THE USSR MAY BE A RELIC OF THE COLD WAR but the news of its demise hasn’t reached the BSSR, the Belarus Soviet Socialist Republic as it was once known. The largest building in Minsk still houses the KGB. The government, a republic in name only, is still an authoritarian regime ruled by the same president since ’94. Most industries have been nationalized, running with traditional soviet inefficieny. Of the 34 banks, only one is private.
BSSR or BCCP in Cyrillic
Belarus is still dependent on $10 billion in annual subsidies from Russia. Inflation is running at 16% and we have seen the rouble go from 16,600 per dollar to 17,700 in less than a week. The million roubles we withdrew from the ATM is worth just under $60. With the average annual Belarus salary at $3000 it’s not surprising that lunch for two at TGIFridays — along with McDonalds and Burger King only western eateries in Minsk — cost about $5.
City Gates, Minsk
This once and future soviet republic is the final country in Europe for us to visit. If it hadn’t been for Connie’s Teutonic sense of order (and our need to do laundry) we would likely have passed it by. Minsk is a haven of Soviet-style buildings with clean streets and little traffic. Like many European cities there is an abundance of cafes and restaurants, even shopping malls like the Stolitsa underground shopping center which served as a fall-out shelter during the Cold War years. But we haven't seen many people with enough money to buy anything.
No money to spend
After a while we put away our map and wandered around the old Upper Town. Somehow our tourist information missed this interesting part of the city along the Nyamiha River but the wedding parties certainly knew about it. For some reason the wedding bureau is open only on Friday and Saturday and must have been doing bang up business.
City Hall Keys to the city
I have noticed that this entry seems to have a higher than usual number of readers. I wonder if we are being monitored by Big Brother.
