It's been a long time since I've posted - a lot has happened in the world, and for a time, it didn't feel right to post about travel. At the same time, my own personal priorities were elsewhere.
Well, I'm back.
Minsk wasn't the most obvious place to go for vacation, and it wasn't why I was there, but in hindsight it could be quite a nice place to spend a few days of sightseeing and cultural exploration [at the time].
Belarus has often been described as the 'last Soviet republic' or 'the last dictatorship of Europe' - the country has been run by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, and while there has been some very negative consequences associated with this (and typical to all autocratic regimes), the political and slow economic transition allowed it to avoid a lot of the pain that was felt by the former Soviet republics during the chaos of the 90s and early 00s.
The people we met were quite warm and perhaps it's a bit odd to say, but also a bit innocent with respect to not being as materialistic or business-minded as you would find in other countries in the region (of course there were the relics of 90s Russia and their Adidas tracksuits in the mix and we met some of them also). The ubiquitous advertisements and billboards were quite toned down, although the occasional ironic juxtaposition between cultural relic, and American fast food or marketing gimmick, could be seen.
The city was very clean, with broad avenues containing a mix of brutalist and neoclassical architecture with some shiny new skyscrapers. It was described by the Calvert Journal as the 'perfect Soviet city', although the reason for this was quite tragic - I learned from my host that all but two building in the entire central city were destroyed during World War II. Recently, significant trade and infrastructure investment (largely from China) has led to more modern 'glass and steel' buildings.
The 21st century Soviet / West fusion culminated in one of the most interesting buildings I've visited - the National Library of Belarus, completed in 2006, and the third largest repository of Russian literature in the world.
Overall, Minsk left a very positive first impression on me, albeit from just a brief visit. I would come back in the next year, and see a bit more, which is the topic for another post.
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