Minsk, Belarus

Some of you may have read a post I did a while ago where my friend Anthony and I attempted a Bank Holiday getaway by turning up at the airport in the hope of flying away to somewhere random. Well, this time we decided to be a bit more organised booked in advance to fly to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

I'm going to write a couple of pieces on this trip, including about our visit to the Minsk motorcycle factory, as the true scale of the randomness of the trip should really not be squashed into one article!

Minsk

Ice rink in Oktabrskaya Square

“Minsk - that’s where Phoebe’s boyfriend went in Friends, isn’t it?” This is the fleeting reference to Europe’s second least visited capital city that is most often conjured up in the popular imagination. Apart from looking concerned about the cold that I might find there during February, this was also pretty much the only thing that anyone I told about the trip was generally able to say about the place.

I must admit though to having my own concerns when landing at the Minsk-2 International Airport at 1:30am, around 30km outside the city, with no real idea of where it was we were going. Thankfully, Anthony and I were met at the airport by Yuri, a tall and balding man with a heavy accent and holding a faded grey sign on which you could just about make out my name. He took us to his BMW and carefully appeared to avoid brushing any snow or ice away when opening the boot. “It is so the police cannot see my registration” he said. At that time of night, I wasn’t entirely sure whether or not he was joking as we sped along what can only be described as an ‘ice road’ through the cold dense forest and away from the airport.

Minsk isn’t a city that is well known for its tourist attractions. For me, the famed Stalinist architecture and novelty of being in a place that is generally pretty mysterious to the average British backpacker was enough. Even Yuri seemed to be struggling a bit. “So, what is it actually that you want to do here?” he asked. “You know it is minus 20 outside? I think you will be on the street for 15 minutes and decide you want to go inside.”

Anthony and I thought we would try and find some common ground by asking about the local beers. “Well, the beer here is cheap, but the problem is they put loads of shit in it” Yury emphasised strongly, “it is cheap, but it will get you fucked!”

As the impenetrable walls of frozen forest started to thin we found ourselves on Minsk’s characteristically wide avenues. The snow was coming down heavily and Yuri had definitely developed an expertise in smoothly sliding around any corners that we encountered.

We had arranged to rent an apartment through a company called BelarusRent, and this is where Yuri dropped us off. “You will not be hurt in this city, but if anyone knocks at the door do not answer, even if they say they are the police - you have my number.”

Thankfully, there were no knocks or bangs to terrify us on our first night and we woke up the next morning eager to get out in the cold for a look around.

Belarusian Government BuildingIt is fair to say that there is not a city in Europe that has been more physically and mentally defined by the second world war (or “Great Patriotic War” as it is known in Belarus and Russia) than Minsk. It was almost completely destroyed with over 80% of the building disappearing as a result of the fighting. Most of the remaining 20% were then destroyed shortly after as the city was rebuilt from scratch in the image of the then leader of the USSR, Jozef Stalin. 

Stalin wanted Minsk to be a model Soviet city and it was designed around wide avenues, huge open squares and parkland. The buildings range from the neo classical Trade Unions Palace and KGB building to the square and angular Belarusian Government Building. Important streets are named after people such as Marx, Engels and Lenin. Unlike in many post-Soviet cities, Minsk has decided to keep these even after the fall of communism.

Palace of the Repubic, Oktabrskaya SquareEven buildings that have been built since the fall of the Soviet Union tend to be built in a style that fits in perfectly to the architecture of the city. The most impressive of these is the Palace of the Republic, a large stand alone granite coloured building surrounded by rectangular columns, which occupies Oktabrskaya Square. The Belarusian National Library as well is built in a style that I can only describe as stand alone, stand out and don’t forget who’s boss.

Away from the centre of the city, the huge apartment blocks are so dominating and on an almost unimaginable size and scale. They dominate the perimeters and are home to the majority of Minsk’s 1.8m inhabitants.

The other thing that people in Western Europe tend to hear about Belarus is that it is ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’. With the reports and rhetoric that you get coming out of the UK I was half expecting to land in Minsk and be greeted by portraits of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on every street corner. 

As it turns out, this is not the case in Belarus at all, but there are other more subtle ways of reminding you of the sinister nature of the system there. Dominating the main avenue, Prospekt Nezalezhnasti, in a huge pillared neo-classical building is the headquarters of the Belarusian KGB. Yes, in Belarus the secret police service is indeed still known as the KGB.  What I found even more strange and sinister about it was the fact that despite its size you never saw anyone go in or out, and walking passed late at night practically all the lights in the windows were switched off. Surely the successor to the Soviet KGB would have people burning the midnight oil every night of the week? Unless they are all hidden away somewhere else perhaps...

KGB Building“People here hate the government. I protest against them by not paying any taxes.” We met Mikhail during our city exploration. “Isn’t this a better way to protest than standing in a freezing cold square?” Given it was still minus 20 and I was starting to lose all function in my jaw, about the only exposed part of my body, at this point I was tending to agree with him. “This was one of the last buildings left standing in Minsk after the second world war you know?” He said pointing to the rather new looking city fire station.

One place that every visit to Minsk should include is the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. The museum is housed in an imposing concrete building to the east side of Oktabrskaya Square and has a sign on top in huge letters which translates as “The Heroism of the People will Live Forever.” The walls throughout the museum are plastered with the images and stories of soldiers and partisans that died fighting the Nazis. Everything in the museum is in Russian or Belarusian, but even if you can’t read it’s still worth the small entrance fee just to look at the images and get a glimpse of just how much of Belarus was absolutely decimated by the war.

Museum of the Great Patriotic WarAnthony and I definitely didn’t heed to Yuri’s advice after a day of war, Stalinism and jaw breaking cold and we enjoyed several local Belarusian beers, anti-freeze and all, in our apartment before heading out for the night. Our destinations were as varied and surreal as the rest of the day had been, starting with “Stravnaya Talka”, a Belarusian restaraunt that had the contrasting features of traditional Belarusian folk singing over the speakers in the main dining area which then seemed to be loudly transformed into some kind of Eastern European technopop in the gents toilets.

Hidden among some of Minsk’s imposing apartment blocks, we then found our way to Rakovsky Brovar, a microbrewery which appeared to be home to its own serenading band which included a guitarist, double bass and saxophone player. Thankfully, two foreign men drinking beer sitting at the bar wasn’t exactly their prime audience so I was able just to watch them casually go from table to table taking romantic requests as they went.

Finally, the remainder of the night was spent dancing away in Gosti. A trendy bar that had a live band playing a mixture of Russian and Western songs, including very enthusiastically done covers of James Brown. The vibe of the place was very much in line with everything that I experienced in Minsk though - relaxed, friendly and just really quite surreal.