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Published: November 8th 2012
Hill of Glory
Next to the road that leads from Minsk airport to the city there is an imposing World War II memorial called Hill of GloryImposing buildings, majestic subway stations and various memorials
A few years ago I, Ake, and my friend Juha talked about Belarus and realised that we both wanted to go there. It took some time before we finally got there but in July this year we did. It has also taken some time for me to get down to finally updating the blog with photos and stories from this trip. But now, somewhat late, you can read the first of the blog entries from Belarus.
For us to get the visa to visit Belarus was not as easy as you might think. We had to in advance book hotel for every night we wanted to stay in the country and we had to include a copy of the booking confirmation in our application. This paperwork made us decide to stay in Minsk all the time and only make daytrips from there when we wanted to visit other places. It would take far too much planning to make a roundtrip in other parts of Belarus and we felt that it just wasn’t worth the trouble. This first blog entry will be focused on Minsk.
Minsk is a city
Hill of Glory
Hill of Glory is a large earth mound topped with a supersized bayonet that I, after having been a visitor in for only a few days, remember as having houses worthy a capitol, where memorials are an important part of every day life and where the metro stations are worth to take more than a casual look at.
I will start by talking about the various memorials we visited. Next to the road that leads from Minsk airport to the city there is an imposing World War II memorial called Hill of Glory. It is a large earth mound topped with a supersized bayonet. World War II memorials are very common in Belarus and in other countries that used to be a part of Soviet Union. Almost every town has one but the one on the way to Minsk Airport was more impressive than any of the others we say in Belarus.
The bayonet fixed on top of the earth mound is nicely decorated and in the centre it has the compulsory symbol of communism, the hammer and sickle.
Belarus used to be part of the Soviet Union. In several of the other countries that were created when Soviet Union fell apart they wanted to distance themselves from the communist
Hill of Glory
The bayonet fixed on top of the earth mound is nicely decorated legacy as soon as they became independent. But in Belarus they liked things the way it was before they became independent so they kept communism and everything that comes with it. That means that everywhere there are Lenin statues, hammer and sickle insignias and murals with patriotic pictures. I never visited Soviet but for all of us who never did there is still a chunk of Soviet left that can be visited and that is Belarus.
There were so many Lenin statues and other communist symbols around that I have decided to put up a separate blog entry dedicated to these symbols. But you have to wait a while for that because it has not been published yet.
In Minsk we also visited three other memorials, one to remember the Belarusians who perished in the holocaust, one to remember the casualties of an accident in 1999 and one to remember the victims of a terrorist attack in 2011.
On
May 30 1999 thousands of young people were gathered to listen to a rock concert when a thunderstorm hit the area. The crowd started running towards the Nyamhia Metro Station to take cover from the rain. The entrance to the
Hill of Glory
In the centre it has the compulsory symbol of communism, the hammer and sickle ticket hall was too small for all the people who wanted to get down at the same time resulting in a stampede where 53 people were killed. The memorial is decorated with 53 roses made out of steel, one rose for each of the victims.
The terrorist attack in 2011 happened on April 11 and took place in Oktyabrskaya Metro Station. A bomb detonated during the rush hour killing 15 people and injuring over 200. There is an article about this
on Wikipedia and I refer to that for anyone who would like to read more about this.
The metro stations in Minsk are impressive and are decorated in a way to give the visitors the impression that they have entered a cathedral rather than a rapid transit station. I have added photos of a few stations and I recommend anyone visiting Minsk to use the metro instead of taxi. It is cheap, fast and reliable and the stations are worth a visit of their own.
Above ground there are also impressive constructions. Many official buildings are majestic and are worth taking a look at. I have added photos of a few of them, one concert hall, the
Hill of Glory
The hammer and sickle symbol can be found everywhere in Bealrus GPO building and one of Vulitsa Kirava as seen from the Minsk central station.
As I said earlier it was a bit difficult to get a visa to Belarus. But for me it is today, a few months later, probably even harder to get a visa to Belarus. Only two months after I received my visa Belarus severed all diplomatic ties with Sweden. This diplomatic crisis strangely enough involves a couple of
hundred teddy bears. But that is a totally different story that I won’t bother you with here and now.
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Maria
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Snövit
Svart som sot, röd som blod, vit som snö. Stämmer för Vitryssland?