Lithuanization

Lithuanization (sometimes also called the Lithuanianization) is a process of cultural assimilation - adoption, either forced or voluntary, of Lithuanian culture or language, experienced by non-Lithuanian people or groups of people.

In the early Middle Ages the consolidation of Baltic lands by the Duchy of Lithuania led to the gradual Lithuanization and subsequent assimilation of neighbouring Baltic tribes or their parts, including the Selonians, Jotvingians, Nadruvians and Curonians who shared religious, cultural, and linguistic similarities with the Lithuanians.

The Lithuanian annexation of Ruthenian lands between the 13th and 15th centuries was accompanied by some Lithuanization. A large part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania remained Ruthenian, since due to a religious, linguistic and cultural dissimilarity there was less assimilation between the ruling nobility of the pagan Lithuanians and the conquered Orthodox Eastern Slavs. Moreover, following the military and diplomatic expansion of the Grand Duchy into the Ruthenian and Russian lands, local leaders retained a significant autonomy that limited the amalgamation of cultures. Even when some localities received the appointed Gediminid leaders, the Lithuanian higher nobility in the Ruthenian lands largely embraced the Slavic customs and Orthodox Christianity and became indistinguishable from a larger Ruthenian nobility resulting in the two cultures merging to the extent that much of the upper class of Ruthenians merged into Lithuanian nobility and began to call themselves Lithuanians gente Rutenus natione Lituanus(Litviny), yet spoke the Ruthenian language In the effect of the processes, Lithuanian higher nobility became largely Ruthenian, while the nobility in the ethnic Lithuania and Samogitia continued to use their native Lithuanian language. The adapted Old Church Slavonic and later the Ruthenian language, acquired a status of a main chancery language in the local matters and relations with other Orthodox principalities as lingua franca, and Latin was used in relations with the Western Europe. This notion however had been gradually reversed by the Polonization of Lithuania occurring since 15th century and then the Russification of the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 19th century and early 20th century.

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