30 July 2022 | Author/Destination: Around the World / Rund um die Welt | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 21 minutes
Babrujskaja street © Viktar Palstsiuk/cc-by-sa-4.0
Minsk is the capital and the largest city of
Belarus, located on the
Svislach and the now subterranean
Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of
Minsk Region (
voblasć) and
Minsk District (
rajon). As of January 2021, its population was 2 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 documented in 1067, Minsk became the capital of the
Principality of Minsk before being annexed by the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1242. It received
town privileges in 1499. From 1569, it was the capital of the
Minsk Voivodeship, an administrative division of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of a region 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, in the
Soviet Union. In June 2019, Minsk hosted the
2019 European Games.
read more…
