Minsk — Capital of Belarus

Minsk (population about 2 million) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach river in the centre of the country. First mentioned in 1067, it spent centuries within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth before passing to the Russian Empire in 1793. During World War II it was occupied by Nazi Germany and almost entirely destroyed — afterwards it was rebuilt in a grand Stalinist architectural style, of which Independence Avenue is the showcase. Minsk was a major industrial and scientific centre of the Soviet Union, and in 1991 the Belovezha Accords signed nearby formally dissolved the USSR. Today Minsk is the seat of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the capital of independent Belarus.