The uses of heraldry in Belarus is used by government bodies, subdivisions of the national government, organizations, corporations and by families.
The history of Belarusian heraldry is integral to that of the szlachta, the Polish-Belarusian nobility, and therefore to the history of Polish heraldry.[ citation needed ]
Until it was absorbed into the Soviet Union, Belarus (as the Belarusian Democratic Republic and earlier as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) was represented by a coat of arms: a charging knight on a red field, called the Pahonia ('the Chase').
Throughout the communist period, coats of arms fell out of favor and were replaced by emblems. The cities still used shields, but these were changed to add socialist realism or to announce the state awards each city earned.
Once the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, the Pahonia was restored as the state coat of arms and the cities reverted to old coat of arms or created new designs. Each of the seven voblasts of Belarus has its own coat of arms. Historical achievements, state awards or state symbols are placed on the coat of arms. For example, the enterprise "October" features the state flag of Belarus on their coat of arms.
There have been several waves of Belarusian cities receiving coats of arms. Firstly, many cities received coats of arms under the Magdeburg Law during the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
After the Partitions of Poland, territories in modern-day Belarus were incorporated into the Russian Empire. In the late 18th century and during the 19th century, the authorities of the Russian Empire assigned new coats of arms to most Belarusian cities, often aiming to emphasize the cities' conquest by the Russians.
In the Belarusian SSR era, cities didn't have any official coats of arms. In the late years of the USSR, Russian-Empire-era coats of arms were sporadically used as informal symbols.
After the restoration of the independence of Belarus in 1991, the cities of Belarus have restored the official usage of coats of arms. Most cities have restored the initial medieval coats of arms, fewer have restored the coats of arms granted during the Russian Empire.
| City | Current coat of arms | Historical coat of arms | Coat of arms introduced by the Russian Empire |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minsk |  |  |  |
| Brest |  |  |  |
| Homiel |  |  |  |
| Hrodna |  |  |  |
| Mahiloŭ |  |  |  |
| Viciebsk |  |  |  |
During the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Pahonia has been the dominating symbol on the coats of arms on the provinces on the territory of today's Belarus.
After annexation of Belarus to the Russian Empire, new administrative divisions (gubernyas, or governorates) were introduced. Vitebsk and Vilno governorates inherited coats of arms of their former voivodeships.
After the restoration of the independence of Belarus, the regions received new coats of arms, mostly basing on the coats of the Russian era governorates.
See Armorial of Polish nobility
The nobility of the historical regions of modern Belarus, which comprise parts of Lithuania propria and White Ruthenia, were a historical part of the Lithuanian nobility and Ruthenian nobility in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Very early the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania adopted the heraldic tradition of the Polish szlachta. The heraldry of the Belarusian nobility constitutes a part of the Polish heraldry.
The Belarusian Roman Catholic senior clergy has personal coats of arms as according to the customs of catholic ecclesiastical heraldry.
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This article describes the history of Belarus. The Belarusian ethnos is traced at least as far in time as other East Slavs.
Grodno or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, 300 km (186 mi) from Minsk, about 15 km (9 mi) from the Polish border and 30 km (19 mi) away from Lithuania. In 2019 the city had 373,547 inhabitants. Grodno is the capital of Grodno Region and Grodno District.
Brest, formerly Brest-Litovsk, Brest-on-the-Bug, is a city in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the Polish city of Terespol, where the Bug and Mukhavets rivers meet, making it a border town. It is the capital city of the Brest Region.
Grodno Region or Grodno Oblast or Hrodna Voblasts is one of the regions of Belarus. It is located in the western part of the country.
The national emblem of Belarus features a ribbon in the colors of the national flag, a map of Belarus, wheat ears and a red star. It is sometimes referred to as the coat of arms of Belarus, although in heraldic terms this is inaccurate as the emblem does not respect the rules of conventional heraldry. The emblem is an allusion to one that was used by the Byelorussian SSR, designed by Ivan Dubasov in 1950, with the biggest change being a replacement of the Communist hammer and sickle with an outline map of Belarus. The Belarusian name is Dziaržaŭny herb Respubliki Biełaruś, and the name in Russian is Gosudarstvennyĭ gerb Respubliki Belarusʹ.
The coat of arms of Lithuania consists of a mounted armoured knight holding a sword and shield, known as Vytis. Since the early 15th century, it has been Lithuania's official coat of arms and is one of the oldest European coats of arms. It is also known by other names in various languages, such as Waikymas, Pagaunė in the Lithuanian language or as Pogonia, Pogoń, Пагоня in the Polish, and Belarusian languages. Vytis is translatable as Chase, Pursuer, Knight or Horseman, similar to the Slavic vityaz. Historically – raitas senovės karžygys or in heraldry – raitas valdovas.
The Columns of Gediminas or Pillars of Gediminas are one of the earliest symbols of Lithuania and its historical coats of arms. They were used in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, initially as a rulers' personal insignia, a state symbol, and later as a part of heraldic signs of leading aristocracy.
Minsk Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1566 and later in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, until the partitions of the Commonwealth in 1793. Centred on the city of Minsk and subordinate to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the region continued the traditions – and shared the borders – of several previously existing units of administrative division, notably a separate Duchy of Minsk, annexed by Lithuania in the 13th century. It was replaced with Minsk Governorate in 1793.
Lyepyel is a town located in the center of the Lyepyel Raion (district) in the Vitebsk Province of Belarus near Lyepyel Lake. Lyepyel is situated at about 54°52′N28°40′E and its population in the 1998 census was 19,400.
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. Jews were the third largest ethnic group in the country in the first half of the 20th century. 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 and Western Belorussia, and causing 350,000-450,000 of the Jews to be governed by Poland. Prior to World War II, Jews remained the third largest ethnic group in Belarus and comprised more than 40% of the population in cities and towns. The population of cities such as Minsk, Pinsk, Mahiliou, Babrujsk, Viciebsk, and Homiel was more than 50% Jewish. In 1926 and 1939 there were between 375,000 and 407,000 Jews in Belarus 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 800,000 of 900,000 — 90% of the Jews of Belarus —were killed during the Holocaust. According to the 2019 national census, there were 13,705 self-identifying Jews in Belarus. The Jewish Agency estimates the community of Jews in Belarus at 20,000. However, the number of Belarusians with Jewish descent is assumed to be higher.
Following three consecutive partitions of Poland carried out between 1772 and 1795, the sovereign state known as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth disappeared from the map of Europe. In 1918 following the end of World War I, the territories of the former state re-emerged as the states of Poland and Lithuania among others. In the intervening period, the territory of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was split between the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire. These powers subdivided the territories that they gained and created new toponyms for the territories conquered. The subdivisions created were complicated by changes within those empires as well as by the periodic establishment of other forms of the quasi-Polish provinces led by a foreign head of state.
Upon the independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union, the country resurrected national symbols that were used before the Soviet era. These included a flag of red and white stripes and a coat of arms consisting of a charging knight on horseback. These national symbols were replaced by Soviet-era symbols in a disputed 1995 vote. Those two symbols, along with the national anthem, are the constitutionally defined national symbols of Belarus.
Ruthenian nobility refers to the nobility of Kyivan Rus and Galicia–Volhynia, which found itself in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later Russian and Austrian Empires, and became increasingly polonized and later russified, while retaining a separate, cultural identity.
The Russian heraldry involves the study and use of coats of arms and other heraldic insignia in the country of Russia since its formation in the 16th century. Compare the socialist heraldry of the Soviet period of Russian history (1917–1991).
Khalopyenichy is an urban-type settlement in Krupki District, Minsk Region, Belarus.
Litvinism is a branch of nationalism, philosophy and political current in Belarus, which bases the history of its state on the heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and emphasizes the Baltic component of the Belarusian ethnic group. According to this branch of Belarusian nationalism, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a Slavic or Belarusian state, the medieval Lithuanians were Belarusians, and modern Lithuania is a consequence of a falsification of history. Opponents of Litvinism consider it a fringe pseudohistorical theory.
Anatol Tsitou was a Belarusian historian and heraldist, known for his research of Belarusian heraldry.
Aliaksei Shalanda, Candidate of Sciences, is a Belarusian historian and heraldist.
The white-red-white flag is a historic flag used by the Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1918 before Western Belarus was occupied by the Second Polish Republic and Eastern Belarus was occupied as a Soviet Republic, then by the Belarusian national movement in Western Belarus followed by widespread unofficial use during the German occupation of Belarus between 1942 and 1944, and again after it regained its independence in 1991 until the 1995 referendum.
