Vitebsk in the context of "List of cities and largest towns in Belarus"

The Principality of Vitebsk (Belarusian: Віцебскае княства) was a Ruthenian principality centered on the city of Vitebsk in modern Belarus, that existed from its founding in 1101 until it was nominally inherited into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1320. Vitebsk would later fall under the complete authority of Lithuania in 1508.

55°11′N 30°10′E / 55.183°N 30.167°E / 55.183; 30.167

Vitebsk Governorate (Russian: Витебская губерния, romanized: Vitebskaya guberniya, Belarusian: Віцебская губерня, romanized: Vitsyebskaya hubernya) was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk. It was established in 1802 by splitting Belarusian Governorate and existed until 1924. Today most of the area belongs to Belarus, the northwestern part to Latvia and the northeastern part to Pskov and Smolensk Oblasts of Russia.Together with the Vilna, Kovno, Grodno, Minsk, and Mogilev Governorates, it formed the Northwestern Krai. The provincial city was Vitebsk, the largest city was Dvinsk.

Vitebsk region, also known as Vitebsk oblast or Vitsyebsk voblasts, is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center is Vitebsk. It is located in the north of the country, and borders Russia.

As of 2019, it had a population of 1,135,731, the lowest population density in Belarus at 30.6 p/km².

Josaphat Kuntsevych, OSBM (c. 1580 – 12 November 1623) was a Basilian hieromonk and archeparch of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Polotsk from 1618 to 1623. On 12 November 1623, he was beaten to death with an axe during an anti-Catholic riot by Eastern Orthodox Belarusians in Vitebsk, in the eastern peripheries of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

His death reflects the conflict between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches that intensified after four Ruthenian Orthodox Church (Kiev Metropolitanate) bishops transferred their allegiance from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople to the Holy See, under the terms laid down by the 1439 Council of Florence, by signing the 1596 Union of Brest. Archeparch Josaphat remains one of the best-known victims of anti-Catholic violence for his role in both personally accepting and very effectively spreading the Eastern Catholic Churches as a hieromonk and bishop, and was canonized in 1867 by Pope Pius IX as a saint and a martyr of the Catholic Church.

The history of the Jews in Belarus begins as early as the 8th century. Jews lived in all parts of the lands of modern Belarus. In 1897, the Jewish population of Belarus reached 910,900, or 14.2% of the total population. Following the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1920), under the terms of the Treaty of Riga, Belarus was split into Eastern Belorussia (under Soviet occupation) and Western Belorussia (under Polish occupation), and causing 350,000-450,000 of the Jews to be governed by Poland. Prior to World War II, Jews were the third largest ethnic group in Belarus and comprised more than 40% of the urban population. The population of cities such as Minsk, Pinsk, Mogilev, Babruysk, Vitebsk, and Gomel was more than 50% Jewish. In 1926 and 1939 there were between 375,000 and 407,000 Jews in Belarus (Eastern Belorussia) or 6.7-8.2% of the total population. Following the Soviet annexation of Eastern Poland in 1939, including Western Belorussia, Belarus would again have 1,175,000 Jews within its borders, including 275,000 Jews from Poland, Ukraine, and elsewhere. It is estimated that up to 800,000 of 900,000 — up to 90% of the Jews of Belarus —were killed during the Holocaust. According to the 2019 Belarusian census, there were 13,705 self-identifying Jews in Belarus, of which most are of Ashkenazi origin. However, the Israeli embassy in Belarus claims to know about 30-50 thousand Belarusians with Jewish descent (as of 2017).