Niamiha (Belarusian: Няміга Russian: Немига) is a river, flowing through Minsk now (like many lost little rivers of Minsk), contained in a culvert.
The first mention was connected to a disastrous battle in 1067, when forces of the prince of Kyivan Rus' defeated the forces of Polatsk princedom. The mediaeval epic The Lay of Ihor's Campaign refers to the "bloody river banks of Niamiha."
The metro station of the same name "Niamiha" became the place of another tragedy in the recent past. On May 30, 1999 a stampede killed 53 people, caused by a crowd of young people who were attending an open-air concert in downtown Minsk. There was a sudden thunderstorm, they ran for shelter in the underpass of the nearby "Niamiha" station. The steps were wet and slippery, people began falling. In the crush 53 mostly young people died (unofficially as much as one hundred) and hundreds more were injured.
One part of the river was put into a pipe in 1926, and the rest of the river was contained into a pipe in 1955. Yet the river still exists and there was even a surprisingly big flood on July 25, 2004 over Niamiha's path.
The dynastic rivalry between the houses of Kiev and Polacak explains the turbulent history of Minsk in its early years, situated as it was on the southern borders of the latter principality.
The center of the town had shifted to a new cite giving access to the headwaters of the Vilija and Biarazima and the confluence of the Niamiha and Svisloch rivers.
Here also the steep banks of the Niamiha, the high mound south of the stream and Trinity Golden hill offered a good defensive position.
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