Minsk
- For things named after Minsk, see Minsk (disambiguation)
Minsk or Miensk (Belarusian: Мінск (official spelling in Belarus), Менск; Russian: Минск; Polish: Mińsk) is the capital and a major city of Belarus with a population of 1.8 million. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States. As a capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the capital of Minsk voblast (province) and Minsk raion. Minsk is situated by the Svislach and Niamiha rivers, at 53°55′N 27°33′E. The timezone in Minsk is GMT +2.
The oldest mentions of Minsk date back to the 11th century (1067). In 1326 Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and received its town privileges in 1499. From 1569 it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodship in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was annexed by Russia in 1793 as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. During 1919–1991 Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian SSR.
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History
Legend has it that a giant called Menesk or Mincz had a mill on the banks of a river near the city. He used to grind stones for making bread in order to feed his warriors. The name "Minsk", also known as Mensk or Miensk, more likely comes from the name of river Menka (20 km from the present center of the city). The legend which derives the name "Minsk" from the word мена (miena, "barter" in English) is not approved by the toponymical tradition.
By the 10th century, Prince Rahvalod (Ragnvald in Norse), of Viking origin, ruled a principality named Polotsk, which included Minsk. The first recorded mention of Minsk dates from 1067, when a bloody battle between Polotsk and Kiev principalities took place on the banks of the Niamiha.
In 1326 Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a common Belarusian-Lithuanian state that after the Union of Lublin in 1569 formed part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Minsk received its town privileges in 1499.
In 1655 Minsk was conquered by Tsar Alexei of Russia but it was soon regained by Jan Kasimir, King of Poland (1648-1668). It was annexed by Russia in 1793 as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland.
In the 19th century under Russian rule the city grew, becoming an important rail junction. In 1897 the city had 91,494 inhabitants, about one third of them Jews, the population was nearly half jewish in 1926.
In 1919 and again in 1920 the city was controlled by the Second Polish Republic in the course of the Polish-Bolshevik war. Later it was annexed by Soviet Russia under the terms of the Peace of Riga and became the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, one of the constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Minsk was the center of Communist repressions in Belarus. The NKVD murdered people in Kamarouka, later in Kurapaty. After the German invasion the prisoners of Minsk were massacred on the way to Cherven.
The Minsk area became a centre of the Soviet partisan movement behind enemy lines during the Great Patriotic War, and therefore Minsk was awarded the communist title Hero City in 1974. During the war the city was almost completely destroyed and only a few historical buildings were standing. Most of the churches were destroyed during World War II and in the years after blown up by the communist authorities, there are just a few remaining ones, for example, the Catholic Kalvaryja.
Minsk was the site of one of the largest Nazi-run ghettos in the Second World War, the Minsk Ghetto, which held over 100,000 Jews. A living space of 1.5 square meters was allotted for each person, with none for children. As new Jews were brought to the ghetto from the west, the existing Jewish residents were slaughtered -- 2,000 Jews were killed on 7 November, 1941, 30,000 Jews were murdered over three days in July, 1942, and tens of thousands more were killed at other times, even as more Jews were forced into the Ghetto. Only a handful survived.[1]
The first section of the Minsk Metro opened in 1984 and now the network, which is called the Metro as in many other European cities, consists of two lines. Presently, extensions to both of the lines are under construction along with two new lines to be built in the near future. In addition, Minsk has an extensive network of buses, trolleys and trams.
The city grew rapidly after World War II, so that surrounding villages became mikrorayons, districts of high-density apartment housing. After the Chernobyl disaster, some of the displaced residents of the affected areas moved into Minsk, particularly into the Malinauka and Shabany mikrorayons. Even though the Minsk Ring Automobile Road surrounds the city, there are now some mikrorayons beyond the ring, such as Uruchye and Shabany. A new mikrorayon called Loshitsa was developed during the 1990s, though it is inside the ring. The Kurapaty Forest is located on the outskirts, near the Ring Road, where in 1937-1941 tens of thousands of Belarusans were shot by the Communists.
Historical names
- Mensk, Miensk (Менск), the historical name the Belarusian opposition tends to use.
- Polish: Mińsk, Mińsk Litewski, Mińsk Białoruski, used when Belarus was under the Polish rule.
Features
Minsk has two airports. Minsk-1 is located just south of the city center and has mostly domestic flights. It might be redeveloped into a housing district sometime in the future. The other airport, located far east of town, is Minsk-2. It is an international airport undergoing modernization with flights to Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Poland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and other countries, operated by the national carrier Belavia and the German airline Lufthansa. The Minsk central train station was modernized recently.
Minsk is very industrialized and produces tractors, gears, trucks, textiles, ice cream, refrigerators, television sets, radios, bicycles and countless other consumer items. However, unemployment and underemployment are quite common these days.
External links
- Pictures of Minsk
- Minsk City Executive Committee
- Photos on Radzima.org
- Minsk hotels
- Budget travel guide to Minsk
- Minsk telephone directory
- ACI Minsk. Info Guides
- Minsk In The Fifties
- Minsk Outdoor
| Subdivisions of Belarus | 
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|---|---|
| Brest | Homiel | Hrodna | Mogilev | Minsk (voblast) | Minsk (city) | Vitebsk | |
