The "Minsk Phenomenon:" demographic development in the Republic of Belarus

This paper returns to a topic the author dealt with in a more basic form some years ago. But it also makes an attempt to conceptualize the development of independent Belarus through its population migration to urban centers and especially its capital city, a development that dates exclusively from the post-1945 period, but that paradoxically has prevented this republic from experiencing the sort of modernization processes evident elsewhere in Europe. It takes as its starting point the pioneering work by the German historian Thomas Bohn (Bon/Bohn 2013) titled The Minsk Phenomenon and develops it further by linking it to demographic issues, current health concerns, and problems in industrial development.