Short answers, pulled from the story.
Polotsk was first recorded in the Primary Chronicle in the year 862, listed alongside Murom and Belozersk as one of the earliest-mentioned cities of the Eastern Slavs. An archaeological expedition from the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus suggests the settlement existed even earlier, in the first half of the 9th century.
Euphrosyne of Polotsk was a nun who lived from 1120 to 1173. She built monasteries, transcribed books, promoted literacy, and commissioned a decorated cross from local artisan Lazarus Bohsha that became a national symbol of Belarus. The cross was lost during World War II.
After the Pope suppressed the Society of Jesus in 1773, Russian Empress Catherine II refused to enforce the suppression in her territories. Russia had seized Polotsk in 1772 via the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, so the city became the principal refuge for the Jesuits in Europe, with a novitiate opening there in 1780.
The Polotsk Academy operated from 1812 to 1820 with three faculties, four libraries, and 700 enrolled students. In 1820, Emperor Alexander I closed the academy under pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church and exiled the Jesuits. The library of between 40,000 and 60,000 volumes was dispersed to St. Petersburg, Kiev, and other cities, with 4,000 volumes going to the St. Petersburg State University Scientific Library.
Francysk Skaryna was born in Polotsk around 1490 and is recognized as the first Belarusian printer. In 1517 he printed the Bible in the Old Belarusian language, making it the first Bible printed in any East Slavic language, appearing just a few years after the first Czech Bible in 1506.
In September 2003, during the tenth celebration of "Days of Belarusian Literacy," Polotsk dedicated a monument to the Cyrillic letter Uw, which appears only in the Belarusian alphabet and in no other Slavic language. The idea originated with Belarusian calligraphy professor Paval Siemchanka.