br23 blog - minsk, belarus

As an ethnic group, Belarusians may be new to Americans but they are not newcomers to this country, and their first linkage with America may have been our ubiquitous soldier-adventurer Captain John Smith. Smith had traveled through Belarus in 1603 when it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the craftsmen he brought to Virginia’s […]

This week I reread some of Stanislaw Lem’s short stories (Tales of Pirx the Pilot) and novels which I enjoyed a lot when I was a teenager. I first read them 16-18 years ago (when I was 12-14 years old), and now I realized that I forgot most of it, having retained just vague memories […]

Can anyone guess which language is that?

Lately I keep bumping into references to Belarus in weird places, in movies and books where I least expect it. Here’s a book that my wife got from her favorite accounting professor Cathleen, the very first page:
My name is Mila, and this is my journey.
There are so many places where I could begin the […]

Tom Stoppard was in Minsk this week! It’s interesting how the news got spread. First, one livejournal user wrote in his journal: “Guys, I’m not bullshitting. I just saw Tom Stoppard in Bar London [a famous little cozy bar on the central Minsk street]”, then another blogger claimed he saw Stoppard on Minsk streets. […]