No Minsk-ing words Belarus` Soviet-style capital provides a fascinating side trip from the Baltic countries or Russia :: Charter'97 :: News

It has taken us a long time to get to Minsk, capital of Belarus. Nine years, to be exact. My husband, Paul, and I travel to Lithuania frequently, spending most of our time in its capital, Vilnius. When we discovered that Vilnius is only 106 miles from Minsk, we thought it would be fairly easy to zip over for several days.

Fairly easy? Not so. Whenever we tried to make arrangements, either in the United States or in Lithuania, travel agencies presented us with myriad hurdles. Can`t get visas or, if we can, it`ll cost almost as much as the excursion. Border problems. No flights between the two cities. Trains that crawl, often spending long hours at the border.

This year, our repeated attempts were successful. We stumbled on Lithuanian Tours, a travel agency in Vilnius that was able to put together the three night package we wanted that would include visas, hotel accommodations, and a car and driver to take us to Minsk and back. There were no hurdles or hassles.

I know it`s a cliche, but we wanted to visit Belarus partially because it`s there and partially because we had heard that Belarus was a throwback to what the U.S.S.R. was like in the 1960s and `70s. We wanted to see for ourselves. A landlocked country in eastern Europe, until 1991 it was part of the U.S.S.R., and since 1994, it has been under the heavy thumb of a dictator, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

We had just three nights in Minsk, which boiled down to an afternoon following two-and-ahalf hours on the road - including a trouble-free border crossing - and two full days.

The afternoon we arrived, we explored the minuscule Old Town along the Svislach River, now under restoration. A handicrafts boutique close to the bridge is worth a look, and a few open air riverside cafes are beckoning. An elegant art nouveau memorial to Belarus` war dead rises from an island. About a 15 minute walk away is the Orthodox Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, Minsk`s oldest surviving church built in 1613. Closed by the Soviets in 1944, it reopened to worshippers in 1992.

Prospect Francyska Skariny is a mega-boulevard bisecting the center of Minsk. Much of it is lined with Stalinist-era buildings. We decided to spend the next day strolling one side of the boulevard and the next along the opposite side. Our postcards home read: "Today one side of the block. Tomorrow the other." We now probably know Prospect Skariny better than most people who have lived in Minsk their entire lives.
We could not have stayed at a hotel with a better location than the Hotel Minsk, which lies at one end of Skariny close to Independence Square (Ploshcha Nezalezhnastsi) and a plethora of austere government buildings. We started our first day`s stroll here at the Church of Sts. Simon and Elena built by a Polish nobleman in 1908 to commemorate the deaths of his two children. The church`s three red brick towers combine Teutonic decoration and architectural style with windows and columns reminiscent of Italian campaniles. The towers contrast well with the severity of the adjacent buildings.

Past the Hotel Minsk, a few blocks east, at No. 17, is an impressive neoclassical building with Corinthian columns that looks as if it could be a courthouse or a museum. It`s actually the KGB headquarters, home of the secret service. I furtively snapped a photo, but instantly realized that this was probably unwise as I scurried away hoping that no one would come running after me to confiscate my camera.
GUM Farther along Skariny at No. 21 is the anachronism called the GUM department store. On my first trip to the U.S.S.R. 28 years ago, I visited GUM in Moscow. The way the system worked at that time was that customers would queue to attract the attention of a couldn`t-care-less salesclerk for an item behind the counter, get an invoice laboriously written out by hand for the item, take it to another queue where a couldn`t-careless cashier would collect the money and give a receipt; queue again to get the first couldn`tcare-less salesclerk to take the receipt and wrap the package. If the store was busy, the process could take an hour or more.

Not much has changed in Minsk`s GUM. Memories of that first U.S.S.R. trip swarmed back as we queued to select three or four exquisite small wooden boxes inlaid with straw - a unique Belarusian handicraft - queued to pay, and queued to collect our purchase. We were practically the only ones in the store but it still took 30 minutes.

We found this quintessential Soviet-style shopping experience amusing now. Besides, the wooden boxes were beautiful and cost less than $5 each.

After our GUM experience we took a break at one of the cafes sprouting along the boulevard`s wide sidewalks. The cappuccino could have been better, but the perch the cafe gave us on busy Skariny was perfect as we watched people scurrying into and out of the nearby metro.

Just beyond the metro lay the impressive October Square (Ploshchad Oktyabrskaya) ringed by monumental buildings, including the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. The museum covers World War II, during which 25 percent of Belarus` population - about 2 million people - perished. On display are photos of freedom fighters being executed on the streets of Minsk and of Jews being herded into countryside death camps.

Tucked in next to the museum, an art market offers original artwork, ceramics, and handicrafts, including the Russian nesting dolls called matryoshkas. Here, we bought four small watercolor landscapes depicting the seasons for $10 each.

Five minutes on along the boulevard brought us to Janki Kupaly Park beside the river. On a hot late spring afternoon, it afforded a cool respite beneath the trees. Interesting modern sculptures dot the park, surrounding a large fountain where children dangle their feet.

Just beyond, Victory Square (Ploshcha Peramohi) is dominated by an enormous obelisk and an eternal flame commemorating Belarusian war dead. Prospect Skariny continues eastwards, but we found ourselves an outdoor table at a cafe overlooking the obelisk and settled in for a late afternoon lunch.

DAY TWO Our second day began on the other side of Prospect Skariny at the main post office directly across from the Hotel Minsk. We had had the frequent opportunity of closely examining the building`s architectural carvings, ornate pilasters and other details from the window of our fourth floor room - especially when the post office was beautifully highlighted at night. We discovered that its inside was as grand as its exterior.

A block away at No. 12, the gallery Mastatsky Salon offers a treasure trove of paintings and sculpture. Not only the merchandise, but the level of service (and lack of queuing) are as different as it could possibly be from the GUM experience. We bought only a heavy wooden Crusader-like figure, modern in design, that cost $35.
More cafes, more almostcappuccinos, more people watching, then a short stroll to Central Square (Tsentralny Skver), a small park bordered on the east by the city`s administrative offices and on the south by the Presidential Palace where Lukashenka lives and works.

A five minute detour from Central Square took us to the National Arts Museum. The museum houses a superb collection of icons plus a sampling of Belarusian art from medieval times on.

Then it was back to Skariny to Horkaha Park, a livelier twin to Janki Kupaly Park just across the boulevard. In Horkaha, there are children`s rides and kiosks selling cotton candy and ice cream. We returned to Victory Square for a repeat visit to a cafe for the wafer thin blini and decent cappuccino.

Two days. Two sides of the street. Half a dozen cafe stops. Lots to see along the way. It surprised us how much one can see and do even without straying far.