Lusatian Serbs and their Neighbors in the 10th – First Half of the 11th Century: Military-Political Aspect of Relations

The article analyzes the military-political relations of the Lusation Serbs with their neighbors – Germans, Poles and Czechs in the 10th and first half of the 11th centuries, based on narrative sour­ces and special historical literature. The study is based on the principles of historicism, scientificity. And the author’s objectivity, as well as on the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, genera­lization, comparison) and special historical (historical-typological, historical-systemic) methods. It is noted that a feature of the political evolution of the Sorbians in the early Middle Ages was that after the apogee of military democracy in the 7th – 9th centuries, a time of very slow development of early feudal relations and the absence of a strong tribe capable of leading centralization came. The decisive factor was the external factor – the reflection in the 10th – first half of the 11th century of the territorial-political expansion of German, Polish and Czech feudal lords. It is emphasized that the beginning of the German «Drang nah Osten» falls on the period of the reign of the first representative of the Saxon dynasty, Henry I (919–936), whose campaigns to southern Polabia in 928–932 led to the subjugation of the Serbo-Lusatian tribes and the imposition of tribute on them. It is established that during the reign of Otto I (936–973), marks were created for a more syste­matic conquest of the Polabian-Slavic lands and improvement of their administration. It is emphasized that Otto I sought to strengthen German rule in southern Polabia by forced Christianization, which was an instrument of political influence and a tool of enslavement here. It is found that the struggle for southern Polabia did not end there. In 985, Meissen and other southern Polish territories were conquered by the Czech prince Boleslav II. Later, after a long Po­lish-German war (1003–1018), Lusatia and Milsko remained under Poland. Under whose rule this region was until 1031, when, according to the peace treaty concluded by Mieszko II, the territory of Lusatia was finally transferred to Germany. It has been proven that the policy of the Polish and Czech states in the 10th – first half of the 11th centuries, like the German «Drang nach Osten», led to disastrous consequences for the Serbo-Lusatian tribes. While the courageous resistance of the Polabian Slavs to the German «pressure on the East» contributed to the strengthening of neighboring Slavic states, primarily Poland.