Minsk (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk region and Minsk district. it has a population of about two million, making Minsk the 11th-most populous city in Europe. Minsk is one of the administrative capitals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
First mentioned in 1067, Minsk became the capital of the Principality of Minsk, an appanage of the Principality of Polotsk, before being annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1242. It received town privileges in 1499. From 1569, it was the capital of Minsk Voivodeship, an administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of the territories annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Minsk became the capital of the newly independent Republic of Belarus.
Etymology and historical names The city was known in Old East Slavic as , or . According to one version, it is derived from the name of the Menka River, a tributary of the Ptsich.Фасмер, М. 1986. Этимологический словарь русского языка (Москва: Прогресс), 2-е изд. — Перевод с немецкого и дополнения О.Н. Трубачёва. Минск It has also been claimed to be related to Russian ('to barter' or 'to exchange'), as it referred to a marketplace. In later sources, spellings without yat also occurred ( , , ).Крамко І.І. Штыхаў Г. В. Калі Менск стаў Мінскам // Памяць: Гіст.-дакум. хроніка Мінска. У 4 кн. Кн. 1-я. — Мн.: БЕЛТА, П15 2001. С. 35-36 The form with i, Minsk, appeared in the 16th century, first in Latin and Polish-language documents and later in Ruthenian ones as well; after a period of competition with the form with e, it eventually displaced it entirely in official documents in the 18th century. It may have arisen due to the influence of Ukrainian dialectsФасмер, М. 1986. Этимологический словарь русского языка (Москва: Прогресс), 2-е изд. — Перевод с немецкого и дополнения О.Н. Трубачёва. Минск or due to conflation with the name of the Polish town Mińsk Mazowiecki. This form was, after the late-18th century partitions of Poland, borrowed from Polish into Russian as well (modern spelling: )).Шыбека З. В., Шыбека С. Ф. Мінск: Старонкі жыцця дарэв. горада / Пер. з рускай мовы М. Віжа; Прадмова С. М. Станюты. — Минск: Полымя, 1994. — С. 10. At the same time, the direct continuation of the name in Belarusian, , continued to be used in spoken Belarusian and was established in the usage of Belarusian intellectuals by 1916.Шыбека З. В., Шыбека С. Ф. Мінск: Старонкі жыцця дарэв. горада / Пер. з рускай мовы М. Віжа; Прадмова С. М. Станюты. — Минск: Полымя, 1994. — С. 10. The form was also made official in standard Belarusian in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was replaced with the form in 1939, which has been by some as part of a process of Russification due to the identical pronunciation to the Russian form. Some Belarusian-speakers, especially users of the unofficial Tarashkevitsa written standard, continue to use as their preferred name for the city.
When Belarus was under Lithuanian rule, the names ('Minsk of Lithuania') and ('Minsk of Belarus') were used to differentiate this place name from 'Minsk in Mazovia'. In modern Polish, without an attribute usually refers to the city in Belarus, which is about 50 times bigger than Mińsk Mazowiecki; (compare Brest-Litovsk and Brześć Kujawski for a similar case).
History
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.Robert I. Frost. After the Deluge: Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War, 1655–1660. Cambridge University Press. 2004. p. 48. 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. The last decades of the Lithuanian rule involved decline or very slow development, since Minsk had become a small provincial town of little economic or military significance.
Russian rule
Minsk was annexed by Russia in 1793 as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. 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
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.
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.