Early history The
Svislach River valley was the settlement boundary between two early East Slavic tribes – the
Krivichs and
Dregoviches. By 980, the area was incorporated into the
early medieval Principality of Polotsk, one of the earliest East Slavic principalities of
Kievan Rus'. Minsk was first mentioned in the name form
Měneskъ (Мѣнескъ) in the
Primary Chronicle for the year 1067 in association with the
Battle on the River Nemiga. 1067 is now widely accepted as the founding year of Minsk. City authorities consider the date of 3 March 1067 to be the exact founding date of the city, though the town (by then fortified by wooden walls) had certainly existed for some time. The origin of the name is unknown but there are several theories. In the early 12th century, the
Principality of Polotsk disintegrated into smaller fiefs. The
Principality of Minsk was established by one of the
Polotsk dynasty princes. In 1129, the Principality of Minsk was annexed by
Kiev, the dominant principality of
Kievan Rus'; however in 1146 the Polotsk dynasty regained control of the principality. By 1150, Minsk rivalled Polotsk as the major city in the former Principality of Polotsk. The princes of Minsk and Polotsk were engaged in years of struggle trying to unite all lands previously under the rule of Polotsk.
Late medieval and early modern era Minsk escaped the
Mongol invasion of Rus in 1237–1239. In 1242, Minsk became a part of the expanding
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It joined peacefully and local elites enjoyed high rank in the society of the Grand Duchy. In 1413, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and
Kingdom of Poland entered into a union. Minsk became the centre of
Minsk Voivodship (province). In 1441, as
Grand Duke of Lithuania,
Casimir IV included Minsk in a list of cities enjoying certain privileges, and in 1499, during the reign of his son,
Alexander Jagiellon, Minsk received
town privileges under
Magdeburg law. In 1569, after the
Union of Lublin, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland merged into a single state, the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. By the middle of the 16th century, Minsk was an important economic and cultural centre in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was also an important centre for the
Eastern Orthodox Church. Following the
Union of Brest, both the
Eastern Catholic Churches and the Roman Catholic Church increased in influence. In 1655, Minsk was conquered by troops of
Tsar Alexis of Russia. Russians governed the city until 1660 when it was regained by
John II Casimir, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland. By the end of the
Polish-Russian War, Minsk had only about 2,000 residents and just 300 houses. The second wave of devastation occurred during the
Great Northern War, when Minsk was occupied in 1708 and 1709 by the army of
Charles XII of Sweden and then by the army of
Peter the Great. In 1796, it became the centre of the
Minsk Governorate. All of the initial
street names were replaced by Russian names, though the spelling of the city's name remained unchanged. It was briefly occupied by the
Grande Armée during
French invasion of Russia in 1812. Throughout the 19th century, the city continued to grow and significantly improve. In the 1830s, major streets and squares of Minsk were cobbled and paved. A first public library was opened in 1836, and a fire brigade was put into operation in 1837. In 1838, the first local newspaper,
Minskiye gubernskiye vedomosti ("Minsk province news") went into circulation. The first theatre was established in 1844. By 1860, Minsk was an important trading city with a population of 27,000. There was a construction boom that led to the building of two- and three-story brick and stone houses in
Upper Town. Minsk's development was boosted by improvements in transportation. In 1846, the Moscow-
Warsaw road was laid through Minsk. In 1871, a railway link between Moscow and Warsaw ran via Minsk, and in 1873, a new
railway from Romny in Ukraine to the Baltic Sea port of Libava (
Liepāja) was also constructed. Thus Minsk became an important rail junction and a manufacturing hub. A
municipal water supply was introduced in 1872, the telephone in 1890, the horse tram in 1892, and the first power generator in 1894. By 1900, Minsk had 58 factories employing 3,000 workers. The city also boasted theatres, cinemas, newspapers, schools and colleges, as well as numerous monasteries, churches, synagogues, and a mosque. According to the 1897
Russian census, the city had 91,494 inhabitants, with some 47,561 Jews constituting more than half of the city population.
20th century and town hall (to the right) in 1912 In the early years of the 20th century, Minsk was a major centre for the worker's movement in Belarus. The
1st Congress of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, the forerunner to the
Bolsheviks and eventually the
CPSU, was held there in 1898. It was also one of the major centres of the
Belarusian national revival, alongside
Vilnius. However, the
First World War significantly affected the development of Minsk. By 1915, Minsk was a battlefront city. Some factories were closed down, and residents began evacuating to the east. Minsk became the headquarters of
the Western Front of the Russian army and also housed military hospitals and
military supply bases. over the building of the People's Secretariat of the Belarusian People's Republic, 1918 The
Russian Revolution had an immediate effect in Minsk. A Workers' Soviet was established in Minsk in October 1917, drawing much of its support from disaffected soldiers and workers. After the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
German forces occupied Minsk on 21 February 1918. On 25 March 1918, Minsk was proclaimed the capital of the
Belarusian People's Republic. The republic was short-lived; in December 1918, Minsk was taken over by the
Red Army. In January 1919 Minsk was proclaimed the capital of the
Byelorussian SSR, though later in 1919 (see
Operation Minsk) and again in 1920, the city was controlled by the
Second Polish Republic during the course of the
Polish-Bolshevik War between 8 August 1919 and 11 July 1920 and again between 14 October 1920 and 19 March 1921. Under the terms of the
Treaty of Riga, Minsk was handed back to the
Russian SFSR and became the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, one of the founding republics of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A programme of reconstruction and development began in 1922. By 1924, there were 29 factories in operation; schools, museums, theatres and libraries were also established. Throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, Minsk saw rapid development with dozens of new factories being built and new schools, colleges, higher education establishments, hospitals, theatres and cinemas being opened. During this period, Minsk was also a centre for the development of Belarusian language and culture. woods, 1989, where between 1937 and 1941 from 30,000 to 250,000 Belarusian
intelligentsia members were murdered by the
NKVD during the
Great Purge Before the
Second World War, Minsk had a population of 300,000 people. At the start of the war, on 11 September 1939, the Belarusian Front of the
Red Army was formed shortly before the Soviet
invasion on Poland, and its headquarters was located in Minsk. The Germans captured Minsk in the
Battle of Białystok–Minsk, as part of
Operation Barbarossa;
after it had been devastated by the
Luftwaffe. However, some factories, museums, and tens of thousands of civilians had been evacuated to the east. The Germans designated Minsk the administrative centre of
Generalbezirk Weißruthenien. Communists and sympathisers were killed or imprisoned, both locally and after being transported to Germany. Homes were requisitioned to house invading German forces. Thousands starved as food was seized by the German Army and paid work was scarce. Minsk was the site of one of the largest Nazi-run
ghettos in the Second World War, temporarily housing over 100,000 Jews (see
Minsk Ghetto). The Germans operated the Dulag 126 and Dulag 127 transit camps for prisoners of war in Minsk in 1941, and then the Stalag 352
prisoner-of-war camp for Soviet and
Italian POWs from 1941 to 1944. Some anti-Soviet residents of Minsk, who hoped that Belarus could regain independence, did support the Germans, especially at the beginning of the occupation, but by 1942, Minsk had become a major centre of the
Soviet partisan resistance movement against the invasion, in what is known in some post-Soviet states as the
Great Patriotic War. For this role, Minsk was awarded the title
Hero City in 1974. Minsk was recaptured by Soviet troops on 3 July 1944 in the
Minsk offensive as part of
Operation Bagration. The city was the centre of German resistance to the Soviet advance and saw heavy fighting during the first half of 1944. Factories, municipal buildings,
power stations, bridges, most roads, and 80% of the houses were reduced to rubble. In 1944, Minsk's population was reduced to a mere 50,000. The historical centre was replaced in the 1940s and 1950s by
Stalinist architecture, which favoured grand buildings, broad avenues and wide squares. Subsequently, the city grew rapidly as a result of massive industrialisation. Since the 1960s Minsk's population has also grown apace, reaching 1 million in 1972 and 1.5 million in 1986. Construction of
Minsk Metro began on 16 June 1977, and the system was opened to the public on 30 June 1984, becoming the ninth metro system in the Soviet Union. The rapid population growth was primarily driven by mass migration of young, unskilled workers from rural areas of Belarus, as well as by migration of
skilled workers from other parts of the
Soviet Union. To house the expanding population, Minsk spread beyond its historical boundaries. Its surrounding villages were absorbed and rebuilt as
mikroraions, districts of high-density apartment housing.
Recent developments Throughout the 1990s, after the fall of communism, the city continued to change. As the capital of a newly independent country, Minsk quickly acquired the attributes of a major city. Embassies were opened, and a number of Soviet administrative buildings became government centres. During the early and mid-1990s, Minsk was hit by an
economic crisis and many development projects were halted, resulting in high unemployment and underemployment. Since the late 1990s, there have been improvements in transport and infrastructure, and a housing boom has been underway since 2002. On the outskirts of Minsk, new
mikroraions of
residential development have been built. Metro lines have been extended, and the road system (including the
Minsk BeltWay) has been improved. In recent years Minsk has been continuously decentralizing, with a third line of the
Minsk Metro opening in 2020. More development is planned for several areas outside the city centre, while the future of the older neighborhoods is still unclear. == Geography ==