Drive to Oktyabrsky

The Minsk-Mir multifunctional complex is a modern development area located in an ecologically favorable part of Minsk, almost in the very center of the capital. Today it is the largest investment project not only in Belarus, but also in Europe. It is planned to build 3,000,000 square meters of real estate, 60% of which is residential, and the remaining 40% of the development will be devoted to social infrastructure. Approximately 150,000 people will be residents of this beautiful complex, which can safely be called a city within a city. The complex consists of blocks that will include about 100 houses. Each house and block has its own unique name, for example, "Quarter of Champions", "Quarter of World dances", houses of "Tango", "Flamenco", "Beijing", etc.

Minsk-1 airport was opened on November 7, 1933, when the first K-5 aircraft took off from here.

In the spring of 1934, three Po‑2 aircraft arrived here, belonging to the Smolensk Aviation Division of the special application of the Moscow Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet. In 1935, the first regular flights were opened between Minsk and seventeen regional centers of Belarus, and in 1936, the first mail and passenger flight was opened between Minsk and Moscow.

By the second half of the 1930s, the first major terminal building was built (the current address is 9A Korotkevich Street), which had housed the civil aviation medical service since the late 1950s. The modern terminal building was built in 1957 according to the design of architect G. V. Zaborsky and has also been preserved to this day in almost its original form. In 1976, a new building was erected next to the old building, which housed ticket offices and a waiting room.

Timofey Terentyevich Romashkin's name is known among the pilots of the BSSR and all those who are somehow connected with flight No. 365 on the Tallinn–Minsk–Leningrad route, which was operated on January 8, 1954. It was then that Timofey Terentyevich, who had passed the Great Patriotic War, accomplished a real feat. This man has devoted almost his entire life to working with aviation. He served as a flight mechanic during the war, and after it ended he joined the civil aviation. On January 8, 1954, the crew of the Li-2 aircraft was flying to Leningrad as usual, but an emergency happened on board: two armed bandits broke in and tried to hijack the plane. Romashkin's actions, which tried to neutralize the attackers, helped the rest of the crew to repel the bandits' attack. Timofey Terentyevich himself was fatally wounded and died in hospital the next day from his injuries. Subsequently, he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1964, a monument to Timofey Romashkin appeared in the park near Minsk-1 airport, representing a bust of the hero on a high pedestal. An airplane is visible behind the bust, pointing skyward. The authors of the monument were the sculptor G. Postnikov and the architect G. Zaborsky.

All residents of the capital know the Palace of Culture and Sports of Railway Workers. Without exaggeration, it can be called one of the main cultural and sports centers in Minsk, where both children and adults spend time with interest, relax, engage in various types of creativity, and recover.

On Voronyansky Street, not far from the Palace of Culture of Railway Workers, you can see the steam locomotive Er 789-94 – a real symbol of the era, because it was such locomotives that played a crucial role in the economic development of the USSR, and their operation continued until 1971.

This locomotive was built in 1953, and it has served for about 30 years in its long history. In 2008, it was restored to the Minsk locomotive depot, after which it returned to its historical parking lot.