BelarusandAND⤬THE JUNCTION
4 SHARED EVENTSLithuania

Entangled histories

4 events in which either nation’s sourced chronicle names the other — including under earlier names of the same state. Each is the same record, with the same sources, as on its own chronicle; nothing here was written for this page.

ONE SPINE OF YEARS · TWO WALLS OF EVENTS · BLR LEFT · LTU RIGHT

1. 1237-1240

   The Mongol invasion of Rus

   The Mongol onslaught destroyed Kievan Rus and shattered the old federation of principalities; the western Belarusian lands, comparatively sheltered, were soon drawn into the orbit of rising Lithuania.

   War & Rupture · from the Belarus chronicle · Polotsk and the Early East Slavs · REFS 2 — History of Belarus, Grand Duchy of Lithuania

2. 14th c.

   Belarusian lands within the Grand Duchy

   Over the 150 years after the Mongol invasion the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded to absorb the Belarusian lands, whose Ruthenian (Old Belarusian) tongue became the chancery language of the state.

   Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · Heart of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania · REFS 2 — Grand Duchy of Lithuania, History of Belarus

3. c. 1520-1522

   A printing press in Vilnius

   Moving his workshop to Vilnius, capital of the Grand Duchy, Skaryna produced the Little Travel Book and later The Apostle, the first books printed within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania itself.

   Culture & Ideas · from the Belarus chronicle · Heart of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania · REFS 1 — Francysk Skaryna and the First Printed Books in the GDL

4. 1569

   Union of Lublin and the Commonwealth

   The Union of Lublin merged Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, placing the Belarusian lands at the heart of a vast federal state and accelerating the Polonisation of their elites.

   Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · The Commonwealth, Partition and the Russian Empire · REFS 2 — Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, History of Belarus