Minsk is the capital of Belarus, a unique Eastern European country packed with dramatic history and forested, lakeland landscapes. Belarusians are conscious of their heritage as a republic of the Soviet Union with recent history as a heavily fought over WW2 battleground. While Minsk’s recorded history goes back with some precision to 1067, it still wears its title as one of the 13 Hero Cities (Gorod-Geroy/город-герой) of the USSR that were heavily fought over and damaged. If you are a fan of restored classical Tsarist-era buildings set along wide boulevards with a large dose of postwar Soviet classical and brutalist architecture, you are in luck. If not, there is plenty else to see.
Minsk’s main commercial and Government thoroughfare is Nyezalyezhnastsi (Independence) Avenue, constructed in a classical Soviet style similar to Nevski Prospekt in St. Petersburg. This runs between the two main city squares, Independence and Kastrichnitskaya.
You will pass the Belarusian KGB building with its observation tower, with direct line of site into the city’s Dynamo sports stadium, which reportedly sees very few people entering or leaving via the front door.
Belarus has progressively liberalized visa requirements over the years such that there is now 30-day visa-free entry for most nationalities, provided you fly in and out of Minsk Airport. There are also more limited cross-border visas to the western areas around Brest and Grodno. While Belarus has a young population and a growing economy that looks both east and west, there are plenty of signs of attachment to the Soviet way of life, from signs endorsing bread (khlieb/ хлеб) to original displays from the period.
Minsk is a large city with two million inhabitants, with a fairly confined and walkable central area combining post WW2 Soviet boulevards and a reconstructed old town. Between the two, the classical Soviet architecture is original, while the attempts to recreate old Minsk are recent and don’t quite work. If you enter from the main railway station, you’ll see the postwar Gates of Minsk, built with German prisoner-of-war labor in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Minsk was completely rebuilt and modernized having been comprehensively shelled in the war. Since independence in 1991, there has been steady capitalist intrusion – evidenced by the KFC beneath the 1960s-era patriotic frieze sculpture.
Former Government centers are extensive around the city, usually in Soviet classical design with military heroes or artifacts on plinths.
There is a largely recreated old Upper Town that overlooks a bend in the Svislach River, which was built as recently as the 2000s and is centered on Svobody Square. It’s a pleasant enough place to walk around and particularly on weekends gets plenty of local visitors and events. Just west of the Old Town over the river is the restored 19th-century Troitskoye neighborhood, and next to that mid-river is the Island of Tears, which hosts a memorial to the Afghanistan campaign.
Here are some ideas for places to go.
Museum of the Great Patriotic War (8 Pobeditely Avenue). This museum, created in 2014, is worth a visit to understand the history of WW2, especially as it affected Belarus and Minsk.
The museum has the feel of having been developed during the Soviet Union, but has a detailed combination of heavy equipment, documentation and personal records.
National Art Museum of Belarus (20 Lenina). The national art museum has a great range of traditional Tsarist-era art through the Communist to the independent eras, although it was plundered by the German invaders and so it’s collection was rebuilt after the war.
There is a large collection of 20th-century Socialist Realist work, including wartime propaganda and postwar visions of progress.
You can see Yehuda Pen’s 1914 portrait of his more well-known student, Marc Chagall, as well a collection of his other work, which often captured Jewish life in Tsarist and Soviet Russia. For more background on the late 19th/early 20th century art renaissance in Belarus and the city of Vitebsk in particular, see here https://www.aerotrekka.com/paint-picture-vitebsk/
There is a large collection of 20th-century Socialist Realist work, including wartime propaganda and postwar visions of progress.
Soviet Walking Tour. The White Wings travel agency offers a great walking tour of the Soviet-era city (https://whitewings.by/en/tours). You can cover many of the highlights starting from the huge Independence Square (formerly Lenin Square, which the metro stop is still called after), surrounded by Government Buildings and the Belarusian State University. The modernist House of Representatives is, unusually, an original 1930s construction that survived the war.
The Government still controls large portions of the economy and so you can still have the Socialist-era retail and catering experience, albeit at a decent standard. There are still many worker’s canteens, called Stolovayas, around the city that provide tasty and filling meals. Originally set up in the 1920s to feed workers, the modern successors have improved the quality substantially while sticking to traditional menus. Related to this, check out the cafe-bar decked out in 1950s “Palace of the People” style in the entrance to the Tsentralny Supermarket at 23 Independence Avenue. After a cost-effective and tasty snack, you can visit the Tsentralny supermarket, which is a convenient place to pick up items to take back, including a good selection of local snacks and vodka at reasonable prices.
Further southwest is the ornately decorated GUM Department Store at 21 Independence Avenue, still run by the Government as in days of Communist yore. The colonnaded main staircase is a good spot to sit and ponder the accessible grandeur of the building. A good place to pick up local books and artifacts is the Central Bookstore at 19 Independence Avenue. Next door, you’ll find the equally Soviet retro Kommunarka chocolate store and cafe, originally established in 1905, if you want to pick up chocolate and biscuits from Belarus’ best known brand; their cafe’s hot chocolate is reportedly dense and excellent.
The 1938-era National Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater, along with the main Government building, also, unusually, survived the war. If you are an opera or ballet enthusiast, you’ll be pleased to know that Belarusians take it very seriously, so it is worth checking the schedule beforehand to catch a classic, at a very reasonable value compared to most other places: https://bolshoibelarus.by/eng/schedule-ticket/month.calendar/2019/11/09/-.html
One place to walk by is Lee Harvey Oswald’s former apartment building at the southeast end of Ulitsa Kamunistichnaya, just north of the city center overlooking the Svislach River in a pleasant neighborhood. Oswald is notorious for killing John F. Kennedy in November 1963, but less widely known is that, a former Marine specializing in radar and electronics, he and his security clearance defected to the USSR in 1959-1962. He was provided with a subsidized apartment, married Marina Prusakova (who still lives in Texas), and worked, apparently lazily, at the Gorizont Electronics Factory, where he was taught Russian by an engineer who later went on to become the first President of an independent Belarus. Disillusioned with Soviet life, he then decided to repatriate to the US where the rest is history.
Minsk Metro. Minsk’s metro is a destination by itself, and a great way to get around the city. You can buy multi-day cards, but at 0.60 Rubles a ride, it is equally fine just buying a “Jeton” plastic token on a per-ride basis.
Look out for murals from the 1980s outside the entrances. The mural below showing space-age and other progressive events is at the two entrances to the Kastrichnitskaya Station either side of Independence Avenue.
Kastrichnitskaya Arts District. There is an extensive collection of murals and street art along along Ulitsa Kastrichnitskaya (or Oktyabrskaya in Russian), southeast of the city center and the Dynamo Stadium. In addition to gazing at the murals of arty Minsk, it’s also a good place to get lunch or a beer afterwards, and the Wolf Brewery has a bar there.
History of Belarusian Cinema Museum (4 Sverdlova). The museum focuses mainly on Soviet-era productions from Belarus of the 1920s-1940s with extensive commentary on the political motivations behind each film, along with the reasons for some films being banned.
Other Places to See. As befits a still largely state-driven country, Minsk maintains a large number of other museums. It’s not often that the state police operate their own museum, but you can visit the Internal Affairs Ministry Museum (7 Gorodski Val) to see the role of the police and militia, and for contemporary Belarusian politics, the Museum of Contemporary Belarusian Statehood (38 Karla Marksa) explains Belarus’ national identity and history since independence in 1991. Finally, if museums that try to cover everything are your deal, you can observe historical photography, medieval militaria, Tsarist-era art and wildlife displays at the extensive National Historical Museum (12 Karla Marksa), which also has an extensive gift shop
Logistics. Arriving at Minsk airport is fairly efficient although you need to be aware of the various entry requirements. This is the procedure to enter on the 30-day tourist visa, which requires you to arrive and depart at Minsk airport. As ever, you should check the latest entry requirements: http://mfa.gov.by/en/visa/visafreetravel/e0ced19bb1f9bf2c.html. When arriving at the airport arrivals hall, go first to the medical insurance counter (look to the left) and buy your medical insurance, which comes to about a Euro a day (they accept Euros and change is appreciated). Then proceed to passport check where you present your Migration Card entry form (obtained on the flight or in the arrivals hall), and are issued a stamped visa in your passport for up to 30 days. You are apparently required to have 25 Euros in cash for each day in country, although I was not checked. You can then obtain Belarusan Rubles (BYR) from an ATM, either at bag reclaim or in the arrivals hall.
Taxis downtown are around BYR100 (~US$50) although as ever you can try to negotiate a lower fare. The airport offers a pre-book service at BYR 40 https://airport.by/en/tourism/transfer. If you aren’t in a major rush, you can catch a bus downtown or to the Uruchya (Уручча) Metro Station, which is a good option as the Minsk Metro is fast and efficient.
One other wrinkle is that hotels are required to register foreign visitors to the authorities (some Soviet habits die hard). They will provide you with a certificate showing your stay upon checking out from the hotel. Keep these forms somewhere safe (i.e. inside your passport, etc.) and surrender them at passport control upon leaving the country.
Food & Beverage. Minsk has diverse and interesting food options, especially if you haven’t spent much time in Eastern Europe. Belarusian food has similarities with Polish and Russian themes, although the centerpiece is Draniki, a fried potato pancake with various toppings and sides. The best place to try the standards is Vasiliki (37 Yakuba Kiolasa), which is a traditional local chain, or slightly further northwest of the center, Rakovsky Brovar (10 Vityebskaya), which allies it’s micro-brewed traditional light/dark beer standards with solid local options. Traktir (11 Pobediteley) has a wider Slavonic offering, and you can find a variation into Russian cooking at Tovarisch (21 Yanka Kupala), located in the basement of a military officers’ club. Any time in Eastern Europe begs the question as to what alternative, possibly lighter or even spicier cooking might be available, to which the answer is often Georgian. Two great places in order of preference are Tiflis (3 Tolbukhina – northeast of the center but close to the Park Chaliuskincau metro stop), which has brilliant kharcho, a spicy beef soup, and spicy Central Asian stews, and Khinkalnya (25 Internatsionalnaya), which as the name suggests offers popular khinkali soup dumplings. Other good options include Chumatsky Shlyakh (43 Myasnikova – Ukrainian) and Chaihana Lounge (61 Surganova – Uzbek). There are numerous coffee shops of a high standard around the city, and precious few chains; Stories (14 Internatsionalnaya) was one of my favorites.
Craft Beer. Craft beer options in Belarus’ growing microbrew culture are comprehensive. It’s also a good way to sample Russian craft beer that you may not see much of west of the Vistula River. The ones to visit include: Craftman (Ulitsa Hikaly 5, Plošča Jakuba Kolasa metro stop) with probably the best selection and freshness in town; Craft House (Jakuba Kolasa 37) with a decent selection and walkable from Craftman in the north of the city; and Beer Cap (Hiercena 10, old town) which has a main cellar level bar and a separate outdoor area. There is a branch of Russia’s Wolf’s Brewery located in the urban art district at Ulitsa Kastrichnitskaya – look for the Enzo restaurant at Number 23 and the brewpub is at the back of the car park. More traditional breweries that feature lagers, pilsner and German-style dark beers but are good quality include Staramiestski Pivavar (Hiercena 4, old town) and Gastatte (16 Revolutsionaya)
Finally, I recommend the Bradt Travel Guide to Belarus, which is quite detailed and a recent 2019 print.
