Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1340s–1569 and the Crimean Khanate 1449–1783 Chapter Three After driving out the Golden Horde in 1362, Lithuania incorporated the former principalities of Kyvan Rus' and the steppe lands into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. When the Duchy united with the Kingdom of Poland and adopted Roman Catholicism, tensions with Orthodox Rus' nobles followed, as did Muscovy’s aggressive designs on the Duchy’s territory. At this time, Jews were often catalysts of urbanization and reliant on the rulers and nobles for protection, while the rural order was increasingly one of peasant serfdom. In the Crimean Khanate along the northern coast of the Black Sea and the southern Ukrainian steppes, Nogay tribes engaged in regular raids to capture Slavs and others for the Crimean slave markets. Two small Jewish communities evolved in the Crimea — the Krymchaks and the Karaites. Politics Demography and Migration Economy and Society Culture and Religion Antisemitism
