“Happiness is not based on oneself, it does not consist of a small home, of taking and getting. Happiness is taking part in the struggle, where there is no borderline between one’s own personal world, and the world in general.” An excerpt from a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald to his brother, taken from Part One of the novel Libra, which I had randomly just finished reading. Coincidentally the novel discusses his early twenties when he was living in the USSR in Minsk, where I happened to be at the time I finished the book. His former apartment was in a relatively ritzy part of town with excellent balcony views of the Svislach River, and was only meters away from the Belarus victory obelisk and eternal flame. In fact, the bottom floor of the apartment building is now an Italian designer shop, La Dolce Vita. This is a picture of the street, Vulitsa Kamunistychnaja, where it is located. (12-19-04)

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Minsk, Belarus