Radvilų Biržų kunigaikštystės visuomenė ir jos komunikacija 1589 – 1655 m ; The society and communication of the Duchy of Biržai in the reign of the Radvilas from 1589 to 1655
The paper looks back at the history of communication analysing this historical issue in the context of social structures and social institutions. In terms of chronological limits, the research attempts to date back to the period of the 16th-17th centuries; in respect of regional borders, it encompasses the Duchy of Biržai (hereinafter referred to as the "DB"), whereas in terms of socio-structural aspects, the study attempts to analyse the society of the Duchy. The subject of the thesis is the society of the Duchy of Biržai in the reign of the Radvilas during the 16th-17th centuries; the issue under analysis is the structure of this society and the social communication maintaining it. It is attempted to identify the types of contacts binding the afore-mentioned local society, the origins of those links, the manner of manifestation of the social contacts within the DB community, which were common to the entire Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as the "GDL"), and the specific contacts inherent to this domain only as well as the social formations created by these contacts apart from those determined by the estate-based society. The paper seeks to identify how far-reaching could have been and actually were the horizons of the contacts of the DB residents at the level of Biržai domain, the level of the GDL and the international level. The research of the contacts maintained should be useful in answering the question of how the centres of public communication (estate, church, castle, town, etc) pursued their activities and what inherent characteristics defined them. Finally, the analysis of social communication may provide background for discussing cultural contacts and interactions in future. Major problematic concepts employed in the research are communication and local society. The aim of the thesis is the analysis of communication of the DB society, which operated in the context of immediate institutional and social interaction. Following the remaining sources, the attempt is made to reconstruct the social structure of the DB and the social relations supporting it. The aspect of communication is chosen for the analysis as the manifestation of local processes evolving within the DB. The paper seeks to identify to what extent a certain communicative code of the DB society, i.e. a set of rules and mechanisms, which is standardized for that local community and thus allows the coexistence of its social groups and their adequate adjustment to one another, can be identified. The communicative code links all major communicative elements – the channel (forms), context (environment, settings) and participants. The sources do not allow the identification of the entire content and meanings of social communication but enables the reconstruction of its forms and structure. The relevancy of research of the society and communication of the Duchy of Biržai in the reign of the Radvilas during the period from 1589 to 1655 can be defined on the basis of at least four aspects. In a conceptual sense, the research is relevant as the venture in historical regionalistics oriented towards the knowledge about the entire, even if local, society. None of the local communities of the estate-owned domain of the GDL in the 16th–mid-17th centuries has been the object of a separate research up until now. It should be noted that the research deals with a relatively early, socially and ethno-confessionally heterogenic micro-society with limited references in historical sources. The objective of methodological individualism applying the micro-historic method is to encourage the identification of rules of social structure and its functioning out of the numerous similar research studies of local communities in future. The new aspect of research in this paper is the attempt to synthesise separate fields of historical acquisition (social, military, religious, economic, cultural fields). The conducted research may contribute to the search for the criteria of historical regionalisation. The novelty of the research reveals in the problematics under analysis (communication research). Attention paid to inter-group relations and social daily practices of those groups is not common in historiography. The communication research enables a better identification of the peculiar character of the society of the early New Ages and the context of the period and thus extends the information network of the 16th-17th century society. The results of research will be of use for the researchers engaged in social communication studies as the sample of communicative history stimulating the research of the systems of communication of other local communities. The factographical novelty of the research reflecting in the introduction of the new data into scientific circulation is worth mentioning as well. Numerous archival sources employed for the first time should supplement the historiographical depository of the Radvilas family and may encourage the research of other periods as well as create preconditions for writing the entire history of the DB (1547-1811) in future. In terms of the use of the new data, the paper may be found valuable and interesting for the researchers of the history of war, church, economy and society. Another relevant aspect of the paper is the fact that it contributes to the correction of inaccuracies of historical "myths" since the findings do not always confirm the tendencies of the GDL history documented in academic syntheses and historiography.
