Midnight in Minsk

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Every Picture Tells a Story

Sveltana Alexievich has a flat in this apartment building. She knows how to tell a story. She has written about the Second World War, sorry The Great Patriotic War, the war in Afghanistan and Chernobyl. Her technique is to interview people and tell the story through their words. This is how she puts it:

“If you look back at the whole of our history, both Soviet and post-Soviet, it is a huge common grave and a blood bath. An eternal dialogue of the executioners and the victims. The accursed Russian questions: what is to be done and who is to blame. The revolution, the gulags, the Second World War, the Soviet–Afghan war hidden from the people, the downfall of the great empire, the downfall of the giant socialist land, the land-utopia, and now a challenge of cosmic dimensions – Chernobyl. This is a challenge for all the living things on earth. Such is our history. And this is the theme of my books, this is my path, my circles of hell, from man to man.”

Several election observers have read her books and recommend them. Although she was born in Ukraine her father is Belarusian and she was brought up in Belarus so there was much rejoicing in Minsk when she won a Nobel prize for literature in 2015.

My Area of Observation in the election was the western edge of Minsk – a mix of urban residential and rural villages. In one village there are two celebrities. You may not have heard of Darya Domracheva but she is a famous, now retired, athlete who competed in biathlons, winning four Olympic gold medals. I had to ask so I’ll tell you: cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Her new neighbour is Gérard Depardieu who, you may remember, has become a Russian citizen. I didn’t meet either of them although I did meet a lot of people and sometimes there was a chance to chat. One election commission member had served in Afghanistan for two years, another was a fisherman and showed me pictures of a recent catch and so on. But the people I talk to most are my election observation partner and our interpreter. Peter is a Slovak diplomat with a dog so we got along rather well. Valeryia arranges bird watching tours in Belarus and is a knowledgable ornithologist. There are ten varieties of woodpecker in Europe and the only country where you can see all of them is Belarus. We stopped in a rural restaurant for a snack and saw stuffed birds; black grouse, pheasant and capercaillie; all still extant in Belarus. It pained Valeryia that they are stuffed.

The Great Patriotic War

The Belarusian Great Patriotic War Museum is the oldest WW II museum – it opened in October 1944; shooting before the Twelfth as it were. It may also be the largest with twenty-four exhibition halls spread over four floors. It, of course, depicts the war on the Eastern Front and so is unlike any exhibition I had seen before although other Eastern European countries have similar, smaller, museums.

HMS Queen Mary

The Royal Navy has two aircraft carriers, one of which is HMS Queen Elizabeth. She, I think ships are female but no doubt I will be corrected, is named after an earlier Queen Elizabeth: a WW I super-dreadnought named after Queen Elizabeth I. It is fashionable to affix the preface “super” to almost everything. Now we are back in days of yore let me tell you about HMS Queen Mary. She is named after Mary of Teck, better known as Mrs George V, not Bloody Mary.

A battlecruiser launched in 1913 she only saw serious action once; at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. She was hit, her magazines exploded, 1,266 men perished. One of them is Reginald Bloxam, Stoker 1st Class, whose sacrifice is remembered by me when I walk Bertie in Margravine Cemetery.

Midnight in Minsk

I cannot resist alliteration. Actually we were about twenty miles west of Minsk to observe the tabulation of votes at our District Electoral Commission. It concluded briskly and at midnight Peter, Valeryia, Vladimir and I were heading home to Hotel Belarus. As we left, Valeyria thought that the two oldest men outside the DEC should be photographed.