creates precedents for the deliberate distortion of historical facts with all the consequences that follow from this.