In a speech marking the beginning of celebrations of the 600th anniversary of victory in the Battle of Grunwald in Krakow, Poland, the president of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite noted the contribution of the Polish and Lithuanian peoples to the victory over the Teutonic Order. According to a Belarusian historian, the Lithuanian President has forgotten that Belarusian detachments constituted a great part of the army.
Near the monument in honour of the victory in the Battle of Grunwald, Dalia Grybauskaite congratulated the Polish people with the 600th anniversary of "our great victory". The Lithuanian President said that the victory was significant for both nations.
"For ages our nations have been bound by their similar fate, shared ideals, aspirations, and even by such prominent people like Yagayla and Vitaut, Yadviga and Barbara, Adam Mickiewicz and Czeslaw Milosz, and many others", said Dalia Grybauskaite. "When our two great nations fought in the Battle of Grunwald, united as never before, their unity brought closer together the neighbouring peoples. It encouraged them to participate in the victory that shaped the further pathway of not only our countries, but also the whole Europe."
According to the Belarusian historian Ales Yasinski, the speech of the Lithuanian President had some substitution of notions for the simple reason that the present Republic of Lithuania considers itself the successor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus and Jemoit, although the territory, ethnic structure, and state language of the present Lithuania do not coincide with the territory, ethnic structure, and state language of the Grand Duchy.
As the expert believes, for historical justice’ sake it should have been mentioned that apart from Polish and Lithuanian (in the modern sense), a significant part of the "allied army" were Belarusian troops.
"Only 4 out of 40 regiments of the Grand Duchy were from ethnic Lithuanian lands, 8 – from Ukrainian lands, and 28 regiments were from ethnic Belarusian lands. We should also remember that there were detachments from Kyiv, Moldova, Veliky Novgorod, as well as Tatar detachments of mirza Jalal-ad-Din", said A. Yasinski to the news portal www.UDF.BY.
"It is obvious that such an injustice took place because there was no representative of Belarus of the relevant level at the event who could in his official speech emphasise the significant role of the Belarusian troops in the outcome of the Battle of Grunwald and represent the Belarusian people on the European level", said the historian.
