Eastern European Food

cabbage soup with "mulled" red wine

Potato Dumplings w/ Bacon Garnish

Birch "Juice" w/ Eclairs 

Coffee w/ sugar, cinnamon, meringue

vodka before dinner

dumplings for lunch 

vodka before breakfast 

breakfast donuts with sour cream and jelly

fresh mushrooms

pork dinner

steak w/ mushroom side

chocolate w/ pepper and lemon 

Stalin Line

Per Wikipedia "The Stalin Line was a line of fortifications along the western border of the Soviet Union. Work began on the system in the 1920s to protect the USSR against attacks from the West. The line was made up of concrete bunkers and gun emplacements, somewhat similar to, but less elaborate than the Maginot Line. It was not a continuous line of defense along the entire border, but rather a network of fortified districts, meant to channel potential invaders along certain corridors."

Khatyn Massacre, Belarus

Khatyn Massacre

Per Wikipedia "Khatyn was a village of 26 houses and 156 inhabitants in Belarus, in Lahoysk Raion, Minsk Region, 50 km away from Minsk. On 22 March 1943, almost the entire population of the village was massacred by the Schutzmannschaft Battalion. The battalion was composed of Nazi collaborators and assisted by the Dirlewanger Waffen-SS special battalion.

The massacre was not an unusual incident in Belarus during World War II. At least 5,295 Belarusian settlements were burned and destroyed by the Nazis, and often all their inhabitants were killed as a punishment for collaboration with "partisans".

Belarusian National Arts Museum

We had some extra time to spare, so we checked out Belarusian National Arts Museum. Again nothing special, just a national gallery.

City Tour Minsk, Belarus

House Museum of First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party Misnk

Lee Harvey and wife Marina Oswald pictured in some location in 1962

Lee Harvey and Marina Oswald's Apartment in Minsk until June 1962

Minsk was the last state of the USSR to build a metro in 1984. Due to the economic situation of the USSR the metro was very basic. 

Palace of the Republic 

USSR "Art" Propaganda 

This cafe/lunch counter existed during the time of the USSR

Chocolates 

Felix Dzerzhinsky - founding father of what was later know as the KGB

Post Office 

Church of Saint Simon and Helen - "Red" Church

Lenin in front of House of Government, Independence Square

Agzur Sculptures Museum

Absolutely one of the worst museums I ever visited. The sculptures weren't even original. They were replicas of the original. There wasn't much "art" associated with them either. They were sculptures that tried to look exactly like the subject.

And to make the visit even more excoriating, the tour guide would providing a summary history lesson on each of the subject. How providing a history lesson on each of the subjects provided any insight to the sculptor, I don't know!