Polatskian

The Polatskians were the East Slavic people of White Ruthenia, the lands around Polotsk and Minsk in what is now northern Belarus. They grew from the Krivichs, Slavic settlers who mixed with local Balts from the eighth century and built Polotsk on the Western Dvina trade road.

First mentioned in 862, Polotsk became a Rus' principality under Rogvolod and, after Vladimir the Great's 980 conquest, under Rurikid descendants of Izyaslav; Prince Vseslav (1044–1101) made it a rival of Kiev before it split into the smaller principalities of Minsk, Vitebsk and Drutsk.

In the early fourteenth century the region entered the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where Orthodox, Ruthenian-speaking nobles kept much self-rule; Polotsk became a voivodeship in 1504. After the 1569 Union of Lublin and 1596 Union of Brest, many commoners joined the Uniate Church while Polish spread among the elite. The late-eighteenth-century Partitions of Poland transferred the region to the Russian Empire.