ft the Belarusian territory relatively unscathed. In the 14th century Belarusian territory became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with its capital at Vilnius. By the 16th century a Slavic culture had begun to emerge, symbolized by the translation of the Bible into the Belarusian language by Frantsysk Skaryna in 1517. In 1569, however, the Grand Duchy formed a political merger with Poland by the Union of Lublin, forming the Rzeczpospolita (Commonwealth) and making the sovereign of Poland also the grand duke of the Lithuanian kingdom. During this time, Belarusians faced pressure from the Poles to convert from Eastern Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism. The union lasted until the late 18th century, by which time the lands of Belarus had fallen under the control of the Russian Empire, as a result of the partitions of Poland that took place in 1772, 1793, and 1795. In 1839 the Eastern (Uniate) Catholic Church in the Polotsk region was dissolved, and the Lithuanian statute of 1588 that codified civil rights was prohibited. Belarusian culture nevertheless made great strides in the 19th century and during this period the concept of a Belarusian nation first truly emerged.A Brief History of Kazakhstan:The historical development of Kazakhstan followed a similar path, Turkic tribes, in about the 8th century AD began to settle the region now known as Kazakhstan. In the 13th century the area was incorporated into the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, and upon his death in 1227, the empire was divided among his descendants. Most of present-day Kazakhstan became part of the territory ruled by his son Chagadai, but the western and most of the northern parts were included in the far-reaching empire of the Golden Horde established by Batu Khan, Genghis' grandson. By the end of the 15th century, the Kazakhs emerged as a distinctive group, created by the intermingling of Mongol and Turkic peoples. In the early 16th century the Kazakh tribes united to form ...
