Everyday Life Worth Attention

This review was prepared within the joint project “Book Review” of the Political Sphere Institute for Political Studies and the Centre for European Studies in Minsk.

Bokhan Yu., Skepian A. (2011). Everyday Life of the Feudal Lords of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th – mid-17th centuries. Minsk: Belarus, 271 pp.

Review prepared by Aliaksandr Kazakou.

It cannot be said that such a field of research as the history of everyday life is well developed in Belarus. This is especially true of the medieval and early modern periods. Therefore, the appearance of each new work in this area of historical scholarship arouses particular interest. The publication of the book by Yury Bokhan and Anastasiya Skepian became a certain event: for the first time, the authors attempted to create a general picture of the everyday life of the feudal lords of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the period when “the Belarusian nationality was being formed” and when the Duchy itself had not yet been “plunged into the abyss of a prolonged crisis” (7).

It is precisely this, in my view debatable, justification for the chronological framework that the authors offer, although the choice itself appears successful. The 15th – first half of the 17th century was a time of consolidation of the nobility of Baltic and Ruthenian origin within the state, and in a certain sense a time of cultural unification of the ruling estate, of course with allowance for confessional differences. The period of the flourishing of the ideology of Sarmatism, which was embodied in material culture as well, and the Enlightenment era, which also brought new phenomena, reasonably remain outside the scope of the work.

The authors note that everyday life is interpreted differently in contemporary scholarship, but avoid offering their own definition. Nevertheless, the content of the book shows what they understand by this concept.

In addition to the introduction, the survey of sources and literature, the conclusion, references and abbreviations, the work contains nine chapters (they are not numbered in the publication, but for convenience it is worth doing so here): 1 “Housing as a Space of Everyday Life”, 2 “Castles and Urban Fortifications”, 3 “Unfortified Housing”, 4 “Interiors of Representative and Residential Premises”, 5 “Traditions of Food and Eating”, 6 “Clothing”, 7 “Leisure. Hunting and Fishing”, 8 “Tournament Exercises”, 9 “Games and Entertainment”.

As is clear even from the titles, chapters 1 and 3 seem to “ask” to be placed under one heading, and their content confirms this: both deal with noble estates, only from different aspects. Roughly the same applies to the titles of chapters 7 and 9. One gets the impression that the authors did not sufficiently coordinate the division of the subject field. According to insider information, neither of them saw the final layout of the book, and this is a shortcoming of the publication rather than of the work of two good scholars.

Chapter 2 somewhat stands apart from the general conception of the book. Too much attention is paid to tiring details such as the length, height and thickness of castle walls, which makes the text resemble a reference work on the history of fortification. While reading the chapter, one involuntarily forgets what the book is about. Another question also arises: what do the fortifications of state-owned, rather than privately owned, towns have to do with the everyday life of the nobility? Or why is there a long quotation from a source about the obligation of Mahiliou townspeople to have weapons for the defence of the city (66)?

The same can be said about the description of the estate of a Minsk townsman (75) and the characterisation of the layout of towns and small towns, and only Belarusian ones at that (76–81), while castle construction is considered within the framework of the entire Grand Duchy. Such passages somewhat blur the narrative and deprive it of coherence, which affects the overall impression of the work.

The chapters of the book are not equal in their degree of originality. The second is written almost entirely on the basis of the works of other authors; to a lesser extent this also applies to the sixth chapter. All the other parts of the book, however, are original studies carried out with the use of numerous sources (it should be noted, however, that the text of chapter 8 is entirely borrowed from another publication by Yu. Bokhan) (Bokhan, 2008). Studying everyday life, even that of the ruling estate, in the period in question is quite a difficult task. Fragments of information relevant to the problem are scattered across numerous sources. Gathering enough information for certain conclusions requires much time and painstaking work.

The authors used both published and unpublished materials from archival collections in Minsk, Warsaw, Krakow and Vilnius. As a result, they produced original essays that allow the reader to form an idea of various aspects of the everyday life of our ancestors. The pages of the work contain very interesting facts and details. For example, the reader can learn what card suits were called in the past (241), or that the prevalence of toilets in the dwellings of wealthy groups distinguished the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from Western Europe in a positive direction (129).

Although the publication is presented as scholarly and has the relevant features (two reviewers, references to literature and sources), one is inclined to perceive it as popular scholarship. Colour illustrations, which by a rough estimate occupy up to half of the space, good printing and a non-trivial design make the book attractive to the consumer. As the authors note, everyday life is something that can interest a broad circle of readers. Yet the quality of the content, apart from the minor shortcomings noted above, also makes the publication valuable for historians.

Literature mentioned in the review

1. Bokhan, Yu. (2008). Tournament Traditions in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th–16th centuries. Minsk, I.P. Lohvinau.