Travelling through Belarus - lots of Polish tradition

[Jaga]

In the US nobody really knows too much about Belarus, maybe only through its autocratic leader. Szewczenko. But Belarus is a part of Easter Rus culture, that was a part of Lithuanian empire and it was a place where Mickiewicz, the most famous Polish poet, which is also a part of Belarus/lithuanian culture was born. Belarus is mainly a beautiful countryside, with good roads and cities in which a quarter of population feel Polish, go to Polish churches etc.... see the documentary:



unfortunately its folk culture is disappearing

[Eric]

Alexander Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since 1994.

Far western Belarus is very Belarussian in character with some Polish elements, too. But nearly the rest of the country is Russian speaking and quite honestly indistinguishable from Russia. I used to visit Belarus and enjoyed my visits there.

[Jaga]

Eric, they used to be a part of a Lithuanian empire, so they have their unique style, although you definitively know more than me about Belarus. Do you have any other memories you would like to share with us ?

[Eric]

It's a very orderly, quiet country. Even drunk teenagers will look for appropriate places to put their empty beer bottle, as opposed to Russia, where making the biggest mess with smashed bottles demonstrates "survival of the fittest" somehow. Roads are in a much better state of repair, too. Same with buildings. Considering Belarus has virtually zero tourism, and most foreign visitors are from Russia and other neighboring countries who go to Belarus to visit relatives, it's amazing the amount of effort Belarussians put into keeping their country so attractive not to impress outsiders, but just for themselves.

Belarus is almost like the Soviet days even now. Not only with a semi-command economy, minus the Marxist-Leninist ideology, but because public order and behaving like human beings and not like selfish, competitive people are still very important.

The Belarussian economy relies solely on Russian cooperation, as Belarus is extremely resource poor. Belarus has a lot of heavy industry from the USSR, but it now must seek materials for its industry from abroad and sell its finished products abroad. The guaranteed market of the USSR is gone, and so Belarus looks almost exclusively to Russia.

The problem, though, is that Lukashenko is a nationalist. He thinks Belarus can survive entirely on its own, and from time to time antagonizes Russia, demanding more money for Belarussian goods and a reduction in fees for Russian supplies, and even occasionally cooperating with other countries to create competition with Russia, such as looking to Azerbaijan for oil instead of Russia. More shockingly, a Russian citizen was extradited from Belarus to Azerbaijan recently for making disparaging comments online about Azerbaijan in the context of the Armenia-Azerbaijan war while he was visiting Azerbaijan. This man has triple citizenship (Russia, Ukraine, and somewhere else that I can't remember), so because he holds a Russian passport, the Russian Foreign Ministry is furious with Belarus for the extradition and is trying to convince Azerbaijan, also a Russian ally and heavily dependent on the Russian market, to come to its senses and release the Russian citizen back to Russia. (Despite holding a Ukrainian passport, too, he lives in Russia.)

[Jaga]

Eric,

what a lovely description of Belarus, that seem to have its own soul.
I am not sure that Belarus is clean just because it wants to attract tourists. It probably just created a culture that calls for a respect of common property. I am not completely surprised that Belarus does not agree on everything Russian... they are looking for their own benefits.

[kaima]

Encouraging tourism from the west was not one of their goals two years ago when I traveled from Vilnius to Bialystok, Poland. The cheapest and eassiest way to go was by international bus, and they took the longer way around the corner of Belarus rather than pass through the country. In addition to crossing the Belarus border in and out, they opted for the simpler, longer route going directly from Lithuania to Poland. Some politics entered into it at the time, as a transit visa for me as an American would have cost $150. I did work in Minsk on the US embassy for two weeks in 1993, and it would have been interesting to see the city and country again... but not $150 worth.

Now I wonder what the effect will be if / when the EU imposes a visa on US citizens. I do believe in equal treatment of people, and if we insist some of their citizens jump through troublesome and expensive hoops to gain a visa to enter the USA, then it is fair if they do the same.

Kai