People began to populate the territory of Belarus from the Middle Paleolith (100–40 thousand years BC) and the first settlements emerged 27–24 thousand years ago. In the 7–9th centuries, Belarus was inhabited by dryhavichy, kryvichy and radzimichy who formed Slavic alliances. Polotsk, Turov and Smolensk Principalities were the first state formations in Belarus. The town of Polotsk is known since 862. The first chronicled Polotsk Prince who ruled in the late 10th century was Rogvolod. The Polotsk Principality reached the peak of its power in the 11th century under the rule of the Prince Vseslav Charodei. Like other Belarusian lands, the Polotsk and Turov Principalities were ruled by Kiev Princes over specific historical periods, but the process of feudal fragmentation resulted in a collapse into smaller independent Principalities. In the 10–12th centuries, feudalism began to develop on Belarusian lands and at the initial stage it combined with communal structure elements.

In the late 10th century, Byzantinerite Christianity began to disseminate over the Belarusian land, thereby contributing to development of culture, emergence of stone monumental architecture, painting and literature.

In the 1050s, the St. Sophia’s Cathedral was built in Polotsk — the first monumental structure on the Belarusian land. In 1161, jeweler-craftsman Lazar Bogsha created a unique Cross for Enlightener St. Efrasinnia of Polacak — a masterpiece of east-Slavonic applied art. Kirill Turovsky, author of sermon “words” was most well known among Christian preacher writers. The 11th century Turovsky Gospels survived. The Belarusian language began to form in the first half of the 13th century.

In the early 13th century, Belarusian lands and Principalities participated in the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania due to the threat of invasion of crusaders and Mongol-Tatars (the latter subjugated eastern and southern Russian areas in the 1230–1240s). The Duchy was ruled by Mindaug who was coronated as a king in 1253. Novogorodok (Novogrudok) became the capital of the new state and since 1323 — Vilno (current Vilnius). In the 13–14th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania incorporated all Belarusian lands. The Old Belarusian language was the official language from the mid-14th to the late 17th century.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the rule of Vitaut reached the peak of its power, expanded its frontiers to the maximum and gained international prestige. The Battle of Grunwald in 1410 in which the Teutonic Order was inflicted a crushing defeat by the joint forces of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was of critical importance for strengthening the state.

In the 16th century, the state system of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania acquired a final form. Its fundamentals were embodied in the Statutes of 1529, 1566 and 1588. The Grand Duke and Rada Polish landowners ruled the state, the area of which was divided into provinces and povets (administrative district). The representative power body of feudal lords (Polish gentry) was the Sejm, the deputies of which were elected at the povet regional councils.

The struggle for influence in the eastern Baltic region initiated the Livonian war (1558–1583) between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Muscovy state. Failures of the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania led to closer military and state alliance with Poland. The Lyublin Union of 1569 resulted in the unification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish Kingdom into the federative state — Rzeczpospolita with a single monarch and Sejm. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania kept its government, financial system, army and emblem. Concluding the Union allowed the new state to win the war and return areas lost during the retreat and secure its power in Livonia.

From the early 16th century, the massive agrarian reform was launched (the so-called volochnaya pomera of 1557). The serfdom was finally embodied in the 1588 Statute. The towns which were granted self-government — Magdeburg Law — since the late 14th century were intensively developing, urban crafts sprouted and guild production gained momentum. The commerce was intensively developing.

In the 16th century, the Reformation initiated Lutheranism, Calvinism and other Protestant trends on Belarusian lands. Religious tolerance lasted for a long period, but in the late 16th century the counter-reformation began. The compromise between Orthodox and Catholicism resulted in the Brest Church Union of 1596 according to which the Orthodox Church of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania recognized supremacy of the Pope and Catholic doctrines, while keeping its rites and organisation. Reluctance of Orthodox worshippers to accept the Church Union aggravated by economic pressure on peasantry and urban lower classes had led to an anti-feudal war.

Russia capitalized on domestic difficulties of the Rzeczpospolita and launched a new war on its territory (1654–1667) and occupied a larger portion of Belarus. The war resulted in a severe economic and demographic crisis. The Belarusian population reduced by half, towns fell into decay, Polonization strengthened covering wide strata of the gentry and urban residents.

The North War (1700–1721) fought by Swedes against Russia and Rzeczpospolita also was ruinous for Belarus. Battles were fought on the Belarusian area. The war resulted in the economic crisis which was overcome only by mid-18th century. Business began to revive in Belarus and capitalist tendencies emerged in the economy.

The protracted political crisis caused by anarchy in the country and growing influence of the neighboring states on Rzeczpospolita had far more serious implications. The last Polish King and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislav August Ponyatovsky (1764–1795) sought to strengthen the central power, but was confronted by the opposition seeking support abroad. Capitalizing on those circumstances and also profiteering in unequal position of Orthodox and Protestant believers in relation to Catholics in Rzeczpospolita, Russia, Prussia and Austria organized the first division of Rzeczpospolita (1772) after which the eastern part of Belarus was incorporated into the Russian Empire.

After the second division of Rzeczpospolita (1793), Russia received the central part of Belarus. Growing patriotic sentiments fired the uprising led by T. Kostyushko. In 1795, Rzeczpospolita was divided for the third time and Russia absorbed the western area of Belarus, while Rzeczpospolita became non-existent as the state. Russia introduced its territorial and administrative division, taxes and duties in Belarus.

During the French invasion to Russia in 1812, the Belarusian territory was the major theater of war operations and, as a result, it sustained huge losses and its population substantially dwindled.

After the 1812 war, democratic ideas began to disseminate in the national-liberation movement in Belarus. The national-liberation uprising broke out in 1830–1831 to restore Rzeczpospolita within 1772 boundaries. After suppression of the uprising, political and economic influence of the gentry and Catholicism was weakened. Roman Catholic Churches and monasteries were closed and estates of rebellions were confiscated. The Vilno University was closed and the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1588) was annulled.

The peasant reform of 1861 abolished the serfdom in Russia and also in the North-Western Region (as Belarus was formerly named).

The national-liberation uprising against tsarism broke out in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1863–1864. The uprising in Belarus was led by K. Kalinovsky. The first Belarusian underground newspaper Peasant’s Truth was published in 1862–1863. After suppression of the uprising, the exclusive laws were forced in Belarus which were in effect up to the early 20th century.

The revolutionary organization Gomon created by Belarusian students trained in Saint-Petersburg higher educational establishments was active in the first half of the 1880s. The publication of the same name for the first time specified and theoretically substantiated the idea of the right of the Belarusian nation to “autonomous federative independence in the family of other nationalities of Russia”, proved originality of the Belarusian language and the need to develop national culture and literature.

A new upsurge of democratic and national-liberation movement in the late 19th–early 20th centuries created real conditions for revival of the Belarusian culture and statehood. The first national political party — Belarusian Socialist Gromada — was created in 1903 setting as its objectives overthrowing autocracy, forming the Russian Federative Democratic Republic with free self-determination and cultural and national autonomy of nations.

The revolutionary actions of workers and peasant movement forced the initiation of the allotment land use reform in the early 20th century in the Russian Empire, thereby destroying a peasant community and assigning land for the peasant ownership. Landless and having-insufficient-land peasants began to move to Siberia. 335 thousand people left Belarus in 1907–1914.

Once Russia had entered WWI, the martial law was declared in Belarus. Up to September 1915, the western part of Belarus was occupied by German troops. After overthrowing autocracy in Russia as a result of the 1917 February Revolution, political activity in Belarus intensified.

After the victory of armed insurrection in Petrograd, the Soviet power was proclaimed also in Minsk.

The Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was proclaimed in Smolensk 1 January 1919. Given the political situation, however, the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic with the capital in Vilno was established in February 1919.

The BSSR had been proclaimed for the second time after expulsion of Polish troops 31 July 1920.

The western region of Belarus was annexed by Poland in 1921 according to the Riga Peace Treaty. Administratively, the BSSR territory comprised 6 districts of Minsk province with 1,544 thousand people-strong population.

On December 30th 1922, the BSSR was incorporated into the USSR. In 1924 and 1926, the so-called BSSR enlargement took place — it received back 17 districts of Vitebsk, Gomel and Smolensk provinces. The West Belarus was reunified with the BSSR in 1939.

In the pre-WWII period, nearly one thousand industrial enterprises were built and nearly 900 rehabilitated in Belarus. Science, national culture and art were developing. But political repression had a severe implication on all strata of the population.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, Belarus was invaded by occupying fascist troops. A mass guerilla movement spread throughout the republic involving nearly 400 thousand people backed up by over 400 thousand people-strong guerilla reserve. Underground party bodies, patriotic and antifascist organizations counteracted occupants. The fascists carried in Belarus 140 punitive operations burning hundreds of villages, sometimes with residents, under the pretext of fighting guerillas. The Memorial Complex Khatyn (Logoisk District) was built at the site of the village burnt with its residents in the memory of fascism victims.

The Soviet troops completely liberated Belarus in June–July 1944 by launching the Belarusian offensive operation. The war inflicted heaviest losses on Belarus: each third Belarusian resident perished, all cities were raised to ground, large and medium-sized enterprises were destroyed, over 9 thousand villages were burned. Nearly 380 thousand people were forced out to Germany.

Admittance of the BSSR to the United Nations Organization was recognition by the world community of the contribution of the Belarusian people to crushing defeat of Hitlerite Germany and huge losses sustained in the struggle against fascism.

In accordance with the Soviet-Polish Treaty, 17 districts of Belostok and 3 districts of Brest Regions were transferred to Poland in August 1945. By the end of 1970s, agrarian Belarus turned into the developed industrial and agrarian republic.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986 resulted in the radionuclide contamination of large areas in Gomel and Mogilev, partially in Grodno, Brest and Minsk Regions.

On July 27th 1990, the BSSR Supreme Council adopted the Declaration On State Sovereignty of Belarus. It was given the constitutional law status in August 1991. On 19 September 1991, the BSSR was re-named into the Republic of Belarus. In December 1991, the Heads of states and governments of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Act On Denunciation of the Union Treaty of 1922 in Viskuly (Belovezhskaya Pushcha). The USSR ceased to exist. The Republic of Belarus became an independent sovereign state.

On 15 March 1994, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus adopted the new Constitution in which Belarus was proclaimed a unitary democratic legal state.

On July 10th 1994, Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko was elected the first President of the Republic of Belarus. A.G. Lukashenko was re-elected as President of the Republic of Belarus by a large majority in September 2001.

A.G. Lukashenko united efforts of the Belarusians in reforming the economy, improving the work of governmental bodies, reforming the education and healthcare spheres and developing the national culture. All important decisions were taken by the President based on the nation’s opinion. The 1995 and 1996 referenda defined the constitutional system of Belarus, resolved the language problems, approved of the national symbols and explicitly expressed the opinion of the Belarusians for the union with Russia.

The agreement on forming the union between the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation was signed on 2 April 1997. The Presidents of Russia and Belarus signed the Agreement On Establishing the Union State 8 December 1999.

The President of the Republic of Belarus A.G. Lukashenko initiated the creation of an efficient democratic institute to activate the public opinion of the country — in October 1996 the Belarusian People’s Meeting was held for the first time to identify the spheres of Belarus development up to 2000. The second Belarusian People’s Meeting held in May 2001 approved the Program of the country’s development for the next 5 years. Impetus was provided for developing the civil society as a system of non-governmental organizations capable of unanimously expressing and defending national interests and traditions. The Congresses of the Belarusian Women’s Union, Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union, teachers, judges and representatives of other social strata of the society were held in the country. The Congress of delegates of the Deputies’ Councils of the Republic of Belarus was held with the goal of improving the efficiency of work of local authorities and accelerating the regions’ development. The President of the Republic of Belarus A.G. Lukashenko formulated new approaches to the ideological and educational work taking Christian values as its basis. Formulating the strategy of spiritual and economic revival, A.G. Lukashenko identified the priorities allowing for most efficient use of resources and annual budgeting: export, housing, food; the priorities are based on innovation and investment activities, with the science and nation’s health being the major tools of gaining all principal objectives of the Belarusian state.