The national elite of Belarus was formed during the period of the Russian Empire and was brought up on the works of Alexander Pushkin, and if it were not for the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, there would be no Belarusian people and Belarusian statehood, said MP Viachaslau Danilovich. "I strongly disagree," historian Aliaksandr Pashkevich replied to him on Belsat.