The Old Prussians: the Lost Relatives of Latvians and Lithuanians

No Baltic tribe or tribal group seems to have had a history so dynamic, rich in incident and tragic as the Old Prussians.

They died out during conflicts between two medieval European cultures – Christian and pagan – and were physically destroyed or assimilated.

The Latvian and Lithuanian people have the Old Prussians to thank more than anyone else for their existence.

Under the cover of their heroic resistance against the crusaders, which lasted for almost the whole of the 13th century, the foundations of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were laid, which, in turn, became an obstacle to the mass inflow of crusaders and German colonists into the territory of Latvia.

The Old Prussians belonged to the Western Baltic group of tribes, which also included the Curonians, Samogitians, Skalvians, Galindians and Yotvingians. Around 3000 years before the birth of Christ, the Old Prussians broke away from the first Indo-European peoples and entered the land where they would live right up until their eventual disappearance.

Today the area where the Old Prussians lived is divided between Russia (the province of Kaliningrad) and Poland (the provinces of Elbląg and Olsztyn).

The 1st-century Roman historian Tacitus’s work Germania was the first text to mention the Western Balts. Tacitus called  them as “Aesti”, which means “easterners”. This was also how their western neighbours, the Germans, referred to the Balts. The Aesti were described as industrious farmers and peace-loving people.

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