1. About us
2. About Belarus
3. History

History

Belarus is an ancient Slavic country located in the geographical center of Europe. Its history is an age-old tradition of cooperation, tolerance and perseverance. The country had to go through several stages in its tragic but at the same time glorious history in order to become what it is today.

Map of Lands of  Ancient Tribes of Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi

 Archaeological excavations made on the territory of Polotsk, confirm that people lived here already in the IV-V centuries. At that time the Belarusian ethnos began to be formed on the basis of three Slavic tribes - Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi, as well as some Baltic tribes. At that time almost all those tribes were united within the framework of Kievan Rus. The development of agriculture and crafts contributed to the formation of feudal relations and the emergence of  towns. The first state formations were in the cities of Polotsk (862), Pinsk, Turov and Minsk already in the VI-VIII centuries.

Map of Grand Duchy of Polotsk, X-XI centuries (blue line shows borders of the Belaruthian ethnos)

One of the largest feudal formations of Kievan Rus was the Polotsk principality. The first known Prince of Polotsk was Rogvolod, who reigned in the middle of the Xth century. He strengthened the borders of the principality, laid the foundations of administrative management and the political system. Prince Vladimir of Kiev (later St. Vladimir) asked Rogvolod for the hand of his daughter Rogneda, a real beauty, but was refused. Outraged Vladimir and his uncle Dobrynya stormed Polotsk, killed Rogvolod and his two sons, and captured Rogneda by force and made her marry the prince. The offended princess was looking for a convenient moment to take revenge on Vladimir. When one day the prince fell asleep beside her, she tried to kill him with a knife. But Vladimir woke up and grabbed her hand. Vladimir ordered Rogneda to wear a wedding dress and prepare for death. When he came to Rogneda to execute her, his eldest son Izyaslav with a sword in his child's hand came out to meet him. This act stopped and embarrassed Vladimir. After talking with the dukes, he decided to send Rogneda and his son to the Polotsk principality and ordered to build a new city for them, which was named after his son Izyaslavl (now Zaslavl). Since then the descendants of the proud Rogneda had occupied a special place among the descendants of St. Vladimir. Owners of Polotsk considered themselves uncontrollable to Kiev. Soon after the death of St. Vladimir, Polotsk was the first city in Kievan Rus, which separated from Kiev in order to become an independent state - the Grand Duchy of Polotsk. That example was followed by Novgorod and some other cities. The Polotsk principality possessed all the relevant attributes of the state - the sovereign power of the prince, the Administration, capital, the  Army, and a fiscal system. The Polotsk principality expanded its influence in the Baltic region, subordinating to itself a number of Baltic tribes. In the X-XII centuries the Polotsk principality covered a vast territory, including the north and center of modern Belarus, as well as part of the lands of modern Latvia, Lithuania and the Smolensk region of Russia. The most famous Polotsk prince was Vseslav (1044-1101), known in history as Vseslav the "Wizard" for his wisdom and strength. It was for the period of his reign that the highest prosperity of the principality of Polotsk took place. On his orders in 1066 a magnificent St. Sophia Cathedral was built in Polotsk  in order to imitate Sofia’s in Constantinople, Kiev and Novgorod. The construction of St. Sophia cathedral placed Polotsk on a par with such large cities as Kiev and Novgorod. Under the authority of Vseslav, many other Christian churches were built. Vseslav was tolerant to adherents of paganism and did not destroy their prayer houses. He sought the consent of various religions and thereby united people. 72 years of his life he devoted to the creation and strengthening of the first Belarusian state.

Map of Grand Duchy of  Lithuania,year 1323

New states followed their own courses. In the XIII century, two dangerous enemies appeared. The first were the Teutonic Knights, the German Crusaders, who took upon themselves the mission of baptizing pagan Balts and Slavs. The second enemy was the Mongolian Horde of Genghis Khan, who rushed from central Asia to Europe. In the 13th century, the Lithuanian prince Mindovg united under his authority a part of Lithuanian and East Slavic lands, including the Grand Duchy of Polotsk, founding the state known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The greatest territorial development of the GDL reached in the second half of the XIth century, when its borders stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea from north to south and from Brest region to Smolensk from west to east. Being part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Belarus had a certain degree of autonomy or even significance. Suffice it to say that the Belarusian city of Novogrudok was the first capital of Lithuania. It was only in 1323 the capital was moved to Vilno (present-day Vilnius). At that time Polotsk was still a large city, and the Supreme Court of Appeals was held either in Minsk or in Novogrudok. The Old Belarussian language was the state language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the middle of the XIYth to the end of the XYIIth century. That period in history became the time of the Belarusian Renaissance, when humanism, writing, philosophy and literature arose. At the beginning of the XVI century, Francisk Skorina from Polotsk published 22 volumes of the Bible translated into his native language. It was one of the first translations of the Bible into the language of a living nation in the world. Other prominent figures of the Belarusian Renaissance included teachers, philosophers, poets, translators and first printers, such as Simon Budnyi and Simeon of Polotsk.

Map of Confideration of Lithuania and Poland - Rzezh Pospolita, XYI century

In 1569, the Lublin Union was signed between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland: two states united in a federation - Rzeczpospolita in order to withstand the growing claims of Moscow and the continued expansion of the Crusaders. It was a union of two states, each of which had its own government, army, laws and even language. While Ukraine was subject to the Polish crown, the territory of today's Belarus was viewed as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The largest city was Mogilev, followed by Vitebsk, Polotsk, Slutsk and Brest. Vilnius, the capital of the GDL, also had a significant Belarusian population. Policy of Unification played an important role in ensuring the security of Poland and Lithuania from the extremely active knights of the Teutonic Order. The Grand Battle of Grunwald in 1410, in which the Order suffered a crushing defeat, finally put an end to the constant expansion of the Crusaders. Inside the state, the Commonwealth government pursued a policy of polonization and propagated Catholicism. That policy did not find a support among the Belarusians, who were mostly Orthodox. The compromise between Orthodoxy and Catholicism was crowned with the signing of the Brest Church Union in 1596, according to which the Orthodox Church acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope of Rome and Catholic dogma, while preserving its rights, organization and rituals. By the end of the XVIII century more than 70% of the population of Belarus belonged to the Uniate (Greek-Catholic) Church.

Belarus (North-Western Borderland) in the Russian Empire, end of  XIXth century

At the end of the XIII century, as a result of the three partitions of the Commonwealth in 1772, 1793 and 1795, practically the entire territory of modern Belarus was joined to the Russian Empire after the elapse of more than 400 years. In 1840, the territories that belonged to the Russian Empire were called "North-Western Borderland".  In 1839, following the results of the Brest Union the Uniate church was abolished on the territory of the Russian Empire, and the Uniates passed under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. During the Patriotic War with Napoleon In 1812, Belarus suffered a great deal, about a million people perished. The local gentry, counting on the restoration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, basically supported Napoleon. Although during the reign of the Tsars of Nicholas I and Alexander III national culture was suppressed as a result of de-polonization and Russification a number of authors began to publish their works in Belarusian, including Yan Chechot, Vladislav Syrokomlya and Konstantin Kalinovskiy. The next Russian Tsar Nicholas I banned the use of the Belarusian language in state schools, organized a campaign against Belarusian publications. All this led to the 1863 uprising of the Belarusian gentry, not supported by the peasantry, led by Kastus Kalinovskiy. The uprising was suppressed and Kastus Kalinovskiy  was executed. However, after the suppression of the uprising, the Russian government once again allowed the Belarusians to use the Cyrillic alphabet in 1684, and banned the Latin alphabet. In the middle of the 19th century, the Belarusian economy, like the whole of Europe, experienced significant growth as a result of the spread of the industrial revolution in Eastern Europe. The revolutionary wave of the early twentieth century contributed to the rise of the wave of the Belarusian national movement.

Map of Eastern and Western Belarus, year of 1921

After the October Revolution in Russia in October 26, 1917, a civil war broke out, and Belarus again became the arena of a whole series of political experiments. During the First World War on March 25, 1918, when the territory of Belarus was occupied by German troops, the Belarusian People's Republic was proclaimed. However, this republic was short-lived. It did not have a Constitution, its own armed forces and borders, finances and other attributes of statehood. Only on January 1, 1919 the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was proclaimed.

In 1921, after the Polish-Russian war, the Riga Peace Treaty was signed in accordance with which Poland and the Bolsheviks divided the territory of Belarus into two parts: the Eastern (Soviet) and the Western (Poland) ones. In 1922, the BSSR became a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the Soviet Belarus, the industrialization processes were actively proceeding. New branches of industry and agriculture were formed. The Gomel agricultural machinery plant “Gomselmash”, the “Znamya” garment factory and the "Kim" plant in Vitebsk, the Orsha Flax Mill and many other, successful  even nowadays, enterprises were opened. During the three five-year periods industrial production in the BSSR grew 23-fold, science, national culture, and art developed. In the 1920s, Belarusian, Yiddish, Polish and Russian were the official languages of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. On the territory of Western Belorussia, the Polish government pursued a policy of polonization. 3 300 Polish schools were opened, and in 1938-1939 only 5 general education Belarusian schools remained. 1 300 Orthodox churches were converted into Catholic.

On September 2, 1939 the Nazi Germany attacked Poland, and on September 17, 1939, Soviet Army troops liberated Western Belarus, which merged with the Soviet Belarus in one state.

Victory Square, Victory monument, year of 1954, duly commemorating courage and heroism of Soveiet army man and Byelorussian partizans who liberated Minsk from the Nazi  on July 3, 1944  

On June 22, 1941 Fascist Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War (Secomd World war on the territory of the USSR) began , lasting almost four years. The heroic defenders of the Brest Fortress stood to the last man.  The Fascist command planned to capture the fortress just within one week, however, the defense lasted 40 days. The motto of the defenders of the fortress became: "We'll die, but we will not leave the fortress!" Already on the second day of the war, fascist planes appeared over Minsk. The first bombs fell onto the city, then again and again, because of the smoke they could not look at the sun. The city moved to the east, taking away industrial equipment, evacuating civilians, however, most of them remaining in the city because of the fascists’ fast attack.  An army rose on the way to the  enemy rushing furiously towards Minsk. At the approaches to Minsk, the soldiers of the 1st Guards Artillery Division, under the command of Army General Ivan Rusiyanov, for the first time in the practice of the Great Patriotic War, used in the fight against enemy tanks bottles with gasoline and kerosene, the experience subsequently used at other fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Despite the heroism of the defenders of the city, the capital of Belarus was occupied by the fascists on June 28, 1941. By the end of August 1941, the entire territory of Belarus was occupied by German fascist invaders. Having occupied Belarus, the fascists established a regime of violence and terror on its territory. During the three years of occupation, 209 cities and 9,200 villages were destroyed. In total during the war, Belarus lost 2,700,000 inhabitants, one in every three inhabitants of the republic perished. However, the Belarusian people did not accept the status of the occupied nation, but rose to a holy war against the Nazi occupation. During the war, 374,000 partisans were active on the territory of occupied Belarus, about 70,000 patriots fought in underground organizations. More than 1.3 million Belarusians and natives of Belarus fought at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, of which 446 were awarded the highest award of the country - the title of Hero Soviet Union, and four - twice. About 400 thousand Belarussian soldiers were awarded with military orders and medals. During the war, more than 400 Belarusians became generals and admirals. Thanks to the heroism of Soviet soldiers and partisans, the capital of Belarus Minsk was liberated from German fascist invaders on July 3, 1944. The operation to liberate Belarus  ended with the liberation of  the city of Brest on July 28, 1944. The contribution of the Belarusian people to the Great Victory over the fascist aggression was recognized throughout the world. Given this, an international conference, convened on April 27, 1945 in San Francisco decided to include Belarus among the founding countries of the United Nations Organization.

 After the war almost everything had to be built anew. Construction of one of the twin apartment buildings on Railway Station Square, year of 1952

Victory over the enemy in the Great Patriotic War was achieved at the cost of great sacrifices and irreparable losses of the Belarusian people. According to experts, Belarus suffered more than any other country in Europe from that war. The direct material damage caused to Belarus by the occupation is estimated at 75 billion rubles (in 1941 prices), which is 35 times higher than the budget of the republic of 1940. Statistics show that if before the war in its current borders there were 9.2 million people,  then at the end of 1944 - 6.3 million people. Most of the cities were destroyed, thousands of villages were burnt, industry, transport, communications almost completely ceased to function, agriculture was in a difficult situation. The republic lost more than half of its national wealth.

The restoration of destroyed cities became a heroic page in the history of the Belarusian people. For ten years, one of the most ruined cities in Europe, the city of Minsk, turned into a perfect new city, and its main avenue (today Independence Avenue) for the integrity of the buildings and its architectural appearance, is a candidate for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The life of the Belarusian society in the first post-war decade was rather complicated. People experienced great financial difficulties. At the same time, the victory inspired them to selfless labor, which resulted in a high rate of restoration and development of industry, transport, construction and other sectors of the economy. Industry in general and most of its industries (except for light and food) already in 1950 reached and surpassed the prewar level of output. In 1950-1970, the country continued to develop rapidly. Belarus  became a key part of the national-economic complex of the country. Belarus was called the "assembly shop" of the Soviet economy. The most developed  branches were machine building and chemical industry (Soligorsk potash plant, refineries in Novopolotsk and Mozyr, "Belshina").

Political processes of the late 1980s and early 1990s led to the collapse of the USSR. Two events were most influential in the socio-political life of the BSSR: the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which had a huge resonance in society and the discovery of mass graves in Kuropaty near Minsk.

Palace of Independence, Мinsk, 2014

On December 8, 1991, the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus met in the village of Vaskuli in “Belovezhskaya” Pushcha. According to the sighed agreement the USSR was dissolved and BSSR together with the two other states became a founder- member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On December 10, 1991, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus ratified the agreement on the formation of the CIS and denounced the 1922 Union Treaty.  On September 19, 1991 года  a new name for the country - Republic of Belarus - was adopted.

The Republic of Belarus is a unitary state, a presidential republic. On July 20, 1994, the first president of independent Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, was elected, and subsequently won in the elections of 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2015.

During the years of independence, the Republic of Belarus was held as a sovereign state. The country has no territorial disagreements and conflicts with one of its neighbors. Interethnic and interfaith peace and harmony are preserved. The anti-crisis measures implemented by the government helped stabilize the work of industry. Good performance is demonstrated by agriculture: growth rates in the first half of 2015 in agriculture amounted to 103. 6%. Belarus is among the top ten countries for security along with the states such as Australia, the Netherlands,  Japan. Qatar and Singapore.