“CAPITAL CITY”: LVIV AS A VENUE FOR DIETINES AND CONGRESSES IN 1648–1651
Authors: Vinnychenko Oleksiy 
Published: November 2022

In 1651 the local nobility, who had gathered for the dietine meetings in Lviv on May 26, in the resolution approved at that time named Lviv as the “capital” city. This was the first time in the dietines documents of the Ruthenian voivodeship declared the capital status of this voivodship center, although members of the general regional diet in Vyshnya repeatedly (and since the first interregnum in the history of the Commonwealth) mentioned Lviv in their resolutions, granting requests from burghers or trying to interfere in city life. The documents of general (Vyshnya) regional diet of the Ruthenian voivodeship reflected the image of Lviv in the eyes of local nobility. Previously they consisted of the resolutions on the city affairs concerning conflicts between nobility and the city, different aspects of a city life, and resulted from examination of different sorts of complaints from and against townspeople. Nobility most often perceived Lviv as a place where public institutions were based and various public events were held. The participants of Vyshnya regional diet did not have any purposeful policy concerning Lviv: the interference of nobility into city business had incidental character and resulted from requests or complaints submitted by the city council, certain groups of a city society or individuals. In general, the dietines of the Ruthenian voivodeship during the period researched served as centers of social and political life for the nobility. They functioned as dependable channels of communication between the ruler and his subjects. The regional elites had a chance to voice their positions on the national level. The events in the middle of the 17th century had impact on the perception of Lviv by the local nobility as the capital of the Ruthenian voivodeship. The siege of 1648, albeit withstood by the city, revealed the possibility of its loss and caused concern for its defensive ability. Military action necessitated various public events in a well-protected place, such as Lviv, so dietines and congresses began to gather here more often (on June 4, 1648, the congress of the Lviv district gathered after the death of king Vladislav IV and before the diet, convened by the primate; on July 5, 1650, the nobility of Lviv district, who had gathered in the city for a session of the local land court, spontaneously held a congress and approved a declaration on the situation with the circulation of coins in the country; on May 26, 1651, the dietine of Lviv district was convened in accordance with the royal universal before the gathering of the noble militia to take part in a military campaign). The significant presence of gentry from other voivodeships in the city at that time, even holding its dietine meetings here (including dietine of the Bratslav voivodeship of 1649, on September 9, when were elected four ambassadors to the sejm: Bratslav land judge Maximilian Ochesalsky, Kyiv official Michal Aksak, Bratslav official Stanislav Zhevusky and N. Korytsky), had to crystallize in the minds of the nobility of the Russian voivodeship the interpretation of Lviv as “their” “capital” city. The perturbations of wartime raised the question of the city status – “capital” or “border” i.e., the war became a catalyst for socio-political processes and changes in mentality.