The article analyzes the image of Cossack in Belarusian historiography and in collective memory. The author examines the role of the Belarusian Cossacks in the formation of Zaporozhye (Ukrainian) Cossacks. He also explores the Orthodox intellectuals’, who derived from Belarusian lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, attitude towards the Cossacks of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At the same time Belarusian historian notices that in the middle of the 17th century Cossacks as well as their opponents in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania treated Ruthenian people in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in the Kingdom of Poland after the Union of Lublin in 1569 as one ethnocultural group, with common history, language and faith. Although “Cossacks project” in the Belarusian lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was not realized, the memory of the Cossacks remained in Belarusians memory in 18th century as well as in Belarusian folklore.
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