There are many beautiful cities and towns in the world. I would like to visit some of them, to see with my own eyes what I have read or heard about. But there is no place like home. I love my native town and that’s why I want to tell you about it. The Polotsk land! It is a land of old legends and people’s traditions, blue lakes and fast rivers, the captivating Lakeland of Belarus. This land was populated presumably in the VII-V centuries B.C. At that period the Indo-European tribes, called the “Balts” by the archaeologists, lived in the Dvina- river basin. In the process of great people’s remigration, the Slavs came there from the Central Europe on the borderline of the VI and VII centuries A.D., and the Slavonic spontaneity triumphed due to supplanting and assimilation of the Balts. The Slavonic tribe Krivichy settled down in the vast territories, in particular in the Dvina-river side, their tribal alliance played the paramount role in formation of the Belarusian State system. The centre of the said alliance was Polotsk. The princes, who represented local dynasties governed there as early as the V century A.D. Polotsk sprang up on the Western Dvina offshoot of the world great mercantile marine route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” that favorably linked the lands of Polotsk and the Baltic, Scandinavian, Gothic shores and the Black Sea basin states, as well as with a distant Arabic Caliphate. The destiny of Polotsk was to be the European road crossing, the meeting point of the western and the eastern civilizations, the junction of historical and cultural traditions, where the mutual influence of the Russian, Baltic, Polish, Hebraic and Belarusian constituents was obviously felt over the centuries, being the factor that predestined the unique cultural and spiritual milieu. The foundation date of Polotsk, the most ancient city of Belarus and all Eastern Slavs, is eventually considered the date or its first mentioning in the ancient Slavonic Chronicle “The Narratives about Temporal Ages” nearly in 862, in relation to town assignation implemented by the legendary prince Rurikh to his warrior vassals. Among the assigned towns Polotsk was mentioned as well. The Chronicle reminds that the Krivichy Slavs settled on the river Polota and assumed the name Polotchane. The river Polota gave the name to the city. The annals mention the town Polotesk, Poltesk, or – according Scandinavian sagas – Pallteskiuborg, Plateskia. Initially, the settlement founded by the Balts was located on the hills close to the river Polota, 800 m from the place where the Polota fell into the Western Dvina; the site of ancient settlement covered less than 1 hectare, and the entire non-fortified town occupied about 6 hectares. In the last quarter of the X century the prince Rogvolod, who was independent of Kiev and Novgorod, governed the town of Polotsk. He was the first prince of Polotsk, mentioned in the chronicles, whose personal significance was stressed with the following chronicle words: “He held the lands of Polotsk and ruled them”. By the time, Polotsk had grown into the centre of the Principality – the first state in the Belarusian lands where an independent dynasty of Polotsk princes had been governing for two and a half centuries. In the times of Rogvolod, the Principality of Polotsk was quite strong, and became the cradle of the Belarusian state system, culture and spirituality, the original historical motherland of the Belarusians. The Chronicle also reminded the events that occurred approximately in 980. The Svyatoslaviches – the princes Yaropolk of Kiev and Vladimir or Novgorod, being at enmity with each other for the throne of Kiev, were searching for backing or the Polotsk prince Rogvolod, both of them asked in marriage his beautiful daughter Rogneda. Rogvolod preferred to avoid interference in that dissension. Rogneda favoured the match-makers of Yaropolk and rejected Vladimir’s proposal notifying proudly: “I don’t want to take bondman’s shoes off, and those of Yaropolk I do”, that sounded like outrage for the prince Vladimir who was of the mixed blood. In response to negative reply of Rogvolod and Rogneda, all the Northern Russia, having anticipated such events, broke out against Polotsk. Vladimir with the huge host attacked Polotsk, burned and sacked it. Rogvolod, his wife and their two sons were killed; Rogneda, Rogvolod’s recalcitrant daughter, was forced to become the wife of Vladimir. The latter with his host occupied the Grand-Prince throne of Kiev; Rogneda became one of his wives. She was not able to forgive Vladimir for his perpetration against her and her family, and had the courage to murderous assault, but her intent failed. Vladimir, who was furious, exiled Rogneda and their son Isyaslav to their ancestral lands where he had built the town Isyaslav (Zaslavl). Isyaslav initiated the revival of the Polotsk. Isyaslav’s son Bryachislav, who was governing in Polotsk in