Wincentego Skrzetuskiego litewskie rozdwojenie jaźni. Litwa wobec Korony w Rzeczypospolitej XVI–XVIII wieku

Piarist Wincenty Skrzetuski, author of the most popular, at the end of the 18th century, compendium of knowledge about the system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, noted that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was one of its three provinces, alongside Małopolska and Wielkopolska. At the same time, he treated Lithuania, due to its separate treasury, army, law and system of courts and ministers, as an equal part of the Commonwealth. The Grand Duchy has indeed evolved significantly from the 16th century onwards. Not only its elites, but gradually the nobility too were acquiring a sense of belonging to the Commonwealth. Similar processes can be observed with regard to the Crown nobility. Thus, a single political nation of the Commonwealth was being formed. During the reign of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, an accelerated modernization took place, accompanied by a cautious – unfinished – unification of both parts of the Polish-Lithuanian state. For the purposes of political tactics, the Lithuanians and the Crowners used the term “province” very flexibly; both as a state and its province (part of it). From the legal point of view, both of these concepts could be justified. Wincenty Skrzetuski thus reproduced in his compendium the reality of political practice.