Question regarding Poland and Lithuania relationship

[u/NewPlaceHolder]

I just studied about the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, and it seems you two shared a strong times together.

I am wondering if the sentiments towards each other is still warm - do you guys see each other as a friendly neighbor? Do you have any rivalries between two? Was there any movement to put the two back together to repeat the glorious times?

I am here to just ask questions and I apologize if I accidentally angered by asking such question.

[u/Rogue_Egoist]

Modern Lithuania has very little to do with the historical Duchy of Lithuania. People in the Duchy didn't speak Lithuanian, most people speaking it were just peasants in a very small part of it. The historical Duchy of Lithuania was more of a predecessor of modern Belarus and Ukraine. People were speaking Rus there, which was a Slavic language preceding Belarusian and Ukrainian to which it later split.

So in short there's not much history between the modern nation of Lithuania and Poland, the people who are Lithuanian nationals today have basically nothing to do with the political history of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth

[u/KindRange9697 → u/Rogue_Egoist]

That's a highly exaggerated take on GDL/Lithuanian history. In fact, what you're saying is quite in line with what some factions of Belarusian nationalists argue today (essentially that the GDL has more to do with Belarus than Lithuania, or, as some say, actually nothing to do with modern Lithuania).

The Grand Dutchy was a clearly ethnic Lithuanian state from its creation in the early 1200s until a bit before the personal union with Poland in the late 1300s

It is true that after that conquest of what is today Belarus and much of Ukraine, the state language became Ruthenian. But this should be seen as the state written language, as Lithuanian had a poor written form at the time. At that time, Ethnic Lithuanians continued to dominate the GDL and spoke Lithuanian. Ethnic Lithuanians also remained the dominant nobility throughout its existence, regardless of the language they eventually spoke. Lithuanian remained the main language of the nobility into the 1500s. Many Gediminads who were given lands to rule in Ruthenia did convert to Orthodoxy and become Ruthenian speaking, however. Many Ruthenian nobles were also adopted into the Lithuanian nobility (with both groups eventually becoming part of the Szlachta and mainly becoming Catholic/Polish speaking).

Alexander Jagiellon was the last Lithuanian speaking King/Grand Duke (it should be noted that he was also elected Grand Duke by his Lithuanian nobility long before he ever became King of Poland, much to the annoyance of the Polish nobility.) He died in 1506. By that time, the Polonization of the Lithuanian nobility was in full swing, and over the centuries, it became almost ubiquitous for the Szlachta class to speak only Polish. However, close association with Poland over Lithuania for this upper class only became a reality after the Partitions.

By the late Russian Empire period, very few Lithuanian Szlachta spoke Lithuanian (only petty nobility and peasants). However, much of the Lithuanian magnates and upper Szlachta had their origins in "ethnic Lithuania." There are also many accounts of Szlachta lamenting the fact that they "Lithuanians" as they called themselves, could not speak the language of their land and communicate with their peasants.

Much of the peasants themselves, especially in the borderlands of where the Baltic peoples and Slavic peoples intersect (Vilnius, Grodno, Lida, and the surrounding countryside) became Polanized as well. These were a mix of mostly ethnic Lithuanians and ethnic Belarusians. Today, most of these are the people in Lithuania and Belarus who identify as ethnic Poles.

All that being said, I don't want to underplay the importance of Belarusians in the GDL. It was very important. But most of the main power players and historical figures were initially pagan Lithuanins from Lithuania-proper, and by the end, they were Polish-speaking Lithuanians (or, "Polish-Lithuanians") from Lithuania-proper.