In Belarus, Expression Battles Repression*

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 11.30.07 | 12:30 PM ET

The Boston Globe’s Tom Haines and Essdras Suarez have delivered another stellar package about life and travel at the edge of Europe. The edge, in this case, is Belarus, at the “land-locked…geographic center of Europe,” Haines writes.

He continues:

Neighbors north and west—Latvia, Lithuania, Poland—have joined the European Union, bringing its boundary closer. Even Russia, just east, has collapsed toward capitalism and risen mightily, if not so democratically, again.

Yet Belarus braces beneath the dictatorial rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, who tries to control industry, information, and ideas.

The words and images conveying a sliver of what it’s like to visit and live in such an environment are insightful and quite moving. I admit, though, I have a personal interest.

My family has some roots in Belarus, and I have relatives living under the Lukashenko regime. Not to mention that the woman in the field with the babushka reminds me of my grandmother.

Update: Nov. 30, 2007, 2:39 p.m. ET: Haines has just written a blog post looking back at his entire Edge of Europe series.