​As we enter GRISHA, we hear a loud classical melody playing. “Wow GRISHA is certainly in a good mood!” Marta says and smiles to Masha. But after we listen to the song more carefully we understand that this is a very emotional song, and one that we’ve heard before! We actually recognize it: it’s Oginski’s Polonaise! Masha looks at Marta with big eyes and says, “do you think that we are going to visit Michał Kleofas Oginski, the famous composer and politician?! That would be really amazing!”
 
“Let’s go, girls! We will travel to the year 1822 in Zalessie, hold on tight!” GRISHA says in full enthusiasm. BOM, BAM, BOM, we have landed! As we open the door, we are greeted by the sweet, earthy autumnal smell of fallen leaves. We see a huge, beautiful, and perhaps a little gloomy garden in front of us. We jump out of GRISHA and run through the garden: it is very still, but so beautiful with the cold transparent air and even some rays of sun on our faces!
 
Then we walk towards a beautiful house standing there in front of us! Will we meet Oginski there? Will he be happy to see us? We open the door of this mansion and there we see a man, he is crying his tears out, and has his hands in front of his eyes... What is going? When he sees us he looks completely bewildered. Who are you? Are you lost? No, we say, and explain him who we are; time travellers meeting important Belarusian heroes. Ah he says, I must be hallucinating from all my grief and sorrow. But he seems to go along with the hallucination as he says, “I will wipe my tears and tell you everything.”
 
“You see all of this? This is my home, has been my home for the past 20 years! I have been so happy here, appreciating the beauty of this place every day... Unfortunately, I am not a young man any more, and definitely not as healthy as I used to be. Maybe that is the reason for my hallucinations?..” he sort of asks himself. We smile politely...
 
“So, I have to say goodbye to my home, my everything and move to Florence. And I secretly know that this time I won’t return to my motherland,” he adds with the saddest look on his face we have ever seen. But suddenly he says; follow me I will show you everything! While running through his house, we hear amazing stories that each room has to tell. “This is my study room. Here I sat with my friends and colleagues for hours and hours discussing diplomatic stuff, pressing issues and big news.”
 
As we run behind him into the next room, he tells us of the amazing music events and balls that were held in it. “This is where I used to play, and the crowd used to dance all through the night. It looks so empty and desolated now...” As we walk through this ballroom, we can almost see the shadows of the past guests, hear their laughter, the chatter and the music. It’s a bit hypnotic.
 
Then he opens a door to the outside and we follow him. We walk briskly through the garden, trying to keep up with his speed and enthusiasm for this place. He shows us the French and English garden, a botanic garden, a zoo, greenhouses and even a mill! We are amazed by this beauty and understand very well why Oginski doesn’t want to leave his home.
 
Then we follow him back inside. “How can I ever leave this place?.. I may have not been born here, but this land is where my family comes from.” We feel the pain in his voice. We deicde to ask him whether he could maybe play a song for us on the piano. Maybe he could express his grief for his motherland through the music. “That is a great idea, my hallucinatory friends,” says Oginski, “I will play what I feel and I hope that one day this song will be heard by all that I love and care about.”
 
As he begins to play his now famous “Farewell to Homeland” polonaise, we just freeze... we stand there in silence and with goosebumps all over our body. Listening to this emotional and touching music. We look at each other and both of us have tears in our eyes. This is a song for all of us, all who with a shared history connected to this land. It starts off very gentle and melancholic, building up to a more resonant and rigorous melody in the middle, and then going to a soft and soulful reprise. His music is just a very good reminder of who we are and that we have a very very rich and beautiful history. After he is finished we applaud as loudly as we can and see that Oginski now has a very sad but also peaceful smile on his face. He says that this is his farewell present to his country, to his motherland. May this piece be remembered by those who need to find their origin, their love, because I am very happy to have found my love for this beautiful country. We tell him that this piece is not forgotten, to the contrary! This is a very famous melody that will be loved by people from many countries in the future. Belarus even considered making it its national anthem at one point! He smiles and says, good! Girls in my dream, will you help me pack my bags? I will have to go soon! After helping Oginski’s pack his bag we wave him goodbye and wish him all the best with his travel and his health!
“Thank you, girls! I will not forget you!” And he is gone...
 
While walking back to GRISHA, we discuss that we are so lucky to not only have met Michał Kleofas Ogiński, but to have met him during such a difficult time of his life. He was able to teach us an important lesson: we should use the pain and grief we feel to do wonderful things. We suddenly hear softly the polonaise of Oginski this time with Belarusian lyrics, coming from GRISHA. This touches our hearts and makes us cry, again. GRISHA tells us that we just met an amazing man. An international figure that is claimed by many nations. Whatever the truth is, he was connected to our land, he spent a lot of time in Zalessie, the place he loved and called his home.  So, it is time that we Belarusians also took pride in Oginski. We can’t agree more with GRISHA! This man was an outstanding politician, who showed courage when it was needed. For example, he used his own money to help fund the Kościuszko Uprising, fought for what he believed was right, and dreamed of restoring unity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania… But what he was able to realize in his music was beyond politics: it belonged to all of humankind. 

On our way to our dear friend (and time machine) GRISHA, we find a 50-ruble banknote laying just in front of her. “Wow, are we lucky or what?” Masha says with a big smile. We can buy a lot of things with this little piece of paper! “Yes, like treat ourselves to a 5-course dinner when we get back,” Marta smiles. 

“But why do you have money just lying around GRISHA?” Masha asks. It turns out that GRISHA wanted to prepare us for our new trip with this note! It’s not just about the money, GRISHA informed us. He then tells us to look more closely at the note and tell her what we see. “Well, there are some music notes, a piece of paper that looks like an ancient scroll, a lyre, some laurel branches, a fancy feather that people used to write with…” Our time machine then interrupts us and tells us to look on the other side. We turn the paper around and immediately say “aha!”. “It’s the Mir Castle!” Masha screams. “I’ve seen this red castle in so many tourist brochures, but never had the chance to go!” Marta then explains that she’s been there once during one of the famous open-air concerts but never had the chance to really explore the place. “OOOH, let’s go!” they both shouted with excitement.

And yes, we were right indeed! Once we stepped out of GRISHA we were met with a magnificent sight. He has actually landed us inside the castle! I think we are between the outer castle wall and the castle itself, hence we have the chance to take in the whole building, and one word comes to our mind: impressive! The castle is surprisingly not red, but white-and-pink with towers on the corners, long and narrow embrasures all over the wall. “You know, it is beautiful and all, but at the same time formidable. I’m sure this castle could stop an entire army if necessary,” Masha says. “Let’s find the main entrance and see whether we can find someone who can tell us more about it!” 

While walking around, we see the outer castle wall, which is really big and tall, and in part is a mound of earth. From some of the openings in the wall we can see a lake and a big garden. Amazing! 

Then suddenly we see Urshulia walking around. What is going on here? Haven’t we already been back to this time? Did GRISHA make a mistake? Urshulia then sees us and greets us, “Welcome my friends and best actors I have ever met! I would very much like to introduce you to my husband; who just happens to be here!” We then see a very charming man approaching us, he introduces himself as Michal Kazimierz…“ But many, and especially lovely ladies like yourself call me Rybenko, meaning little fish.” Well we were certainly intrigued by him and his nickname! Urshulia tell him that we believe that we are time travellers, but whispers in his ear (loud enough for us to hear) that we are actually just very good actors with big imaginations. We nod politely and ask Michal Kazimierz whether he could give us a tour through this amazing castle. He replied, “Sure my dear friends, follow me!” We are super excited to meet this great man and even more excited to have a tour through Mir Castle!

He explains that we are looking at an Italian Renaissance style of architecture, with some Gothic elements left from the previous years. “I have rebuilt the insides of the castle, introduced a Parade hall, a Portrait hall, a Dance Hall, put in solid oak parquet, gilded carved ceilings, beautiful furniture made by local craftsmen, wallpaper, paintings, tapestries, and porcelain! There are 16 fireplaces in the castle and 17 furnaces, stucco ceiling,..” it was all very colourful and impressive. “As you most likely have heard, we have a grand tradition which my family has introduced of hosting amazing palace balls and festivals mostly organized by my lovely wife which she may have even invited you to perform at one of our many theatre performances. We invite nobles from all reaches and there is music, dancing, and the finest food and drink.” We both look at each other and then reply that we have never been to anything so spectacular. “Ah, poor girls, for our next grand event you are both most definitely invited, but on one condition, please find yourselves a suitable evening dress!” 

He continues with his tour but then begins to whisper. “I would like to show you something that not many people know about! A secret I have been working on for a very long time.” He opens a heavy door and we see a huge underground tunnel being build! Michal Kazimierz looks very proud at us while we stare at it with big open mouths. “Wow what is this, why is there a tunnel? You want to organize underground party’s as well?” Masha asks.  He looks at us with a surprised face, “Well that’s an idea! But no, that is not what this is for. This will be an underground tunnel that will connect Mir and Nesvich castle! Imagine what kind of impact this will have if one castle is being attacked! Or if we just want to secretly transport something!” he winks at us. We were truly amazed by the scale of this future tunnel! “It’s amazing!” we say. Michal Kazimierz then shows us back to where we had started. 

We say goodbye to this creative and beautiful couple, who still don’t believe that we are time travellers! However, when seeing their faces while we enter Grisha, we finally think they may have gotten it or at least a bit intrigued. It was an amazing experience, and we are both feeling very lucky to have witnessed one our countries most legendary periods and secrets: the underground tunnel connecting two of our most beautiful castles!
 
Grisha, sounding very amused with himself, says, “I’m sure you both wont look at 50 rubles in the same way now?!” “No, we won't indeed!” Marta nods. Each bank note has a story to tell, and it not only helps us to get to know our history, it is also a good conversation starter next time you want to impress the cute cashier in the supermarket!

There we go again. We have arrived at our destination! Grisha tells us that it’s the year 1746. We open the door and cannot believe our eyes! Everyone is dressed up in beautiful outfits, they are dancing and singing while an orchestra plays in the background. It’s so beautiful and overwhelming. We stare at the crowd and try to understand what it is that we are looking at.

‘This must be either Carnival or some sort of a theatre show’, Masha whispers in Marta’s ear. Then we ask a lady in a beautiful costume what she is doing, and she says, ‘Ah you two must be the actors playing the peasants, wonderful to have you here’! We are a bit shocked that for the first time in our time travelling someone actually thinks we belong. This will be fun!

Luckily our role in this performance was very small; looking grim and talking to each other. This is a piece of cake! But we were dying to know who here  are we supposed to meet? Which one of these people all dressed up in these wonderful costumes is our Belarusian Hero? Before we left Grisha told us we were  suppose to meet a woman called Urshulia Radzivill; the founder of this great theatre. Wait, what? Like Radzivill the same Radzivill of Nesvich Castle? Yes we finally made it to Nesvich! This must be the castle!  

As we look around the room we see a fabulously dressed woman and know right away that must be Urshulia. From the very first second we see her we are truly amazed by this woman’s energy and passion. After introducing ourselves and telling her our story, she laughs in amusement…’I really must get you both to write some plays for my theatre! You have the most extraordinary imaginations’! Finding us very entertaining, Urshulia shares with us her own story.
She told us how this entire boring world is in need of a bit of drama, amusement, and comedy. That she enjoys writing plays and that she’s made it her mission to develop great theatre, opera, and write poetry so that people can enjoy and learn from our cultural through educational entertainment. She was so passionate about her life and the theatre that we could only stare at her and nod yes, yes, yes! ‘You see’, she continued, ‘I have come to live in this castle because I married my wonderful husband, Michael Kazimir Radzvil. I love it here, but something had to change. And, since my precious Michael is often not at home, I took over this household. I want to spend my time doing something useful. Something that people will remember me for. So, I do what I love. I produce plays and make them as assessable to everyone not just the rich but also people like yourselves’.. We nod in agreement. Ursulia is really someone who has used her intelligence, creativity, and wealth to do good in this world.

In excitement we tell her that in our time she is still remembered as a great patron for Belarusian theatre and that on this very ground festivals are held in her name. She starts to laugh so hard that tears roll down her face. We also inform her that this very castle is an internationally  recognised location of importance known as a UNESCO World Heritage site. ‘UNESCO, what’, she said puzzled? As her attention is drawn to another part of the room, she suddenly stands up and while walking away, she laughingly says that this is the best joke she has ever heard and that we are definitely hired as script writers for her theatre! 
 
We stay a bit longer and enjoy the atmosphere and even get to see several other plays. When we return to Grisha she tells us some interesting facts about Ursulia. ‘Ursulia Niasvizh was a woman of her ear. In 18th century France and other parts of western Europe, wealthy women were beginning to transform society by hosting famous Salons (parties) where intellectuals would come together to discuss cultural and political ideas. These Salons were often the starting points of revolutionary ideas. Ursulia is the perfect example of this generation of women; rich, educated, talented, and passionate not just about theatre but about her country and her legacy. While some of her contemporaries spent lavishly on fancy balls and ornate gardens, Ursulia was diligently writing and producing plays (she was the  first female playwright in The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth),  establishing and endowing the castle theatre in Niasvizh, in addition to being a loving wife, caring mother, and passionate patriot. Moreover, she also led the restoration of Nesvizh Castle after the devastating wars with Sweden, protected Nesvizh from Russian army raids in the 1730s, restored the castle printing house, and catalogued and expanded the castle library by 9000 books.
As we fly off in Grisha we feel empowered by Ursulia Raszivill. What an astonishing woman she was. We are so happy that her legacy is still  very much part of Belarusian culture and theatre! 

We arrive with the familiar bump in the year 1250. According to Grisha’s Ipad, we have landed in what is today known as the Polatsk region. When opening the door we see a big crowd of party people dressed in beautiful traditional Belarusian clothes. They are laughing, dancing, and singing. In the middle of this celebrating crowd stands a beautiful bride with a very happy husband by her side.

This is a wedding! “I always wanted to be part of a traditional wedding, let’s go and celebrate Masha”, Marta says enthusiastically. We hear a group of people singing beautiful songs, and bringing bread and salt to the newlywed couple. This must be an old tradition. We dance and drink along and we seem to fit in perfectly, no weird glances, no questions . . . This is great for a change.

Suddenly the partying stops. The guests become a bit nervous. Talking in a low voice. Masha asks, “Is it us? Did they discover that we weren’t invited guests and from another time. Should we run for it?” But then we hear someone talking about a dragon. What? A dragon? This must be some sort of a joke? How curious?

The newlywed couple walk away and we follow them without attracting too much attention to ourselves. The couple stop near a lake and start throwing food and some sort of special homemade alcoholic drink, possibly some sort of vodka moonshine. They then loudly and clearly ask the lake whether they could have a happy family life? Is this a normal tradition? Asking a lake for a happy life? Seems a bit strange, doesn’t it? All of a sudden huge dragon appears from the lake. He is so big and scary that we don’t know where to hide. This thing will find us anywhere! But then we see that this big scary dragon gives this brave couple a nod. And the couple kisses and thanks the dragon.

Ok this is the weirdest thing we have ever seen, but the dragon does seem friendly and he doesn’t appear to want to eat them. He even pulls a friendly face!

The couple walk back to the party with a big smile on their faces. When they see our bewildered and shocked faces they explain to us that this is part of a pagan tradition; to make the dragon, who is called Smog, happy and ask for permission for a happy life. This is an old marriage tradition that we must respect and obey! We nod, but we can’t seem to stop shaking after what we just saw. The couple laughs and pushed us towards the party, ‘Lets go and get you both something to recover from this experience’, so we just nod again.

We return a bit tipsy and still a bit shaky to our Grisha. It's time to leave this place Grisha! Before closing the door, we see Smog fly off shooting fire from his nose. This has been an interesting turn of events. Arriving at a wedding that took place almost a thousand year ago and then meeting a huge dragon called Smog who surprisingly turned out to be a friendly dragon. Boy, Belarusian history is filled with surprises, and we can’t wait for our next one!

Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!

WHOOSH, BOOM and here we are again in an unfamiliar but certainly important moment in Belarusian history. We open the door to our time machine Grisha and see that we have landed in front of a large building, which is under construction. Grisha shows us that we have landed in Minsk in the year 1893! That is cool! What will we discover this time?
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We see a man standing near this large building staring at us with his mouth open. We go up to him and ask him what is going on here and who he is? He tells us with a surprised voice that he is Mayor Karol Hutten Chapski and that we are looking at the new city theatre, which is finally being built thanks to the generosity of the Minsk people! Ahhhh THE Count Chapski, the dude from Alivaryia Beer Company, we whisper softly to one another.

He immediately asks us who we are and what exactly is this extraordinary thing we just exited? For the first time ever we hear excitement instead of a shock when we introduce ourselves (and our time machine Grisha), especially when we mention that we are from the year 2017 and on a mission to discover important moments in the history of Belarus. With a lot of excitement he tells us that it is the first time he has ever met someone from the future and a time machine. Wow this man is truly ahead of his time.

Chapski asks us what we can tell him about the theatre and whether it’s still standing in 2017? We look at it and immediately recognize the shape.. So we tell him that it does look familiar and that he is remembered as the coolest mayor Minsk ever had, who once owned Alivaryia Beer Company, and that did some very good things for Minsk and its people. He looks at us with a smile and says, that could have been worse, right?!

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All of a sudden we hear Grisha making noises behind us and realise she is trying to tell us something. ‘So we are standing directly in front of Janka Kupala theatre (what it is known as today in 2017)’, he chirps.  Count Chapski looks at us surprised, ‘Who is Janka Kupala?’ Grisha quickly replies, ‘Janka Kupala is a famous Belarusian writer and poet who is currently only 11 years old and lives not very far from here’. Looking at one another and then at Chapski we suggest that maybe we can travel to Maladzyechna, Janka Kupala birth city and meet him. . . together. Count Chapski gets very existed and with a huge grin on his face he says ‘Yes! Let's meet the person that will have his name attached to this theatre. I surely can’t pass-up the opportunity to ride in a time machine!’

Barely able to close the door, we squeezing into Grisha and land a short time after in front of a wooden house. As we step out of Grisha, we see a young boy sitting in front of the house writing something on a piece of paper. So this must be Janka Kupala, the boy that is to become the greatest Belarusian language writer and poet of the 20th century!

So here we are standing in Maladzyechna accompanied by the greatest Mayor and reformist Minsk has ever seen, Count Chapski, and we are looking at a young Janka Kupala possibly writing one of his famous Belarusian poems. This little boy will soon become a great poet helping to preserve Belarusian folklore and its language. Not only was Kupala talented but also very courageous. Writing in the Belarusian language was  banned at the time and publishing books in Belarusian was nearly impossible.

Again we hear Grisha chirping at us.

‘From Forebears' Ages, Long Since Gone.
I bear it in my living soul
Like torch-flame ever bright for me,
That through deaf darkness to my goal,
Midst vandals it may lighten me.
With it lives my thought-family.
Bringing dreams of sincerity . . .
And its name, all-in-all must be
My native land, my heritage.’

As we stood silently together, goose bumps covering our arms, Mayor Chapski breaks the silence, looks at Janka Kupala and says, ‘This is a true man of the Belarusian people. I am very proud that the theatre will one day be named after this young boy.’ We both nod in agreement.
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Realising that it was our time to go, we drop Mayor Chapski back in Minsk and say our emotional goodbyes. Back in our time machine we could not stop talking about our amazement for the two great men we just met. Both of them representing the creative power of Belarusians in different ways!

Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!

Once again we step into our time machine Grisha for another adventure through the history of Belarus. This just doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. We finally come to a pretty unpleasant stop…thump. . According to Grisha we are in Vitebsk in year 1900. The door opens and full of excitement we look outside.

It appears we landed in front of a cute little wooden house. In fact, all around us we see picturesque wooden houses. We must be in the village? And it appears everything even the churches and the synagogues are made of wood?

A young woman walks towards us, and we ask her who lives in this house. With a frown on her face she tells us that this is the house of the Shagal family. The father Zachar sells fish, the mother Feige-Ite is the owner of a little grocery store and they have nine children...
Marta and I looked at one another... Chagall? As in the famous French artist? Could this really be? Was he born here... in Vitebsk? What was he doing here? I wonder if we’ll bump into him? Is he here now? When we looked back at the woman, she had already gone.
Catching our breath, we walked towards the little house in front of us and peered into the front window. It was getting dark. Suddenly, we noticed the family coming home. Amongst the chaos of such a large family the eldest boy seemed to stand out to us.  We watched him walk into a little room where he brought with him a book, a piece of paper and pencil, and began to draw. This must be Marc Chagall!

While the boy started to sketch on his little wooden desk, his mother entered his room. We heard her ask: ‘Moishe, what are you doing? I am drawing mother, the boy replied. I saw one of friends drawing. It was so amazing! I’ve never seen such things. I borrowed a book from my friend and I’ve been trying to copy the paintings. Look!’ The boy opened the drawer of his desk and showed his mother many black and white sketches.

There were sketches of his house and other houses and churches in the village. He’d drawn portraits, pictures of fish his father sold, and many Jewish symbols.
His mother looked surprised and told him: ‘You are very special Moishe. I knew from the moment you were born. I will try to help you achieve everything in this life, but for now, please do your homework and put these useless sketches away’.  

The boy looked at her and said, ‘But mom look! I also drew the synagogue. This one I want to give to dad! I’m sure he will like it’. His mother smiled and left him in his room. Immediately, the boy began drawing with such concentration and passion we knew this just had to be Marc Chagall.
This is unbelievable! We are in front of Marc Chagall’s house and just witnessed a master artist’s first paintings! Here in Belarus in the small little village of Vitebsk. All of a sudden it hit us… one of his most famous paintings is of a couple flying over a small village…this village…Vitebsk!!! He must have really loved it here!
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It’s getting late so we head back to Grisha where he fills us in on the rest of Chagall’s life. We had no idea he travelled back and forth between the Soviet Union and Paris for years, and spent 8 year in the US to escape from the war. How he fell in love with a young woman from Vitebsk called Bella Rosenfeld and had a daughter called Ida with her. How he was married to Bella for 35 years but remarried several years after her death a woman named Valentina (Vava) Brodsky. And left behind a huge artistic legacy at the beautiful age of 97..


We are so extremely proud to call Chagall ours. He was born and raised in Vitebsk and we should celebrate and embrace him just like he embraced Vitebsk in many of his paintings!

As Grisha takes off we see Marc Chagall run to the window and watch us fly off into time. Could we be the inspiration for his famous drawing we wonder with a smile?

***Who did little Mark draw on the large canvas up on the easel you ask? Why that is Dzmitry Sevkovich, a huge supporter of our project and our CF campaign! Thank you Dzmitry! ^_^

Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!
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Grisha, we are ready! Bring us to an important Belarusian historical moment.  We buckle up (yes we decided to make our time traveling a bit more comfortable and put in some chairs and seat belts in Grisha), and shake our way to our new adventure.

We open the door and see that we have landed in a beautiful large living room where three men look at us with shocked and amazed eyes. One of the man is sitting on a chair and seems to be very sick and old.  We wave at them shyly, understanding that this must be a very strange happening for them. Marta musters her courage and tells them that we are time travelers who are brought to this specific important moment in Belarusian history from the year 2017. The men now look like they are about to faint. One asks the other, do you see what I see? The other one replies, I think so..

After giving them a bit more time to overcome this shock, we ask them who they are and in what century we have landed? One of the three man answers that it is the year 1519 and that we have the weird pleasure to meet with Avram, Isaac, and Michael Ezofovich in the city of Vilna. Ah so you are three brothers, Masha asked. Yes, that is a good guess, our strange visitors.

When things got a bit more relaxed, we started to ask them who they are and whether they could maybe introduce themselves a bit more in depth. Suddenly we hear a knock on the door and a man wearing Kings clothing stands in front of the door. All brothers even the sick looking Avram, stand up and greet this ‘King like figure’ and addresses him as Grand Duke of Lithuania, (King) Sigismund I. Wow, we get very excited and want to know what this meeting is all about. Who are these people and why is the King himself visiting them? We sit down quietly in the corner and listen in to their stories.

So we hear them talk about the big economic success of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and that the King himself thanks especially the sick and probably dying brother Avram Ezofovich for helping in this big success. We find out that this Avram Ezofovich is a very wealthy and powerful Jewish man who is the minister of finance for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania! Because of Avram the tax system was established and he made a lot of other positive economic changes possible that he mostly financed out of his own pocket! He even borrowed the state and King money to finance many economic reforms. 

We also find out that not only Avram but also his brothers had large impact on the economic prosperity of Grand Duchy of Lithuania during and after the death of Avram. All three are great entrepreneurs who really cared about the state of this great kingdom.

Another interesting learning we get from this very special meeting is that during the biggest part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania people were judged by their actions and not by their religion. The Jewish people during this time were considered as part of the society, and partially because of their entrepreneurial spirit the Grand Duchy of Lithuania could flourish the way it did.

It has been a very inspiring day for us. We learned new things about the Belarusian history and were happy to see how Avram Ezofovich and his two brothers could make a great impact in the kingdom and this time is called ‘the Golden Century’ in the Belarusian history! We will remember Avram Ezofovich as the first economic reformer on Belarusian lands and his brothers who brought big change and prosperity to Belarus in the 16th century!

We are heading back to Grisha and forward to a new adventure!

***We would like to give our special thanks to Zachar Shybeka, a Belarusian historian and professor, expert on this topic for providing us with information and guidance.

Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!

There we go ready to embark on a new Belarusian historical adventure! We step into Grisha and get wiggled around for what seems a century, until we stop. We open the door with excitement and an overwhelming smell of spices, wood and metal welcomes us. Did we arrive in ancient Belarus or in ancient China we wonder?

We look around and see that we have landed on top of a market stall that sells all kinds of oriental spices, explaining the smell somewhat. The stall owner starts screaming at us! “What are you doing here on top of my stall! Are you crazy?!” We admit that it's not the best landing spot, but at least we got a good view on the whole market place and have made a friend (who does not like us yet). Things could have gone way worse.. Wait.. we realize slowly that this man is talking Belarusian to us.. What is going on?

We trade a pink ballpoint we found in our bag for some spices that smell delicious and turned our angry new friend into our new somewhat surprised and nice friend. He introduces himself as merchant Mikola who brings spices from Asia to this place called Mensk. Wow we are back in Mensk! “Are you a Belarusian?” - we ask Mikola. He looks surprised and answers, No my dear girls, I am a true Litvin of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

“We must be in Mensk during the great time of Grand Dutchy of Lithuania!” - we scream to one another. And everyone is talking in Belarusian language! This is amazing! But in what time we wonder? Mikola answers with big eyes: welcome to the year 1499 my dear alien friends.

After seeing our surprised faces Mikola tells us that Mensk is a very important and wealthy city because of its great central location (and beautiful women)! Connecting East to West and North to South. 

While walking around the market, we can’t believe our eyes. So many colours and different people and product to find. We see Asians, and different Europeans all trading products like salt, wine, spices, fur, fabrics and different metals in our city Mensk.

We stop at a stall loaded with furs, and behind the furs appears a gentleman who doesn’t seem surprised to see us. ‘Welcome my dear ladies, these real beaver fur coats from Mensk will keep you so warm during the very cold winter days! Buy one and get one for a smaller price! These furs are of the finest quality and are very famous all over the world! He ended his sales pitch with a very big proud smile. We tried the furs on and they were indeed of a very good quality and suited us not too badly.

We noticed how well educated and intelligent these traders were. We learned in one day a lot about the neighbouring countries and how to get from one place to another. Most of the traders spoke Belarusian and another language. They knew everything about their product and had excellent selling skills.

Then suddenly we hear a big shout and screaming, something is going on in the middle of the market! People are screaming and shouting, opening bottles of wine and drinking it straight from the bottle.
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What are we celebrating we ask a lady standing next to us?? She explains that our city finally has been granted the Magdeburg law! The WHAAT??? We ask her. She tells (screams) enthusiastically that now our city has the rights to govern itself without having to obey the rules of the state officials. Mensk is finally a city!

So after discussing this Magdeburg law a bit further we understood its importance. Because of this Magdeburg law (a law that was named after a German city Magdeburg) Mensk was able to transform itself into a real city following the example of many other European cities. For example now in Mensk a city hall will be build which will be the symbol of a municipal government, but also giving local traders and artisans benefits and protection over their International and regional colleagues. Another important improvement was the establishment of mass and volumes and the city scales, making it easier for traders to measure their goods with one standard and not having to fight about the grams.

On our way back to the top of Mikola’s stall, Masha suddenly remembers the sculpture near Minsk town Hall at Svobody Square. This must have a connection to this very important moment, this Magdeburg law! And indeed this sculpture is a portray of traders in Mensk weighting goods, it’s called ‘City Scales’. It is a symbol for the development of Mensk as a large trade and craft center in exactly this time where we are now, 1499!  

Marta and Masha wave the city goodbye and hope that in the near future we will find such a market with such entrepreneurial spirit in Minsk.

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