From the 10th and till the beginning of the 13th centuries AD several state bodies existed at the territory of Belarus , the most significant were the principalities of Polotsk, Turov, Novogrudok and others.
Originally the principalities formed a part of Kiev Rus, which was a kind of peculiar, vast Middle Age federation with definite relations among princes built at the basis of suzerain-vassal relations. Actually in the 10-12th centuries some of the large principalities became independent and were ruled by the representatives of the local dynasties.
From the middle of the 13th till the end of the 18th centuries the Belarusian lands formed a part of the Great Principality of Lithuania. The principality passed two main stages in its state-political development:
- from the middle of the 13th century till 1569, when the Great Principality of Lithuania existed as an independent sovereign power;
- after the Krev Union in 1385 till the end of the 18th century the principality became a member of Rech Pospolita as one of two main parts of that peculiar federation.
From a retrospective point of view, at the end of the 16 th - 18th centuries the social order of the Great Principality of Lithuania presented a starting form of the estate (nobility) democracy, the first step on the way to civic society.
After its inclusion in the Russian empire Belarus did not have its statehood, what was reflected in its name: from 1840 that territory was called the Northern-Western land. There were no special laws in relation to Belarus that could have singled it out as a region that had especial juridical status. Since 1801 the ethnic territory of the Belarusians formed a part of Minsk, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Grodno and Vilnus provinces (or guberniyas).
March 25th , 1918 the Belarusian Peoples Republic was proclaimed in the course of the First World war, when Belarus was occupied by the German troops. The republic was a national bourgeois-democratic state. But it did not become a real state as it did not have its Constitution, there were no state borders, military forces, finance and other attributes of statehood. January 1st , 1919 the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (the BSSR) was founded, political and economical management was carried out under the control of the central authorities in Moscow. Non-communist parties and organizations were forbidden, and governing functions were concentrated by the party machinery of state. Along with that, the BSSR Constitution proclaimed that all the power in the republic belonged to the Soviets (Councils) of deputies from workers, peasants and soldiers. From 1937 till 1996 the Supreme Soviet was the leading body of the state power.
July 27th, 1990 the state sovereignty declaration of the Republic of Belarus was passed. In accordance with the Constitution the Republic of Belarus is a president republic. The head of the executive power is the President, the supreme legislative body is the National Assembly, the supreme controlling body is the Constitutional Court.
