Belarus (magazine #8 2014)

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No.8 (971), 2014

BELARUS www.belarus-magazine.by

Беларусь. Belarus

Politics, Economy, Culture

Health with the Sign of Quality

Events in Belarus and abroad

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contents

Беларусь.Belarus Monthly magazine No. 8 (971), 2014 Published since 1930 State Registration Certificate of mass medium No.8 dated March 2nd, 2009, issued by the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus

Geography expands

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Founders: The Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus “SB” newspaper editorial office Belvnesheconombank Editor: Viktor Kharkov Executive Secretary: Valentina Zhdanovich

Design and Layout by

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Open view on the changing world

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Diplomats synchronise watches

Running, is life itself

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Life as an instant Sergey Zhuravel, the

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Returning to our origins Bezdezhsky

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‘Filmmaking is interesting’ It is possible

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People’s Artiste of Belarus celebrates his 60th birthday

Fartushok Folk Art Museum recreates early 20th century Belarusian villagers’ daily routine

to go into minute detail and loftily tell about the talent of this person, but facts, as a rule, tell better than epithets

Sophia Golshanskaya returns to Motherland The fifth Golshany Castle Festival, in the Oshmyany District, featured the usual knightly tournaments, authentic music and national souvenirs, but also the first national musical...

ly, wind energy could fully satisfy the world’s energy demands...

Keys to pleasure How to keep fit at any

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New appearance Brest has been re-

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…after all, the country is amazing, why would I want to leave it? The 38

ed legends born for new monuments

беларусь.belarus 2014

The magazine does not bear responsibility for the contents of advertisements.

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79 Nezavisimosti Ave., Minsk, Belarus, 220013 Order No. 2398

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cently named Belarus’ sporting capital...

Monuments with biographies Invent-

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Tel.: +375 (17) 290-62-24, 290-66-45.

Tel./Fax: +375 (17) 290-68-31.

age

year old citizen of the People’s Republic of China has lived in the Belarusian capital for about one year

Беларусь.Belarus is published in Belarusian, English, Spanish and Polish.

Total circulation — 1916 copies (including 728 in English).

Muddling money If harvested efficient-

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Vadim Kondrashov Nadezhda Ponkratova

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significant project

E-mail: info@periodicals.ru Telephone in Minsk: +375 (17) 227-09-10.

© “Беларусь. Belarus”, 2014

editor’s note

The weather favours the diligent

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eat! Now, nobody in Belarus is surprised at it reaching 35 Celsius degrees. This year’s August is very hot and we’ve adapted to the high temperature. Moreover, we do understand that dry August days are a blessing for grain growers. The harvest is ready and it should now be gathered quickly, without loss. Yes, some feel uncomfortable nowadays at the factory conveyor or even in the office, but everyone is ready to tolerate it, if the weather doesn’t change to rainy… In this case, harvesters would stop, ripe grain would become wet and the harvesting campaign would cease.

Each day of August feeds us for the whole year. Not only are villagers aware of this, but also those who live in the city, and they can’t be indifferent people when it refers to earning their daily bread.

Meanwhile, what is the political weather like? It’s also an important question. The weather is changing on the global scale: it’s sometimes hot and sometimes mild, yet in recent times, we’ve been seeing sharp cooling in some areas. Probably, the matter won’t become a ‘cold war’ if we speak about the big powers, but the feeling of confrontation and opposition is definitely present in the air.

Belarus doesn’t keep away from world political processes, though it primarily advocates its own national interests, which were specified at the traditional meeting between Alexander

Lukashenko and Heads of the Belarusian diplomatic missions and consular establishments. Our Open View on the Changing World article is dedicated to this topic.

It’s now appropriate to cite the President’s opinion from this session. ‘We are witnessing sweeping changes in the global setting. We’ve faced totally new geopolitical conditions. Stability was shattered, not only somewhere far away, like in North Africa or the Middle East, but also very close to us. We have realised that situations can explode anywhere. We are witnessing the devaluation of standards and principles of international behaviour, the destruction of the international law system that has been shaped over decades. One thing is clear — they strike the weak and reckon with the strong. Therefore, we need to be strong politically, and in particular, economically’.

Our Diplomats Synchronise Watches and At the Level of Global Partnership materials supplement the foreign political topic in the magazine.

The geography of Belarusian foreign policy and foreign economic activity is vast, but the African continent continues to remain a white spot on the world map of our business interests. The task to strengthen this sector has become more urgent in recent times, with diplomats noting return interest of our African partners in the development of dialogue with Belarus. Mozambique is one such country and its Prime Minister, Alberto Vaquina, recently visited Minsk. This topic is further explored in our Geography Expands article.

As always, the August issue of the magazine does have its own topic, which, in my opinion, is no less acute for the country, as it covers and reflects the life of society. I would even specify that is opens up good tendencies which are peculiar to many citizens of contemporary Belarus. A healthy nation is a strong nation. It’s difficult to argue or contradict such an interrelation.

In this respect, the topic of the issue ‘Health with the Sign of Quality’ seemed appropriate to us. Moreover, it was easy to disclose it, as there’re more than enough good examples.

By Viktor Kharkov

2014 беларусь.belarus

PANORAMA  Ban Ki-moon thanks Group of Friends The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has praised the efficient work of the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking that was set up at the United Nations in 2010 upon the initiative of Belarus. The UN SecretaryGeneral made this statement in his video message, timed to coincide with the World Day against Trafficking in Persons.

“I

would like to thank the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking for their efficient work in their co-operation with the United Nations,” noted Ban Ki-moon.

“In May last year, we had a very fruitful discussion of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Now it is time to discuss what we will do next. We should start preparing for the next revision of the plan in 2017 and build on our success,” Ban Ki-moon said.

The UN Secretary-General also urged countries to assume specific anti-trafficking commitments with a view to restoring justice and creating support for the victims.

 At the level of global partnership Belarus to continue working internationally to fight human trafficking

D

uring the roundtable session, timed to coincide with the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, which is celebrated by the international community (since it was created upon Belarus’ initiative), the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Valentin Rybakov, said, “The Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking works hard as part of the UN, and Belarus is the coordinator of the group. We’ll continue working hard on the international arena for the sake of improving the coordination of efforts of all the interested parties against human trafficking.”

According to the Deputy Foreign Minister, while fighting human trafficking, Belarus has always focused on tight partnering relations with non-governmental and international organisations that should complement and render assistance to national governments.

Mr. Rybakov stressed that it’s impossible for one country to fight

 Symbol of hope at the ceremony in Vienna The contribution to the creation of a global partnership in the struggle against human trafficking was notable

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he Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, told how Belarus brought an especially significant contribution to the process of the creation of a global partnership in the struggle against human trafficking, as he spoke at the UN office in Vienna at the ceremony on the occasion of the World Day of struggle against human trafficking.

The Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of Belarus in Austria, Roman Romanovsky, also gave an address about how the neces-

беларусь.belarus 2014

human trafficking, because it is a transnational crime that requires a collective effort. “Joint efforts are needed to build a world where every person will be able to manage their own destiny free from serfdom, fear, humiliation and slavery,” said the Deputy Minister.

He reminded that back in 2005, the President of Belarus spoke before the UN to put forth the initiative in favour of forming a global partnership against human trafficking.

sity of joint efforts between the international community, governments, international and non-governmental organisations, civil societies against human trafficking at national, regional and global levels, as well as the role and practical importance of the tools created during the realisation of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, including Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) and the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund of voluntary payments of the United Nations for Victims of Human Trafficking, has been noted.

As an expression of solidarity and support for victims of human trafficking, the choral festival of the world, under the direction of the director of the Vienna boys’ choir, who have united 650 children from different countries of the world, performed at the ceremony.

Alexander Ruzhechka

DIPLOMACY

O

The diplomats discussed main areas of foreign policy and foreign economic activity

Open view on the changing world

They say that the economy is used primarily for political progression. Meanwhile, Belarusian diplomacy has a different construction. We boast our own view on the world order. We don’t claim to bring this view to the planet as the only correct one. We really assess our potential as a subject of international relations. Nevertheless, there are enough countries on the Earth who share our position, and the commonness of political views leads to the development of a trustworthy dialogue which serves as a basis for mutually beneficial business interaction.

ur major interest on external ve c tors is t he economy. Such construction was built a long ago, and its relevance was proven during the meeting between the President and Heads of the Belarusian missions and consular establishments. This is a traditional event; some tactical corrections are necessary from time to time, though common principles of Belarusian foreign policy remain unchanged. The world is not a static place; it’s changing, and this is happening extremely rapidly nowadays. The peculiarity of the current stage is the growth of tension, because of the actions of the world’s leading players.

Power methods, open pressure, economic and resource advantages, double standards and imposition of their own model of development are doubtful instruments which are being employed more and more frequently. As a result, foreign policy and diplomacy cease to be synonyms.

2014 беларусь.belarus

DIPLOMACY

беларусь.belarus 2014

countries where our ambassadors are accredited on concurrent. Their economies aren’t completely open for us yet.

Other landmarks are known. The President set the task of activating our efforts and actions in designated areas, including to enhance the quality of the staff composition, to realistically assess the prospects and goals of enterprises’ modernisation, to optimise commodity distribution network, to optimally load built transport and logistics centres, and those still under construction,

”

the context of integration unions. The created Eurasian Economic Union opens up enough new opportunities for this.

The quality of goods is under special attention. It’s unacceptable to damage ourselves in this factor while entering new markets. In this respect, Mr. Lukashenko ordered the preparation of a special session at the level of the President.

The session saw the reports from Prime Minister, Mikhail Myasnikovich, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir

Alexander Lukashenko: “We are witnessing sweeping changes in the global setting. We’ve faced totally new geopolitical conditions.

Stability was shattered, not only somewhere far away, like in North Africa or the Middle East, but also very close to us. We have realised that situations can explode anywhere. We are witnessing the devaluation of standards and principles of international behavoiur, the destruction of the international law system that has been shaped over decades. One thing is clear — they strike the weak and reckon with the strong.

Therefore, we need to be strong politically, and in particular, economically.”

to efficiently allocate assembly production facilities around the world (with an aim for further deepening of localisation), and to attract direct foreign investment.

The strategic goal is the further diversification of exports — both in the range of goods and the geography of supplies.

There’s no need to be afraid of remote markets. The examples of China, Venezuela and a number of Arab States prove that distances aren’t a hindrance for interaction. Nevertheless, our closest neighbours shouldn’t be put into second place. Russia, Ukraine and the EU are our traditional and important partners. We live together, and this obliges us to normal co-operation, both in the bilateral format and in

”

Under such conditions states, similar to ours, have to find non-standard solutions in order to fit into the existing geopolitical reality. And we do succeed. Due to a multi-vector policy, we’ve managed to set up strong collaboration with most countries of the world. They know and respect us as an independent and proud State, able to counteract even the most powerful pressure. The President told how, next year, pressure will predictably increase, as the presidential election campaign is a very responsible moment. Of course, nobody will arrive to us in tanks, yet the application of so called ‘soft power’ will raise many-fold.

We’ve already seen this, and now see bitter lessons of our brotherly Ukraine. We’re able to make the conclusions.

This is the objective background of all processes which will be taking place in the country soon. Therefore, diplomats need to make corresponding amendments in their activity. The economy is still a priority, and here we need to promote our interests in close co-operation with subjects of the real sector. It’s difficult to compete with trans-national corporations, but it is possible. The President gave a simple example — many times, our manufacturers have found counterfeit copies of their Belarus-made goods in various corners of the world; bad products are not faked.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lukashenko paid attention to the fact that there’s not a single embassy that has been stably fulfilling their tasks during the last five years. The function of the diplomatic missions shouldn’t be focused on theoretical recommendations. They should become gatekeepers of the interests of our enterprises on the foreign market; show on which doors to knock and with whom to speak. Meanwhile, the factories’ marketing departments shouldn’t be passive either. Close and dynamic collaboration is vital here.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to quickly manoeuvre with staff resources.

The potential for significant expansion of the diplomatic network is almost exhausted. We’re already present in all corners of the planet. We need to promptly respond to the changes of the market situation, and special attention should be paid to the

Makei and a number of ambassadors.

The general impression is that the Government and diplomatic service see the essence of the existing tasks while also boasting the necessary instruments for their solution. Having no doubts in the quality of Belarusian diplomacy, Mr. Lukashenko expects more dynamism in its work. He noted that an ambassador is the representative of the President in a particular country, and they should act decisively and promptly. All critical remarks, voiced during the meeting will be generalised, and the result will become the basis for a ‘roadmap’ of activity for our foreign establishments as soon as possible.

By Dmitry Kryat

”

DIPLOMACY

Participants of the meeting share their opinions

Vladimir Makei, Minister of Foreign Affairs: Over recent times we’ve managed to more constructively build dialogue with the USA, and anti-Belarusian rhetoric from our constant critics — Poland, Sweden and Germany — has significantly lessened. The EU has begun to speak directly with Minsk. Our major task today is routine work, aimed at creating a positive atmosphere in relations with the EU and the USA. The whole policy should be subjected to the promotion of our national, primarily economic, interests.

Igor Petrishenko, the Ambassador to Russia:

A new tendency has appeared in Russia — to make one’s own economy selfsufficient. At the same time, those sectors where Russia will concentrate State support will become points of growth. It means that our primary task is to ensure our presence in such points of growth.

Valentin Velichko, the Ambassador to Ukraine:

In recent days, too many questions have arisen regarding Ukraine’s decision to introduce customs duties in respect to a range of Belarusian goods. Such a decision has been made, but it hasn’t entered into force. I think we’ll manage to solve this problem. In this case, I wouldn’t use such definitions as ‘an unfriendly step’, ‘return measures’, etc. We are neighbours, and we have more than a thousand kilometres of common border, as well as common Slavonic roots. Moreover, Belarus accounts for 6 percent of Ukrainian imports. We boast huge reserves, and some tensions can be written off as emotions.

Alexander Averianov, the Ambassador to Poland:

Cautious hopes have now appeared to normalise the relations with Poland.

We’re neighbours, and have to behave as neighbours. The activity of an inter-governmental commission on border co-operation has been recently renovated. Poland has evidently rethought its relations with

Belarus against the background of Ukrainian events. On the one hand, it views us as a partner in ensuring regional security; while on the other hand, it perceives Belarus as a link in the chain of promoting its interests to the East. Here, it’s essential to activate work in those areas where our interests coincide.

Andrei Savinykh, the Ambassador to Turkey:

By 2023, Prime Minister Erdogan sees Turkey in the top ten leading economies of the world and an influential regional centre of power. For us, this is a source of new opportunities, since the Turkish market is rather capacious. Industry has appeared, while they still lack the science. There are prospects in organising joint scientific research. Moreover, half of the Turkish population are people under 20, and they understand well that education is the key towards their life success. However, at present, Turkish universities are unable to satisfy the existing potential, so we’re eager to invite them to Belarus.

Andrei Molchan, the Ambassador to the SAR, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia:

It’s especially vital for me to hear in the President’s speech that the country’s leadership pays big attention to the development of relations with African States. Our experience in achieving food security is of primary interest for the countries, located in the south of Africa. For them, the number one problem is to feed their people. The second issue is the creation of working places. Wars have ended there, and countries have begun to think about the establishment of their industry, the provision of energy security and the construction of houses, roads and ports. We have answers to all these questions.

Alexander Korol, the Ambassador to Lithuania:

Many Lithuanian companies are operating in Belarus. In my opinion, it’s necessary to work with Europe in a more consolidated manner. For example, we assemble buses in Poland and tractors and trucks in Lithuania. If we speak about the European market, we need to unite our efforts, including in the sphere of promoting supplies of Belarusian goods inside the EU. 2014 беларусь.belarus

DIPLOMACY

Minsk hosted the annual seminar of heads of diplomatic representations and consular establishments. Diplomats from all over the world (today, Belarus has more than 50 representations abroad) arrived in order, as it is called, to synchronise watches. Some considered it training, others, a master class.

Both options are correct. There were lectures and practical training in the Academy of Public Administration and get-to-know trips to the enterprises to study their export potential, and various meetings in the ministries.

А

nd in general, what does it mean to represent the country abroad? We spoke with ambassadors about their daily routines, trade and economic relations, the growth of Belarusian exports and prospects of foreign investments, about Belarusian migration and compatriots abroad and how policy and international relations influence the growth of exports and attraction of investments. These Belarusian ambassadors are interesting and competent people.

People, who are far from diplomatic work, create a mysterious aura around it.

Many people dream to take a look behind the scenes of the big world of politics (which from time to time is called the Big Game). On closer examination of diplomatic work, it appears a lot less беларусь.belarus 2014

Alexander Ruzhechka

Diplomats synchronise watches

glamorous than many people think. It has a lot of routine, trifles, wearisome attention to detail, game on semi-tones, handshakes and half-smiles. Of course it cannot be done without glamour (receptions, formal dinner parties and sitting behind one table with the mighty of this world), but it is too part of the ritual and, yes-yes, do not laugh, part of their ‘job’.

Very often diplomats are hungry when they get up from the table. After all, if everything was eaten, it means that there was nothing to talk about. It is better to describe real diplomatic work with the words from a song about people of an absolutely different trade: ‘at first sight it is as if not visible’. Sometimes it is not visible, even at second sight. But when diplomats are successful with their job, we too feel it — by the changed relations with Belarus and Belarusians around the world, by the foreign speech sounding in our cities, on the greater number of for-

During meeting in Minsk

eign companies coming to our market, on our sensation that all of us live in one small world and feeling an integral part of it. Our conversation with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Germany, H.E. Mr. Andrei Giro, started that way. “Belarus is not in a vacuum, Belarus is in uniform European space, and consequently, in the most severe competitive environment.”

The economy is the main theme of work of any Belarusian establishment abroad and, with Germany; our economic relations are especially strong.

Last year bilateral goods turnover made a record $4.8 billion. Almost 450 representations of German firms work in our country. Mr. Giro tells, “When a German investor considers the question of creation of new manufacture somewhere to the east of Germany, he or she takes into consideration several dozens of factors: from geographical position,

DIPLOMACY infrastructure, quality of training of local labour the ease/difficulty of appearance on the market, visas, residence permits, purchase of property of the future enterprise, the possibility of reception or purchase of habitation and a range of other factors. And, if we want German investors to come to us, we should be competitive in comparison with other countries of the region.”

The parameter to which many businessmen pay attention is the World Index of Doing Business, which is prepared annually by the World Bank. Last year, Belarus was positioned in 63rd place, which is quite good — five years ago we were in the second hundred, “The Government set an ambitious task — to enter the top 30 of the countries with the best conditions for running business. For this purpose, it is necessary to reform some things, to simplify other things, in particular our system of taxation and registration of companies.

However, on registration we are probably one of champions of this rating because, in order to register the company, we created the one stop-shop principle, allowing a foreigner to quickly, and without serious consequences, receive a permit to run their business. It is valued.”

Another advantage Belarus receives in connection with the signing of the agreement on creation of the Eurasian Economic Union. Ambassador Giro calls it ‘an absolutely new geopolitical situation’. “Before, of course, we were not so interesting to big German manufacturers, compared to a country with a 10-million market. Such a market can be interesting to small and average businesses, but not for big. Now, there appears a market with 170 million potential consumers, and that is another thing completely.”

So we return to the beginning of our conversation — to competitiveness. Andrei Giro ticks it off on his fingers, “First — we are on the way from Europe to Asia. The Paris-Berlin-Warsaw-MinskMoscow highway is the shortest and most convenient. The second — our infrastructure is better developed even

Building of Belarusian embassy in Berlin

compared with some European Union countries. Poland constructed a motorway from Warsaw to Berlin only for the 2012 European Football Championship, while we have had motorways since 1980, since the Olympic Games, from Brest to the border of Russia. Add the branched network of transportations, driveways,

”

“Belarus is not in a vacuum, Belarus is in uniform European space, and consequently, in the most severe competitive environment”

a railway system, and the two wellknown transport corridors — the West to East and the North to South — also come across Belarus. Plus the aim of our country at the creation of large transport and logistical centres which allow for the delivery of products, to maintain them in warehouses of temporary and constant storage and then from there to sell in other regions — these are our advantages, I think.” And according to

Ute Kochlowski-Kadjaia, Director General of East and Central European Business Association, those Germans who already work with us, highly appreciate our intellectual forces.

But there are no reasons for complacency. The arrival of new companies has slowed down recently. But it is connected with many factors, Andrei Giro explains, “First, in the early 90s there was a real boom and vogue for going to the east. At the time when the curtain and the Berlin wall fell, all rushed to search for new chances in the east. Then all large firms opened their representations also in our country. We have both Siemens, and Bosch, and Lufthansa, and BASF, and all that we connect with the concept of a ‘German company’. Then everything cooled down, then the crisis in Eurozone (and worldwide) started.

Therefore, companies are now so actively coming to us, even though, in the last five years I have not heard of anyone who has come, considered the decision as an error, and then left.”

The main indicator of the work of Belarusian foreign establishments is considered to be bilateral trade turnover in general and Belarusian export in particular. We’ve already discussed about the record figure of goods turnover with Germany. Well, Belarusian exports to Germany are also growing.

“Last year, we had an expectation of 2014 беларусь.belarus

DIPLOMACY

Andrei Giro, the Ambassador to Germany

120 percent growth, but it appeared 111 percent, not bad, but slightly under fulfilled,” the ambassador admits.

“Does Belarus feel competition from the countries of the former socialist camp?” I ask him, as our conversation again came back to the problems of global competition. Any businessman searches, how and where with the minimum costs to make a high-quality and competitive product. Besides the states of new Europe (and of former socialist camp, possessing many such advantages as Belarus has, but which are at the same time are members of the EU) also try hard at attracting manufactures from the old Europe.

“Yes,” Andrei Giro agrees, adding, “But they have social safeguards, and the level of average salary is absolutely different.

So the unit cost price is not always more profitable, than in our country. Mathematics solves everything. The Germans are very accurate, punctual and prudent people. If the mathematics did not work, they would not move to the east from their own borders, they would develop manufacture there. But if it is profitable for them to deliver made production from our country, then why not?”

All Belarusian embassies are similar among themselves on the tasks which they fulfil — the protection of our country’s interests abroad — but each has his or her own speciality which depends on беларусь.belarus 2014

relations which historically developed with this or that country, and on the presence, for example, in its territory of international organisations, and on how active is Belarusian migration and even, as in the case with Germany, on the size of the country. Germany is very big both in area, and in population (more than 80 million people). Berlin is only the political capital, whilst the financial centre is Frankfurt am Main and the economic is based in the Ruhr region with Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne, Duisburg located along Rhine and other industrial cities. “Geographically they are far from us,” Andrei Giro ascertains. “When we had an embassy branch in Bonn [it was closed in connection with the optimisation of the structure of foreign establishments], it ‘covered’ western regions. Now it does not exist and the load on us has increased. But in 2012 we opened consulate general in Munich. Of course, it is not big, only two diplomatic employees, but they, apart from rendering of the full range of consular services, also promote our economic interests and pay attention to the development of cultural and scientific ties. Recently, we have carried out a very interesting project when the pictures belonging to a family of great antiquity — Svyatopolk-Mirsky — and whose successor lives in the territory of consular district, were exhibited in Mir Castle.”

Another feature in the work of our embassy in Germany is the absence of organised Belarusian migration. Though, apparently, there are a lot of natives of our country here. According to the Ministry for Internal Affairs of Germany, about 17 thousand citizens of Belarus legally live in this country. It can be partly explained by the absence of a shared border. Big and active movements are more often formed in neighbouring states. There are also a number of other reasons, “The majority are women who entered into a marriage with German citizens and who live on federal lands. There are no dense Belarusian areas, all are dispersed across Germany. Among our former compatriots are many ethnic Germans and Jews.

They have own associations, and their connection with Belarus is rather relative, and besides, they are actively integrated into German society. It is a common feature of our people as a whole — they easily learn the German language, their children go to German schools...”

“It means they do not feel themselves to be Belarusians?” I ask.

Andrei Giro explains, “They rather feel themselves Russian-speaking people. And for them there are many other associations, structures, communities, in which our former Belarusians frequently play active role.” Among them are scientists, experts in the field of IT technologies, a lot of workers in the arts, who never refuse to perform in various activities arranged by the embassy. “All of us are proud of our citizens, and if they offer their services, we welcome it and try to involve them in the sphere of our interests, be they cultural, scientific, economic or business.”

Such is our embassy in Berlin. It is located near Treptower Park, where the Soviet soldiers who died in battles for Berlin are buried, and there is a wellknown monument of a Soldier-liberator with a German girl in his hands. If you are nearby, you should come. You are always welcome. After all it is Belarusian land.

By Inessa Pleskachevskaya, Berlin

EXPANSION OF VECTOR

Geography expands

T

Belta

The geography of Belarusian foreign policy and foreign economic activity is vast, but the African continent continues to remain a white spot on the world map of our business interests. The task to strengthen this sector has become more urgent in recent time, with diplomats noting return interest of African partners in the development of dialogue with Belarus. Mozambique is one such country and its Prime Minister, Alberto Vaquina recently visited Minsk and met the President.

he turnover between Minsk and Maputo is slightly more than $9m — far from a figure that could satisfy both countries. The President noted that the weak business activity is partly preconditioned by the absence of a legal framework for co-operation. The visit of the Prime Minister also aims to eliminate this gap.

Moreover, we look at each other closer again after a rather long break in collaboration. Once, Mozambique was very friendly with the USSR, and the Soviet Union supported this Eastern African state, training its specialists in various spheres. The memory about this is still alive and it’s possible to build an efficient and mutually beneficial present and future on the basis of our common past.

The President didn’t conceal that, in recent years, Belarus has been actively searching for footholds in Africa, and that Mozambique could become one such stepping stone from which we could promote our economic interests to neighbouring states.

This is beneficial not only for us but also for our partners. The model has been successfully tested in Latin America. Strengthening in Venezuela opened the way to other countries of the region, while the country itself received new production facilities, residential districts and support in the development of agriculture, exploitation and production of mineral resources.

Mozambique is also a very promising country, boasting serious tourist potential and solid mineral

 Proposal counts on technology Mozambique proposes common development of deposits of natural gas to Belarusian businessmen

“B

ig reserves of natural gas have been found in Mozambique, and this sphere can be prospective for investment from the side of representatives of Belarusian business, as well as for co-operation” noted Rogério Manuel, the Chief Executive of the Confederation of Trade Associations of Mozam-

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deposits. Mr. Vaquina also admitted that there’s a great interest in developing agriculture. Based on some estimates, up to 88 percent of fertile land is not involved in agriculture, even though the economy is mostly farming based. Belarusian experience in the development in the agricultural sector, together with the ability to manufacture necessary components for this technique in the Eastern Africa, could be very helpful in this respect.

Briefly speaking, there are enough points of coincidence of pragmatic interests. The dialogue is gaining momentum and there are all reasons to suppose that it will bring a tangible economic effect. The President assured his guest, in readiness to develop collaboration across all areas.

By Dmitry Kryat

bique, at the Belarusian-Mozambique business-meeting that was held at the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

According to his information, companies from Italy and the USA are currently occupied with the development and output of natural gas in Mozambique. Coal deposits have also been found and mines are being built. “We are interested in co-operation in this sphere with representatives of small and medium business of Belarus, which can participate in the realisation of big projects” Rogério Manuel said.

2014 беларусь.belarus

CONTEXT

Approaches defined rather clearly Belarus is ready to build relations with the EU and USA but without damaging its national interests, notes President Alexander Lukashenko during his meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Makei

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e’ve recently noticed that the Euro p e a n Un i o n and the USA have somehow started talking to Belarus, albeit through gritted teeth. I’d like to publicly underline that creating additional tensions in relations with the European Union is not part of our plans,” said the Head of State. “We face enough tension as it is. We have to fix the situation, but without damaging our country”.

The President noted that these issues had been discussed during his meeting with heads of Belarusian diplomatic

 Investments may come from overseas In September, the Belarusian-American investment forum will be held for the first time in New York

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he Belarusian delegation in New York will be headed by Prime Minister, Mikhail Myasnikovich. Representatives of the Development Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Bank and High-Tech Park also will take part. The company on development of the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park will also take part at the forum. In total, invitations for participation in the forum were sent to more than 500 potential participants.

The platform for open dialogue between Belarus’ heads of bodies of public administration and potential forбеларусь.belarus 2014

missions. “As a matter of principle, I’ve answered all the questions asked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the direction we should take our relations with the European Union; what we can accept and what we cannot,” added Mr. Lukashenko.

During the working meeting, The President and Vladimir Makei also raised issues concerning other directions of foreign policy and foreign trade efforts. In particular, the eastern vector

of Belarusian foreign policy was discussed. “Information about the Russian Federation and the state of our affairs in the eastern direction is the most important,” stressed Mr. Lukashenko. “Frankly speaking, reading some statements that we are between the West and the East in this regard amuses me. As if God didn’t place us between the West and the East. Being between the West and the East is our destiny. We build our relations and our stance bearing this fact in mind. We cannot avoid it,” said the President. “But it doesn’t mean that we are trying to sit on two chairs at once. That is unacceptable for us. It is not the foundation of our foreign policy and the economic doctrine”.

The Head of State also asked the Minister about foreign trade trends and changes, particularly those regarding exports. The meeting also tackled issues which are connected with the situation in Ukraine.

By Veniamin Mikheev

eign investors will be organised under the aegis of the Belarusian-American Forum. It is planned to discuss ways of improving the investment climate in the country. Participants can receive information on the investment potential of Belarus, including on the possibilities opening in connection with formation of the Single Economic Space.

The forum is organised with the support of the Ministry of Economy of Belarus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and the National Agency of Investment and Privatisation.  The Belarusian investment forum, in which about 500 people from 42 countries of the world participated, became one of the largest activities organised by the National Agency of Investment and Privatisation in 2012. Representatives of the largest companies of Holland, Italy, France, Korea, Japan, China, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar participated in the activity. The presentation of 23 investment projects of Belarus, for a total sum of investment of more than $1 billion was organised within the limits of the forum.

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POWER SOURCES

Muddling money If harvested efficiently, wind energy could fully satisfy the world’s energy demands. The number of wind-powered land turbines has tripled over the past five years globally, with wind-farms a common sight across Europe and Belarus now following suit. Our republic has gained its first such major installation in Novogrudok (more effective than any other in Europe) and private farmsteads are purchasing individual turbines. Motiejus Sinkevičius, from the village of Novye Podduby in the Shchuchin District, was one of the first to install a private turbine, which powers his workshops and lights his courtyard.

Energy in a courtyard

Motiejus Sinkevičius, his wife Yanina and their two little children moved to Belarus from Lithuania in the early 1990s. He gained respect from his new neighbours immediately, demonstrating himself to be a hard worker. His passion is to work with stone, by hand, and he even made his own machinery for this purpose. Today, he has fifteen similar machines Motiejus Sinkevičius and his self-made wind-turbine

and a mini-fleet of self-made tractors and cars. For a long time, he cherished the idea of placing wind turbines in Shchuchin. He tells us, “As a child, I remember watching a windmill turning powerful millstones, several tonnes in weight, which ground flour for the district. Wind turbines are quite common in Lithuania, where I was born and grew up, so I wanted to make something similar for our own

courtyard. I started sketching and, to tell the truth, it was my grandson who gave me the idea of going online, searching for ‘hand-made wind turbines’.”

He has obvious natural talent but speaks modestly regarding his achievements. His 16m tall wind turbine uses old batteries to store power, while an old Volga gearbox controls rotation speed, easily generating 5 kilowatt of energy.

Effect of pilot project The Grodno Region is a national pioneer in the use of wind energy in Belarus. Three years ago, HEAG launched our first wind-electric installation, with a capacity of 1.5 megawatts, located at one of the highest points in Novogrudok, near the village of Grabniki: 323m above sea level. The wind turbine is 82m, with each blade having an 82m wingspan, weighing around 200 tonnes, mounted on an octahedron shaped pole 14m in diameter, weighing a thousand tonnes and made from ferro-concrete. Unsurprisingly, a special crane was needed to raise the turbines into place, with a boom outreach of more than 90m. An automatic control system allows the turbines to work independently, and birds and other living creatures are kept away.

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2014 беларусь.belarus

POWER SOURCES

Potential not yet exhausted The wind-energ y potential of Belarus is estimated at 1,600 megawatts. About 1,840 platforms are suitable for wind-turbines, rivalling Poland and other countries in Eastern Europe, where wind energy has been in use for some time. Germany and Spain are particular leaders in this sphere.

Naturally, the branch requires huge investment in order to become a true alternative to traditional energy resources, so Belarus is eager to attract investors. A corresponding law ‘On renewable energy sources’ is helping build a system of state regulation and support for all forms of renewable power — and wind-energy in particular. Investors are being offered a number of privileged terms, to encourage their interest. беларусь.belarus 2014

28 wind-driven power plants are currently operating, boasting a total capacity of around 9MW. Last year alone, 7 wind turbines were put into exploitation. At present, several large organisations-investors in the Republic are involved in preparatory work, including the measurement of wind potential for further decision making regarding the construction of wind parks in the Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk and Mogilev regions.

In particular, one more wind park has been already laid down in the Grodno Region, which will be located in the Smorgon District. First two wind-driven power plants, being around 58m high and boasting the capacity of around 600kWh each, are situated close to the village of Krevo.

Belarusian Aero Stream JSC has implemented the project dealing with the construction of wind mills. These already generate energy that is sup-

plied to common electrical power system of the district. According to the signed treaty, a private investor sells the wind-generated energy to Grodnoenergo Republican Unitary Enterprise. Twenty five land lots have been determined in the Smorgon District and agreed with corresponding departments where installation of wind turbines is possible. These are to be built in the Dyatlovo District.

Private installation of wind turbines is permitted as long as the noise does not disturb neighbours or break the law in any other fashion. They can be purchased online and one Belarusian enterprise is offering their own design for sale for just $2,000: able to produce 1 kilowatt. Mr. Sinkevičius paid next to nothing for his turbine, having assembled it himself, and is planning to raise its output to 18 kilowatts, so that it may heat his home.

By Yelena Semenova

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Health with the Sign of Quality

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Keys to pleasure How to keep fit at any age 14

ur health mostly depends on our way of life, and first of all — on the right foods.

Ivan Tarashkevich, head physician at the City Health Centre in Minsk, thinks so.

Sociologists ascertain that health takes first place in hierarchy of vital values of Belarusians. This was gained not at once, but thanks to complex educational work and the popularisation of a healthy way of life at the highest level.

Belarus actively supports the World Health Organisation initiative on the fight against tobacco. Propagation of a healthy way of life and counterpropaganda of smoking and abusing alcohol and of taking drugs is carried out in all regions of the country.

Different actions and health weeks are carried out. In June 2013, the decision to return the third lesson of physical training at schools was made.

The Minister of Sports and Tourism, Alexander Shamko, considers that promoting a healthy way of life could be greater on television. Attention to TV screen is not casual. Sociological research testifies that 89 percent of respondents on physical training and sports receive information through television channels.

Doctors believe that to stay fit, 20-30 minutes of active physical exercise, not less than 3 times a week, is enough to improve the reception of oxygen into the body. But where can one exercise? There is a lot of places. The most popular options today, apart from gyms — are cycling, Nordic walking and the pool, while in winter — hockey. However, one can also ice skate in the summer, as 2014 беларусь.belarus

the country possesses many skating rinks — as you know, Minsk hosted Ice Hockey World Championship in May. This sport is very popular.

The bicycle is a convenient and mobile type of transport and has been popular for a long time among Belarusians, especially in the countryside, where almost every family has one or more bicycles.

Today, Belarus gives greater attention to the development of city infrastructure for cyclists. Cycle tracks and parking lots are under construction, separate strips on city pavements are allocated for this purpose, markings have been placed and cycle signs are installed.

New residential areas of Minsk and other cities are designed and built taking into account the need for cycle tracks. Wide pavements are divided into two strips — for pedestrians and cyclists, exits and low curbs are incorporated.

Basic interurban streets have roadsides, separated by marking, into which беларусь.belarus 2014

Health takes first place in hierarchy of vital values of Belarusians.

This was gained not at once, but thanks to complex educational work and the popularisation of a healthy way of life at the highest level cars do not drive. In case of the need, cycle tourists use them.

In 2011, the Belarusian capital adopted the concept of support of the system of cycle movement. 500 kilometres of cycle tracks should appear in the city: 50 arterial cycle paths and 450 of conjugate pedestrian-cycle paths.

While for sightseeing purposes, it is planned to create a network of 6 cycle tourist routes.

The most extended cycle path of Minsk (27 kilometres), opened in September 2009 and crosses almost all the city from the northwest to the southeast — from the Drozdy water storage basin to the Chizhovskoye water storage basin. It lies along the River Svisloch through the most picturesque places: Pobediteley Avenue, Pobedy Park, Yanka Kupala Square, Gorky Park. During the warm season, mobile hire points operate here, as well as the first Minsk cycle cafe on the banks of the Svisloch.

The cycle route which goes through wildlife preserve Nalibokskaya Pushcha, created in the Volozhin District of the Minsk Region, is really excellent. A 6.5 cycle route runs in the park, along the Augustovsky Canal. Arbours, information stands, protection, bridges and vacation spots are arranged here.

Special tracks for the movement of cyclists will appear soon near the Brest Fortress.

The first and the most well-known cycle track runs across the Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The national park offers

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4 cycle routes of different complexity and duration.

During recent years, Belarus has seen a growing popularity in Nordic walking. Excess weight, oedemas, fighting back to form — all these problems are quickly and effectively solved by walking with poles. The poles strengthen loading, accelerate metabolism and therefore increases the burning of calories by up to 46 percent, compared to usual walking, scientists say.

The first pole walking school was created in Belarus by Alexander Mekh.

Alexander received a certificate from the International Nordic Walking Federation (this sport also is also widespread in Europe) in St Petersburg.

“More than 200 people applied to me. I gave lessons to amateurs, trained future trainers and also sold poles. In this time, I have prepared 11 instructors; five of whom work in Belarusian clinics. Walking with poles can supplement recreation in farming-estates. It can be perfectly combined with excursions and tours of Belarus. Besides, this

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sport is more actively used by dieticians, cardiologists and fitness trainers. It is even possible to practise foreign languages during walking with the teacher or native speaker,” he notes.

However, swimming has almost no competitors. In 1927, Gomel hosted the first Belarus Swimming Championship.

Nine years later, the first closed swimming pool was constructed in Minsk. In 1972, Minsk resident Natalia Yershova became the USSR backstroke champion, having performed to the qualifying standard of the master of sports of the international class, and was included in the USSR national team for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Though she did not manage to appear on the podium, she became the first Belarusian swimmer to perform at the Olympic Games.

At the beginning of 1990 a new star of this sport, Yelena Rudkovskaya, appeared in Belarus. She started swimming when she was 10 years old and, by the age of 14, became the winner of the USSR youth competition. In 1991, when she was 18, she became the European triple cham-

pion and one year later at the Barcelona Olympics won gold for the 100 metres breaststroke and also took bronze in the combined 4х100 metre relay race.

During recent years, the main swimming star is Alexandra Gerasimenya, who is also called the ‘goldfish’. She won two silver medals at the London Olympics, and is also a double world champion. The popularity of Alexandra is huge. Following her, many Belarusians have rushed into swimming pools.

Now, Belarus has 278 open swimming pools and 722 mini-pools in preschool institutions. The Belarusian Sports Federation developed plans according to which pools will be constructed in all regions of the country to make swimming exercises available to all citizens.

Belarus holds dozens of swimming competitions for both professionals and for amateurs. The most famous swimming centre is the Palace of Aquatic Sports in Minsk. Brest’s Palace of Aquatic Sports, with its 4 pools, is also well known.

By Viktar Korbut

2014 беларусь.belarus

Learnt to own cost Known art workers tell about how they lead a healthy lifestyle Yugasya Kolyada (writer): ‘Pie, ketchup, mayonnaise and sausages are forbidden’

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eauty requires sacrifice. Even when you are 33, a beautiful figure and good posture cannot be if you do nothing; it is a result of work. It is necessary to attend a gym three times a week and a constant limitation of food as a norm. Pies, ketchup, mayonnaise and sausages are forbidden words in my lexicon. One does not need to go anywhere to gain health: it is necessary to force oneself to exercise every day, to be in the open air, not to eat much and to get enough sleep.

Igor Chernyavsky (Head of the Department on Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture): ‘I prefer physical activity in the village’

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love to ski and cycle, and also spend time in the swimming pool. I prefer physical activity in village during the summer — the swimming pool, if possible, once a week. I travel much, especially to my native Myadel District. After all, it is too a healthy way of life!

беларусь.belarus 2014

Mikhail Bychenok (television producer): ‘When I have free time in the evening, I go for a cycle ride’

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Dmitry Kokhno (showman): ‘A good sleep. Vitamins in the morning’

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constantly go in for sports. I cannot live a week without training.

I like team sports, or single sports.

It is beach volleyball. It is billiards.

It is kite-surfing. A regime is needed for sports. Alcohol — not more than once a week; a good sleep and vitamins in the morning. I cannot imagine how people live without sports.

have snowboarded for 10 years. Every winter I go to the Alps. Snowboarding is a sport which develops all groups of muscles, reaction and the main thing — endurance. I am also fond of free riding (snowboarding on wild slopes).

Belarus has a good training water skiing base.

For me, it is a new kind of sport, and I recommend it to those who have never stood on a water ski! In the summer, I try to eat more vegetables, berries and fruits. In general, I am not a meat fan and I can simply eat only vegetable food. When I have free time from work in the evening, I go for a cycle ride. Apart from the physical activity, I receive an aesthetic pleasure from it.

I do not cease to be surprised how Minsk changes for the better! I recommend to all to try finding time for doing sports — not only for health, but also self-discipline!

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Health with the Sign of Quality

Artem Akhpash (radio and TV anchorperson): ‘It is possible to see me at various stadiums near Minsk Kuntsevshchina’

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Valeria Klitsounova (Chair of the Country Escape; the Association for Rural and Ecotourism in Belarus): ‘I swim in the river, do simple gymnastics and walk barefoot’

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y work is connected with tourism, and I travel across all the continents a lot. For me, it is both work and rest. But I have a real rest only at home, at my country cottage in Dudutki. Only here do I reach harmony with the world around me and I receive a supply of energy. Every morning, I swim in the river, I do simple gymnastics and I walk barefoot in the dew. In general, I prefer walking. Another important factor for a good state of health is food. There is even such a saying: ‘You are what you eat’. I prefer ecologically pure products, which are grown by small manufacturers — villagers or farmers. I personally know the people from whom I buy something. Big supermarkets, obviously, are not my format. I am supporter of the Slowfood (slow meal) movement.

It means that I am for traditional dishes, pure products grown in the place where I live, though it is difficult to hold the shape. A meal in village is very tasty, and no one feast can do ‘without compulsion’

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s I remember, sport has always been in my life. Most of all I am interested in various martial arts. In my childhood it was Greco-Roman wrestling.

When I was 6 years old, I had a busy schedule every day: in the morning, school, after dinner, musical school and in the evening — training. I did my homework late. Then films starring a young Jean-Claude Van Damme started to appear on screens and Muay Thai or Thai boxing appeared in my life. When I was 13 years old, I joined a section and since then I’ve gone to training 3-4 times a week, sessions and competitions.

For 5 years I twice became silver prize-winner at the Belarus Thai Boxing Championship. Studying at the University of Culture, I opened the Minsk branch of the Brazilian school of capoeira — FICAG — in which I was training for two years. Now I do Muay Thai in the Patriot club under the direction of the legendary sportsman and trainer, Dmitry Pesetsky. I train only for myself, but together with professional fighters. If I have free 1-2 hours in the evening, I do cross-fit training in the open air. So it is possible to see me at various stadiums near Minsk Kuntsevshchina. One

more main aspect of a healthy way of life is food! My wife helps me with that. Not so long ago, she worked as adviser on healthy food. Our day begins with a special cocktail — it consists of 2 bananas, a pack of 4-5 percent fat cottage cheese (no more) and a little milk of 1-2 percent fat, whipped in a blender; and a tasty and useful breakfast is ready. For dinner we prefer vegetables with meat — it is more often chicken breast (without the skin). It can be salads, like Caesar salad with various seasoning. No mayonnaise — only seasoning based on olive oil. Steamed or grilled vegetables.

We eat brown rice, buckwheat and sometimes pearl barley. For supper; in the summer we prefer light fruit salads dressed with natural yoghurt. In general we try to avoid ‘food garbage’ — ketchup, mayonnaise, chips, Coca-Cola (and other carbonated drinks), diluted juice.

Before out food intake (5-10 minutes before) we drink a glass of pure potable water.

2014 беларусь.belarus

Adam Globus (writer): ‘I eat oatmeal porridge for breakfast’

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very day, in any weather, I go for a jog in the park, near the opera house. I refused wine and tobacco a long ago. It was more difficult to refuse a wine-glass than a cigarette, but I managed! I drink my coffee and tea without sugar. For breakfast I eat oatmeal porridge. I travel around Minsk on foot. Well, I have almost forgotten...

I like to exercise with hula hoop.

Olga Sakharova (TV anchor): ‘Day off? Go to travel!’

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exercise a lot. I cannot deprive myself of food as it is one of the relax pleasures in my life. I like to cook, I like tasty food, I like beautiful table appointments and huge company at the table. Now is an ideal time for barbecues, so everything is on fire: from fish to bread and cheese!

Ales Susha (Deputy Director of National Library): ‘It’s vital to be an optimist’

My sport is my children. We do not sit in one place in general! Day off?

We travel! We go both abroad, and with pleasure to quiet places in Belarus: The woods or the river and fire is an excellent supply of energy, beauty and health! If I need rest the family knows. It is enough to simply leave mum for one day at home and not to touch, not to call and not to write. Health is movement plus 8 hours of sleep!

Yekaterina Zabenko (TV anchor): ‘I press 50kgs and I squat with 60!’

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constantly go in for sports. I have have understood long ago and tried them all: from dance, fitness have decided for myself that sport and tennis to power lifting; and I is not healthy, despite the fact that, chose the latter — 3 times a week. for many years of my childhood and My trainer, a master of sports on youth, I professionally went in for power lifting, Pavel Maslovsky, sports: 5-7 days a week for 3-5 hours. quite seriously hopes to perToday, I understand that too much is resuade me to participate in comally not good. Much more important is a petitions. The combination of healthy way of life. Better to say, to look fit, cardio and muscle-strengthit is not necessary to do sit-ups, to do exotic ening exercises gives the diets or to do liposuction, but to eat less, eat necessary result — relief. I better and at the right time. In general, I am try to eat correctly — long ago I forgot the taste of rolls, an optimist and I like life. Maybe, therefore life pies, mayonnaise and pork. I eat basically chicken with vegetables, or shrimps. I press 50kgs and I squat with 60! likes me. In generIt is the weight of my body. It is difficult to believe it. After al, I do not remember that I have ever all, in life I am a rather delicate girl without any sign of muscles. been ill.

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Health with the Sign of Quality

New appearance

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Brest has been recently named Belarus’ sporting capital — too pompous? Probably, but residents from other cities won’t agree. Minskers will wave their hands thinking that regional residents are too arrogant, yet Brest citizens will remain unchanged in their opinion.

ttraction towards physical culture and sports in Belarus is a top priority of state social policy. However, the formation of a healthy lifestyle isn’t only skating, cycling and skiing.

This also encompasses cultural events and highly-developed medicines. However, first things first.

Olympic athletes are an example for everyone At present, the Brest Region boasts all conditions for athletes, able to worthily represent Belarus at international competitions and Olympic Games, as well as for all those who are too bored to

just sit on the sofa in the evening or write comments on social networks.

The Brest Region has created Belarus’ first Olympic rowing champion — Sergey Makarenko. The Olympic movement originated and developed in the region as an indispensable part of mass sport.

Archives have preserved documents testifying that the first physical societies appeared in Brest back in the 1890s. These were small circles and groups at education establishments. They were engaged in swimming, rowing, cycling and skating in winter. In 1893, a branch opened in the city of the Russian Society of Tourist Cyclists, and a group of enthusiasts made an unprecedented (in those times) race — as long as 136 ‘versts’ [an obsolete Russian unit of measurement, equal to 1.0668km] — covering Brest-

Valentina Kozlovich

Brest Rowing Canal

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Kobrin-Verkholesie-Velikorita-Brest route. By the early 20th century, physical culture and sport ‘captured’ the garrison of the Brest Fortress. Officers organized a group of ‘gymnastic exercises’, focusing primarily on exercises with weights, running, jumping and shooting. Sport first became a significant event of public life in the 1920s, when Brest turned into the centre of the Polesie Voivodeship of Poland. During this period, here, as well as in Pinsk and other cities and locations, numerous sport teams and sections appeared, and even mass sport unions and organisations. For example, one of these was the sport and education organisation Sokol (Falcon), whose major motto were the famous words ‘A sound mind in a sound body’.

The Brest Region counts its sport achievements from 1928 when Brest’s, Nikolay Dranko performed as part of the Polish cycling team at the 9th Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

Today, the Olympic Glory of the Brest Region boasts 21 awards — 4 gold, 5 silver and 12 bronze medals. Our Olympic champions include Sergey Makarenko (kayak and canoe rowing at Rome in 1960); Leonid Taranenko (weightlifting in Moscow in 1980); and Yulia Nesterenko (athletics at Athens in 2004).

In the last decade, over 150 contemporary sport sites have appeared in the region. Each year, the Brest Region hosts 2014 беларусь.belarus

2014 Bike Ride became a distinctive event in the regional centre

around 500 sporting events and such support can’t but yield fruit. In 2013, Brest boxers, weightlifters, sambo wrestlers, fencers, acrobats, track-and-field athletes, riflemen and representatives of other sports brought 58 medals from various competitions, including international, of which ten awards were gold medals. The Brest Region has also achieved team victory in the complex national competition — Olympic Days of Youth.

A sound mind in a sound body You may say that big sport and a healthy lifestyle are two different life substances. Yes, I can agree. Big sport is not only successes and victories but also injuries, disappointment and tears.

However, what if we look from other side? Runner, Yulia Nesterenko, rowers, Yulia Bichik and Natalia Gelakh, gymnast Lyubov Cherkashina and other successful athletes are an example for everyone. беларусь.belarus 2014

Brest youngsters roller-skate in summer evenings at the Rowing Canal and ski there in winter. Moreover, cycling is gaining popularity in Brest, and in July, the city hosted the first international cycling festival: Brest-995 Years.

The event brought together 1,350 participants (representing cycling clubs from Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and even citizens from Switzerland and Australia). The youngest entrant of the cycling festival was just 4 years old, while the oldest was 76. The festival marked the 20th anniversary of the trip from Belarusian Brest to the French city of Brest. Two decades ago, on July 28th, 1994, a group of 8 Brest enthusiasts, headed by a teacher of physics at the Brest Technical University, Anatoly Gladyshchuk, started from the city over the River Bug. The athletes covered 3,342 km and nobody has risked repeating this unique trip so far.

However, this is not the most important thing. Mr. Gladyshchuk is confident

that they promoted the popularity of cycling. “In the near future, the city over the River Bug will become known by its international cycling marathon. Look, how many people currently use bicycles,” he said.

Nevertheless, no fewer skate on yard skating rings in winter. Even in summer many don’t hide their skates, since ice arenas are built in Brest, as well as in Pruzhany, Bereza, Kobrin, Ivatsevichi and Baranovichi.

Local residents note that previously, cars were standing at parking places near cafes, while now the same situation is observed near ice arenas in the evening, where there’s barely room to move, as too many people wish to receive their dose of adrenaline, an energy boost or to meet with their dear friends.

The re-evaluation of values is apparent.

It’s better to visit an ice palace (a swimming pool, take part in beach rugby or roller-skate) than to drink beer, because it’s fashionable to be healthy.

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It becomes fashionable to be healthy

Medical tourism.

Why not?

The thirst for a healthy lifestyle stimulates the development of medicine.

Chief Doctor at the Brest Regional Sport Medicine Centre, Sergey Yevdolyuk, is confident that Brest has every chance to become an attractive centre of medical tourism in the border area.

Visits from abroad to local dentists have already become popular, especially among our fellow countrymen, who live overseas: in the USA and Canada. Foreigners are also keen on our spas, and not only are Russians among such tourists. For example, Poles also often recuperate in the Brest Region, being attracted by price and the diversity of recuperation services, alongside good dietary nutrition.

Mr. Yevdolyuk suggests moving forward and earning money on diagnostics of tourists. A weighty pro argument is our lower prices, with the availability of unique medical equipment and international standards in diagnostics and treatment. Before sending a group along the cycling route or even for a long sightseeing walk, a tourist firm may invite guests to examine the opportunities of their cardio-vascular system.

Once can also drop into a dispensary after the excursion; it offers a unique system of restoring the functions of human body. What’s stopping a tourist bus, leaving abroad for vacation, to stop for express-tests? In Brest they can be given

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Formation of healthy lifestyle is not only skates, bike or skis.

There are also culture events and highly developed medicine

a clinic card in line with all international standards, yet for lower price. Meanwhile, the Brest Dispensary is far from the only medical institution with solid equipment. The programme of health sphere modernisation is being implemented countrywide, with high-tech specialised scientific and practical centres appearing. Even district hospitals have been considerably renovated. Probably, we haven’t looked on this process as a promising and commercial project yet.

However, we shouldn’t exclude that huge investments in healthcare can bring in tangible economic benefits.

Before eating, learn how to mow Healthy lifestyle also presupposes various creative contests and festivals, which are gaining in popularity. Almost every month, the Brest Region hosts a cultural event. The Ruzhanskaya Brama (Ryzhany Gates) and Kamenetskaya Vezha are held

in June while Brest’s birthday is celebrated in July. August is known for its Motol Delicates and Sporovo Haymaking festivals.

Meanwhile, the Day of the Belarusian Written Language is traditionally held in September, alongside the Belaya Vezha Theatre Festival and Promoting Healthy Lifestyle exhibition-trade fair.

I visit many places: both in the call of duty and in the voice of the soul. I am surprised and filled with admiration. My favourite festivals are the Motol Delicacies food forum and Sporovsky Hayfields ecological competitions. The Belarus Championship in Hand Haying — Sporovsky Hayfields — is held in the Sporovsky Republican Reserve (in the Bereza District). A red-hot sun beats down mercilessly and your legs sink in squishing water. It’s difficult to walk in gumboots and sedge, bulrushes and small shrubs trip you up over and over again. In order to achieve victory in team competitions, a pair of mowers must mow a 3m wide and 100m long section most quickly and qualitatively.

The Director of Sporovsky Reserve, Vadim Protasevich, is confident that the championship adds health and mood while also revealing the problems of lowlands. “Mowing promotes the preservation of swamps, as well as plants and animals, many of whom are registered in the Red Book,” he explained.

While mowing is practiced on one bank of the River Yaselda, tasty and healthy food is cooked on the other, in the Ivanovo District’s Motol village. The festival is also organised in August, disclosing the cuisine of our ancestors and folk crafts. Over several years, Motol has become a centre of attraction of people who appreciate traditions and love their country.

If we think about it, all cultural events provide a definite orientation for healthy lifestyle, therefore look at the calendar and choose the event that will fit your soul and taste. Visit the Brest Region, where many aspire to live their long life.

By Valentina Kozlovich

2014 беларусь.belarus

 Daring uprise and centenary traditions Students of the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank (BSPU) hoisted a flag of the university on the top of Elbrus

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he summer roads of students’ Belarusian summer lie far beyond the country. Good traditions of student labour detachment movements are being actively revived today as fans of active kinds of tourism and mountain climbing go on interesting journeys. According to the Rector of BSPU, Professor Alexander Zhuk, students of the university hoisted the university’s flag on the top of Elbrus in the middle of July.

The participants of the students’ Gorizont (horizon) tourist club began their mountain trip to the Caucasus by ascending the highest mountain of Europe on June, 27th and finishing on July, 16th. “The trip gave rise to an anniversary marathon ‘Centenary traditions — modern technologies’ which is held

Flag of BSPU on the top of Elbrus

беларусь.belarus 2014

on occasion of the 100th anniversary of BSPU,” the Rector said. As he explained, the preparation for the expedition started six months ago.

Participants of the club developed a detailed route, studied its features and during summer held training on the development of the necessary skills of movement in mountain terrain.

The route lay across the Syltran (height 3,435) and Irikchat (3,667) passes. Then, the participants of the trip ascended up to Achkeryakolsky lava flow and from there made their ascension of the highest place of mountain, a height of 5,642 metres.

Alexander Zhuk proudly noted that the flag of BSPU, waving at the top of Elbrus, symbolised the high achievements of the university in the fields of physical training, sports, science and education.

It is necessary to add that the tourist club of BSPU was formed on November, 20th, 1966 and is the oldest operating tourist club in Belarus. Dozens of students which lead a healthy way of life, annually go on the organised pedestrian, mountain, water, ski or bicycle trips.

 Pathway through the swamp In the Miory District, an unusual ecological route has been opened.

Its uniqueness lies in the fact that guides will lead tourists through a swamp. The ecological path goes through the territory of the Yelnya landscape reserve — the biggest in our country, a high moor, over 200 square kilometres in area, which is at least 9 thousand years old!

I

t is the oldest natural object in our country where unique plants, endangered rare animal and bird species have been kept up to now. One can find here fascinating landscapes that have been difficult to access earlier. Now, a wooden deck will lead lovers of nature to the most interesting places. Workers of the reserve will give binoculars and special shoes for the negotiation of difficult places and will explain about the life of Yelnya and its inhabitants.

The wooden path, made under an EU/UNDP project and by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, runs for one and a half kilometres. There are also information stands and three sky decks dotted along this intriguing new trail.

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Health with the Sign of Quality

Proposals for any taste We say ‘summer’ — we mean ‘health’.

Maybe, we can’t invent a better time to gain strength. It can be made in Belarus, without leaving the borders of the native region.

S

ome years ago, the Palace and Park Ensemble of Gomel set up the unusual Movement is Life project. The organisers proposed retirees partake of regular morning exercises.

The Central City Park has become the place where senior citizens meet. It’s the most picturesque corner of Gomel.

There are old trees, well-groomed avenues and the River Sozh. Frankly, it’s the most successful place to get a real energy boost for the whole day. Gymnastics in the open air to music — everything is very like the Chinese health-giving wushu. But the Belarusian variant is more rhythmic and expressive.

Tamara Nevedomskaya, instructor of morning gymnastics and Head of the Babulki dance group, explained to me, why such a project is vital for the aged.

“Unfortunately, retirees generally devote their time to TV sets and meeting on sofas in their houses, and a lot of them spend a cheerful start to the day alone, and without necessary physical activity.

So we have proposed to change the usual order of things. In other words, get them to join us and to do exercises.”

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The park administrators have given more than a kilometre of the quay for the popular gymnastics. People come from various corners of the city. It’s both healthy to have the company, and also safer under the tactful guidance of specialists. The sets of exercises have been worked out, taking into account the age and physical ailments, which people face over the years.

However, among the people, who joined the lively process, and become regular participants of the mass morning gymnastics, many had formerly been leading an active way of life. Now they are ready to extend the new experience themselves. For example, Ivan Muzychkin, a participant of the Great Patriotic War, is 82 and daily walks 12 kilometres. He is sure that walking strengthens the body. And when he has learned about the street gymnastics, he made a decision. “It’s necessary to organise such training in our micro-district also. The more platforms that exist, the better it will be for retirees. The street healthy-giving gymnastics has undeniable pluses — it’s low-cost and mass, but efficient. Only an instructor and a platform are needed; and, he adds, “the desire to move.”

Strength on the asphalt Nu m e r o u s c h i l d r e n’s s p o r t s grounds and recreation areas also help to support summer’s mood and joy of movements in the city. In Gomel, I like the sports zone at the State Fr. Skorina University. There is a tenniscourt and a street bicycle rental centre.

There are always a lot of people here in the evening, when it’s not hot. They come with friends and families. Some of them come to play ball, other to spin the pedals. If there is time, people go to the Palace of Water Sports, where even weak swimming skills can be honed to reasonable professionalism; or to the Ice Palace, where the outside heat doesn’t hinder the work of a covered ice rink. With your hired ice skates and a season ticket in your hand, you are already in a winter environment.

And you can go to the river. Beaches of the city are opened free for all people. The opportunity to lie on sand, to plunge into cool water — it’s usual set of services of city ‘resorts’. But every point of beach rest has certainly its features.

Somewhere there are constantly working entertainment playgrounds. Somewhere there are water side-shows and 2014 беларусь.belarus

Belta

walks along the river. And somewhere you can learn diving and nuts and bolts of yoga outside. Industry of city rest is also being developed. You should only have a wish to join.

With knowledge of the body It should seem that Gomel is not a little city with usual noisy roads, crowded streets. How can internal reserves be shaken with the help of the newest medical healthy-giving technologies?

But there is an answer. There are a lot of sanatoriums and sleep-away camps in the city and its suburbs.

Situated on the outskirts of the smothered in green regional centre, at the River Sozh, the sanatorium of the Gomel’s Department of the Belarusian Railway is a discovery for a city-dweller in hot summer days. On the one hand, there are peace, regularity and silence.

On the other hand, there are clear medical directions: treatment of illnesses of circulation of the blood, of respiratory organs, of digestion, of endocrine, muscular-skeletal, nervous and gynaecological systems. Thanks to highqualified experts and modern medicaldiagnostic basis, they can reach perfect беларусь.belarus 2014

results of treatment of a big number of pathologies here.

The complex of the sanatorium consists of up-to-date multi-story buildings with stylish interiors and comfortable rooms. A rich infrastructure of the health resort is aimed at healthy eventful rest for people of any age. On the territory of the sanatorium there are mineral springs, sodium chloride waters, which have different mineralization, and it allows using them both for balneological purposes and in the drinking therapy. In the therapeutic mud-paths procedures with using of silt therapeutic muds are offered. Various types of baths, of hydromassage, underwater spine traction, pool with mineral water, etc.

Extensive cultural and entertainment programme is added to the healthy-giving part. And there are local parties, concerts of pop stars, cinema shows and, certainly, the most interesting excursions to sights of the Gomel Region and Belarus. In general, you won’t be bored. It’s no time to be bored. By day there are healthy-giving procedures, in the evening — walks and heart-to-heart conversations. In the sanatorium they assure: ‘After rest by us you will be as new’.

For lovers of domestic exotics From year to year the ‘card’ of opportunities of health improvement is changed. New features are added to it.

Sometimes they are rather unusual.

By Mikhailovsk settlement near Gomel, there is, for example, a mysterious place with ideally round outlines. It is especially notably from bird’s eye panorama or through Google Earth. Regular-shaped area with a diameter of about two kilometres represents a hollow with a lake in the middle. There are various versions of origin of the unusual relief. For example, there are rumours about fall of meteorite here. In reality, the place has been created by human hands. The round hollow has been made artificially. Around an embankment has been panned out, which serves as a dam, and the whole hollow has been filled with water. So the present owners tell about origin of the Mikhailovsk’s reservoir. They are creating an agricultural farmstead with full set of services for healthy rest here.

By the way, agricultural farmsteads (there are about 500 farmsteads in the Gomel Region) are one of the best variants of spending of weekends.

By Violetta Dralyuk

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Health with the Sign of Quality

Running, is life itself

t

ells us about his main hobby which became his life business Sergey, when I look at runners, I think that you run in any weather — both in heat and in cold.

It is true. Many people run in the winter. At that time of the year, is even more pleasant: pure air, snow-covered paths, car exhaust gases are felt less.

While in the summer, we try to run early in the morning or late in the evening.

In hot weather, running duration decreases, and runners spend no more than an hour. By the way, a slow run in the evening, before sleeping, relaxes and helps you to fall asleep faster.

It seems that you run every waking moment?

Exactly. For me and my friends, running is a way of life, our main hobby. A person, who starts to actively run

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Calm jogging before sleep, and dreams about a Minsk marathon.

Sergey Koval, the founder of the Victoria running club. during their free time, plans their day taking their training into account. The outlook of the runner changes, they start to eat correctly and control their health. Overcoming new distances, the runner moves forward on the rungs of health and sets before new purposes.

I won my first serious distance, when I studied at school. We lived in Gorki, in the Mogilev Region. I remember that I really wanted to test myself and to run 20 kilometres. ‘Will I be able to do that?’ I thought. I ran and was not even tired, while my relatives were very excited. I usually spent no more than an hour on training, but at that time, I was not home for long.

The next day, all of the school knew about my achievement. As a result, I ‘reached’ the rank of Master of Sports of international class in running at 100 kilometres. I was the first Belarusian to participate in the World Championship. Thus, I have never been a pro-

fessional runner and combined doing sports with the basic work.

The Victoria running club was your idea and is known, not only here in Belarus, but also abroad.

It happened in 2006, originating in the Minsk sports and the Oktyabrsky health centre. But it all began much earlier. In 1980, a wave of the creation of running clubs was spreading through the USSR. Having gained experience from our colleagues, my friends and I organised our own club on the basis of the Minskstroimaterialy Production Association, and called it Victoria. In due course I changed work place and decided to take running more seriously, and the club ended. But 8 years ago, together with my wife, we decided to revive it. We organised our own track, premises and we also worked on advertising.

People come to us from all over the city! We have over 100 Minsk residents.

Many members live in regions and 2014 беларусь.belarus

even abroad. For example, Marina Novik comes from Belarus, but married a Norwegian and moved to Scandinavia.

She consulted our specialists concerning training and subsequently organised her own marathon in Norway, later becoming the absolute winner of the Road of Life run in St. Petersburg.

Why do people join your club?

They want to find like-minded people and to go together to competitions.

Maybe someone wants to lose weight.

For such people we develop a special programme and create a training regime. Everyone has their own marathon.

For someone it is 5 kilometres, while for another 100. But if someone comes to us unprepared, and wants to immediately run a serious distance, it is necessary to explain that one should train for several years. Our club has its own veteran runners — even those who are over 80 years old. For some of them, it is difficult to come to training. For such runners, we prepare a sparing programme of competitions (3 kilometres) and we exclude the competitive principle. On finishing all receive participation awards. The club

does not have a children’s group, but if people come to us with the whole family, we welcome them.

How much does membership of your club cost?

Nothing. We are a non-commercial organisation. We give a gym for training, a running track and consultations of trainers. We organise joint tea parties for all the runners. We would like to exclude the exploitative relation to a club. If you are a skilled runner, then run for us at competitions; bring points into Victoria’s money box. Members of the club have duties: someone photographs running, writes on a site, makes videos, and someone helps to judge and to prepare a track for competitions. Sponsors give us basic support. Earlier, we held about 10 events. Now, it’s twice less, but we try to organise everything as qualitatively and professionally as possible. Of course, we go abroad at the expense of own money, but because of the high cost for travelling, we try to go to the nearest countries.

Who from the participants of the club has reached the greatest heights?

The marathon-runner, Igor Dolbik, in the under 55 age category, is one of the best in the world and twice

took 2nd place in the World Championship among veterans. And the deaf-anddumb runner, Roman Asaevich, broke Belarus records and has run more than 500 marathons.

I remember, how during a trip to Stockholm, I was surprised to see people running on the streets of the capital, not only with dogs, but even with prams.

How do you think, is Belarus also a running nation?

I live in the Minsk micro-district of Sukharevo and I often see how many people in the morning, or in the evening, go running. However, many run one by one and do not come on mass races, as it is frequently happens in Europe or the USA. Probably, we still are not ready to it. But, as they say, there is time for everything. I have one cherished dream — to hold a real international marathon in Minsk, so that people from different countries could run along Pobediteley Avenue. What is interesting is that many runners write us letters, saying that they like our country, and they are ready to visit us and run a marathon distance.

And I believe that the day of the big international marathon will come.

By Taras Shchiry

Everyone is a winner in this competition

беларусь.belarus 2014

27

TOPIC Line of fortune 85-year-old Minsk pensioner, Ivan Vasilievich, undergos a cure without pills — by means of self-massage. He also helps others to keep in good shape.

I

f you are under forty, then you may not read this text. All the same, you will not be able to understand how it is to wake up in the morning with pain, to live with it each day and to wake up at night from pain. God forbid you to look at the world through a prism of pain! Still, there is so much pain in hospitals, care homes and simple apartments, rural houses closed by doors from the noisy vanity of young life.

Yes there is a time for everything — and for healthcare too. However, sometimes a person is lucky even at fifty years old, it seems to this person that he or she knows a secret of eternal ‘pain-free’ youth. Such people will never understand the vital logic of pensioner, Ivan Ignatenko, whom for almost quarter of the century, has successfully fought for health. But with whom does he fight? With his own laziness and with pains in various parts of his body. And if now Ivan Vasilievich says that nothing hurts, then it is not because he is lucky in his long and difficult life with a childhood burnt by war, with

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Ivan Zhdan ovich

Health with the Sign of Quality

orphanhood. Not without a reason people say: the war killed, and crippled, and broke the souls.

He perfectly remembers, how a doctor in the Railway hospital of Minsk said him a severe truth: ‘Ivan Vasilievich if you do not take care of yourself, your radiculitis will lead you to a wheelchair.

Or you will lose a foot: it will dry out, and nobody, except you, will help you’. And at that time, Ivan was only at the beginning of pensionable age. To shift the problems on doctors and relatives? No, this is not his vital principle! He is for that everyone bore their own cross, or if without pathos, not to lose heart, not to be a parasite, a whiner, a sponger...

However, to understand his credo of life, it is necessary to glance into the past.

Or, as it said, into the root of his generation and character to see how it was formed. We will start with that.

Ivan Vasilievich, were there men of spirit and strong people in your family? Where did your vital firmness come from?

My family tree, of course, is reliable.

Grandfather Luka was a strong man and died when he was 95 years old. He lived on Ukrainian Poltavshchina, in Krutki village. My father, Vasily Lukich, was very strong, worked as a digger for long time on road construction. He died when he was 88. Earlier, as it is known, there were no dump trucks, and earth and sand was carried on horses, manually loaded onto carts in open-cast mines. It is possible to consider a gift of destiny that our family in the 30s did not die out in Ukraine because of starvation. At that time, that trouble only slightly touched me — after all, I was born in 1928. I was two years old when we moved to Belarus: we escaped the starvation. And the Belarusian village Nesyata of the Klichev District of the Mogilev Region became home for us.

Father worked in those lands. The railway bridge across the river was broken there in the spring, therefore, a bypass road was built there. Father looked around and decided to stay. He wrote us a letter, and we, together with mum, Yefrosiniya Zakha2014 беларусь.belarus

rovna moved here. My sisters were born in Belarus, and then twin-brothers who did not survive. It is difficult to survive during wars and public cataclysms.

Did the family have time to grow roots in Belarus before the war?

Yes, though at first we lived in the home of other people. There was a collective farm. In due course, when machinery for construction of roads appeared, my father worked in the collective-farm office as he had four classes of education. Before the war we bought a house and lived there during the occupation. My father was not called to the front, but death was nearby. I remember how the Germans made a blockade, surrounded the village, it seems that it was in 1942. There was a guerrilla zone, the area was considered guerrillas’ territory. At night, we went into the forest, then came back. Once we came and the neighbour ran to us shouting: ‘Vasily, Germans surround the village!’ The potato vine was high, and father said we should go in it.

Nearby was a river and forest, so we lay down and crawled. We wanted to slip past. Only, as we crept out of the potatoes a German appeared and shouted: ‘Hände hoch!’ He took us and led to the school.

There were all the inhabitants. Men were placed in one of school buildings. We already knew that the fascists burned down villages together with people. Terrible! A German brought us, ordered to sit, and left us. We decided to mix up with the people: what will happen with all will happen also with us — one fate for all. We saw how the convoy searched for us, asked people about us, but did not find us. The officer came from the neighbouring village, Germans talked about something and then all men were taken out from the building. In brief, they frightened the people and then let them go, having told that it was necessary to help Germany to deliver up the guerrillas. In general, for almost one and a half years before liberation in 1944, there were no Germans in our place because of the guerrilla zone. Guerrillas destroyed two garrisons nearby, and established Soviet power there. беларусь.belarus 2014

Where were the garrisons?

At a distance of two kilometres from the railway station the fascists were driven out, then they were driven out from Klichev. It is located at a distance of 7 kilometres. The village, by the way, is near the Osipovichi-Mogilev railway, while the highway leads to Bobruisk. I remember a trouble which happened with the family on liberation day. People met the Soviet soldiers, the village was already liberated, and suddenly, Soviet aircraft with incendiary bullets hit the straw roof of the house. Probably, it was mistaken.

The house instantly caught fire, the flame blazed. We threw out of the window everything that we could save. During the

just imagine: we lived in a dugout, I was 16 years old, my sisters were 3 and 5 years old and father was at work almost the whole day. All the care was on me: I baked bread, and washed, and cooked, and worked in the kitchen garden. We had a neighbour and her husband died during the Winter War (Finnish war) and she lived alone. My father and she decided to live together. It became easier for us when my stepmother started to live with us. We started a home of our own. By the way, when there was that guerrilla zone, all living creatures in the village were eaten: cows, horses, pigs, sheep, geese, hens — there was nothing left. And it is true that people have to pay for everything in life, but the good thing

“About what and how to massage it is better to read in my son's, Nikolay Ignatenko's, book 'Self-Massage.

Unique Method for Improvement of Organism and Treatment of Chronic Diseases'. He, by the way, has done this for a long time and he describes perfectly my methods” war, valuables were hidden in the ground.

The walls were on fire, when my father, who wanted to get something, ran into the house. The ceiling fell directly before him. He managed to get out with his clothes caught fire. People threw water on him extinguished the flames, but his face got burned. He was taken to the hospital.

He was there, while men and guys were taken away to the front. Later, he was employed to work on repairing the railway.

So he worked there 18 hours a day — such was the labour front.

Was it also hard for the children?

Certainly, it was very difficult to survive at that time. We starved — that was one thing — but typhus was rife and rampant, and mum was ill. I was at school when she died. She was young, just 45 years old. And

was that we lived without the fascists!

Gradually life improved. I finished school with distinction in 1946 and I entered agricultural technical college to train as an agronomist in Maryina Gorka and then my childhood ended.

Where did you work and on what position?

In 1949, I was directed to the Rossony District of the then Polotsk Region, and six months later, I was taken to the army.

I served in the town of Pushkin — formerly Tsarskoye Selo — near Leningrad, I finished the school of sergeants, then there was retraining for junior reserve officers. I was offered to stay in the army, but I wanted to go home and in 1953 I was demobilised. At that time I got acquainted with my future wife, we are to-

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Health with the Sign of Quality

gether more than 60 years. She arrived to work at the local distillery. For a long time we travelled searching for a job. We were even in Kazakhstan, but the climate was not appropriate for us: I fainted from the heat, so it was necessary to return. I worked both at school, and in the Komsomol district committee, and as agronomist in the Slutsk District. And then the country needed chemists, and people with work experience were accepted on easy terms in the department of chemistry of the Belarusian State University.

And my wife and I became students at the beginning of the 60s. We already had a son, we lived in a hostel, and our Nikolay was with us. Then, in order to support the family, I changed for evening department and when I received my diploma, my wife and I appeared at the Integral production association in 1968. I worked as a senior master in a Transistor Plant, I was a secretary of the party organisation of the shop, I headed the trade-union committee, which was big — about one and a half thousand workers.

Ivan, it is clear that, during your life, you had both stresses and hard work.

And when did you feel that it is necessary to care for your health systematically?

The first cause was in the army. I was engaged in strengthening my body. I poured cold water on myself — directly from the tap — all over my back. The conditions were not good in the barracks, and possibly, I over-chilled my solar plexus. I remember that I couldn’t bend down or straighten. At that time, I did not know that self-massage can help with such trouble. When I was young my organism maintained its own balance, but in due course, illnesses started to appear.

Especially, I remember how I over-chilled my back when I was caught in heavy, cold rain. I was going from the village to Klichev. I got wet, and as a matter of fact, I had pains in my back since ‘87 or ‘88.

The pains reached a critical limit when my right foot started to lose sensitivity. I received a clinic voucher when I had an

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The main medicines are my hands

inflammation in the back. When I was there, I decided to warm up and fell from the pain. It was lumbago. A vertebral disc prolapse was the cause of the inflammation. My back was so tight that my toes grew dumb. I went to the hospital and the surgeon prescribed stretching of the spine in a hot bath — there exists such a method. And though at that time it helped me — my spine improved — the old surgeon said: “Ivan Vasilievich, if you do not take care of yourself then your radiculitis will lead you a wheelchair...” He said that I should improve my health!

That’s logical. As they say, ‘don’t make your cloak when it begins to rain’.

I agree! And it is also said — if youth knew what age would crave, it would both get and save. For that reason I share my experience with people — both ill patients and journalists come to me, in hope that someone will become interested in my methods, in order to simplify their life and that of other people. As for me, I have taken care of my health for more

than 25 years. Earlier, I ran every morning. I self-massage daily. In the winter, I ski. I started learning special literature — it is necessary to know where to move.

The foot gradually improved, as I now understand, the metabolism was broken in it and the muscles weakened. So I understood that I needed massage. Life forced me. More exactly, pain and the unwillingness to be an invalid forced me.

How do you usually massage yourself?

Well, it is better to read about this in my son’s, Nikolay Ignatenko’s, book ‘Self-Massage. Unique Method for Improvement of Organism and Treatment of Chronic Diseases’. He, by the way, has done this for a long time and he describes perfectly my methods. The book was issued by one of the Moscow publishing houses in 2011. In brief, I massage my whole body daily: I begin from top of head and finish with my toes. I carefully massage all parts. Thanks to this method I have managed to cure severe illness, bursitis, inflammation of tendons. It began from a displacement of the right hand. By the way, bursitis often happens to typists, seamstresses and milkmaids, where there is monotonous work with the hands.

How did you manage to treat bursitis?

It was long and persistent treatment, overcoming the pain. When you begin to 2014 беларусь.belarus

massage, it is necessary not to stroke the skin, but to massage the muscles as deep as possible in order to perfectly soften them.

Carefully, several times, 2-3 approaches a day, each — three-five minutes. In general, I now knead all my joints, especially knees, elbows and finger joints: to ensure that there is good blood flow. It happens, that a knee pains. But why? People have many active points — special original sensors — and where there is an inflammatory process, there is, in that area, some pain. It is necessary to massage lightly at first, and then more and more actively.

And after 10-15 minutes of massage the pain usually disappears. The sensitivity of the toes on my foot, I restored without medicines and special procedures. Only self-massage. The main medicines I take are my hands. I also massage my feet as a preventive measure.

Nikolay Ignatenko, Ivan Vasilievich’s son, is present at our conversation.

He adds: I have noticed many times that my father never sits doing nothing — all the time he massages something; on the train, on the bus, watching TV, even when he is waiting in the kitchen for the kettle to boil. It is possible to envy his purposefulness. And his big reward — the absence of pain in his body at such an age — is quite deserved. I know, how people who lost heart, or entrusted their health to doctors, suffer. But after all, a doctor cannot be around all day, and anaesthesia will not help. It is necessary to take care of oneself.

Ivan Vasilievich, with what other diseases did you manage to cope with your own forces?

I had so-called ‘zero acidity’. I fought with it by means of herbal infusions, concoctions — I took recipes from books.

And now, I also use different herbs and flowers for improving my health. In the spring I walk, and dandelions are all around. I take five flowers, chew and swallow. It is very useful and effective for the stomach. When I am in the summer беларусь.belarus 2014

cottage, I add dandelions in salads during the all summer. It tastes bitter, but the advantage is great. Parkinson’s disease appeared over the course of time — a tremor in the right hand. In general my right side is the problem, though I have ‘restored’ it, it constantly requires care and attention from me. When I stop, illnesses appear.

So, I was prescribed medicines and I began to take them. My head was feeble, especially in the morning. I read that there were a lot of contraindications, including complication with the stomach and liver.

What is the point of poisoning oneself?

The doctor prescribed me other tablets — expensive ones, almost on one and a half dollars for one piece. It is costly! Moreover, they cripple me: I started to feel my liver. It was necessary to stop taking them as a ringing also appeared in the head. I began studying the literature. Clever people recommend how to massage the head.

In particular, Vladimir Bekhterev, the well-known neuro-pathologist, gave such recommendations. It is especially beneficial to massage the temples and then each dimple on the skull. Not to tear up, but to put fingers perpendicularly. So now I fight Parkinson’s disease...

You mentioned a summer cottage.

How do you think — does it help with your health?

It is possible to say so: It is quite a good trainer, but it is necessary not to be lazy to use it. If you simply lie on the grass your health will not improve. It is necessary to be as active as possible. Anna Minovna and I have a summer cottage located 80 kilometres from Minsk and four and a half kilometres to the train.

We go on foot from Negoreloye station.

They say that native walls warm better.

My son helped to transport the house from Nesyata, it was erected after war and nobody lived in it. My father died and my sisters moved into separate areas. Olga, who lived in Ishim, in the Tyumen region, died. Tanya is in Lisichansk, which is, today, the well-known Lugansk District of Ukraine. I worry for her...

Mr Vasilievich, what main rule would you share for those who, having read conversation with you, will decide to take care of their own health?

The main thing is not to be lazy. People shouldn’t spare the body! People with ‘sedentary’ work have the neck to become numb. From lack of movement, their blood badly circulates and there develops haemostasia, in due course there appear pains. Muscles are as twisted rubber. It means, it is time to get down to business.

Muscles should be soft and easily yield to massage. Then blood goes well, the metabolism is proceeding, and nervous impulses are correct. All goes as it should.

It is massage which helps to improve the organism which has problem zones.

Internal reserves mobilise. Why is massage good? At any time and in any place people can perform it. In the evening, in the afternoon, at night. If there is time, then massage the place where you have unpleasant sensations. No chemical substances will get into your body during massage; it will not damage neighbouring organs as can happen with medicines. By swallowing chemical substances, for example, for anaesthesia, we place our stomach at risk, as well as kidneys and liver. With self-massage, everything depends only on ourselves. Be persistent, overcome that laziness, the pain will abate, and the mood will be good. The most important thing — is to overcome laziness. It is the enemy of humans. It is necessary to learn to force oneself, to fight for your own health, then we will be ill less often. In general, I do not take any medicines — only perform a full body self-massage, twice a day; once in the morning, and once in the evening. It is a panacea from many chronic illnesses and simultaneously aids in prevention from disease in the future. Sometimes, when I help people, they, having rid themselves of the pain, praise me, telling me that I am a wizard! And I tell them that I am no fakir or wizard — I am simply a self-masseur.

That’s why I do not have pain in my body.

By Ivan Zhdanovich

31

GOOD IMPRESSION

”

”

Minsk foot view

Liu Hanming:

…after all, the country is amazing, why would I want to leave it?

Liu Hanming arrived in Minsk from Wuhan, the most densely populated city of central China. The 38 year old citizen of the People’s Republic of China has lived in the Belarusian capital for about one year.

H

e graduated from the Harbin Engineering University and is a qualified expert in the ship-building field. He arrived in Belarus as a representative of the Chinese company which concluded a contract with the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant.

What did you know about Belarus before moving here?

By the time I had moved to Belarus, I knew a lot about it. This country was not a wonder for me, as I had become acquainted with it over a number of years, during business trips. Before that, I had worked in Russia. Therefore I had no problems with the language.

I started learning Russian at school.

When I was offered a job in Belarus,

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The number of those for whom Belarus becomes their second home increases every year, with around 15 thousand people moving to the country in 2013 I quickly agreed. I liked Belarus. Of course, it was hard to leave my relatives, but, thanks to the Internet, I can see and talk to them every day.

And what was the most difficult thing to get used in Belarus?

There are a lot of people in China, and when I arrived in Minsk, I felt, at first, some emptiness in the city. But

with it I had a feeling of freedom. Now I am so used to Belarusian space, that when I come home I feel cooped up.

And it was also necessary to get used to another culture. We have eastern traditions, while yours are European and western. But there is nothing to which people cannot get used! I would also like to say that earlier, when I came here on business trips about ten years ago, there were very big distinctions in our cultures. While for the last five years the People’s Republics of China has greatly changed, it has modernised and become more western in terms of culture. And now I notice not distinctions, but similarities between the two countries.

And what do you like most of all in Minsk, Belarus, Belarusians?

The first thing that my compatriots say to me when they visit here is ‘How 2014 беларусь.belarus

GOOD IMPRESSION

spacious it is!’ I’ve already said that it is unusual for Chinese to see wide avenues, a lot of unbuilt territory and the small numbers of people even during rush hour. You should see the streets of China at this time!

It is necessary to point out nature.

It is amazing! Many trees and colours in the city. And the air is unbelievable.

In China, there are factories practically everywhere, and people have already forgotten about pure and light air. In my homeland, greenery within the city boundaries is a wonder.

Belarusians, as a nation, create only positive feelings in me. All are very sympathetic and kind. I admire your love of cleanliness and order! The city is always clean and people are not lazy to take their garbage to the refuse bin!

Is it easy for you to find a common language with Belarusians? Does accent impede dialogue?

Your people like foreigners. When I address people, they hear my strong accent and at once become serious, but very much try to help. If it is necessary to explain the way, they explain in detail.

If I ask, on what transport it is possible to reach somewhere, people offer at once several options. In general, I do not feel myself a gate crasher in Belarus.

And what do you lack in Belarus?

Perhaps, in the homeland you liked something very much or got used to беларусь.belarus 2014

The Holy Spirit Cathedral in Minsk

Minsk at night

something, and having arrived in another country, have found out that here it is not present…

At first, I lacked Chinese food and supermarkets. Big shops in your country have appeared just recently. Now this problem is solved. They are on every street corner, as well as restaurants with Chinese meals.

Do you like Belarusian cuisine?

It strongly differs from the Chinese.

For a long time I could not get used to the fact that you have so many dishes made from potatoes. As I have understood, Belarusians like this product a lot. As much as Chinese like rice. In my homeland people also eat potato, but not in such amounts. Besides, Chinese potatoes, in comparison with yours, seem

lean and tasteless. At home I prepare Chinese dishes. I do not know any Belarusian recipes, although more often I order a meal on the Internet. I adore your dairy products. Belarusian milk is incredible! In China I practically did not drink it. Having arrived to Belarus, by chance I tried milk and was surprised at how tasty it can be. Now I drink it daily.

And do you know anything about Belarusian culture and traditions?

Not much. But I can say that you have very beautiful and melodious language.

What do you know about wellknown Belarusians? And what does ‘well-known' mean?

Well-known people are those who achieved success in something, and about whom people speak and write.

I know Vika Azarenko who plays tennis, as well as Max Mirnyi. Table tennis is very popular in China, therefore many Chinese people know Vladimir Samsonov [the three-time winner of the World Cup, the 6-fold champion of Europe].

At the end of interview, Liu Hanming,

by Chinese tradition, gave me some tea, treated with unusual national cookies.

He also said that he would like to work in Belarus for the next few years. “After all, the country is amazing, why would I want to leave it?” he asked me the rather rhetorical question in farewell.

In Minsk in 2013, 14,284 special permissions for employment were given to foreigners (compared to 7,147 in 2012. Most of all permissions were given to citizens of five countries: other countries (1.878) Uzbekistan (950) Turkey (1.878)

China (3.854) Ukraine (3.199) Lithuania (1.027)

By Max Viltovsky

33

AT A NEW PLACE

Ekrem Sailyk’s Turkish gambit The Bereza district centre and Signevichi village are separated by twenty kilometres, while Ekrem Sailyk and Istanbul are separated by two years. In 2012 he changed his sea landscapes and minarets for Polesie’s meadows and the towers of the Signevichi Catholic church. Since then, at 8 in the morning he goes to tend to his small herd of cows on the river bank. In the afternoon he’s milking and after dinner he returns to the meadow. This is his life, day after day.

W

e meet Ekrem at, as he calls it, his workplace, where eight cows and bull-calf lazily chew the grass.

The farmer calmly observes the animals, from time to time calling to them, ‘Zorka! Lastochka! Krasunya!’

Before this life, Ekrem was a director of a pharmaceutical plant, with a

34

very good salary, an apartment by the sea, a company car, and foreign business trips. And, he adds, three mobile phones.

Each day, he would deal with nearly three hundred calls. By the evening his head spun from work and it was difficult to escape from the millions in Istanbul.

“Sometimes, I simply dropped ever ything and went into the forest for two weeks.

I took only tea, salt and sugar along. All the rest, I found in

the forest. I hunted, collected berries and herbs. After all I am pharmacist, and I know well what in nature is suitable for food. It was my rest from city vanity. In Istanbul, there are a lot of people and cars; there is no silence.” On the peaceful face of Ekrem one can guess that the road to our country led him to internal contentment.

He admits that, in Belarus he feels like he is eighteen years old again. He considers that the untouched nature, fresh air, loving family and favourite business influence him. However, the way to harmony was not short.

It started with a desire to visit places where he had not been. He chose Belarus. In one of his trips to Minsk, he got acquainted with a simple shop assistant Yelena. It was love at first sight. He at once proposed marriage to her. Today they have a daughter, Elif, and their second child is to be born in the coming weeks.

At first, Ekrem planned to stay with his wife in Istanbul, but Yelena could not leave her elderly parents in Signevichi. The pair decided to live in Belarus.

Thus, an absolutely new page started in the family’s biography.

Ekrem does not hide the fact that, in the first few months, the villagers of Signevichi constantly watched him.

He tells that the

2014 беларусь.belarus

NEWS villagers, not accustomed to foreigners, were interested in everything: what clothes he wore, where he went, what he ate and why he did not eat pork or drink alcohol and why he decided to breed cows. But in due course, their interest ceased. His fellow villagers understood that the foreigner was a peaceful person and behaved himself as others.

Pork and alcohol are forbidden by Islam and breeding cows is his business. Some of Ekrem’s Turkish relatives are farmers, but he considers that the conditions for breeding cattle in Belarus are more favourable. And he expects that in five years, his business will start to bear fruit.

Ekrem is still interested in the way of life of locals. He likes nature, natural products and the kind and open people.

Ekrem has already found a common language with his neighbours, in the literal and figurative sense of the word.

He speaks Russian well and words of the local dialect appear in his speech from time to time. During Christian holidays, Ekrem is always at the laid table, whilst, in turn, neighbours and relatives respect his religion and customs — as it has been in Belarus since time immemorial.

In general, new languages and cultures come easily to him. The main thing here is desire, considers Ekrem Sailyk. If you want, you can learn two hundred words a day, and will not be afraid to move to another country.

Dinnertime draws near and it is time to milk the herd. Ekrem hurries on the cows, and we slowly make our way back to the house were Yelena meets us near the gate. Time has come to say goodbye.

The centuries-old trees of the main street of Signevichi are reflected in the eyes of Ekrem. But it seems that the harmonious minarets of Istanbul call him again.

Ekrem does not doubt that he will visit his favourite city more than once.

“Istanbul is like a woman: it is difficult with her, but without is impossible,” he says.

And if this is so, then how is it possible to refuse to meet your beloved.

 Remember your index In a recently published index of social development — The Social Progress Index, 2014 — Belarus took 58th position among 132 countries

I

s it a lot or a little? It is a rhetorical question. According to research, we lag behind a number of the European countries. But we leave behind our nearest neighbours — Russia and Ukraine.

And we are in a confident middle.

The top position is occupied by New Zealand. Behind it are Switzerland and Iceland. Worst of all, according to the researchers, is life in the Republic of Chad. The index is based on a combina-

tion of data from public-opinion polls, estimations and statistical information of international organisations. During the identifying of social progress of this or that country, the researchers considered more than 50 indicators.

They were divided into three groups: the basic needs of people (food, access to medical aid, habitation), the wellbeing bases (access to education and level of literacy of citizens, distribution of mass-media, level of public health services) and the possibilities of development of a person (level of personal and civil freedoms, possibility to unlock own potential).

Experts estimated Belarus in respect of access to necessary medical aid. A high point was given for availability of basic education. Ecological and living conditions, the level of personal security, access to information and means of communication received average estimations. Indicators from the last group — possibilities of development of a person seem to be a little underestimated.

 Travellers change routes The Russian Association of Tour Operators has examined the most popular destinations of Russian tourists this summer and has concluded that, instead of Ukraine, they now travel to Belarus and Russia’s midlands

T

ourist traffic to Belarus has increased by 15-20 percent in 2014. Firstly, the number of Russians, who come sightseeing to Belarus, has increased by a lot. These are primarily tourists who have abandoned their plans of visiting Ukraine. Secondly, the interest of Russians in using our clinics and resorts as a way of recreation and relaxation has also increased.

According to sources, the ranking of the most popular domestic tourism destinations has not changed.

The Russian resort city of Sochi has registered the largest increase in tourist traffic.

The total volume of tourism sales in Crimea is lower this year than before when compared to Caucasian Mineral Waters, Belarus, Moscow Region, and Russia’s midlands, notes Alena Zagorets, the Director of Multitour’s Tourism Department. Transport availability problems are quoted as the main reason behind the low sales.

By Artem Kiriyanov

беларусь.belarus 2014

35

CITY STYLE

Monuments

with biographies

M

insk has a new tradition: to leave money on the ‘City Scales’ which have recently been installed in the capital’s historical centre, not far from City Hall.

The composition reminds us of Minsk’s gaining of the Magdeburg Right in 1499; in line with the law, the City Hall — which hosted city council’s sittings — had to house standards of weight and volume (including a precise clock).

Alexander Prokhorov’s sculpture illustrates a scene from 16th-17th century Minsk life: a merchant is handing a coin to a seller while a third character is checking the weight. Urbanites and tourists love this simple plot and also use their money to place on the ‘City Scales’. Foreigners throw coins and Belarusians, who only have paper money, insert notes into the chain of the scales.

In 2008, a similar sculpture, also authored by Mr. Prokhorov, was erected in Polotsk — The Merchant. The figurine holds a sparkling coin in its

36

hands and passers-by love to rub it, believing that this will bring them fortune.

There are many monuments in Minsk devoted to famous Belarusians.

These sculptures and their characters are much cherished. People lay flowers and take schoolchildren to get acquainted with them. Actually, they all aim to generate patriotism in youngsters.

Meanwhile, tourists prefer monuments which arouse a smile or give space for imagination. Really, such a medieval merchant with scales push us thinking not of the Magdeburg Right or its influence on Minsk’s life in the past, but of bread-andbutter money.

Some seriously be-

Invented legends born for new monuments

lieve that a sculpture is a bank and on leaving coin here, they will find much more at home, as in a fairy-tale.

As for fairy-tales, these also exist; guides have many worthy stories of the kind. For example, Ferdinand and Wilhelmina von Munchausen are buried in Glubokoe. Tourists love to visit their grave as they believe that ‘the very same Munchausen’, known for his incredible adventures in the 18th century Russian Army, rests here. However, few know that Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Baron von Münchhausen, a historical figure and a literary character, was buried in 1979 in his native city of Bodenwerder, in the west of Germany. Meanwhile, the man from Glubokoe (and his wife) died almost a century later: in 1878. However, tourists are not embarrassed with this fact; they continue believing that the legendary baron truly visited the Belarusian town. As the Deputy Chair of the District Executive Committee, Tatiana Molotovnik, notes, this is to Glubokoe’s advantage, “A legend exists and tourists are attracted by it. We’ve decided to support it as we need guests. Their coming brings money to our budget.” Of course, this is a pragmatic approach but it’s applied all over the world.

To entertain guests, guides sometimes invent their own legends. Taking tourists to the ‘Yunost’ (Youth) fountain, opposite to Minsk’s St. Simeon and Yelena Roman Catholic Church, they advise men and women wishing to find their love to pat the knee of its girl or boy, and then happiness would come. In 2014 беларусь.belarus

CITY STYLE turn, men (with problems in their love life) are proposed to sit down by a bronze female figurine in the Mikhailovsky Park. They also need to touch its knee for success in love to come. Meanwhile, tourists are mostly attracted by an erotic interpretation of this tradition: the possibility to touch the figurine’s chest. A tourist who took a photo near the ‘Girl with an Umbrella’ sculpture, tells me that such a photo would help him escape the wind which takes happiness and money from his home. Another sculpture — ‘A Smoking Man’ — has its hand sparkling.

People love to greet it and offer a cigarette as they believe the day will be lucky then. This might be right, but the luckiest are those smokers who’ve forgotten their cigarettes at home. Trying to remain unnoticed, they take a cigarette from this bronze passer-by…

Some Minsk sculptures are truly inspiring — bringing ease to the heart. One of them is found in the Isle of Tears, near the Troitsky Suburb. A memorial has been unveiled here to honour the memory of Soviet soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. A crying angel is in its heart; he is mourning over the men whom he failed to save. Minskers have invented one more mission for the angel — newly wedded couples come to him with a request for their future sons not to take part in any war.

One of the freshest city legends is connected to a sculpture by the Belarusian State Economic University: a bronze student dressed in 16th century clothes holds a book and a roll in his hands.

When the sculptor, Pavel Luk, was assembling the figurine, students who were passing by asked him as jokingly whether this ‘student’ helps people pass their exams successfully.

The author then answered that it was up to youngsters to decide what part of his sculpture should беларусь.belarus 2014

be rubbed to get luck. Since then, students ask the bronze man for help.

Animals are also addressed for help.

A monument to the beaver has been installed in Bobruisk, close to the local market. The bronze sculpture features a 2m beaver, dressed in a frock and a hat.

Local residents believe that the one who touches the beaver’s nose or watch chain would obtain luck and wealth.

A bronze figurine of Shura Balaganov, the legendary son of Lieutenant Shmidt, a character of the popular Golden Calf novel by Soviet writers Ilf and Petrov, has been erected, not accidentally, in Bobruisk. The lieutenant’s children were legendary swindlers of the 1920s. As the novel reads, in early spring of 1928, these ‘chil-

dren’ gathered for a conference to divide the territory of their ‘business’. A dispute broke out which Petrov and Ilf described as follows: ‘Remote eastern regions, sunk in sands, enjoyed a bad reputation. They were accused of being unfamiliar with Lieutenant Shmidt. “We are not fools!” shrieked Panikovsky. “Give me the Central Russian Uplands and I’ll then sing the convention.” Balaganov exclaimed, “What are you talking about? Do you really want the whole uplands? What about Melitopol or Bobrusik then?” As Bobruisk was mentioned, all those present groaned: they were ready to move to Bobruisk immediately. The city was viewed as a wonderful, highly cultural place’.

As a gratitude to such compliments, sculptor Yaroslav Borodin cast a bronze Balaganov for the city. It now stands on the junction of Pushkin and Proletarskaya streets.

Really, there are many different monuments. Shklov honours… are you ready for this? …a cucumber! The vegetable, dressed in a jacket and bow-tie, has become the city’s symbol and a legend now actively circulates across the city.

Money will come to those who rub the cucumber pouch.

A monument to the sparrow in Baranovichi is a symbol of patriotism. An inscription on its pedestal reads: ‘No remote lands but the Motherland attract a bird of passage’. All Belarusian monuments — including the truly ridiculous — aim to promote the country’s image, irrespective of what they are devoted to. These promote the country’s unique culture, its hospitable people and national humour, all of which are important to progress. New monuments will continue to be erected and, in the course of time, seemingly insignificant things will turn into a beautiful tradition.

By Viktar Korbut

37

ENTRAINMENT

Smart street art Flashy inscriptions on the walls of houses, entrances or garages are usually the domain of graffiti artists.

Most of the time, this is simply vandalism, but there it is a legitimate ‘street art’ when drawings appear on facades of buildings absolutely lawfully, with permission of the authorities. Belarus’ correspondent spoke with a street-artist, who uses walls as his canvas.

Y

evgeny Kovek is not a troublemaker, but one of those who wants to beautify the city, to make it nicer and different from other cities.

“Artists should create city pictures in a civilised and ‘thoughtful’ way,” says Yevgeny. “There should not be any random daubings on the walls, only clever drawings which would arouse the interest of people.”

Pencils, paints and paper are used at night, when Yevgeny creates his models of his future city pictures. Officials then check and approve them.

The main city or regional architects, experts of housing and communal services choose the most pleasant sketch, co-ordinate the sizes of each drawing and its location. Usually, these are buildings close to high populations, or structures whose appearance leaves much to be desired. Then, once approved, the follows work.

Working for art and for apples Drawing on the facade of a five-floor house requires three-five days of work.

The city administration gives artists lifts, cranes and, when possible, other necessary equipment so that they can reach the necessary floor. All the rest, from materials to meals and accommodation during their creative trip, are paid by the artists via sponsorships. For example, in order to complete an image

38

2014 беларусь.belarus

ENTRAINMENT

“Artists should create city pictures in a civilised and ‘thoughtful’ way. There should not be any random daubings on the walls, only clever drawings which would arouse the interest of people” of 40-50 square metres, it is necessary spend up to Br3-5 million.

“New things always cause fear and suspicion. People still are not ready for street-art, but slowly, step by step, people are coming around,” Yevgeny explains. “The reaction of people to our work is always different.”

Once in Gomel, several guys beautified some small outbuildings. Naturally, all was done with the permission of the local administration. However, the local old women did not like it and were outraged that nobody had consulted them.

They called for the police. Artists were not perturbed, they continued quietly with their work and, when police came, they simply showed all the necessary documents. However, the old women continued to protest. One street-artist explained that, for such cases, they always have the contact telephone number of the person from administration who will come and explain that the walls are painted absolutely lawfully. On this occasion, the official was nearby, and the problem was solved.

There have been other events. Once, some artists were painting a wall and one man approached them and asked, ‘What do you need to be more comfortable?’ An hour later, he returned with big box of products. It was a pleasant experience for the guys.

“One person shouts at us and another thanks us,” the artist says. “But people don’t realise, even a children’s playground that is decorated with fantastic heroes, is also street-art! And беларусь.belarus 2014

take for example the grey transformer vaults, which can be found almost in every courtyard. It is possible to decorate them with Belarusian ornamentation too.”

Once, in Mogilev, artists painted a bed in a courtyard, which local residents had made from old tyres. On this occasion, the elderly residents were friendlier and several old women approached the artists and asked them to paint handrail and turnstiles. ‘We can’t get anything out of the housing maintenance service, maybe you guys could help us’, they asked.

“They constantly fed us when we painted their stands for drying linen,” recollects the street-artist.

Thus, by permission of the local authorities, street— artists beautified the facades of seven apartment blocks and ten buildings of Mogilev, Gomel, Grodno and some regional centres. In the near future they will go to Brest, Vitebsk, Mozyr, Polotsk, Rogachev and Yevgeny’s native city of Lida.

Picture by mayonnaise Aerosols, acrylics, brushes, paint rollers, stencils, posters, stickers and improvised materials are usual tools of the street-artists. Actually it is possible to draw with anything. Yevgeny admitted that one time, his peers created a picture using ketchup and mayonnaise.

However, it did not exist for long.

“Once, a colleague and I made four sculptures from leaves, plastic bottles and newspapers. These objects repre-

sented the seasons of the year,” Yevgeny tells me. “We installed ‘Autumn’ in Gorky Park in Minsk. It took us about 40 minutes. When we had finished, we decided to take a walk. When we returned, twenty minutes later, there was a crowd looking at it: adults, couple and parents with their children. Some were taking photos and someone checked our creation to see how strong it was…”

Nearly all of Yevgeny’s latest work is based on the culture of Slavic people; on the symbolism which has survived until today. The artist tries to draw attention to it. “We can reveal themes of pagan and medieval traditions, the beauty of Belarusian nature directly on the walls of dull streets. However, it is necessary to create it in an unusual way. It is important to keep it interesting,” he tells.

Ideas come to his head spontaneously, like a shot in the dark, and only then does he consider the details of his next sketch.

“Art is my weakness,” Yevgeny admits. “When I was just three years old, my parents noticed my thirst for drawing and they tried to help to develop this talent. I remember, I very much liked plasticine. I played with it all the time.

When something in the house broke, I tried to stick the pieces back together with the help of plasticine. I was very obstinate in my childhood. I did not like waking up early in the morning to go to kindergarten. Obstinacy probably lives in me even today, but now it is connected with my creativity.”

by Yulia Popko

39

PROFESSIONALS

Brush of artist, hand of restorer Alcohols, solvents and lacquers are pushed aside. Brushes are gathered in a jar. An old working apron hangs on a peg. Svetlana Dikut welcomes her visitors. Today she is not only a restorer, but also a guide — manager of the oil painting department of the National Art Museum — who will tell students and Belarus’ correspondent how she ‘treats’ pictures.

This comparison is not casual. In her conversations, she constantly compares restoration to medicine.

T

he premises where Ms. Dikut works reminds one of an art studio. Pictures hang on the walls, stand on easels and supports.

Beside them there are brushes and paints.

The mistress shows her latest work — the Acathistus of the Mother of God. It is in the final stage of restoration. For comparison, there is a photo which initially fell into her hands: the third part of the picture with special sealing tape [it is papered] which are usually put in order to prevent the fall of paint on damaged places.

“Before we start working, the restoration council meets,” the guide tells. “The expert puts forward an option for the restoration of the work and the others agree or deny. Problems solving is developed and the document with the list of actions is made.”

The feature of this particular picture is that the canvas is sewn in two places.

It is also one of the reasons for the damage. However, the basic reason is that the work was stored without a stretcher for a long time. My task is to restore the lost parts, without destroying the

Alex ander Stad ub

Restorer Svetlana Dikut

40

2014 беларусь.belarus

RARITIES author’s concept, and also without lowering the historical value of the work.

This picture has already endured three restorations.

Svetlana Dikut then moves on to the subtleties of her work. It is interesting to her students, but it is hardly necessary to foist it upon the readership. However, one, simple aspect that we will dwell on is ‘sounding’ — the purpose of defining, how to better treat the ‘patient’. In this particular case, the help of chemists is needed. They suggest what material is better to use for a particular piece. The work usually starts with light solvents, then, if it is necessary, more complicated solvents are used.

“Sometimes it is possible to remove dirty spots using a small piece of cotton covered in solvent, but occasionally it is necessary to apply a compress,” the restorer tells. “It is like the same illness for different people — an individual approach is necessary.”

And what case was the most difficult in your practice?

“Each case is uniquely difficult,” she answers with a smile, and tells about the most remembered case.

And do you have constant ‘patients’?

A student enquired.

“Here on the table is a picture — Poppies by Nikolai Zalozny,” Svetlana Dikut gestures. “The picture has technological problems created by the author in the course of painting the picture, that’s why it periodically delaminates. Sometimes it happens that this ‘patient’ does not come to me for years, but then sometimes it comes every six months.”

The expert also tells about one interesting case — Portrait of E. Zolotarevsky painted by Zinaida Serebryakova, niece of the great Alexandre Benois.

“This work was hanging for a long time in our exposition under small sealing tapes,” the restorer recollects. “It is interesting that in all catalogues which I have seen, including foreign ones, it was in such a state. During a thorough examination it became clear that the process of strengthening of paint layer would be difficult.” беларусь.belarus 2014

“The reason for the delamination is that the picture was painted over the sketch. Why it was made in such way was found after studying the history of creation of the canvas. It appeared that for a portrait of the boy, the cottage neighbour of Serebryakova, whom she painted during hard times for the family, she took an already used canvas and the simplest paints,” she explains.

“I was confused, seeing a dark-blue blind background, which is not characteristic to this artist. It was found out that someone simply painted over it, because the paints started to fall and because this was done carelessly.

Restorers have to face such cases.

This picture was sold to the National Art Museum by relatives of the boy depicted on it. Actually, the museum collection was replenished in various ways. Some works were brought from expeditions across cities and lands of our country at the end of the last century, where they were found in old dilapidated houses and churches. It is clear that they were stored in bad conditions, frequently with birds and rats together under the one roof.”

The current exhibitions would be incomplete without which the skills of Belarusian restorers. Svetlana Dikut’s once dealt with Portrait of Sheremetev painted by Fiodor Rokotov. At that time the portrait was being prepared for an exhibition of Russian portraits Witnesses of Time.

“Before we got it, this picture had been in hands of amateurs,” Ms. Dikut tells. “I always say, that even time is not so cruel to art, as the hand of non-professionals. It was very hard work. It is important, while removing old paint, not to remove anything superfluous and, during restoration to preserve the author as much as possible. As a result the original Rokotov was revealed to us.”

An hour rushes by for the students and me. It seems that Svetlana Dikut can endlessly discuss her passion of restoration. But we did not want to encroach any more on her precious time. This doctor always has a lot of patients.

 Hello from the 12th century Until now, only two birch bark letters have been found in Belarus — one in Mstislavl and the second in Vitebsk.

Both of these letters, rare findings indeed, were discovered by Moscow archaeologist, Leonid Alexeev. But now, a third, again discovered in Mstislavl, has been found by archaeologist, Igor Mazalyuk when several days ago, he lifted it from the bottom of the 3 metre excavation that’s being carried out at Zamkovaya Hill.

T

he scientist explained how he dealt with the tightly rolled letter.

“I laid it in warm water and, when it was soaked, unfolded it. I have seen an inscription. It appears that it may be the exercises of a child. There are letters and some signs, all of them drawn 800 years before our time.”

Besides the letter, there have been a lot of other surprises at the excavation: a fragment of a golden painted Byzantium wineglass, a soldier’s leather belt, a cross-encolpion with relics, and plinth shaped bricks — everything dating back to the 12th century.

The researcher supposes that he has found the remains of a jeweller’s workshop or of a prince’s palace.

“Judging by the findings, a rich man has lived here.”

The plinthiform bricks could possibly indicate the remains of a stone temple, but it is not known if there has been such a temple in ancient Mstislavl. Excavations are continuing.

By Natalia Stepuro

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ACTORS

Life as an instant

Sergey Zhuravel, the People’s Artiste of Belarus celebrates his 60th birthday

Sergey Zhuravel during a performance of Dinner With A Dolt

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Po nkrat

o va

people say that the actor is able to win the audience. More than once I have asked Sergey how he manages to do this. And more than once he has answered — I do not know. And he gave an example with his son Anton who is able to repair a motorbike, and a tape in the kitchen which for Sergey is absolutely incomprehensible. And for the son, the actor’s occupation equally so. Sergey told me, that once, when he worked at the Young Spectator’s Theatre, Anton watched a performance of The Rainmaker and came backstage to his father with a question, ‘How do you do this? You stand and you are silent, but something is happening with me and with you…’. Over the course of time, when I became skilled at the theatre and having learnt to understand actor’s handwriting, I understood that intense internal life of the character, his emot iona l experience, his personal story, bewitches spectators and causes reciprocal feelings even more than the outer effects which

N adezhda

H

e is one of those people about whom it is impossible not to speak without a smile. He is not a professional comic and not a humourist, although he is strong in humour. A smile for him is special. It appears on my face during thoughts about the natural charm of this or that person and certainly, Sergey Zhuravel is among such people. He is one of those people, whose charm is not down to attractiveness of appearance, nor to mood, or style of clothing. In my opinion, he is always charming. It does not matter whether he looks good or bad, whether he is gloomy, happy or angry for some reason. Of course, he has been such a person since birth.

Zhuravel has enough scenic charm. He, as it said, is an actor with a God-given talent.

When he was a student, critics predicted a brilliant future for him, and not unreasonably. In the 70s, being a student of the actor’s department of theatrically-art institute, at the Young Spectator’s Theatre, he played the big role of Sergey Tyulenin in the performance of Young Guards (in foreign version — a performance about young resistance members in days of the Great Patriotic War). After his graduation at the institute, Sergey was taken on with the staff of the theatre. I will never forget, as his young guard Serezhka Tyulenin got out, more exactly rushed out to the stage, he hardly touching the boards. And how wonderfully this student played guitar and sang — the owner of an outstanding baritone! What a voice, what grace, and the critics admired him.

The theatre’s spectator audience — children and teenagers, whose attention can be captured only by actors with powerful energy, understanding what they play, — faded, when Zhuravel appeared on the stage. The laughter calmed down, the remarks disappeared as the play progressed, and the waves of silence rolled in the hall. In such cases,

ACTORS at times are and end in itself at this or that director. Once, Sergey Zhuravel told me how he worked on the role of the Censor in Academy of Laughter, staged at the theatre

by Modest Abramov on the play-parable of the Japanese playwright Koki Mitani. In order to justify the too serious attitude of his own hero to the creativity, not understanding how it is possible to write comedies during wartime, and his huge interest in the young man who wrote this play, Zhuravel

thought up a biography to the Censor. Say, the Censor had a son who died during the war; therefore the Censor is so serious about everything that concerns the war theme, including the comedy of the young author. That’s how Zhuravel completed the destiny of the hero, he thought up a biography for him. Therefore the image turned out not flat, but many-sided, and generated sympathy.

We have been friends since that time of the Young Spectator’s Theatre. Sergey and his actor-friends more than once ran into the academic part of the theatre where I worked at that time. Certainly, we discussed performances, shared opinions how to hold the day of Young Spectator’s Theatre in this or that Minsk school, or a discussion of the premiere of a performance just after its termination. It was like this with the performance of Felix Salten’s play, Bambi, which impressed the theatrical public. I remember how we, teachers and literary part helped to manually knit costumes from rope for the

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actors actors playing deer, before the show ran. It was the request from the producer of the performance, Yuri Mironenko — to help services of the theatre, which always have a hectic time before premieres, it is called the rush and busy time. After the premiere of the performance of The Seagull by Anton Chekhov and directed by Grigory Borovik in which Sergey played the role of Treplev when he was just 22 years old, we said that young age would not be an obstacle for big and serious roles — after all it is the study at school of acting technique.

For the role of Bambi, Zhuravel, among other main actors, received the prestigious award in that Soviet period of Lenin Komsomol of Belarus, which was handed over to young experts for various achievements in the sphere of art, literature and sciences.

In the summertime, actors went in pioneer camps with concerts which I had to organise. In their programmes, Zhuravel took the most active part. He never refused to participate in this or that creative meeting if they did not coincide with his performances.

His roles, as a rule, are always successful; at the Young Spectator’s Theatre, at the Youth Theatre, and at the Yanka Kupala Theatre where Sergey Zhuravel serves now to the Melpomene. As he himself said, he has been lucky more than once with kind people and professionals. Among them is his first teacher, teachers at the institute, and directors, among which is Nikolay Pinigin, the present art director of Yanka Kupala Theatre.

Sergey has played many versatile roles — Salvador Dalí, Scapin, Tartuffe…

He also acts in films, especially recently, though he does not c ons i d e r himself a film actor. I liked his one of outstanding works — Pan Ostrovsky, one of guests of the protagonist — the

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Count, in the film, Massacre by Russian film director, Andrey Kudinenko. Actor’s organics and skill do not let Zhuravel down in the cinema. In spite of the fact that he is strongly attracted to the theatre, he is also successful with film roles. last year, in The Ballad of Uhlans by director Oleg Fesenko, he played Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov — the great Russian commander in the patriotic war of 1812. And though the theatre is now on holiday, Sergey is working — actively acting in films. Just recently, he returned from shooting of a film by Alexander Yefremov, made by Belarusfilm, the working name of which is All Treasures of the World, having played a role of a negative character — Krutov. In the film by Igor Chetverikov, called State Border, which is now being shot in Bobruisk, he plays a rural workman — Uncle Misha. While in the film of Alexandra Butor — Sweet Farewell of Vera, he will act the part of the restaurant owner. These are the versatile cinema roles of Sergey Zhuravel which we will see in the future. I hope that in these works, he will discover in himself new actor’s sides. Belarusfilm producers are people whose name are well-known, who declared about their own professionalism and talent.

Zhuravel, if he works with professionals, frequently ad-

mires them. And, for certain, they hear each other. In connection with his attitude to professionalism, I recollect one example with a joiner, virtuoso of his own trade, about whom Sergey spoke with delight. Once he decided to make a repair on his summer cottage, thinking that he himself would cope with joinery. But far from it, the porch needed more skilful hands. He called the joiner, and observing how confidently the latter, with just several blows of an axe, made the work with what he was busy for a long time, came to the conclusion that both repairs, and work on his car should be trusted to professionals. Since then he follows this conclusion.

As for his native Kupala Theatre, in autumn, Nikolay Pinigin’s new project — The Seagull by Chekhov will be launched there. And though the cast has not been carried out yet, it is assumed that Sergey Borisovich will play the role of the doctor, Dorn. Thus, after forty years he will plunge, once again, into the difficult, private world of one more of Chekhov’s heroes.

Sergey Zhuravel and Alexey Dudarev are performing songs of their studentship. Actor Pavel Kharlanchuk is at the right

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Ivan Zhdanovich

actors

Scene from a performance of Cabaret

Personally, I’ve never seen negative critiques about his performances in the media. However, sometimes I write about Zhuravel with piety. As well as this time, I want to say kind words about this talented actor. And there is an occasion for that. It’s his birthday, after all.

So, what did Sergey Zhuravel do on this holiday day? Of course, he performed; appearing on stage in Cabaret by Pinigin in several roles: provincial Jews, a Polish pan-dandy and the Belarusian in a linen shirt. Creating these versatile images, he showed the highest professionalism and his talent to transform. After the show, Sergey Borisovich Zhuravel accepted congratulations.

“Your brilliant actor’s activity, bright talent, masterly skill of transformation and your artistic means make you a real star of Belarusian theatre and cinema, the artiste whom spectators sincerely love for truth of life in art.” This was said in a message of greeting from President Alexander Lukashenko which was read by the first Deputy Minister of Culture, Irina Driga.

As the Head of State noted, the roles created by Sergey Zhuravel in performances based on works of Belarusian and foreign authors, became a bright and original page of the national theatrical art and made a беларусь.belarus 2014

considerable impact on his further development. The Minister of Culture, Boris Svetlov, and the Chairman of the Union of theatrical figures playwright, Alexey Dudarev and other representatives of the theatrical community congratulated Sergey Borisovich.

As far as I know, actors adore working with Zhuravel, because he listens and makes them feel a part of the group. His duet in Cabaret with Viktor Manaev, the People’s Artiste of Belarus, is the acknowledgement of that. Ah, how wonderfully both of them played that day! There was an impression that both of them plunged into their own roles, savoured each word in the dialogue. And they joked so much that the hall roared with laughter. And here is what Olga Klebanovich, the People’s Artiste of Belarus says about Sergey, “I like to visit performances where Zhuravel acts. Sergey’s charm is so great that, apparently, the auditorium breathes together with him, watches his every movement, feeling pleasure from meeting with such a big actor.”

At a stand-up party, which was carried out after end of the performance, Olga Klebanovich recollected how great Sergey is in the role of Kaloshnitsa, a box for footwear, in the performance-enter-

prise Yellow Boot on Thick Sole. And I am impressed by Olga’s opinion about Zhuravel as an actor with a variable soul, who is able to skilfully fill his images with rich internal life.

Many warm speeches were made about him from visitors, among whom were friends and fellow students — Viktor Gudinovich, the actor of Russian Theatre and Alexey Dudarev. With them, with a guitar in hand, Zhuravel sang songs from their student’s youth. Sergey’s songs are to all our taste and we with sang along with him with pleasure. During that moment, it seemed as if there toe road of life was not that long, and the phrase, which is used to death ‘everything ends’ also seemed not meaningful. Alexey Dudarev, after a song from the film Sannikov’s Land ‘All was, all was and ended …’, said how he was thinking something himself — nothing ends — and I understand him, because during such moments where feelings are lifted by memories of youth, it seems to me that between the past and the present there is no timespan. The words from another song from the same film, one of Zhuravel’s favourites and very popular in the 70s, are also poignant ‘there is only an instant between the past and future, it is called life...’.

By Valentina Zhdanovich

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TOWNSHIP MUSEUM

The visitors are delighted with the museum

Returning to our origins Bezdezhsky Fartushok Folk Art Museum recreates early 20th century Belarusian villagers’ daily routine

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any modern urbanites h av e l i t t l e idea of how Belarusian villagers lived about 70-80 y e a r s a g o.

Accordingly, such places as the Bezdezhsky Fartushok Folk Art Museum, in the Brest Region’s Drogichin District, help us to gain insight into the past.

Bezdezh’s unique museum opened 15 years ago, explains Leonid Kurovsky, who heads the Ideology and Culture Department (overseeing youth affairs) for the Drogichin District Executive Committee. He tells us that Drogichin was to host a local history museum but it soon became clear that almost all the artefacts came from Bezdezh and neighbouring villages, so it seemed logical to establish

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a village museum instead. Fortunately, Bezdezh had an appropriate venue: an abandoned Polish-style brick building, which had been used as a school. Original hand-made aprons comprised the lion’s share of exhibits, so the museum was named Bezdezhsky Fartushok (Bezdezh Apron). It now houses over 200 beautifully embroidered snow-white aprons.

Bezdezh has a rich history, being first mentioned in 1409. However, nobody knows how it acquired its name. One legend states that a castle and a village of the same name are found in the Czech Republic and several Bezdezh settlements are registered in Russia. It’s quite possible that, in the past, Bezdezh foreigners came to Belarusian lands to establish their own settlement. Implicitly, this is confirmed by villagers’ outlook and daily routine, as they are especially pious (even Godfearing) and love culture and literature.

Moreover, local people are extremely apt at handicrafts: ‘Bezdezhsky fartushok’ is a true Polesie brand, since only Bezdezh residents can weave such fine linen: at least 300 threads can pass through a wedding ring. Moreover, their cloth is whiter than any other. Those beautiful aprons now grace the museum collection.

Belarusians learnt of the Bezdezh phenomenon in 2009, when the museum’s Director, Maria Ostapovich, received the Presidential Award ‘For Spiritual Revival’, with the ceremony hosted by the Palace of the Republic.

The museum is now uniting efforts with Kalya Plesa Farm [Ples is the name of a river passing by the village] to launch a Bezdezh tourist zone, with support from local authorities. Anyone visiting the area can find out about the unique sites of natural beauty and interest across the Drogichin District.

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TOWNSHIP MUSEUM

Marzipans and secret bread Travel always brings new memories and new acquaintances. In meeting those who differ from us, and seeing the artefacts they produce, we come to appreciate the diversity of our national culture (as well as that of international cultures) and the special qualities of our own cultural heritage. The dedication and industry of such people as Maria Ostapovich and Leonid Kurovsky allows us to witness the treasures of the past: revived and on public display. Ms. Ostapovich tells us, “We planned to build a farmstead close to the museum long ago but lacked finances. However, the ‘Spiritual Revival’ Presidential Award became the first contribution towards realising our project.

In looking at Bezdezh Museum, we should begin with an excursion to the neighbouring farmstead: its outbuildings are set up as traditional workshops, full of peasant tools from the late 19thearly 20th century. You can touch them, or try them out, as well as ride in a cart or a colourfully painted sledge (depending on the weather).

The farmstead is also home to domestic animals, which can be petted: a horse, pigs, goats, rabbits and hens. Tasty Belarusian cuisine, cooked on a traditional stove, is always on offer, using locally grown vegetables, and mushrooms and berries gathered from nearby forests.

Kalya Plesa also invites visitors to try Belarusian sausages and honey from its own hives.

While some view marzipans as sugar-covered nuts, Bezdezh villagers call baked potatoes ‘marzipans’ — eaten in their jackets (‘lupenki’). Cabbage baked in ashes, served in slices with healthy flax oil, is another local delicacy, alongside Marina Pratasevich from Bezdezh demonstrates a basket for grain storage

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home-baked bread, which stays fresh for several days. Bezdezh villagers also love to use makukha to flavour their cooking, made from ground and dried flax seeds.

The farmstead has its own small secret: one part resembles an ancient room while another one sets up as a modern hotel room (large enough for a family).

Landmark place Bezdezh used to host regular fairs, gathering villagers from the surrounding area, but the coming of the railway line through Drogichin made such gatherings less popular, and the village slightly lost its status as a hub. Bezdezh villagers gained a college in 1824 and, from 1825-1832, this became a branch of Vilno University.

Bezdezh remains a landmark — boasting rich historical and spiritual heritage and its own unique energy. As Ms. Ostapovich notes, it’s no accident that so many interesting historical-cultural

phenomena originate there. A UNESCO listed Struve Arc point is located at the entrance to the village (if approaching from Khomsk): a plaque was installed on the site last year. It is an entrance ‘gate’ to the Bezdezh tourist zone, which is soon to welcome its first guests. Bezdezh Column is another fascinating spectacle, thought perhaps to have been erected to honour the adoption of the 1791 Rzecz Pospolita Constitution; others link it to a battle in the Russian-Swedish War. St. Trinity Orthodox Church, built in the late 18th century (without a single nail) is another ‘must-see’ for visitors, as is Bezdezh’s Trinity Roman Catholic Church: almost two centuries old and the only RC church in the district.

Mr. Kurovsky reveals, “In future, we’ll launch a hotel near Kalya Plesa, able to accommodate two dozen guests. We’re preparing eco tourist paths, for horses, cycling and walking, and aim to build observation platforms around the artificial lake in Sporovsky Reserve, so that people can nature-watch in comfort.

In summer, the village banya will open and we plan to move a windmill dating from 1900 to Bezdezh.”

Every year, Bezdezh hosts over 5,000 visitors to its museum, and gathers a great many for its folk art festivals, wedding ceremonies, corporate parties and celebrations for New Year, Maslenitsa and Easter. The Bezdezh custom of ‘Strilka’ is closely connected with Easter and has been placed on the Belarusian List of Historical and Cultural Treasures. Last year, the village hosted the Tanochek Regional Folklore Festival: a truly international event welcoming guests from the Baltic States and Russia.

No doubt, sites like Bezdezh will continue to grow in popularity with tourists; who among us doesn’t desire to travel back in time, to view the land of our forefathers?

By German Moskalenko

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FILMMAKING

H

e has made more than forty documentary films, and last, Wooden People, which is about a lonely carver, Nikolay Tarasyuk, has already won five prestigious awards, including Grand Prix of the 9th International Film Festival of Art Trades which was recently held in the French city of Montpellier. What makes a documentary film successful, what is the difference between rural heroes and city heroes and why should a director be a little cynical? Viktor Aslyuk explains it to our correspondent.

What circumstances influenced you to connect life with filmmaking? I know that initially you left the philological department and worked as a teacher.

I already do not remember what influenced me. It seems that I have been engaged in filmmaking all my life. I think it was the element of self-discovery. I worked at school for one and a half years, then for two years I served in the army as an officer, and even considered staying there. After the army I wanted to go on postgraduate courses and to study literature.

I felt that school was not my vocation. I searched for something close to literature and it appears that it was filmmaking.

In 1989, the Institute of Theatre and Art enrolled students for the first time in departments of direction of documentary and game films. I did not go in the department of game films for one reason — it was necessary to appear on stage and to act out scenes, but I was afraid of that. I chose documentary filming, all the more so that when I studied in the language and

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It is possible to go into minute detail and loftily tell about the talent of this person, but facts, as a rule, tell better than epithets. Today Viktor Aslyuk is the only academician of the European Film Academy in the country. literature department, I specialised in documentary prose, the studied creativity of Ales Adamovich.

To tell the truth, I initially represented documentary filmmaking as just hackwork — shoot, edit, show (unfortunately, the majority of directors and documentary film makers do this nowadays). Only after ten years, did I understand that documentary filmmaking could also be considered art. Not without a reason did filmmaking appear in the form of documentary films. I think that those films, the blockbusters which are shot for hundreds of millions of Dollars, will appear in the category of film circus or attraction, while filmmaking as a phenomenon will develop in the form of an author’s films and will be connected not with fantastic plots, but with reality and actual human problems of happiness, love and death.

Are there any themes which you would not start developing in documentary cinema?

There are a lot of such themes. It is possible to start developing them, but it is not known whether they will be successful or not. For example, in documentary films, it is very difficult to shoot intimate moments because you are working with real and true people. It is possible to find people who will do everything that you want. It can be both sex, and murders — all these things were in the history of filmmaking, but an ethical moment is very important in documentary films. It is impossible to come into this trade being bad-mannered, but at the same time you should be also a cynic. If you are too fragile, and are afraid to shoot or make people act, you will not be successful.

But there is always a line which you should not pass, and you create this line yourself.

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Vitaliy Pivovarchik

‘Filmmaking is interesting’

FILMMAKING You shoot many films in Belarusian villages. Are there more interesting human stories or is it is easier to get a rural person talking?

Fifty percent of my films are ‘rural’. But it turns out that those films which I shoot in the villages are more successful. It is very true that it is easier to work with rural people, mostly because they live in other atmosphere. In a city, people are put into cages of small apartments; there are no woods, fields and spaces which are in the villages. Everything in a city is more artificial, while in the village they are real and eternal. It is not interesting to shoot people living among high-rise buildings.

Besides, a Belarusian city is a very simple and sometimes primitive environment. Urban people living in Soviet architecture do not feel nature, time, history and ties with traditions. The environment of our modern cities creates an awareness that the person will disappear together with those boxes. But there should be a sensation of eternity. The preservation of historical memory and the environment in which the nation was being formed is very important.

Your latest film — Wooden People — has recently received Grand Prix of the International Film Festival of Art Trades in France, its fifth prestigious award. What makes documentary films successful?

If you think about ‘Wooden People’, this film should not be successful. It is the film about a person who carves dolls. In the world there are many films with a similar theme. People all over the world shoot films about those who draw, carve and so on.

Why is this film so interesting? The protagonist is a lonely old man, a sculptor called Nikolay Tarasyuk, the last inhabitant of the village Stoily of the Pruzhany District. He tries to restore the world which has disappeared. Tarasyuk carves images of his former fellow villagers, from wood and creates scenes of rural life. His wooden people reap rye, get married in church and participate in a funeral. Nikolay Vasilievich feels the importance of the environment in which he lives, the importance of peasant work, national song and traditions and tries hard to preserve this environment.

Actually the whole nation should do what Nikolay Vasilievich does. They should try to preserve their own property, architecture and language, because all the rest is biological and temporary. For example you eat, live, die and that is all. People forget about you.

They may erect a granite monument to you, but in due time it will also turn to dust. A person cannot exist out of such categories as memory, morals, singularity and tradition. People should resist mass sclerosis. For this беларусь.belarus 2014

purpose we have the medium of art, as film, literature and, in general, culture.

What resources help you find people whose stories can touch and bring deep reflexions?

Nothing helps. It is a very difficult thing. But it is basically a problem of those who have nothing to tell. If there is something to tell, a person finds both the situation and a protagonist. There are two variants of work of the director-documentary filmmaker.

The first is when you yourself have something to tell, and the heroes in a documentary film are more likely to be actors, used as a means for expressing your thoughts. The second way is when your hero is such a versatile and unique person that you hide your own ego and reveal as much of him as possible.

What do you want today as a director?

I think I have not yet made those films which I should make. The technique of filmmaking has changed over the last fifteen years that I have been engaged in documentary cinema.

The new equipment has brought new aesthetics and new working conditions, and to remain at a high creative level, it is important to overcome the temptations of technical transition.

Today, with small cameras becoming available, it is very easy to shoot something, to edit it and think that it is documentary film. But it is illusion. There is a trade with its own laws and conventions. It is necessary to learn this trade. Only then there is a chance to become a professional.

But with documentary filmmaking, it is possible to be a professional and to not to be successful. It is already the second step in the development of the trade. It depends on reasons which are difficult to define. Sometimes one film has influence and becomes famous, while another, which is no worse, not. It is difficult to understand, why it happens so. But shooting films is interesting. It can justify one’s existence and fill it with a true sense or purpose. And as for ‘to earn money’... Well, that’s another story.

By Lyudmila Minakova

Viktor Aslyuk at the shooting

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The fifth Golshany Castle Festival, in the Oshmyany District, featured the usual knightly tournaments, authentic music and national souvenirs, but also the first national musical: Sophia Golshanskaya. Set to a score by Vladimir Kondrusevich and libretto by Yelena Turova, it was performed by the Belarusian State Academic Musical Theatre, under the walls of the medieval castle.

Iosif Popko

UNUSUAL FESTIVAL

Sophia Golshanskaya returns to Motherland

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he lawn in front of the main stage at the Golshany Festival was completely full, with guests standing, sitting and lying on rugs. Anton from Smorgon tells us, “I come to Golshany for the festival nearly every year, as it’s so interesting: riders on horses, ladies in medieval costume, and musicians with ancient

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musical instruments. This year, I came especially to see the musical, having heard that it was only recently staged at the Minsk Musical Theatre. I rarely visit Minsk and tend to travel on business, so I don’t have enough time to go to the theatre. Now has been my chance, so I’m grateful to the organisers and artistes.”

Golshany was an ideal location for the show, being the homeland of Polish Queen Sophia Golshanskaya. As soon

as the name of Sophia was heard from the stage, spectators at once added — of Golshany!

Galina Balinskaya, the Head of the Culture Department of Golshany District Executive Committee, tells us, “Every year, we try to change something, and update our festival programme.

The musical was perfect for staging in Golshany and we hope to host other interesting performances near the walls of the castle in future.”

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UNUSUAL FESTIVAL

According to the plot of the musical, great King Jagailo intends to marry beautiful Vasilisa. However, on meeting her younger sister, Sophia, his feelings are transferred.

Sophia is already in love with a young soldier called Gancha but, on the night of the festival of Ivan Kupala, an enchantress appears, giving Sophia a fern flower and predicting her meeting with her true betrothed. Soрhia’s heart soon fills with love for Jagailo but war unexpectedly intervenes. Jagailo and Gancha fight together and return victorious, making the King recognise Gancha as his sworn brother. Meanwhile, sister Vasilisa, feeling offended by her repudiation by King Jagailo, plans revenge on unsuspecting Sophia. The clouds gather over the innocent queen and she awaits punishment in prison. Only Sophia’s sincere love for her husband helps her to survive.

Yevgeny Yermakov, who plays Gancha in the musical and is a soloist with the Belarusian State Academic Musical Theatre, and a laureate of international competitions, admits, “Golshanskaya is very successful in the repertoire of our theatre, with every performance selling out. We’ve gathered a lot of spectators and they all understand everything perfectly: the plot and songs, especially

 Show from water, music and light Dynamically lit fountains on Pobedy Square in Vitebsk to dance to the beat of popular melodies on weekends

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he fountains will change the dynamics of their work and dance under the rhythm of popular retro-melodies of Pesnyary, Syabry and Verasy Belarusian ensembles, of the songs of Irina Dorofeeva, Anzhelika Agurbash, as well as to international hits by Ric-

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Belta

Love is the ultimate armour

in Belarusian language. It is a delight to work for such an audience. Some actors may find it unusual to perform in the open-air, but I feel very comfortable.”

Knights near castle Certainly, the festival comprised a great deal more than just the musical, featuring knightly tournaments, master classes in medieval dancing, and various games. Unique souvenirs made from wood, straw and clay were on sale, and visitors could learn fencing, walking on stilts, blacksmithing and, even, knife and axe throwing. Visitors could also bet on cockroach races.

Sergey Bondarenko, a master of ceramics, wood and metal, was attending the Golshany Festival for the first time.

He’s a good example of growing interest in this holiday. He notes, “I’ve noticed that ever more people are gathering near the walls of the castle — not only local residents but guests from all over Belarus and, even, abroad. The Lithuanians are frequent guests. I always try to prepare something interesting for guests of the festival; this time, I had Sapegi signs and souvenir images of Golshany, as well as trunks with thalers (silver coins).

Festivals offer a fantastic opportunity for those who might not usually visit museums or concerts; they offer a wide spectrum of national arts, and inspire a real feeling of pride.”

Sound of bagpipes and ocarina An authentic medieval music performance added special colour to the festival, with Gudy playing Belarusian national wind instruments and Balamuty folk group, from the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, playing such ancient national instruments as bagpipes, the ocarina and reed pipes. The medieval atmosphere of the holiday was enhanced by a performance by Flameya dance group and by well-known Stary Olsa folk group.

By Lyudmila Minakova

cardo Fogli, Queen, АВВА, European bands etc.

The show will be augmented by video displays on flat screens, depicting thematic stories about Vitebsk, and the various years in the history of Belarus are planned to be shown. Here you will be able to see how Vitebsk looked at the end of the last century, admire the Kupalie ceremony and get to know sights of our country and the main achievements of the region in the social and production spheres.

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ART

Significant project Ten Centuries of Art in Belarus exposition unites around 500 works — dating from the time of the Byzantine Empire until the modern day — on loan from 29 museums, as well as from corporate funds and private collections

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here’s no doubt that Ten Centuries of Art in Belarus stirs the soul and is worth seeing. The National Art Museum exhibition is magnificent, displ ay ing works never been on show in our capital. At that time, the museum resembled a huge encyclopaedia in the history of Belarusian art, with each page revealing new epochs, styles, faces…

Among the organisers are Belgazprombank JSC, Gazprom Transgaz Belarus JSC, and the Ministry of Culture, alongside the National Art Museum. Covering 800 square metres, a stroll through the galleries takes you through every period of Belarusian art — as if perusing the pages of history.

Some works have barely been on show previously, having been ‘unearthed’ from the archives of the National Art Museum. A portrait of People’s Artiste of the USSR Stefaniya Stanyuta is one such example — painted by her father, Mikhail Stanyuta.

Others have been sent in from regional archives. A Slutsk belt and 12th century golden pendant have been brought in from Molodechno. Meanwhile, the 1588 Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is on loan from Mogilev, and a crown for the 18-19th century Torah has been sent from Pinsk.

The artworks, recently acquired by Belgazprombank, have become true diamonds of the exhibition. For several years the institution has been buying

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works by artists born in Belarus, who acquired international recognition abroad. Among their acquisition is The Portrait of Thomas Zahn, by Walenty Wankowicz: his only remaining original work. Despite the House-Museum of Wankowicz having been open for 13 years (as a branch of the National Art Museum) the former estate of the Wankowicz family was restored only last year. The painting has finally returned to its homeland.

Another treasure is Simeon Polotsky’s book Rod of Government, published in 1667. Two paintings by world famous Belarusian artist Marc Chagall were also on show, created in his early years as an artist. Another on display was by our well-known compatriot Chaïm Soutine. His portrait, Eva, was the most valuable at the exhibition having been purchased at auction from Sotheby’s in New York for $1,860,000.

In 2012, Belgazprombank also purбеларусь.belarus 2014

The artworks, recently acquired

by Belgazprombank, have become true diamonds of the exhibition. For several years the institution has been buying works by artists born in Belarus, who acquired internatinal recognition abroad.

Among their acquisition is The Portrait of Thomas Zahn, by Walenty Wankowicz

chased Soutine’s Les grands prés à Chartres (Big Lawns in Chartres).

Almost every exhibit was on show in some manner in Minsk ‘for the first time’.

A renewed copy of the Cross of St. Yevfrosiniya was brought from Polotsk to Minsk to join the exhibition for a single day, for the grand opening. Created by Nikolay Kuzmich, it allows us to admire the beauty of the original, which disappeared in 1941. It has now returned to Polotsk’s Saviour Monastery of St. Yevfrosiniya. Later it was again brought for another day, as there were too many people wishing to see the relic.

Even the organisation of the exhibition is interesting, occupying two floors of the museum, including the lobby and gallery. Planned by experts from Belarus, Lithuania and Russia, the exhibition has transformed the museum. Truly, it was an event not be missed for those keen to learn about our history and culture.

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At the exhibition opening, Minister of Culture, Boris Svetlov, announced that the event was a ‘phenomenon, showing centuries of creativity among those who once occupied today’s territory of Belarus’. He explained, “Even today, in our times of globalisation and standardisation, our artistic characteristics remain; tradition serves as a reliable basis for new creative achievements.

Monuments of art and culture, as no other, have harmoniously interwoven the traditions of various ethnicities, confessions, styles and directions in Belarus. The world already recognises such concepts as ‘Belarusian iconography’, ‘Belarusian carving’, ‘Slutsk belts’ and ‘Vitebsk’s art school’, testifying to world recognition of achievements of the domestic art.”

The Ministry of Culture has been actively working with private companies and banks to promote Belarusian art at home and abroad, with Belgazprombank acting as a reliable sponsor of important cultural events. Its initiative and support brought about The School of Paris: Artists from Belarus: the first stage of the major Art-Belarus project.

Therefore, Ten Centuries of Art in Belarus is more than an exhibition at the National Art Museum. It is a cultural project of national level: a landmark for Belarus. Private collectors, and museums within Belarus and abroad have contributed works for display. “I feel confident that Belarusians and foreign tourists will discover much that is new and important. For the first time in the history of independent Belarus, they can see our country’s art in all its variety and magnificence,” commented Mr. Svetlov.

During four months residents and guests of Minsk were able to get acquainted with outstanding examples of Belarusian art, with many exhibits on show publicly for the first time — and, certainly, for the first time gathered to show ten centuries of art: from the days of the Byzantine Empire to the present!

With almost 500 treasures presented, all chosen by experts and with many

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having been restored for the occasion, the event has involved almost all regional museums of the country.

The Chairman of Belgazprombank’s Board, Viktor Babaryko, emphasises, “Analysis of the evolution of culture across Belarusian lands shows the continuity of the creative process — even during the most tragic periods of our history. Unfortunately, many works of art were destroyed during wars and social unrest but many were also saved, having been taken out of Belarus. Iron-

ically, this is why they survived. Without challenging the legitimate rights of their new owners, it is necessary to undertake all possible efforts to work jointly in gaining access: via exchange exhibitions, purchasing works at auctions, or from private collectors, or temporary loan.”

Preparations for the exhibition involved analysis of cultural history in Belarus and modern trends of its development, helping us gain a better overview of art through the ages and 2014 беларусь.belarus

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helping us promote works by modern artists — in Belarus and abroad. A more complete understanding of domestic art helps us to forecast further developments in world culture. The exhibition aimed to allow all visitors, regardless of their level of artistic education, to gain an independent appreciation of Belarusian art, without the help of a guide — including an understanding of the challenges it has faced.

“I hope that this task has been fulfilled and the exhibition, promoting беларусь.belarus 2014

wider interest among our fellow countrymen and guests of the country in the Belarusian art,” added Mr. Babaryko.

Meanwhile, the exhibition became that rare case when the development of concept of the artistic exposition was entrusted not to an art expert or a professional organiser of exhibitions. Due to the initiative of Belgazprombank JSC and the consent of the leadership of the National Art Museum an opportunity appeared to build an exposition in such a way that visitors were able to inde-

pendently grasp the complex proves of art development in Belarus. For this a system of exposition organisation was developed that would reflect the evolution of art in Belarus in its fullness and continuity during ten centuries.

Vladimir Schastny, who came up with the idea for the exhibition and helped it to see the light of day, told us, “In selecting works, we chose them not just for their intrinsic professionalism or beauty, but for their role in contributing to the development of domestic

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and world art. Artists belonged to various ethnic groups and spoke various languages, yet all were born on lands which today comprise modern Belarus. They made their own, exclusive contribution to the development of domestic art.”

Lands which now form part of Belarus, due to their geographical position, have always been influenced by various cultural trends. Accordingly, it was a challenge to classify the 400+ works chosen for the exhibition strictly in styles and trends. In many cases, works and their authors are presented in subsections devoted to separate art schools, to give broad understanding of the definition. At the same time, the exhibition endeavours to construct a complete picture of the evolution of art in Belarus, while showing its place in world culture.

Ten Centuries of Art in Belarus exhibition, hosted by the National Art Museum from March 27th, was at-

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Chaim Soutine’s picture, purchased at Sotheby’s for almost $2m and Simeon Polotsky’s 1667 edition on display at the Ten Centuries of Art in Belarus exhibition tended by 24,000 visitors. At the formal closing of the exposition, the Director General of the museum, Vladimir Prokoptsov, shared some details about the exhibition.

For example, 14,000 visitors bought tickets for the exhibition with another 10 thousand getting acquainted with it during the Night of Museums event.

From the first day of work, the museum held 320 excursions; several hundred records have been left in the visitors’ book. Exhibition workers created pa-

per and electronic catalogues and audio guides in Russian, Belarusian and English. They also put into operation a special mobile version of the website using a system of QR codes which allowed visitors to learn more about a work of art via their mobile device.

During the exposition, visitors could visit four lectures devoted to the theme ‘Artistic associations of Belarus’.

According to Mr. Prokoptsov, the carrying out of the Ten Centuries of Art of Belarus exposition became a real master class for the museum. “It is a landmark project not only of the year, but also of the decade which gave us the chance to return to our roots,” he noted. They also intend to introduce the exposition at the 2nd National Museum Forum in Gomel in September of this year. The project will not only be shown in Belarus. Museum workers in China and Poland want to see the exhibition in their countries too.

By Vikor Mikhailov

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