The grades are the same as in other countries that belonged to Yugoslavia before 1991.
"Speak a name, see the face it belongs to before suppertime, that's what my mother used to say."
They belonged to the old days, before the Revolution.
This implies that at least some material in the manuscript belongs to before 1150.
That kind of thing belonged to her life before Alex and the baby.
All of the sonnets belong to the years before 1277.
This monastery belonged to the church of Moscow before 1917.
In other words it must belong to the period before 507.
A second problem: What article belongs before historic, a or an?
That dark, eccentric hand might belong to the man before him.