I figured that I’d go according to the following routine in
the next couple of months. On the weekdays I go to the university in the
morning and in the afternoon I study. On the weekend I have to study as well,
but I will include some sightseeing, in Minsk, and then later on I plan to
visit other cities and the countryside as well. My tour guide book says it is
worth it.
It is quite interesting how the time passes here. I don’t
even realize how much time I spend in the study room. It is always the same
with studying languages. I always find a new word and then I just get lost in
the dictionary. By the way, I have an excellent dictionary programme on my
computer, called GIB, where I can find basically anything. There are lots of
sentences set as examples, so it is just too easy to get lost. :D It is not
always up-to-date, e.g. the most modern words are not to be found, but still,
it is useful.
I figure that most of you don’t know much about Belarus and
Minsk, so I’ll write a post on the country’s history. It is immensely
interesting! Maybe not for everyone, but I’m obsessed with the post-soviet
region, as you know that. J
Today I went for a walk finally. I walked along the river.
It is great that there are many parks in Minsk, so you can always go for a
stroll.
I was really curious about one particular monument, and it
is nearby, so that was my first target. It is called the “Island of Tears” and the monument on the island commemorates all
those soldiers who died in the unsuccessful Afghanistan War.
I was happy that I got this topic on one of my exams this
semester. Here comes a summary
of the war for you:
Afghanistan functioned as a neutral
territory for a long time (long is
relative: the country came to existence in ~1896-7). When the Soviet Union (SU)
felt that its neutrality was in danger, it decided to act upon the matter.
Brezhnev was a bit undetermined whether it is wise or not to
enter the country: he asked Andropov’s (that time: head of the KGB) and Mr.
Gromiko’s (aka. Mr. Hem („nyet”- meaning: no)) opinion. Andropov knew the risks,
so he voted against deploying the troops. However, Mr. Gromiko, who was the
Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time, said “Da”. Thus, the SU marched into
the country in the year of 1979.
The respective ruler of Afghanistan that time was Hafizullah
Amin. He wasn’t a mental person at all. With 2 other men, Tatari and Babrak, they
formed the leadership of the group who wanted to win the Students’ Union
elections at the university in Kabul. The 1960s were pretty much about their
fights with the other, Islamist group. Finally, the first group gained
political power. Eventually Hafizullah came to power, but he was so paranoid,
that he even killed Tatari, who was planning a coup against him, since he saw
how insanely he behaved.
The murder of Tatari and the fact that Amin started to establish
relations with the US, made the SU to take the “necessary” steps and enter the
country. They killed Hafizullah Amin and appointed Babrak as the leader of the
country…
In the course of the following years many Soviet soldiers
died on the territory of Afghanistan. Finally, Gorbachev decided that it was
about time they had left the country. In 1988 the Geneva Accords was signed, in
terms of which all Soviet soldiers had to leave the country within one year.
They did.
I wrote down all of this so that you would understand why
this war is so important in the region. This is why this monument is Minsk is
so important as well.
Sorry, the internet is way to slow here. I cannot upload pictures here. It's already something that I can upload the pics to picasa. I attach the link, so that you can see everything. :) Sorry, dumb solution, but right now I don't have any better one.
Search for the first photo about the Island of Tears
You can see some figures on the bottom. They’re the mothers who mourn
their sons’ death.
It was raining today, and I’m going to return for sure when
it’ll be sunny, but I found it perfect today, since it was in the gloomy
weather that the monument was truly authentic.
After leaving the monument I took a short walk in the Old Town.
Unfortunately not much remained after WWII, since most of the country was
completely demolished by the Germans.
Then came the Soviets and they rebuilt most of country. It
was taken into consideration to leave the ruins behind and move the capital
somewhere else, but the reconstruction had already begun, so the capital
stayed. Thus became Minsk the primary example of post-soviet architecture. I’ll
introduce that to you later on.
Sources:
Angelo Rasanayagama: Aghanistan - A Modern
History
Nigel
Roberts: Belarus (Bradt Travel Guides)
+
my additional knowledge I gathered from (by now) unknown sources
So, that was it for this weekend. I hope that everybody is
fine. I don’t know much about your everyday life due to the lack of Internet.
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