thumb|300px|Minusinsk, 1885
thumb|Minusinsk Steppe, by [[Vasily Surikov]]
Minusinsk (; ) is a historical town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Population: 44,500 (1973).
History
"About 330-200 B.C. the iron age triumphed at Minusinsk, producing spiked axes, partly bronze and partly iron, and a group of large collective burial places." Greco-Roman funerary masks, like those found at Pazyryk, make up the "Minusinsk group: at Trifonova, Bateni, Beya, Kali, Znamenka, etc." "The Indo-European aristocracy with its Sarmatian connections was succeeded at Minusinsk by the Kirghiz after the third century A.D."
The Russian settlement of Minyusinskoye () was founded in 1739-1740 at the confluence of the Minusa River with the Yenisei. The Turkic Min Usa means "my brook", or "thousand rivers". The name transformed to Minusinskoye () in 1810.
By 1822, Minusinsk had emerged as a regional center of farming and transit trade and was granted town status.
A memorial to those who were executed or died in prison in the 1930s to 1950s was erected in 1992. A monument was added in 2005 in the old cemetery to deported Poles buried there in the 1940s.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Minusinsk serves as the administrative center of Minusinsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is, together with the urban-type settlement of Zelyony Bor, incorporated separately as the krai town of Minusinsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.
Geography
Minusinsk marks the center of the Minusinsk Hollow, one of the most important archaeological areas north of Pazyryk. It is associated with the Afanasevo, Tashtyk, and Tagar cultures—all of them named after settlements in the vicinity of Minusinsk.
Climate
Minusinsk has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb/Dwb), with very cold winters and warm summers. Precipitation is quite low, but is much higher from June to September than at other times of the year.
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Council of Deputies
The seventh convocation of the City Council was elected on the single voting day in 2022 using a mixed majority-proportional system. The composition included 22 deputies - 11 under the majoritarian system, 11 under the proportional system with a barrier of 5%.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Composition of the City Council
! Party
! By district
! By list
! Result
|-
| United Russia
| 11
| 6
| 17
|-
| Communist Party of the Russian Federation
| 0
| 2
| 2
|-
| Green Party
| 0
| 1
| 1
|-
| Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
| 0
| 1
| 1
|-
| A Just Russia
| 0
| 1
| 1
|-
|
| 11
| 11
| 22
|}
The Chairman of the Minusinsk City Council of Deputies since 5 October 2022 is Larisa Ivanovna Chumachenko.
Culture
- Minusinsk Drama Theater
Established in 1882 as an amateur theatrical society, the Minusinsk Drama Theater was known as the "Sovtheater" from 1920 to 1930. The theater building was constructed on the initiative of the exiled Kon F.Y. and funded mainly by the fire society. In the beginning, the theater was on the second floor and the fire department took up the first floor. The modern Minusinsk Drama Theater performs in this building until today.
Milestones in the theater performances were 'Vasilisa Melentyeva' by Alexander Ostrovsky, 'Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich' by Alexey Tolstoy, 'Death Squadron' by A. Korneichuk, 'Destiny' by Petr Proskurin, 'Is Not Listed' by Boris Vasiliev. A performance of Alexei Cherkasov's drama “Hop” won the Stanislavsky State Prize.
- The Martyanov Natural History Museum (Museum of Local Lore)
The main attraction of the town is The Martyanov Natural History Museum. Based in 1877, it is one of the oldest in Siberia and first museum in the Yenisei's guberniya (province).
- Museum of Decembrists in Minusinsk
- Memorial building of Krzhizhanovsky and Starkov
- Minusink Art Gallery
- Museum "Automobiles And Motor Vehicles Of The Soviet Union"
Twin towns and sister cities
Minusinsk is twinned with:
- Norilsk, Russia