Discovering The Real Belarus – with awesome pics!

In this post we are offering you an rare glimpse of the many facets of Belarus. There has been a stigma attached to Belarus in the West, while the real understanding and truthful assessment of what’s happening in those parts is non-existent. West-dominated global media has simply accepted the claim that Belarus is a dictatorship and until recently it was generally accepted in the West that if Belarus hasn’t fallen apart yet, it surely soon will.

The truth is entirely different, of course. Just to give you an idea of a typical Western MSM bashing approach, here is an excerpt from UK’s ‘Independent.’

WARNING! This 2012 piece from UK’s publication ‘Independent’ will probably make you roll your eyes and shake your head due to how badly it misses the mark and because in 2016 WE KNOW what subsequently happened to the countries and leaders mentioned in it. But I want to assure you that it’s not the focus of our article. The only reason I mention the ‘Independent’ piece is to provide a perspective and so you could understand fully what Belarus is up against and what kind of madmen we are dealing with in the West.

After this, we will proceed to our today’s Belorussia feature. FT contributor Stanislav Sokolov (Nemo) and I have prepared a real treat for you! But that’s for sweet desert. Before we get to that, here’s a telling excerpt from the ‘Independent.’ Note that the article below was written and an interview was taken by a former Russian, working for ‘Independent,’ whose personal views coincide with typical Western propaganda.

The ‘Independent’ excerpt:

LINK: What’s so good about democracy anyway? Audience with the last dictator in Europe – 2012

QUOTE: As President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko has made the former Soviet state a pariah nation. In a rare interview, he says that it’s security rather than freedom that his people really want.

It is said you can judge a man by the company he keeps. If so, Alexander Lukashenko – President of Belarus for the last 18 years – is sending out worrying signals.

Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President whose regime has overseen the massacres of Houla and Daraya, is described as “wonderful” and “an absolute European, civilized man”. Colonel Gaddafi is name-dropped, as is Saddam Hussein.

Sat amid the faux grandeur of his offices in Minsk, he recalled the cosy chats he once shared with the former Libyan autocrat – “I told him: ‘Muammar, you need to sort things out with Europe yourself!’ Then he told me about his relationship with Sarkozy” – and more darkly about how the West turned on his old Iraqi confidant.

“American envoys came to see me before the crisis in Iraq and asked me to say that there were nuclear weapons in Iraq. I refused. They even told me that things would go well for Belarus in terms of investments, etc. All I had to do was to support them.

“I told them that I couldn’t do it because I knew that there were no nuclear weapons there. And, after talking to Hussein back then, I told them that Hussein was ready to come to an agreement with them regarding oil, if that’s what they were after, and other things. Just don’t bomb; don’t destroy the country! He was ready to show – and showed – all these [alleged WMD] sites.

“Their answer was: ‘We believe you, but the war machine’s engine is already running too fast.’ I swear to you that this conversation took place and that a man came to see me and we were discussing this matter in this very room.”

With that he leant back and stared intently at me. An imitation fire flickered in the hearth, the plastic logs casting a febrile glow across the left-side of his face.

“It’s a double standard,” he insisted with some justification. “Americans want to make us democratic. Go make Saudi Arabia democratic! Do we look like Saudi Arabia? Far from it! Why not make them democratic? Because he is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.

“You’re bandits. Democratic bandits. You’ve destroyed thousands, maybe millions of people [in Iraq and Afghanistan].” He exclaimed: “I’m living through being democratised with a truncheon on the head by the West every day. Who needs that kind of democracy?”

Authoritarianism is still prevalent in former Soviet states. It was why I had wanted to visit Belarus and meet its leader. I wanted a reminder of where we had come from. To my disquiet, what I found was a warning of what might happen if other ex-Soviet countries in the region turn away from Europe and back towards the past.

Google Lukashenko and the prefix you find most given is “Europe’s last dictator”. It was a moniker coined in 2005 by the United States when it called on the people of Belarus to cast off the “yoke of tyranny”.   (END QUOTE)

LADA’S NOTES

What can I add to this? Everything’s clear, isn’t it? What an absolute fiasco of an article. I literally have never seen a publication or a ‘journalist’ manage to put their foot in their mouth so many times in the course of several paragraphs. Lukashenko was, after all, right about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq invasion, about Gaddafi, about Assad, Saudi Arabia, USA, and West in general. Moreover, he turned out a lot more right in his approach towards building and preserving his country than the bordering Ukraine, previously the darling of the West among post-Soviet states. All one has to do is recall Ukraine’s 2014 ukro-nazi color revolution and its catastrophic consequence of civil war, economic destruction and country’s breakup.

How fascinating it is to read that clueless 2012 article from the height of the knowledge and experience we possess in 2016. How much food for thought and how many lessons it brings to light!

2016 map of Belarus and surrounding countries

In 2015 I visited Belarus and its capital Minsk. I was invited to deliver a high-level consultation on geopolitical and global economic developments, followed by an offer of a long-term consulting position. I talk more about that in my recent post: Eurasia Developments: Belarus Monetary Reform; Moscow World’s Most Dynamic City; Armenia Joins Russian Air Defence.

Belarus, also called Belorussia, is the western-most post-Soviet republic, which first acquired independence in 1991, after then heads of Russia (Yeltsin), Belarus and Ukraine met in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, a famous nature preserve on Belorussian territory, and decided to go their separate ways. The Belovezhskaya Pushcha Agreement is considered by many in the post-Soviet space illegal; there are growing demands to annul it and classify it as treason. Whether there is any chance of that happening is a different story, which I’ll touch upon in one of the future Earth Shift Reports.

Before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution Belarus was an integral part of Russia. Before the independence was handed to Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic on a platter in 1991, Belarus never had any history of statehood. Belorussian language was in fact considered a western-Russian dialect, much like the Ukrainian language.

As a linguist I can tell you that compared to Belorussian, Ukrainian dialect was infinitely more developed and prominent, and had more characteristics of a language. For one: a number of big authors wrote in it, which is one of the required characteristics for a language status. The most prominent such author is a 19th century Russian literary genius Nikolay Gogol; others worth mentioning: Taras Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka and Grigory Skovoroda. Two: several million spoke Ukrainian, which again isn’t sufficient, but a helpful characteristic to classify a dialect as a language. None of these characteristics are present in Belorussian.

That said, even the exceptionally developed southern-Russian, aka, Malorussian/Ukrainian was still a dialect. Most writers, such and Gogol, still primarily used Russian language in their work; in cities, such as Kiev, people mostly spoke Russian, while in villages mostly Ukrainian or a mix.

Let’s also recall that the area surrounding Kiev and what is today central Ukraine was traditionally called Malorossia (aka Russia Minor, as opposed to The Greater Russia). The words ‘Ukraine’ and ‘Ukrainian’ came from Polish. These words don’t need a translation in any Slavic language, simply meaning ‘on the edge’ or ‘outskirts.’ The 19th century Polish and Austria-Hungarian landlords labeled so the poor villagers who were under their yoke in western Ukraine. It was later that the label was expanded to central Ukraine and Kiev, which wasn’t considered a part of Ukraine.

By 1922, Lenin insisted that the core Russian territories of east and south be added to Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The reason was geopolitically and politically expedient at the time, but it created a long-term disaster, as we are seeing today. I lay out the entire spread on the issues of Ukraine, Malorossia, its true history and language issues, why Lenin made such disastrous decisions, and much more in my Ukraine-dedicated Earth Shift Reports: ESR2, ESR3 and ESR6.

Both Ukrainian and Belorussian dialects were given the status of languages by Lenin during the formation of the USSR in 1922. Compared to Ukrainian/Malorussian, Belorussian dialect was much less developed, being its poor cousin. Therefore, it has taken a lot more effort, with very little result, to mold a dialect into any semblance of a proper language. Despite the widespread availability of the artificially created Belorussian language, most in Belarus speak Russian.

Belorussian President since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko, has been labeled by the West ‘the last dictator of Europe.’ Belarus and Lukashenko have been under Western sanctions since 1990s and to this day very few Western countries have diplomatic relations with Belarus.

Yet, as I discussed in IS PUTIN PART OF NWO?, Belarus expertly navigated the turbulent waters of the Western-financed color revolutions and economic crises and is still doing pretty well, avoiding many potential disasters.

Moreover, Lukashenko, whom I call ‘the sly fox,’ managed to capitalize on Ukraine’s problems, on the rift between EU and Russia and on anti-Russian sanctions. Sometimes he plays a peacemaker or gracious host, as in the case of hosting Ukraine-DNR/LNR Minsk negotiations with Putin, Hollande and Merkel. The result of that was that some of the long-standing anti-Belarus sanctions came off.

On the other hand, capitalizing on the Russian sanctions, Belarus engaged in piracy and illegal distribution: for example, enterprising Belorussians would import banned produce and goods from the EU, then slap Belorussian labels on them and pass them on the Russian market as their own. This underhanded approach offended Russians and even caused a public clash between Putin, when he pointed out the facts of piracy, and Lukashenko. Under Putin’s pressure, Lukashenko was eventually forced to crack down on illegal bait-and-switch, and relations normalized again. 

Lukashenko is a sly fox and an outspoken eccentric, who once in a while does put his foot in his mouth. But for the time being he is the only leader who can keep Belarus together and in pretty good shape, especially considering the mess in the nearby Ukraine and Baltics. Moreover, Belarus, along with Kazakhstan, plays an exceedingly important role as a support system for Russia in her role as the Great Global Balancer. Belarus also actively participates in the shaping up of the new, multi-polar world. For this reason, Lukashenko is forgiven his lapses and eccentricities and Belarus is treated by Russia with kid gloves.

Read all this and much more juicy intel and Lada Ray original, off-the-beaten-path predictions about Belarus and Lukashenko in ESR1 reloaded: IS PUTIN PART OF NWO? (Lukashenko’s Bluff).

******

And here is the treat I promised! And did I mention that Stanislav is also an awesome photographer? Check out a treasure trove of his Minsk pics! Along the way of his travels Stanislav also visited Helsinki, Finland, so we have thrown in a couple of images of Helsinki as well.

In the end, I’ll have a few afterthoughts and clarifications of my own.

Travelogue: DISCOVERING BELARUS

by Stanislav Sokolov (Nemo)

This article is a series of observations from my recent week-long trip to Minsk and surroundings, and will be comprised of a few sketched notes around some general topic that I observed, which together will hopefully help create a picture of Belorussia. It was the first time I visited Belorussia – I haven’t been there even while living in USSR and was curious as to how the land and the people fared.

Interestingly, my trip went through Finland – another country that I visited for the first time. Despite the turbulent history of the 20th century, Finns still keep the history of their federative association with the Russian Empire, keep the monuments and stellas, and do not re-write history as is the want in the other Western European countries.

Only a few Western European countries have diplomatic relation with Belorussia, and Finland is one of them. I could have applied for Belorussian visa in Finland, but I chose another venue, contacting consular services at the Minsk airport, submitting all the paperwork there beforehand, and getting my visa on arrival.

Roads and transportation

The first thing that meets you when driving from Minsk airport is the road. One of an exceptionally high quality. And this high standard of quality roads persists not only in the capital itself, but also outside – in the surrounding towns that I travelled to. Another thing that Belorussia is famous for, is its railroad network. You can set clock by departures and arrivals, and travelling by rail is a real pleasure. There are modern regional trains and well as trains with cars from the Soviet period, though maintained with care. Belorussia is the only country of the former USSR that has not squandered its Soviet heritage, but built on it and multiplied it.

An interesting detail: all the man-hole covers in the streets are new and, moreover, painted to prevent them from rusting. In Lithiania, for example, all manhole covers are from 70s-80s and are thoroughly worn-out. Or take the traffic lights… The vast majority of them are of a modern bright LED kind, with the central circle showing the number of seconds until the light shifts from red to green or back, allowing the drivers to plan their acceleration and breaking. All are small details, but quite telling.

Industry and agriculture

The second thing you notice are the fields, ploughed and planted. The land is not left idle and in desolation, as is the case in the neighbouring Lithuania, but is serving the country’s needs as well as producing enough surplus for export. The industrial complex is also intact and fully functional. A small fragment of an impression: my hotel room was equipped with flat-panel TV and a Peltier element mini-bar. This is expected of any world hotel with a name to itself. But while in most countries the TV and the mini-bar would have been made in China or Malaysia, here they were Made in Belarus. I checked. The TV model, by the way, is called Horizont – a mark that I’ve known since the Soviet times. I am quite particular when the picture quality is concerned, and I would give that TV quite high marks.

Minsk

Coming to Minsk, I felt an acute sense of deja-vu, like I’ve already been there. And then I realised that I felt myself like in Moscow of my youth, back in the 80s. It was the combination of many factors. People speaking Russian in the kind of ‘a’-sounding dialect typical of Moscow (I’ll come back to the language later). The vast expanses – wide roads, wide pavements, distance between blocks that can be up to 100 meters. In Western Europe I became accustomed to the compact, overcrowded building plan, and did not realise what I was missing of the old days. Then there is a feeling of security and stability – something that you never feel now days in a big city. I walked around Minsk by night and all was quite and orderly. And finally, the architecture was also reminding me of the centre of Moscow.

Minsk Railway Square

That’s not a coincidence, by the way. Belorussia got the brunt of the first hit from the German Nazis. Everything was wiped out. Of the whole historic Minsk, all that remains are a dozen houses in the Trinity Neighbourhood. The rest of Minsk was razed to the ground by the Germans. After the War, it was rebuilt in the neo-Classical style that you see today.

Today, the city of Minsk is getting a lot of modern buildings – you can see a lot of construction sites a little bit off from the centre. The apartments can either be bought privately (with loan level, comparable to most Western European countries) or with state subsidy. Besides, Minsk is expanding it’s Metro system with the 3rd line being built now.

Another characteristic feature of Minsk (as well as other towns of Belorussia) is their cleanliness. You won’t see any litter in the streets – not a scrap of paper, not a cigarette stub. And the reason for this lies not only in the nightly cleaning/washing of the streets. It is primarily in the mindset of the people. As one of the locals told me: you wouldn’t throw litter around your house, so why would you around your city? I think that is an important, fundamental feeling when you know that the land you live on is yours too, and not just some abstract state.

Shops and food

Whichever shop you come into, the assortment and quality of food is impressive. In my conversations with the locals, I got to know that the state owns only about 20% of the stores, while the rest is private business. The shelves are full of local produce, with a few imports. Below is an exhibition window of a bakery shop Karavai – a must-stop for anyone with a sweet tooth.

Bakery shop (Pekarnia) “Karavai”, Minsk, Belarus

Eating out is also a pleasure – there are a lot of places to choose from, catering to all kinds of tastes. I found one restaurant, serving delicious selections of Russian “varenniki” and “pelmeni” – stretching it a bit, you can call that a kind of pasta. The place is called Gurman, and though it is a walking distance from some of the tourist points of interest in Minsk, it is frequented by the locals.

Language

Language is both a big and a small issue, depending on how you look upon in. As we’ve seen on the example of Ukraine, language (or an artificial separation of dialects into languages) can be used divide people and start wars.

Simply put, everywhere I went, everyone was speaking Russian. And, moreover, the type of speech typical for Moscow, with the predominant “a” sound where “o” would be written. (Moskva becomes Maskva, Belorussia becomes Belarusia). It is written Belorussian that makes one pause. Jokingly, people told me that they write with all the grammatical and pronunciation errors one can make in Russian. Or What You Hear Is What You Write. Basically that’s the same first step in making a dialect into a language, that was also taken in Malorossia/Galicia in 1800s, leading to Ukrainian.

Then, there is a more complex perspective. There is an official Belorussian language, which no one speaks. I only heard it once at the railway station. I was quite amusing – at first I thought they were announcing all the trains twice in Russian, and only after having listened closely, I noticed some subtle differences. A taxi driver, to my question of how widespread the official Belorussian was, told me that he hears it approximately once a year from some of the more radically-mooded youths. And that people don’t pay much attention to it. Maybe they should?

And then there is an even more troubling development. Take a look at the route of bus #1 that goes along the central avenue of Minsk:

At first glance, nothing untoward – names in Cyrillic for the locals and in Latin for the guests of the capital. Then you take a closer look. That’s not simply translations of the names. That’s essentially a Latinisation of them, along with Czech-looking umlaut characters of “č” and “š”. Let’s remember that attempts to Latinise Russian language were ongoing for several centuries. This may be yet another vector of attack on the Slavic roots.

Moreover, the names, which are basically lifted from Ukrainian – as I wrote above, I did not hear a single person call them that. Two examples: Independence Avenue in Ukrainian (and official Belorussian) is “Praspiekt Niezaliežnasci”, while in Russian it’s “Prospekt Nezavisimosti” (“independence” from what? History? Roots?); The Victory Square in Ukrainian/Belorussian is “Plošča Pieramohi”, while in Russian it is “Ploshad’ Pobedy”.

Victory Square, Minsk

State Circus, Minsk

Man Is A Fool

Man is a fool,
When it’s hot, he wants it cool,
When it’s cool, he wants it hot,
He always wants what he has not

I already mentioned the sense of security and stability that I felt in Belorussia. What I found peculiar, is the kind of grumbling from the locals, aimed at this stability “oh, yeah, we have STABILITY, but you are luckier being there in Europe”.

Another point of discontent comes from a kind of inferiority complex, comparing themselves to how much better it is in Europe, while saying that Belorussia only tries to catch-up. One example: I asked in one of the taxis that I rode, if I can pay with Visa card. The reply was along the lines of “yes, but the connection is slow and patchy, we try to make it appear like in Europe at stop when the appearances are satisfied, without bothering about functionality”. Well, payment went through very well. And never mind that in Germany, when calling for a taxi, you need to say in advance that you want to pay with VISA, or you may get a car, which is not equipped with a terminal.

One manifestation of such expectation that everything is better on the other side, was a song/rap that I heard on one of the radio stations – something about dreaming of Jamaica, but only having “Minsk sea” to do diving in. “Minsk sea” being a somewhat bitter, self-derisive joke. Seemingly quite an innocent one, but setting a subconscious undercurrent of discontent in the youth.

Let us hope that such undercurrents would no be nurtured by the outside forces into the kind of tsunami that finally destroyed Ukraine in 2014.

LADA’S AFTERTHOUGHTS

I loved that last bit and the verse about a man being a fool. This is so applicable to Belarus, and some time ago it was also applicable to Russia. Not so much any more due to the events of the past several years, which caused Russians to awaken and grow up in a hurry.

Let me explain why some (and I emphasize that it’s only some) Belorussians don’t value what they have, but instead think the grass is greener somewhere else.

This was the attitude I recall from the Soviet days, albeit, as I said, Russians managed to grow out of it. This attitude, which I personally never had, was born of entitlement widespread during the later Soviet Union days. The life was so stable, so quiet and so secure that some thought their life wasn’t worth anything. Somewhere in the West they had excitement, adventure and high life. Soviet people, being too sheltered and isolated, didn’t understand that everything had a flip side. The flip side of high life is poverty and drudgery; adventure and excitement may mean danger to your life and the danger to the very existence of your country and culture. But man is a fool and the grass is always greener far and away for those who lack wisdom. Sometimes the grass really is greener elsewhere, but it always comes with strings attached and it’s always a trade-off, which, in the final analysis, you may not want.

In most other post-Soviet republics they already got it due to many tough lessons they had to learn in the past 25 odd years. The reason Belorussians still don’t know how to count their blessings is because they continue being sheltered by the ‘dictator Lukashenko’s’ regime.

In reality, just like Kazakhstan, Belarus is what I call a stewardship, not a dictatorship. The steward in charge takes care of his country as if it was his own domain and family, with great care and attention to detail, security and preservation of culture and industry. Like ‘big daddy’ he may be overbearing. He does everything to ensure a smooth sailing and a lack of shocks to his domain and people in his care. This results in some immature citizens feeling like rebellious teenagers (which is what such people really are, having never grown up).

They long to break out of the mold and experience something that the tough steward’s careful management doesn’t allow them to experience: turmoil, crisis and ups and downs, which they interpret as adventure, sparkle and excitement. Such attitude, when everything’s given to someone on a platter and therefore is not appreciated, is in some way akin to that of a spoiled rich brat.

This is a major downside of a sheltered existence and of any country functioning as a stewardship. A very similar situation developed in the late USSR, when the young generation took what they had for granted and didn’t value it; and this in part precipitated the USSR collapse. The shocks of the past 25 years took care of that in Russia as the Russian population quickly matured. It helped to have Putin and his team in power.

On the other hand, Ukrainians took their own country for granted so much and for so long that they had a bloody 2014 coup, resulting in total collapse. Now they don’t take anything for granted not knowing what tomorrow will bring, and many wish the old, good Yanukovich were back. Too late: the country is on its way to disintegration.

Belorussians haven’t had any major shocks and setbacks; therefore, they are somewhat behind in their maturing process. Some signals coming from Belarus are worrisome, but so far so good. Lukashenko is the right steward for the delicate job.

Read more of my predictions on Belarus in Earth Shift Reports linked below!

FOCUS BELARUS:

I have more than once discussed Belarus and its President Lukashenko in my various pieces. This is a mini-guide: links to the most significant mentions of Belarus in my work.

1

Read FREE latest article on FuturisTrendcast:

Eurasia Developments: Belarus Monetary Reform

2

The realities of Belarus, comparisons to nearby Russia, Ukraine and Baltics, as well as what is Lukashenko playing at and what is his long-term strategy, complete with predictions:

EARTH SHIFT REPORT 1 reloaded:

IS PUTIN PART OF NWO? 

(Astana KZ – New NWO Capital? Bonus: Lukashenko’s Bluff)

3

Belarus and Lukashenko, their role as support for Russia – the Great Balancer and as a building block forthe Great Eurasia project, are addressed in

Video EARTH SHIFT REPORT 9

ATTACK ON KAZAKHSTAN: WHO DESTABILIZES EURASIAN UNION?

*****

Many thanks to Stanislav for a wonderful Belorussia travelogue and for the gorgeous images!

PLEASE VISIT STANISLAV’S SITE: Stanislavs.org

 

---

Additional photos from Stanislav Sokolov:

MINSK, BELARUS

Detail of the left building on the Railway Square, Minsk

Detail of the right building on the Railway Square, Minsk

An ornamental detail of the State Universal Store (GUM), Minsk

View from the window of Minsk airport towards the open-air museum. IL-76 in the middle

HELSINKI, FINLAND

Panoramic view of the Cathedral on the Senate Square in Helsinki

The monument to Czar Alexander II in Helsinki

.

******

Support Lada’s FREE articles on FuturisTrendcast: DONATE HERE!

Visit LadaRay.info      BOOKS       CONSULTATIONS

Earth Shift System   Quantum Calibrations   Russia-The Great Balancer   Predictions

Follow!   FuturisTrendcast   LadaRay Blog  Twitter@LadaTweets   YouTube   G+