Polotsk

Polotsk lies on both banks of the Western Dvina where the Polota joins it, one of the oldest cities of Rus' and once the capital of a principality that rivalled Kiev. Its St Sophia Cathedral, built between 1044 and 1066, is among the earliest great churches of Rus'. In the 14th century Polotsk was ruled by Algirdas's son Andrei and then by Skirgaila, who ruled to 1397 and was the last independent prince of Polotsk.

The city entered the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with its own traditions, and was granted Magdeburg law in 1498. Ivan IV's troops besieged and took Polotsk on 15 February 1563 and plundered it; the city never regained its old wealth. Stephen Báthory retook it in 1579. Plague in 1566 and the famines of 1600 and 1741–46 further thinned its people. In 1772 the right-bank part of Polotsk passed to Russia, and in 1776 it became a governorate seat.