"The article presents the author’s attempt to retrace the principal stages of the evolution of the party system in the Republic of Byelarus since the attainment of independence up to the present time. What is particularly attended to is the conditions of the formation of the party system and those external and internal factors that more decisively determined its specific features. While stressing relativity and instability of prevailing ideological orientations, the author, nevertheless, singles out three main trends: variations of the left idea