Minsk ghetto was one of the largest in Europe. In the occupied territory of the USSR, Minsk had the second highest number of prisoners after Lviv, which estimated in 136,000 people. 39 streets and alleys were covered with barbed wire for those purposes. The Nazis brought there Jews from seven countries in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Very few survived. In place of mass executions, the so-called "The Pit", there is a monument now.
Near the building of the Institute "Belgosproekt" has survived three-tiered conical machine gun bunker built by Germans on the border of the ghetto. During the construction of the institute the attempt to demolish the bunker was made. Although, the demolition was not done, as there was a chance to blow up the construction of the building. Therefore loophole was walled, whitewashed and left the way it was.

Francisk Skaryna, born in Polotsk, was an educator, a pioneer, a philosopher and a humanist, a translator, a writer, a physician, a social activist. He began to publish books 50 years before Fedorov (another Russian educator). In 1534, Skaryna went to Moscow to show his Bible, which was published in Belarusian language in 1517. But he had got away from the angry priests, scribes, who desired to burn heretics alive. Skaryna's books were lost.

Belarusian traffic policemen in the vast majority do not take bribes. If you caught drunk or had an accident with a pedestrian, you can say goodbye to driver's licence. If your violation was minor, a soul-saving policeman may have a conversation with you to indicate the violations and let you go without penalty after your sincere apology. I would recommend you to do so and admit your fault, get a receipt for a minimum fine, go and pay to the closest bank. The more guilty driver argues the pullover, the more inclined the amount of fine increases. Intimidation of a Belarusian cop will not work.

There's one more great thing about Belarusian traffic police - tow tractors made with Belarusian acumen.
Simple, cheap and effective. Well, maybe. In terms of the usual aesthetics it is somewhat extravagant...

Lee Harvey Oswald lived in Minsk and worked at the Radio Plant named after Lenin, today a television factory "Horizon". Incidentally, Oswald's Russian language teacher was Stanislav Shushkevich, the future President of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus from 1991 to 1994. (December 7-8, 1991 - participant of the meeting in the Bialowieza Forest with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine, where the decision to liquidate the Soviet Union and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States was made. As the head of the Belarusian parliament Shushkevich signed the Belovezhskaya agreements). Such a destiny: someone who slammed a president was taught by someone who slammed the entire country.

       

As a result of the Chernobyl radioactive disaster, 23% of Belarussian territories were contaminated, affecting  more than 2 million people out of 10 million residents of the region. People can not ever live in the areas marked with red and orange.

Since 1978, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Control prohibited import of famous Belarusian vodka "Zubrovka", because it contained fragrant grass, which was infused at the rate of 2 pounds per ton of vodka. The grass contains poisonous element - coumarin. The grass grows only in Bialowieza Forest and is food for bisons, that's why vodka was called "Zubrovka" (belar. "zubr" - engl. "bizon"). Scented coumarin glycoside gives tincture characteristic aroma and pungent taste, promotes appetite and improves digestion. However, this kind of vodka is not a popular product in Belarus.

By the number of treasures detected each year Belarus traditionally is ahead of all Europe. As they say, a treasure is a memory about those who lived well, but ended badly. This is to ensure that there was a difficult to calculate number of large and small wars in the area. So, there are many reasons to believe that the treasures sleeping in the Belarusian land would not be called otherwise than legendary. I include the notorious  Napoleon's "Moscow trophies" drowned somewhere in Berezina river and the 12 missing gold apostles of Radziwill family. Figures of the Apostles, casted in full height with gold and silver, are described in the notes of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, Adam Czartoryski (1770-1861): "The rich castle in Nesvizh. There's 5 or 10 million ducats worth of ornamentation. Precious collections of weapons, books, diamonds. But there is nothing more expensive than a collection of the 12 apostles, five of them are of pure gold and studded with precious stones. "

The courtyard of the castle is also shown in one hundred thousandth Belorussian bills.

"Dazhinki" is an annual harvest festival. To be precise, it is the reason for the entire village to celebrate the successful completion, the battle for the harvest. President Lukashenko made the traditional autumn holiday a state level event, where the results are being summarized, the winners of the competition are being honored and the lazy ones are being blamed. Each year, a new district center is being assigned by the government. So, the local government leads its town to a perfect order repairing roads, completes housing, painting, whitening, sweeping, and shakes with fear. Very useful initiative, in my opinion. My town was a festival center right before I immigrated to Canada. I saw a lot of positive changes.

Red Church is also one of the Minsk attractions (aka Church of St. Simeon and Helen, 1906-1910 years of construction) in the main square of the country. It was almost torn down after the war, because someone considered it as building that did not fit into the House of Parliament complex (Red Church is located next to it). By the way, the complex was built by Langbard architect in 1935.

Belarus - the only country in Europe (among 47 countries), which is not included in the Council of Europe, and is still a candidate for membership. "We have no leverage over Belarus", - declares Strasbourg. They can not put sanctions on tranche policy, intimidate non-recognition of the election, or close their territoties for Belarussian authorities to visit. On the other hand they have less work - Belarussians can not make a claim to European Court of Human Rights. Also, the OSCE missions were expelled from Minsk to "not to interfere in their right to elect and to be elected".

Belarus is the only country in the former Soviet Union to restore the Soviet flag (with minor modifications). Local wits immediately dubbed it "Sunrise over the marsh" (or "Sunset over the marsh," as you like).
At the core of the flag's ornament is the pattern called "Rising Sun", woven in 1917 by Matryona Markevich, a peasant woman from village Kostelische, renamed into Senno, Vitebsk region. The pattern was found in the archives of Belarussian Industry Board and was originally targeted for women's clothing. It is worth mentioning that Belarus is the world's first country to use national pattern as part of the national flag.

It is believed that when God gave countries minerals, Belarus made it just for leftovers. But it got a whole sombrero, I mean Starobin potassium salts (near the town of Soligorsk) - the largest in the world, more than 9 percent of the world's proven reserves, second only to one field in Canada. Billions of tons. It is a real tidbit.

The longest street in Belarus - Minsk's Independence Avenue. During its history, the street not only grew in length and width, but also changed the 14 titles. This is one of the last main neoclassical ensembles in the world architecture, one of the longest streets in Europe, the applicant for inclusion in the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

I've often heard the slogan "Belarusian Wetlands - Lungs of Europe." I have no idea whether Europe is aware of that, but the fact is that 1.7 million acres of wetlands annually remove from the atmosphere 550-1880 kilograms of carbon dioxide gas (just like 10-20 hectares of forests do). It is a pity, though, that despite all that there is a barbaric inning for peat and sapropel taking place in Belarus.

During the World War II housing in Minsk was destroyed by 70%, and utilities by 80%. On the day of the liberation of Minsk by the units of the Soviet Army and partisans of Belarus (3 July 1944), the city was nothing but a solid pile of rubble, ash and smoldering ruins.

House of Parliament - one of the few buildings that survived intact in the last war. Germans used it as barracks and, during retreat, turned it into a powder keg literally - the document with a list of explosives was found in the archives. The building was packed with almost 2 tons of donar and 184 bombs, 100 kg each. It remains a mystery why Germans did not blow it up.

I'm starting this blog for everyone. Whether you've heard about Belarus or not, whether you've lived there, visited, or never been to. For me, it is the place where I've been raised in till the age of 22. Now I live in Canada and would like to share some facts about Belarus, or White Russia, as some people may call it. Belarus, oficially called the Republic of Belarus, is a country in Eastern Europe that borders with Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. I've lived in the very hearth of the country, town called Marjina Gorka, considered by many people as the geographical center of the country. My town is located approximately 60 km away from the capital Minsk. 

However, the purpose of the posting is not boring geographical or historical data, but some amusing and interesting facts containing humour and satire.

Let's begin...

The beginning of all roads in the Republic of Belarus starts from the granite memorial sign "zero kilometer" on October Square in Minsk. The bronze blind area around the sign indicates the distances to all Belarussian cities and towns, and the bigger font - the capitals of the neighboring countries. The stone, by the way, was carved in Portugal.

Not so long ago Belarusian scientists and surveyors pulled their socks up and figured out where the geographical center of Europe is! According to their calculations it happened to be in the ancient city of Belarus, Polotsk. The significative memorial was placed in the city almost right away.
There's already one in Lithuania, and Latvia, and Poland, and Ukraine! Belarus needed it's own geographical center of Europe. Done!

National Library, one of the largest in the world, was opened in Minsk in 2006. Its total area is ​​112 thousand square meters, while 55 thousand square meters are allocated for books. And it weighs twice as heavy as Ostankino Tower (TV tower in Moscow) - 115 thousand tons. Minsk residents dislike the "lollipop" the same way as the Parisians did not like their Eiffel piece of iron. They tend to blame government in spending vast amounts of money for unnecessary needs. But I think that somewhere deep in their hearts they are a little bit proud.

By the way, the surface of  the "diamond" is completely lined with LED panels and it is the country's largest advertising screen area of ​​1485 square meters. From 9 to 10 pm, it will cost you $ 3 per minute to be able to drive around all you want.