Braslav in Belarus

Nicholas Zharkikh

Shortened text of the section.
Full text in ukrainian version.

In the geographical index to the 3rd and 4th books of the Lithuanian Metrica [RIB, 1910, vol. 27] there are many references to "Braslav", while Vilnius scribes did not distinguish "our" Bratslav (B-2) from Braslav (B-1) in northern Belarus. The following records refer to the latter.

It is possible to prove with almost mathematical accuracy that all these records refer to Braslav in Belarus.

We see that Braslav B-1 appears in these records as a significant city, where there is a church and a provost, where the governor of the Grand Duke resides, a court operates that collects court fees (guilts), where there are inns that bring in income, and from these revenues it is possible to reward the servants of the Grand Duke.

We do not see anything similar at this time in Bratslav B-2.