Tatar tsarevitches in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (15th – 18th centuries)

The article is devoted to the genealogy of the three families of the Tatar tsarevitches (Soltans), settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th or early 16th century. The first of these (extinct until the mid 16th century) descended from "tsarevitch Sihdohman from Perekop" (in all probability, from khan Sidi Ahmed). The second, tsarevitches Ostrynsky (extinct in the early 17th century), were descendants of the Crimean Giray dynasty. The third, "tsarevitches Zavolzhsky", called later "tsarevitches Punsky", were the descendants of Halleck-Soltan, nephew of the last khan of the Great Horde Shah Ahmat (Sheikh Ahmed) and they still existed in the first half of the 18th century. At the beginning of the 16th century these tsarevitches maintained their contacts with the Great Horde and Crimea and played some role in the diplomatic relations of the Grand Duchy and Tatar khanates. Later, they turned into ordinary military landowners, though they occupied the honored place in the Lithuanian Tatar aristocracy and retained their traditional title of tsarevitches (though often they also titled princes, like other noble Tatars)