A quick Web search on Minsk will give you the basics: It is the capital and largest city (2007 population of about 1.8 million people) of Belarus. It is also the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an alliance consisting of former Soviet Republics. You may also read that Minsk is only appealing to Soviet Union enthusiasts, the city having been heavily damaged during World War II and rebuilt to Stalinist standards in the 1950s. There are even claims that tourism is not much of a priority, the most morbidly alluring curiosity being the bottom left apartment at 4 Vulitsa Kamunistychnaja, the former residence, during his defection to the USSR, of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man believed to have murdered American President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Minsk Ministry of Internal Affairs. Or is it the KGB headquarters?

Sadly, most Web sites (and even local residents) don’t take into account some of Minsk’s other curiosities. For example, there’s a grand yellow building with a row of high columns in front of it located near the start of Independence (aka Francyska Skaryny) Avenue. Most guides and guidebooks say that this is the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It’s actually KGB headquarters! Fifteen or so years ago, if you pulled out a camera you were pushed away and asked silly questions; today, you can snap as many photographs as you like. Read More…

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