Principality of Polotsk

The Principality of Polotsk was a medieval East Slavic principality centered on the town of Polotsk, in what is now Belarus, first recorded around 862 AD and formally absorbed into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by 1504. At its peak the principality stretched over large parts of present day northern and central Belarus and a smaller part of southeastern Latvia, encompassing major towns including Vitebsk, Minsk and Drutsk. It became a vassal of Lithuania around 1240 and was officially integrated into the Grand Duchy by 1307, though it continued to exist in some form until the early sixteenth century.