When I ask Tamara when she last saw her husband, she explains that unfortunately there is a constant problem with obtaining a visa to Poland, or rather with arranging an interview on this matter, and this is blocking his arrival.
— If it weren't for this, we wouldn't have seen Istanbul. My husband in Belarus bought a trip to Turkey, and I flew there from Poland.
Doesn't she feel humiliated that, having obtained her doctorate, she now drives a taxi? Tamara admits that she had this feeling for a very long time. The paradox is that by driving a taxi in Poland, he is able to earn much more than in Belarus as a lecturer.
— I'm used to it. The only difference is that in Minsk we had a beautiful apartment, and here I rent a room. The other two are inhabited by students.
– It hurts. And very much so.
Why did she leave? She was warned by a friend whose husband worked in the KGB that she was at risk of arrest.
Paweł, who managed to check whether his children were not included in the database of wanted people, describes the Belarusian reality in a similar way.
— If they were there, we would go to the West through Russia. As you know, there was no control on the border between Belarus and Russia for a long time, so there was this surprising escape route. Now, of course, that has changed.
Paweł adds that an interesting phenomenon has recently been observed. Since going to the West became much more difficult for Russians, many began to come to Belarus.
— We have a lot of tourists from Russia. They are visiting the governorate – he smiles wryly.
The paradox of Belarusian cities. “This is striking”
Igor, who as an IT specialist is up to date with everything that is happening on the Internet, draws my attention to the fact that cafes and restaurants in Belarus really care about good reviews on Google.
— Back in the day, when mainly locals went to cafes and restaurants, you didn't have to have any reviews on Google. Now, if someone runs a restaurant, they have to get ratings of at least 4.1 or 4.2 to attract Russian tourists, who invariably have more money. Belarus, which I remember from 15 years ago, is a country where it was difficult to eat anything decent in smaller towns. Today, there are at least a few good places in every town.
– This is striking – says oppositionist Maksim, emphasizing that the economic situation in Belarus is clearly deteriorating, which is visible in the quality of the roads.
His comment surprises me very much, because 15 years ago Belarusian roads were better than Polish ones.
“It's the distant past,” says Paweł. — At some point, Lukashenko clearly ran out of money and a few years ago he even had to publicly admit that there is a problem with the quality of roads in Belarus.
Paweł, like Maksim, points out that the growing economic problems are accompanied by the booming restaurant and club industries. Firstly, because tourists come from Russia. Secondly, Lukashenko has finally come to terms with the fact that he must let people get richer. As a result, even in smaller cities you can drink soy latte or matcha.
Tamara argues that at some point, right after the demonstrations in 2020, there was a top-down recommendation to provide entertainment for young people.
“The idea was for them to have fun, not conspire. It's really simple.
In Belarus, PLN 2,000 is a really decent salary
The paradox of the situation is that in Belarus, as my interlocutors unanimously note, on the one hand, it is poorer than before, and on the other hand, there is also wealth that was not there before. For many years, Belarus was a country with very small wealth differences. Today, as Tamara states, “there is little left of Lukashenko's socialism.”
Paweł emphasizes that currently in Belarus, PLN 2,000 is a really decent salary. At the same time, many goods are more expensive than in Poland. Tamara, from a university salary, was able to buy only basic food products. Awareness of growing poverty caused the authorities to introduce official prices or, more precisely, maximum official prices for certain categories of goods.
Igor recalls that before the current war, Vilnius was a city where every Belarusian IT specialist visited at least once a month.
— The difference is that people used to go there for shopping. And now to meet friends, because well over half of Belarusian IT specialists settled in Lithuania.
Read more in the book “With a view of Poland. Neighbors, Stalin's thumb, Czech debt and the KGB”.
The names of the real characters of the text have been changed*
