This article is devoted to the analyses of contemporary studies of Great Duchy of Lithuania. The authors mean the history of GDL before the Union of Lublin (1569) during a period of independently development of this state, because the next period is separate theme. The authors consider GDL as a sort of phenomenon. In the foundation of such phenomenon lay the history of GDL itself and also very complex and multinational historiography. According to author's opinion a main task which stands in front of an international team of historians is to understand the character and essence of this statehood though there are many other interesting themes: foreign policy, confessions, culture etc. The historiography of such countries as Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Russia is studied in this article. All these countries connect with a legacy of GDL. A main task of this article is not to collect and study the whole bibliography devoted to the history of GDL. An aim is to discover and to characterize the main national trends in studying of this statehood. The roots of contemporary crisis one can find in past century. The main reasons of this crisis now are an absence of some coordination between the countries in studying GDL, an intention to connect this history only with one country and also some intention to modernize the history of GDL. The last feature of contemporary historiography directly connects with a refusal to find archaic traditions in the history of this statehood and to use the methods of contemporary political anthropology.