Svislach has been inhabited since at least the 12th century, and was formerly part of the Polotsk Principality of the Early East Slav cultures.

It was the sight of the Svislach Castle, a wooden baroque monument with a moat and rampart, which was originally built in the 12th century, was destroyed and rebuilt, until it was demolished by Soviet authorities.

Under the Third Constituent Charter, Svislach was declared part of the Belarusian People's Republic following the collapse of the Russian Empire.

In the summer, the Germans took a dozen Jews outside of the town's borders, and murdered them in the Berezina riverbank.

On October 14, the remaining Jews in the town were rounded up and were brought to the same forest, and also murdered in the killing pit.

In 2018, the diary of a gentile resident of the town was found from WWII, in which it was stated that over 1,000 Jews were murdered, but this figure contradicts evidence about the size of the Jewish community at the time.

[8] Svislach is the site of local pediatric medical tourism, with one of the largest children's sanitoriums in the region.