MINSK  , a

town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the Svisloch, a tributary of the Berezina, at the intersection of the Moscow-Warsaw and Libau-Kharkov rail-ways, 430 M. by rail W. from Moscow . It had, in 1897, 91,494 inhabitants, of whom one-third were Jews of the poorest class; the others were White Russians, Poles and Tatars . Amongst its public buildings is a cathedral, built in 1611 . Minsk is the headquarters of the IVth Army Corps and the see of a bishop of the Orthodox Greek Church, and from 1798 to 1853 it was a see of the Roman Catholic Church . The manufactures are few and insignificant . Since the introduction of railways the commercial importance of the place, which formerly was slight, has begun to increase . Minsk is mentioned in Russian annals in the rsth century under the name of Myen'sk, or Menesk . In Io66 and 1096 it was devastated, first by Izyazlav and afterwards by Vladimir, prince of Kiev . It changed rulers many times until the 13th century, when it became a Lithuanian fief . In the 15th century it waspart of Poland, but as late as 1505 it was ravaged by Tatars, and in 1508 by Russians . In the 18th century it was taken several times by Swedes and Russians . Russia annexed it in 1793 .

Napoleon I. took it in 1812 .