Russia, at first victorious in the Livonian…

Russia, at first victorious in the Livonian War, has succeeded in destroying the Livonian knights, but their ally Lithuania becomes an integral part of Poland in 1569.

Minsk, the seat of an early Russian principality in the region of present Belarus that had fallen under Lithuanian control in the mid-fourteenth century, passes to Poland in 1569 under the Union of Lublin.