Belarus is located in the border zone between two major branches of Christianity - Orthodoxy and Catholicism, with varying success competing in the country for centuries. In this work, the term "borderland" is interpreted as a zone of a long-standing cultural and civilizational conflict between the West and East of Europe. This book is a look from the West. The authors consider the main milestones of the political and cultural history of the Belarusian lands until the end of the 18th century, analyze the peculiarities of the formation of the Belarusian nation in the 19th - early 20th centuries. and touch upon the problem of memory culture on the example of World War II. Published with support from Carnegie Corporation (New York)