Ruthenian nobility
The Ruthenian nobility (Ukrainian: Руська шляхта, romanized: Ruska shlyakhta; Belarusian: Руская шляхта, romanized: Ruskaja šlachta; Polish: szlachta ruska) originated in the territories of Kievan Rus' and Galicia–Volhynia, which were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later the Russian and Austrian Empires.
[2] Despite Polonisation in Lithuania and Ruthenia in the 17th-18th centuries, a large part of the lower szlachta managed to retain their cultural identity in various ways.
[15] In other parts of Ukraine with a significant szlachta population, such as the Bar or the Ovruch regions, the situation was similar despite Russification and earlier Polonization.
[22] After Union of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland into Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the non-Polish ethnic groups, especially the Ruthenians and Lithuanians, found themselves under the strong influence of Polish culture and language.
In the climate of the colonization of sparsely populated Ruthenian lands by the Polish or Polonized nobility, even peasants from central Poland moved to the East.
However, despite that, the nobility stayed politically loyal to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and defended it autonomy in disputes with the Polish crown within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Following the end of Civil War a large number of Ruthenian, Polish (e.g. Zavadovsky, Dunin-Borkovsky, Modzalevsky), Lithuanian (e.g. Narbut, Zabila, Hudovych), Tatar (e.g. Kochubey), Serbian (e.g. Myloradovych), Greek (e.g. Kapnist) etc.
Ever since the end of the 16th-century Ruthenian nobility moved to Russia because in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth they were suppressed by the Catholic Polish szlachta and were unable because of that reach high social and political status.
After Khmelnytsky Uprising and Pereyaslav Treaty was signed, a large number of Ruthenian nobility and Cossacks became citizens of the Hetmanate state, which was self-governed but was part Tsardom of Russia.
People like Peter Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Gogol, Fedor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Paskevich, Mykhaylo Ostrohradsky were great contributors of All-Russian cultural, scientific and political life.
[28] In the 19th century, local intellectuals of peasant origin and some szlachta people like Francišak Bahuševič and Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich contributed to Belarusian nationalism.
Pyotr Kazakevich was a Regimental Commander for the Russian Empire before he joined the Belarusian National Army.
After passing of the Horodło privileges along with the word bajary the term bajary-szlachta (баяры-шляхта) or simply szlachta (шляхта) was used in documentation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that was predominantly written in Ruthenian.
[citation needed] After the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387, more and more nobles converted to Roman Catholicism which became the dominant religion among the aristocracy.
In the 16th century a large part of Belarusian nobility, both Catholic and Orthodox, converted to Calvinism and other Protestant churches following the example of the Radziwills.
By the annexation of modern Belarusian lands by the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century the Belarusian gentry was predominantly Roman Catholic while the rest of the population was mainly Eastern Catholic with a small Eastern Orthodox minority living in the east of modern Belarus.
