mitrafan davnar zapolsky was born in 1867 in reshitsa.y and philology of kiev university. after graduating, he worked in archives, taught at universities in moscow, kiev, kirch, kharkov, baku and minsk, and headed the department of history of belarus at the belarusian state university. davnar zapolski was still a high school student. began publishing articles about the history and ethnography of his native places. in 1888 , his essay on the belarusian past was published in six issues of the newspaper minsk leaflet. in it, the author argued that belarusians have their own history, culture, ethnographic features and language. davnar zapolsky visited many ethnographic expeditions to the most remote belarusian towns, studied primary sources in russian foreign archives and libraries. the collected material became the basis a significant essay on the history of belarus, published in the publication russia, a complete geographical description of our fatherland in 1905. on the initiative of davnar zapolsky , numerous archival documents were publi