Russian, Ukrainian & FSU Information & Manosphere Discussion Forums
Photograph Galleries => Photo Galleries => Photos - Belarus => Topic started by: mendeleyev on March 13, 2009, 02:08:43 PM
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Gomel (Гомель)
Gomel is the second-largest city in Belarus. It has a population of 479,935 (2006 estimate). Gomel is situated in the southeastern part of the country, on the right bank of Sozh river, close to the border with Ukraine, in close proximity to Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Although it has been heavily contaminated with radioactive debris following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, residents were never evacuated from Gomel and general population continued to grow.
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Gomel was first mentioned in the chronicles in the first half of the 12th century; the officially accepted date is 1142. In 1854 Gomel merged with the neighbouring town of Bielica located across Sozh, on the left bank of the river. Now Bielica is one of four boroughs of Gomel.
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In the 19th century Jewish residents comprised more than 50% of the city's total population and had twenty-four synagogues. On the eve of World War II about fifty thousand Jews lived in Gomel (one-third of total population). Some Jewish residents escaped in the early months of the war but those who remained were later confined to ghettos and were eventually executed by the Nazis, suffering the fate of millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
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Public transportation is represented by over 1,000 city buses and trolleybuses. Public transportation is generally inexpensive ($14 monthly). Over 210 million passenger rides were registered in 2006.[3] Taxi services ($10 for a one-way intra-city ride) are available 24 hours a day. The city is an important railroad hub in the southeastern part of Belarus being positioned midway on the Minsk-Kiev railroad link. Strategic location of Gomel near the border with Russia and Ukraine provides a direct connection to the vast railroad network. Gomel Airport is located 8 kilometers north-east from the city.
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The city has settled around a semicircle on the right coast of the river Sozha around the old center, as if sheltered from its northern winds. Here live basically young families, and children's voices constantly heard as the city looks confidently to the future.
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When disaster struck at Chernolbyl, Belarus was hit hard. Fully 1/3 of this small country was taken out of circulation. The contiminated are is known as the "Exclusion Zone." Now Dictator and President for Life Alexander Lukashenko's government says there are no longer any problems associated with Chornobyl, denying the contamination. In fact the government has closed the "exclusion zone" to scientists and has started a campaign to open up the Exclusion Zone and repopulate that territory. A group of Belarussian scientists who protested were arrested and remain in jail to this day.
This is quite in contrast to the approach on the Ukrainian side of the border - scientific researchers have labs within the Exclusion Zone, and as I wrote from my own trip to the Exclusion Zone; and there is absolutely no official discussion about re-populating the Zone. True, some people have moved back voluntarily, but that has been against official government policy.
Belarus is a very small country with no way to expand its borders, and one can understand that having something like one-third of its territory closed to habitation and agriculture production is problematic. But the idea of pretending that it is safe to live in those areas, and to have a plan to encourage people to move back into those areas is frightening. I hope the Belarussian people are not as naive or short-sighted as their President.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/bD7i6ZWuR7I
I found this vid on youtube. If anyone has ever wondered what Belarus or Gomel, Belarus more specifically is like, this video is exactly what I remember from my trip in May. I will be going back in a couple weeks but thought I would share this.
http://www.youtube.com/v/mEBGX7252rg
Added a vid :smokin:
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Nice video. Ah, kovas in short skirts, grassy parks next to rivers, artillery pieces and T34 tanks, pretty cathedrals, huge statues of a stalwart Lenin striding off to battle counterrevolutionary forces, boats that have seen better days, kovas in short skirts ... all the reasons we love going to FSU.