Minsk
chief town of Lithuania, on an affluent of the Beresina, 331 miles E. N. E. of Warsaw; existed in the 11th century; was Lithuanian in the 13th; Polish in the 15th; and was annexed by Russia in 1793; pop. about 120,000. The province of Minsk has a generally flat surface, and abounds in marshes, swamps, moors, lakes, and forests; area, 35,293 square miles; pop. about 3,000,000; less than 24 per cent. of the total area is actually cultivated. Self-governing since 1919.