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MINSK (minsk)
The
capital and largest city of Belarus
Common
clues: Capital
of Belarus; Belarus's capital; Louis B. Mayer's birthplace;
European capital
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
2 times a year
Frequency
in English language:
36729 / 86800
Video:
Minsk,
Belarus
Minsk
(Belarusian: Мінск) is the capital
and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha
rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS). As the national capital, Minsk has a
special administrative status in Belarus and is also the
administrative centre of Minsk voblast (province) and Minsk raion
(district). It has a population of 1,830,000 inhabitants (2008).
The
earliest references to Minsk date to the 11th century (1067),
then a provincial city within the principiality of Polotsk. In
1242, Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and it
received its town privileges in 1499. From 1569, it was a capital
of the Minsk Voivodship in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It
was annexed by Russia in 1793, as a consequence of the Second
Partition of Poland. From 1919–1991, Minsk was the capital
of the Byelorussian SSR.
Throughout
the 1990s, after the fall of Communism, the city continued to
change. As the capital of a newly-independent country, Minsk
quickly acquired the attributes of a major city. Embassies were
opened, and a number of Soviet administrative buildings became
government centers. 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. Since the
late 1990s, there have been improvements in transport and
infrastructure, and a housing boom has been underway since 2002.
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. Owing to the small size of the private sector in
Belarus, most development has so far been financed by the
government. In January 2008, the city government announced
several projects on its official web-site. Among them are the
refurbishment of some streets and main avenues, the constructions
of more up-to-date hotels (one near the Palace of the Republic
and another on the shore of Lake Komsomolkye), the demolition of
the out-of-date Belarus hotel and the erection in the same
premises of a complex consisting of sport facilities, swimming
pool, 2 hotel towers and one business center building with the
help of potential foreign investors and the construction of a
modern aquatic park in the outskirts of the city. On September 8,
2007, the city of Minsk celebrated 940 years since its founding.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Minsk".
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