Minsk celebrated its 959th birthday. We looked at old pictures and remembered how the capital looked before

How much water has flowed: Minsk celebrated its 959th birthday. During this time, the capital’s architecture has changed its focus more than once, and city panoramas have been updated with generations. We decided to show old pictures of Minsk and make a visual comparison of epochs. The usual urban landscapes have experienced large-scale metamorphosis, but somewhere the historical atmosphere still appears through the modern appearance?

Modern, innovative and so technological. Electric buses, digital billboards, skyscrapers and dozens of shopping centers. The Vilna Baroque seemed to share its possessions with futurism. And new buildings tell their stories architectural classics, which are almost 500 years old.

Valeria Timoshkova, correspondent: Holy Spirit Cathedral is one of the hallmarks of Minsk, which is known both in our country and abroad. Today around it are neat paths and lawns. In general, the capital in its front version... But Minsk didn't always look like this. And that's where the fun starts. Because it is worth a little rewinding time back – and familiar places become almost unrecognizable.

There's no need to look for a time machine. It was done for us a long time ago. Camera lenses captured almost every stage of the formation of the capital. From the rigors of the trials to the bright pages that are blowing up social media today.

But if now for such “masterpieces” is enough one click of a button, then earlier it was spent much more time. Take a picture on film, and then manually show in the "red" rooms. Such a long and painstaking work is not just to photograph, but rather to try to convey the moment, the emotions that the capital experienced. Vadim Kachan, Sergey Baglasov – people who in the 80s were engaged in the work of the “soul”. And now their work is a real asset, and not only for Minsk residents.

Evgenia Stalmakhova, Head of the Exposition and Exhibition Department of the Minsk History Museum: I have a building in my hands that is almost impossible to recognize. This is Rakovskaya Street. Today there is an exhibition hall of the Museum of History of Minsk. These are nostalgic memories of the older generation of Minsk residents, of how they played football as boys on these streets and broke the neighbor’s windows. But for us, this is a valuable archival material, on which we can tell about Minsk of the last century. Finding the same perspectives is sometimes very difficult, because indeed Minsk has changed a lot.

Notice the beauty in the ordinary, where for some the sidewalk is just a stone. It's not an easy task. But certainly not for Anatoly Dribas. He did not choose the photograph, but rather it determined the focus of his life.

Black and white, colored. Film and digital. In the lens - landscapes, animals, people, concerts and solemn meetings - more than forty years Anatoly Prokofievich in every sense shows history. But the portraits and profiles of the capital became a real close-up for the photographer.

Anatoly Dribas, photographer: In fact, I started in Minsk sometime since 2004. Then the architecture committee suggested to me: “Let’s make an album about Minsk.” I gave you a whole list of objects to photograph. I've been since then. But it was very interesting. Just looking at new, all the time some new objects. So the city is changing a lot.

The Palace of Sports, the National Library, the Minsk Arena seem to have never existed without these giants. Right.

Lydia Gurtova: After the Patriotic War, the city of Minsk was destroyed by 85%. The station square was especially affected, Victory Avenue was then. And, of course, all the forces were thrown on the restoration, our veterans tell us that after school, even the 4th, 5th grade children, the older students, of course, went, removed from the ruins, took out bricks, as building material, which was preserved to restore, and somehow helped. That is, the residents of Minsk, both children and schoolchildren, were involved in the restoration of the capital.

The older generation – people who can look at old pictures, and can – in their own memory. They know the city without pictures. How it was in the morning, evening, winter and summer. Places that used to just “been” somewhere, but now have become the centers of a large metropolis.

Time goes by, but should something stay the same? Facades and technologies – renovation and reconstruction, of course, are necessary, but to rebuild the atmosphere, perhaps, and not under force.

Time is ticking. How did film in cameras once move? There is always someone who will say, “Before...” but Minsk cannot be left in a state of slow motion. And probably not. Our capital grows, transforms, leaving in the past what time it is... and every day creates the best shot!

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