The Department of Belarus History of the Ancient Time and the Middle Ages was created at the Faculty of History of BSU in June 1994 and is the successor of the Department of History of Belarus, founded in 1958. Meanwhile, the beginning of the study and teaching of issues related to the ancient and medieval history of Belarus coincides with the beginning of the University itself – the 1920s, when the Belarusian State University was created and took its first steps. Thanks to the efforts of its first rector, Professor V.I. Picheta, such disciplines as the history of Belarus, the history of the national economy of the BSSR, the history of Russian and Belarusian law took an honorable place in university education. Along with the rector, M. V. Dovnar-Zapolsky, V. M. Ignatovsky, F. F. Turuk, D. A. Dudkov, K. I. Kernazhitsky, V. D. Druzhchits, N. N. Shchekotikhin, who were remembered with warmth and gratitude by the first students of the socio-historical department of the pedagogical faculty, were actively involved in the above-mentioned issues.
After the establishment of a separate faculty in 1934, the Department of History of the USSR and the BSSR was separated from the only Department of General History in 1936, where A. P. Pyankov, D. A. Dudkov, and T. S. Gorbunov worked. Despite the difficult conditions, in 1940 the first university program for the course «History of Belarus» was created, and teachers of the History Department took part in the preparation of the manual «History of Belarus in Documents and Materials». In 1939, the first candidate's dissertation was defended at the faculty. In the post-war years, national history developed and took a worthy place in the university education system. In November 1958, under the leadership of L. S. Abetsedarsky, the Department of History of the BSSR was created and productively worked. After the death of the famous scientist in 1975, the department was headed by doctors of historical sciences, professors V. V. Chapko, I. O. Tsaryuk, A. P. Ignatenko. At this time, significant educational scientific and methodological works appeared: «Reader on the history of Belarus. From ancient times to 1917» (Minsk, 1977), compiled by professors A. P. Ignatenko and V. N. Sidortsov. Under the editorship of doctor of historical sciences A. P. Ignatenko in 1984, the first part of «History of the BSSR» was published. Despite the fact that the above-mentioned works were significantly influenced by the conceptual and methodological provisions laid down in the «Theses on the Basic Questions of the History of the BSSR» (Part 1, 1948), according to which the history of Belarusians was reduced to «the desire of the masses of Belarus for the Moscow State», they must be considered as a certain stage in understanding the history of Belarus. The class approach and the priority of socio-economic issues practically excluded the possibility of the appearance in Belarusian historiography of the 1950s–1980s of fundamental works on the history of the state and law, the gentry class, and church and religious themes.
Finally, in June 1994, in connection with the expansion and deepening of the study of the course of national history both at the history department and at other departments of BSU, the Department of the History of Belarus was divided into two: the Department of Belarus History of the Ancient Time and the Middle Ages (headed by P. O. Loiko), and the Department of the History of Belarus of Modern and Contemporary Times (headed by P. I. Brigadin, since 1999 head by A. G. Kokhanovsky).
The first head of the department was an outstanding specialist in the history of Belarus in the 17th–18th centuries, Pavel Olegovich Loiko. Under his leadership, the concept of special courses in departmental specialization was formed, and personnel were selected for didactic and methodological support for training specialists in Russian history of the 11th–18th centuries. In the first decade of the 21st century, the department made a significant contribution to the study of the history of Belarus, the creation of educational and methodological literature, and the training of specialists for science and education in Belarus. The department’s staff published scientific monographs on various issues in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: P. O. Loiko «Private-Owned Peasants of Belarus. The Evolution of Feudal Rent in the Second Half of the 16th – 18th Centuries» (Minsk: Science and Technology, 1991), P. O. Loiko «The Nobility of the Belarusian Lands in the Social and Political Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Second Half of the 16th – First Third of the 17th Century» (Minsk: BSU, 2002), V. P. Yemelyanchik «Polonaise for Kosiners (on the events of the 1794 uprising led by T. Kosciuszko in Belarus)» (Minsk: Belarus, 1994), V. A. Sosno «Formation of the estate-group composition of the peasantry of Belarus at the end of the 18th – first half of the 19th century» (Minsk: BSU, 2000), Yu. N. Bokhan «Armament of the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the second half of the 14th – end of the 16th century» (Minsk: Ecoperspektiva, 2002). At the same time, through the efforts of the department's staff, a series of textbooks was created, which contributed to the formation of the domestic system of historical education. In a short time, 25 textbooks were prepared and published for institutions of general secondary and higher education, in which the history of the Belarusian lands is considered in a comprehensive manner in the European geopolitical aspect.
The emergence of the new department required a restructuring of the main course of study, which began to be taught to history students only within its framework for three semesters, and a significant revision of the specialization. The department completely switched to the specialization «History of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania» and since 1994 also provides courses «Historiography of the History of Belarus» and «History of the Culture of Belarus».
The main areas of research work of the department were the problems of the evolution of the class structure of society and the processes of state construction in the Belarusian lands in the Middle Ages and modern times, social contradictions in the Belarusian society of the 15th – first half of the 19th centuries. The staff of the department also took a leading part in the development of the following research papers: «Political Crisis and State Reforms in Belarus in the European Context (second half of the 17th – 18th centuries)» (scientific supervisor – P. O. Loiko); «Stratification of Belarusian Society against the Background of Pan-European Processes of the 16th – First Half of the 19th Century» (scientific supervisor – Yu. L. Kazakov), «The Noble Estate of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th – 17th Centuries: Legal Status, Social Activity, Confessional Composition» (scientific supervisor – A. V. Lyuby). The results of the conducted research were the publication of about 300 scientific works, including five monographs, several dozen textbooks, a large number of articles and scientific and methodological developments. In addition, the teachers of the department are engaged in the study of individual topics according to an individual plan.
The history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in whose socio-economic and cultural life the Belarusian lands played a decisive role, is the basis for teaching special courses at the Department of the History of Belarus in Ancient Times and the Middle Ages. They are devoted to the problems of historiography and source studies, among which are individual ones - on the Metrica of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, agrarian and urban topics, foreign and domestic political relations, conflicts and attempts to resolve them, military affairs and art, the evolution of the social structure of the grand ducal society, issues of religious and cultural life. In total, about 30 special courses and elective courses were developed.
From 2006 to 2016, the position of head of the department was held by Yu. L. Kazakov, in 2016–2017 – by P. I. Brigadin, from 2017 to 2023 – by V. A. Podolinsky, and since October 2023 – by S. N. Temushev.
Over the 30 years of the existence of the Department of the History of Belarus of Ancient Times and the Middle Ages, a scientific school for the study of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was created. Candidate dissertations were defended on the history of education in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (A. F. Samusik), art (A. A. Skepyan), interstate relations and domestic political problems (L. V. Nikolaeva, G. V. Pribytko, A. V. Lyuby, A. B. Dovnar, V. A. Podolinsky, T. I. Nareiko (Polikovskaya)), outlying regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - the Smolensk and Polotsk lands (G. A. Lastovsky, V. A. Voronin). Over the past thirty years, 15 candidate dissertations have been prepared and defended at the department. Throughout its existence, the department has trained highly qualified personnel for scientific (NASB, NHAB) and educational institutions of the Republic of Belarus (BSU, BSU Lyceum, PSU, BNTU, BSAA, BSUIR, BSEU), as well as neighboring countries.
Over the past three decades, the department has been continuing its scientific work in the field of socio-economic history research, which is a continuation of the traditions of the Department of History of Belarus in the 1970-1980s (A. P. Ignatenko - V. A. Sosno). In the 1990s and 2000s, P. O. Loiko's school of socio-political history was fully formed, which was continued in the scientific activities of his students in the 2010s. In the 2000s and 2010s, studies appeared on internal political conflicts in Belarus (A. V. Lyuby, M. A. Shnip) and confessional history (E. G. Denisova). Since 2019, the department has been training doctoral students on the problems of ethnic history, history of parliamentarism and historiography of the history of Belarus. Monographs and collections of scientific materials on the scientific issues of the department have been published.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the department staff took an active part in writing the national historical narrative («History of Belarus» in 6 volumes, «History of Belarusian Statehood» in 5 volumes, etc.). The teachers of the department took part in the creation of textbooks on the history of Belarus for general secondary education institutions, starting from the first national textbooks of sovereign Belarus (P. O. Loiko, V. A. Sosno) to modern textbooks of the new generation (S. N. Temushev, Yu. N. Bokhan, A. V. Lyuby, E. G. Denisova). In 2019, the department staff prepared and published a textbook for history faculties on the history of Belarus (vol. 1). Also, the heads of the department of different years – P. I. Brigadin and S. N. Temushev – took part in writing a textbook for higher education institutions on the academic discipline «History of Belarusian Statehood».
Since 2010, the department has regularly held scientific events (round tables, Bokhanovsky and Loykov Readings), which are significant and well-known discussion platforms in the republic on the problems of the history of Belarus during the period of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Active work is carried out with the student body: students of the department take part in national and international competitions of scientific works, and are actively involved in publishing. Among the most significant achievements of students is the publication of a facsimile of the Arkhangelsk copy of the «Gospel» by Vasily Tyapinsky. Since 2014, a scientific seminar on the problems of the history of Belarus in the Middle Ages and early Modern times «Seminarium. Prastora GDL» (curator A. V. Lyuby) has been functioning on a regular basis, and since 2023, a student club on historical cartography «History on the Map (Mapping History)» (curator S. N. Temushev).
The department is actively involved in career guidance of schoolchildren through participation in the Olympiad movement. In addition, Associate Professor of the Department E. G. Denisova is the creator and curator of the «School of the Young Historian», which has been operating at the History Department of BSU for more than ten years.
For three decades, the department has maintained and continues to develop scientific ties with both domestic and foreign centers for the study of the history of the Middle Ages and early modern period in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.
