History of Minsk
The area of today's Minsk was settled by the Early East Slavs by the 9th century. Minsk was first mentioned in the name form Měneskъ in the Primary Chronicle for the year 1067. 1067 is now widely accepted as the founding year of Minsk, though the town (by then fortified by wooden walls) had certainly existed for some time by then. The Principality of Minsk was established by one of the Polatsk dynasty princes. In 1129, the Principality of Minsk was annexed by Kiev, the dominant principality of Kievan Rus; By 1150, Minsk rivaled Polatsk as the major city in the former Principality of Polatsk. The princes of Minsk and Polatsk were engaged in years of struggle trying to unite all lands previously under the rule of Polatsk.
Minsk escaped the Mongol invasion of Rus in 1237-1239. Trying to avoid the Tatar yoke, the Principality of Minsk sought protection from Lithuania from various northern princes, who had been consolidating their power in the region. In 1242, Minsk became a part of the expanding Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Minsk became the centre of Minsk Voivodship (province). In 1441, the Lithuanian prince Kazimierz IV Jagiellon included Minsk in a list of cities enjoying certain privileges, and in 1499, during the reign of his son, Aleksander Jagiellon, Minsk received town privileges under Magdeburg law. Afterwards, a Polish community including government clerks, officers, and craftsmen settled in Minsk.
By the middle of the 16th century, Minsk was an important economic and cultural centre in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In 1654, Minsk was conquered by troops of Tsar Alexei of Russia. 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 Swedish army of Charles XII and then by the Russian army of Peter the Great. The last decades of the Polish rule involved decline or very slow development, since Minsk had become a small provincial town of little economic or military significance. Most of the Minsk residents at the time were Jews and Poles, with a minority of Belarusians.
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 guberniya (province). In the 1830s, major streets and squares of Minsk were cobbled and paved. By 1860, Minsk was an important trading city with a population of 27,000.
Minsk's development was boosted by improvements in transportation. 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 (Liepaja) was also constructed. Thus Minsk became an important rail junction and a manufacturing hub. By 1900, Minsk had 58 factories employing 3,000 workers.
In the early years of the 20th century, Minsk was a major centre for the worker's movement in Belarus. However, the First World War affected the development of Minsk tremendously. By 1915, Minsk was a battle-front city. 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 Worker's Soviet was established in Minsk in October of 1917, drawing much of its support from disaffected soldiers and workers. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, German forces occupied Minsk in February of 1918. On 25 March, 1918, Minsk was proclaimed the capital of the Belarusian People's Republic. In January, 1919 Minsk was proclaimed the capital of 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. Under the terms of the Peace of Riga, Minsk was handed over to the Russian SFSR and became the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, one of the constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 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.
After World War II, Minsk was rebuilt, but not reconstructed. Since the 1960s Minsk's population has also grown apace, reaching 1 million in 1972 and 1.5 million in 1986. To house the expanding population, Minsk spread beyond its historical boundaries. As the capital of a newly-independent country, Minsk quickly acquired the attributes of a major city. 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. 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 ring road) has been improved.
