Geography has a major role in the history of Belarus, as the low-lying country straddles the shortest route between Moscow and the Polish border. The land has consequently been ravaged by war and controlled by Soviet dictatorship, but has emerged a survivor. A welcome detour from the madding tourist trail, there’s more to see in Belarus than you might suspect. Wide stretches of unbroken birch groves, vast forested marshlands, and wooden villages amid rolling green fields it a haunting beauty; and friendly hospitality of the Belarusian people is legendary.

lt;s always low season in Belarus but best from April to (spring) or September (late summer) – but not during the 1930s when Stalin ruled

Downing a Belarusian pint in the shadow of the KGB building in Minsk Being bowled over by the monumental scale of the Fortress WWll memorial Catching a glimpse of European bison, the continent’s largest mammal, at the Belavezhskaja Pushcha National Park Walking Marc Chagall’s footsteps through the charming old sectors of Vitsebsk Eating and drinking with friendly locals in cosmopolitan Brest, the lively, bustling bordertown Marvelling at Minsk, a shining testament to neoclassical Stalinist architecture

Read Maxim Haradsky’s Two Souls, a poignant expression of the repressed state of Belarus after WWl

Listen to Kupalinka: Folk Music of Belarus

Watch Kojak: The Belarus File, conspiracy-theory intrigue where Kojak investigates the deaths of Russian émigrés

Eat mushrooms-mushrooming is a traditional expedition in Belarus. Try the mushroom and barley hribnoy sup (soup)and kotleta pokrestyansky (pork cutlet smothered with mushroom sauce).

Dob-ree dzhen (hello)

Onion dome architecture; the last dictatorship in Europe; splendid isolation mountain villages; hearty food and sweet, strong liqueurs; freezing cold temperatures; furry hats; monasteries, churches and cathedrals

Belarus beat the Swedes in the 2002 Winter Olympics hockey tournament; there are still some working collective farms in the Belarusian countryside

One of the first things foreigners notice in Belarus, especially those familiar with Russia, is the cleanliness of the cities and towns. Even in Soviet times, Belarusians had the reputation of being exceptionally neat and Central streets are kept immaculate-by the swarms of overnight street sweepers but also by citizens. Even tipsy teens assiduously use rubbish bins for their beer bottles.