Lieux de memoire of Different Rus’-Countries in Early Modernity. In Search of Discrete Nations
Andrej Doronin (MWNO Vilnius/Bonn), Vasyl Ulianovsky (Ukraine) with project partners in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Canada.
The project explores the lieux de memoire of different Rus’-countries in early modernity, their symbolic potential and their employment in the construction of supra-regional, ethno-confessional communities as each Rus’ (the Ukrainian Rus’, the Rus’ of the Grand Dutchy of Lithuania, the Muscovite Rus’) created its own pantheon of lieux de memoire.
The Lisowczycy. Polish-Lithuanian Mercenaries from the smuta to the Thirty Years’ War
Vadim Popov (MWNO Bonn) – PhD project
This PhD project explores the constitution, evolution and demise of a group that has become known in Lithuanian and Russian history under the name ‘Lisowczycy’ – after its founder, Alexander Lisowksi – but has been (mis)identified as ‘Cossacks’ or ‘Poles’ in Bohemian, German and Lorrainian history. The Lisowczycy were a lightly armed irregular cavalry unit that was paid irregularly as ‘free riders’. They were highly mobile – moving between Moscow and the Rhine – and notorious for their brutal raids and looting. This ‘violent community’ is of particular interest due to a number of ego documents and memoires in which Lisowczycy stylized themselves as ‘Christina fighters’, ‘manly knights’ and ‘Polish heroes’ to legitimize their actions. Self-descriptions as ‘knightly people of the noble Lisowski’ or other formulae such as ‘new Maccabees’ did, however, clash with the perception of this group.
Based on Max Weber’s idea of ‘monopoly on violence’ the project tests out the applicability of concepts such as ‘military revolution’ and ‘markets of violence’ to the Eastern European context in early modernity. Thus, it is embedded in recent discussions in violence and security studies.

