Until it was absorbed into the Soviet Union, Belarus as the Belarusian Democratic Republic was represented by a coat of arms: a charging knight on a red field, called the Vytis or Pahonia ('the Chase').
Firstly, many cities received coats of arms under the Magdeburg Law during the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
During the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Vytis has been the dominating symbol on the coats of arms on the provinces on the territory of today's Belarus.
After the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (including territories of present-day Belarus) to the Russian Empire, new administrative divisions (gubernyas, or governorates) were introduced.
Very early, the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania adopted the heraldic tradition of the Polish szlachta.