Minsk
Belarus is one of the last unexplored destinations of Europe. Its tremendous history, culture and countryside are waiting to be discovered by visitors. It boasts breathtaking scenery, with vast lakes, rivers, forests, rare and exotic animals, plants and landscapes.
It declared independence in August 1991 after the USSR collapsed but
stayed close to Moscow under President Alexander Lukashenko. The
newly-independent republic was a founder member of the Commonwealth of
Independent States in December 1991, but while ties to Russia remain strong, Belarus is eager to attract more foreign investment and engage more with the West.
Belarus covers 79,9231 square miles (for comparison, the UK covers around 93,000 square miles) and sits
between Poland and Russia. It borders Ukraine in the south, and Latvia
and Lithuania in the north.
The capital of Belarus is Minsk, one of the most impressive cities within the republics of the former Soviet Union, which in 2007 celebrated its 940th anniversary. Sacked by the Crimean Tatars in 1505, ravaged by Napoleon in 1812 and flattened during the Second World War, Minsk is now a time capsule of post-war Soviet urban planning. It has expansive boulevards, fountains and monuments as well as some surviving classical churches, while there are modern architectural developments springing up all over the city.
Outside Minsk, the rolling countryside is unspoilt. Forests cover more than a third of the country, and it has more than 11,000 lakes and 21,000 rivers interspersed by towns and villages. The highest point in Belarus is Dzyarzhynsk Hill, just 345 metres above sea level.
Around 9.7 million people live in Belarus (roughly the same as Belgium) with 1.9m people in Minsk. Four-fifths are Belarusian, 13 per cent are Russian, and the remainder are mainly Polish or Ukrainian. Belarusian and Russian are the national languages, though English is increasingly spoken.
THE FOOTBALL
The Belarusian Premier League or the Vysshaya Liga (top league) was founded in 1992; today it is the top division of professional football in Belarus with 16 teams. At the end of each season two teams are relegated to the Belarusian First League and are replaced by the two top First League teams.
FC BATE Borisov are the current Belarusian Premier League champions, and reached the Champions League group stages for the first time in 2008, marking their first home game in fine style by racing to a 2-0 lead over Juventus before being pegged back for an honourable draw.
In its earliest years the Premier League was dominated by FC Dinamo Minsk, who won the league five times in a row. More recently however the league has been more evenly contested with the four dominant teams being FC Dinamo Minsk, FC BATE Borisov, FC MTZ-RIPO and FC Shakhtyor.
England fans might also remember another of Minsk’s famous sons- a
certain Aliaksandr Hleb now of Barcelona used to ply his trade at
Arsenal where he arrived from Stuttgart with the nickname “the
magician.”