Polotsk is one of the earliest mentioned cities of the
Eastern Slavs. The
Primary Chronicle mentioned Polotsk in the year 862 (as Полотескъ, /poloteskŭ/), together with
Murom and
Belozersk. An archaeological expedition from the Institute of History of the
National Academy of Sciences of Belarus suggests that Polotsk existed in the first half of the 9th century. The first known prince of Polotsk was
Rogvolod (ruled 945–978). He had two sons and a daughter named
Rogneda. Rogvolod promised Rogneda to the
prince of Kiev,
Yaropolk, as a wife. But Yaropolk's brother,
Vladimir, had attacked Polotsk before Yaropolk came. He killed Rogvolod, his wife and sons, and married Rogneda. Vladimir and Rogneda had five children and the eldest of them,
Izyaslav, became Prince of Polotsk (ruled 989–1001). Between the 10th and 12th centuries, the
Principality of Polotsk emerged as the dominant center of power in what is now Belarusian territory, with a lesser role played by the
Principality of Turov to the south. It repeatedly asserted its sovereignty in relation to other centers of
Kievan Rus', becoming a political capital, the
episcopal see and the controller of
vassal territories among
Balts in the west. Its most powerful ruler was Prince
Vseslav of Polotsk, who reigned from 1044 to 1101. A 12th-century inscription commissioned by Vseslav's son
Boris may still be seen on a
huge boulder installed near St. Sophia Cathedral. During the
Mongol invasion, Polotsk avoided being invaded or paying tribute to the
Golden Horde. But in 1240, it became a vassal of the Lithuanian princes. The
Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytenis annexed the city by military force in 1307, completing the process which the Lithuanian princes had begun in the 1250s. It was the earliest to be so incorporated into the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Magdeburg law was adopted in 1498. Polotsk functioned as a capital of the
Połock Voivodship of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1772. Captured in the
Livonian War by the
Russian army of
Ivan the Terrible in 1563, it was returned to the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania just 15 years later. It was again captured by Russia on 17 June 1654, but recaptured by Poland–Lithuania on 30 October 1660 during the
Russo-Polish War (1654–67). In 1772, Russia seized Polotsk (then Połock) as part of the
First Partition of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Since the Russian Empress
Catherine II did not acknowledge the Papal
suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773–1814), the Jesuit branches in these lands were not disbanded, and Połock became the European centre of the
Order, with a
novitiate opening in 1780, and with the arrival of distinguished Jesuits from other parts of Europe who brought with them valuable books and scientific collections. Jesuits continued their pastoral work and upgraded the
Jesuit College in Polotsk (opened in 1580 by decree of the Polish king
Stefan Batory, with the Jesuit
Piotr Skarga (1536–1612) as its first rector) into the
Połock Academy (1812–1820), with three faculties (Theology, Languages and Liberal Arts), four libraries, a printing house, a bookshop, a theatre with 3 stages, a science museum, an art gallery and a scientific and literary periodical, and a medical-care centre. The school was also the patron of the college in Petersburg, the mission to
Saratov and an expedition to Canton. During the
French invasion of Russia the district saw two battles, the
First Battle of Polotsk (August 1812) and the
Second Battle of Polotsk (October 1812). In 1820, pressure from the
Russian Orthodox Church influenced the Russian Emperor
Alexander I to exile the Jesuits and to close the Polock Academy, there were 700 students studying there. The Russian authorities also broke up the Academy's library of 40,000–60,000 volumes, the richest collection of 16th- to 18th-century books — the books went to St. Petersburg, Kiev and other cities, 4000 volumes (along with books from other closed Jesuit schools) going to the
St. Petersburg State University Scientific Library. Polotsk came under occupation by the
German Empire between 25 February 1918 and 21 November 1918 during
World War I, by Poland between 22 September 1919 and 14 May 1920 in the
Polish–Soviet War. and by
Nazi Germany between 16 July 1941 and 4 July 1944 during
World War II. In August 1944, there were serious considerations to transfer Polotsk and its surrounding areas (18,000 square kilometers) with ~400,000 people from the
Byelorussian SSR to the
Russian SFSR, however
Joseph Stalin, persuaded by
Panteleimon Ponomarenko, eventually rejected to approve the already prepared transferring documents and subsequently Polotsk functioned as the center of
Polotsk Region between 20 September 1944 and 8 January 1954. A reorganisation of the area between
Vitebsk and
Molodechno Regions left Polotsk part of the former. ==Cultural heritage==