Belarus - Stuck in Time

STUCK IN TIME

SOVIET-STYLE CONFORMITY IN BELARUS [MINSK]

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Yesterday I saw a large banner on Miensk’s [MINSK’S] main boulevard advertising a “Festival of Soviet Cuisine.” I was not quite sure what this meant, perhaps the cutlets made of paper, which were fed to students and workers in Soviet stolovayas (cafeterias), or all those delicacies served to the nomenklatura in restaurants closed to ordinary citizens. But what really made me wonder is why one would need to organize a festival of Soviet food if the entire country is like one big Soviet reality show anyway?

Lenin statutes, Stalinist Baroque architecture, Socialist Realist sculptures, red flags and stars are everywhere… Let’s not forget the KGB, collective farms, and our Soviet Belarus newspaper. And, yes, November 7^th, the date of the “Great October Revolution,” is still a state holiday here.

While renewing my passport, I came across more holdovers from the old system. In Belarus , everyone still has a propiska – a passport entry from Soviet times which is the official register of one’s place of residence. Like in the USSR , it is still illegal to get a job (both in the public or private sector) in a place other than that listed in the propiska. There are basically three ways to get around this regulation for those who want to reside in the capital: to purchase an apartment there, to “buy” a propiska, or to bribe a potential employer. The second method is the most popular. As in Soviet times, the modern Belarusian state system revolves around special connections and bribes (from chocolate and cognac to hard currency). Another anachronism is the special stamp, which costs extra, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs which allows passport holders to travel abroad. Such a stamp is needed even for a trip to Ukraine, a CIS country.

But my favorite Soviet retro move these days is a new regulation, signed on November 4^th by Belarus ’ Prime Minister, Mr. Sidorsky. Titled “On Immediate Measures Regarding the Development of Youth Fashion,” the regulation requires the Ministry of Education to create and approve a state concept for youth fashion by the New Year. A state consortium of textile producers will be responsible for selecting and mass producing collections of youth clothing. The decision is due to the nonconformist look of today’s youth, which annoys Lukashenka. Like Party bosses of old, he wants everyone to look and think alike. But even during Soviet times, young people sported smuggled jeans and managed to obtain other forbidden (and therefore even more desired) Western goods. To control fashion today, Lukashenka would have not only to close numerous second-hand stores (the most popular places to buy cloths among those with fashion sense), but also the country’s borders—quite serious actions to insure a Soviet dress code.

This crumbling but still-standing statue of Leninist Pioneers in one of Miensk’s courtyards made me think of a Belarus stuck in time.