Mr. Speaker. the Byelorussians are perhaps the least known of the scores of nonRussian peoples forcibly held under the Communist regime of the Kremlin. One hears of the Ukrainians. the Baltic peoples. the peoples in the Caucasus. and even of those in distant Asiatic regions of the Soviet Union. such as the Kazakhs. Turkemens. the Uzbeks and others. but one seldom hears of the Byelorussians despite the fact that they constitute the third largest ethnic group in the Soviet Union. Their total number in their homeland. stretching from Polands eastern borders to the approaches of Moscow. is more than 10 million. The long and checkered history of the Byelorussians has been just as glorious as that of their more numerous neighbors. but it is not as well known in the West. From the late Middle Ages down to the beginning of the modern times and later. these sturdy people of rugged peasant stock held their own in their scenic and fertile country. For centuries they had their own independent state and maintained their distinct national status against onrushing Asiatic hordes. They could not. however. withstand the threat of their Slavic brothers. the Russians. In the 16th century the then rising and rapidly expanding Muscovite Russian Empire overran Byelorussia. annexed It to the Russian Empire. and the Byelorussians lived under the Russian czars for more than 300 years.