Principality of Vitebsk

The Principality of Vitebsk was a Ruthenian principality centred on the city of Vitebsk in what is now Belarus. It came into being in 1101, when the Principality of Polotsk was divided among the six surviving sons of Prince Vseslav. Vitebsk passed to Sviatoslav Vseslavich, who founded the local branch of the Polotsk dynasty. The principality lay on the trade routes between the Baltic and the Black Sea and was drawn into the repeated wars between Polotsk and Kiev. In 1129 the Kievan prince Mstislav Vladimirovich captured several Polotsk princes and annexed their lands, including Vitebsk, but the local dynasty was later restored. The principality existed until 1320, when it passed by inheritance to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Vitebsk retained a degree of autonomy for a time and only came under the full authority of Lithuania in 1508. Its princes built churches and fortifications, and the city remained an important administrative and commercial centre in the centuries that followed. The principality is remembered as one of the successor states of Polotsk and as part of the Belarusian historical heritage.