Prince of Polotsk

When Vladimir the Great returned from exile in Scandinavia in 980 to try to claim the Kievan throne that his brother, Yaropolk, held, he sought an alliance with Rogvolod through a marriage with his daughter, Rogneda.

[3] The Rurikids were descendants of Rurik[citation needed] (Ukrainian: Рюрик) (Hrørekr), a Varangian pagan konung or chieftain, who according to the Primary Chronicle was invited to rule Novgorod in 862 and who came to become the ruler of the Northern Slavic tribes of the (Krivchians and Slovene) as well as the Finnish tribes (Meria, Chud and Ves).

[citation needed] The Lublin Union of 1569 constituted the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an influential player in European politics and the largest multinational state in Europe.

While Ukraine and Podlaskie became subjects to the Polish Crown, present-day Belarus territory was still regarded as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Mogilyov was the largest urban centre of the territory of present-day Belarus, followed by Vitebsk, Polotsk, Pinsk, Slutsk, and Brest, whose population exceeded 10,000.