Old postcards Belarus

The Byelorussian SSR was one of the four republics that signed the treaty creating the USSR in December 1922. The Soviet postcards of Belarus in this section come mainly from Minsk and Brest, with smaller groups from Vitebsk and Gomel; the Minsk sets are dated 1956, 1980, 1983 and 1990.

The card “Lenin Square. Minsk, 1980” shows the Government House with its Lenin monument and the Red Church. The 1983 set includes winter evening views of Kirov Street and Masherov Avenue, while the 1980 set covers the Tourist hotel, the Palace of Sports and a display of tractors from the Minsk Tractor Works.

War memorials run through the whole section: the Mound of Glory and Khatyn on 1980 cards, a night view of the memorial to the liberators of Vitebsk (1976) and the main monument of the Brest Fortress (1973). The Brest Hero Fortress memorial complex opened in 1971, so the card shows it almost new. The same 1973 Brest set also shows the everyday city: the Brest-Central railway station with a Sovtransavto bus, Yanka Kupala Street with the Lakomka café and a new industrial district.

Nothing here is a modern print made to look old: each picture was scanned from an original Soviet postcard, and the Belarus section expands as scanning continues.