ABSTRACT
The Rurikid patrimonial empire very soon turned into the anarchic interpolity Kievan Rus' system, while the Gediminid Empire transformed into an institutional state, even attaining certain features of a territorial empire. The ancient Lithuanian state even managed to outlive the dynasty that made it an empire, as the Grand Duchy's statehood remained even when it became a constituent part of the federal Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At first the Grand Duchy's ruling elite was limited to the ruling dynastic line, which perhaps included some remnants of the ancient ducal families that intermarried with the ruling dynasty. The largest resettlements of Lithuanians must have occurred from the end of the thirteenth century to the first decade of the fourteenth century. The movement of whole ethnic groups, or people in general, was entirely at the will of the grand duke of Lithuania.
