MINSK, LATIN DIOCESE di. - In White Russia; it was erected by an ukaz of Tsar Paul I on 9 Aug. 1798 and then canonically approved by Pope Pius VI on 15 Nov. 1798, as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Mohilev. Detached from the diocese of Vilna, it comprised the province of M. Towards the end of the 19th century it had approximately 100 parishes and 230,000 faithful of the Latin rite.
During the 150 years following its foundation, the diocese had only 4 incumbents, and even these were able to exercise the sacred ministry only for a short time. The reason lay in political events. M. was vacant in the years 1816-29 and 1841-59. In 1869 it was suppressed by the Russian government, and therefore the Holy See united it to Mohilev. Re-established in 1917, it again received its own bishop, who, however, was soon obliged to leave II. In 1925 the parishes then situated in Poland were detached from M. in order to form the diocese of Pinsk. In 1926 Mons. Boleslao Sloskans was appointed apostolic administrator of M. and Mohilev, but already in 1927 he was captured by the Communists, imprisoned in the Solovki Islands, deported to Siberia, and in 1933 exiled from Russia. The diocese of M. is practically destroyed.