Capital (pop., 2001 est.: 1,699,000) and largest city of Belarus.
Settled before 1067, it became the seat of a principality in 1101. It passed to Lithuania in the 14th century and later to Poland. Annexed by Russia in the second partition of Poland in 1793, it became a provincial centre. Minsk was occupied by French troops in 1812. It grew in importance as an industrial centre after the arrival of the railways in 1870. During World War I it was occupied first by the Germans and then by the Poles. It was almost entirely destroyed in World War II, especially during the Soviet advance in 1944. Once the capital of the Belorussian S.S.R., it remained the capital when Belarus gained independence in 1991. It is the country's administrative and industrial centre.