I. General remarks The cultural history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is a complex problem, the solution of which is directly dependent on the study of the socio - political system of Lithuania itself, the lands subject to it at that time, and the development of this state. The initial facet of our essay is the time of the great reign of Gediminas (Gediminas, died in 1341), when, as a result of the annexation of the Belarusian and other East Slavic lands, a small early feudal Lithuanian state, which arose under Grand Duke Mindaugas (Mindaugas, 1236-1234), turned into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The final line is the Union of Lublin in 1569, when, trying to defend the occupied territory in a confrontation with Russia, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania lost a significant part of its state prerogatives, entering the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on federal rights. To make a correct assessment of the problem, first of all, you need to know with what cultural heritage Lithuania entered the two-hundred-year era of the greatest prosperity of the principality. The answer to this question was not easy for historiography. Pre-Marxist - Russian, Polish, and German-science, bound by false schemes and nationalist biases, has not only failed to answer it, but even to put it right. The role of the Lithuanian people in the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was denied, and the fruits of its cultural development were considered mostly foreign1 . Although Lithuania, deprived of political independence, did not have conditions for the development of its historical school for a long time, the first Lithuanian historians did much to identify its cultural heritage. S. Daukantas wrote his works ("The Deeds of Ancient Lithuanians and Zhemaites", 1822, etc.) in Lithuanian and "not for scientists, but for mothers romantically idealizing his native antiquity, he emphasized the role of free peasants in the creation of national culture and tried to awaken in readers the spirit of protest ... Read more