Despite claiming a few outstanding historical sights representing the city’s rich and illustrious past, Minsk is best known as a living monument to the grandiose aspirations of Soviet architecture and urban planning. Famously destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, the Belarusian capital grew out of the ashes of conflict to become a Socialist Realist masterpiece complete with spacious avenues, lush green parks and a battalion of buildings dating from the 1940s and 1950s that simply have to be seen to be believed. Minsk really is a city like no other. Yet beneath its clean and regimented exterior lies an underbelly of exuberance in the guise of exceptional restaurants, world-class bars, clubs to rival those in any major city around the world and a cultural life offering everything from theatre to opera to experimental dance. The only thing missing in the past has been a comprehensive, English-language guidebook to the city, a situation now remedied by the regularly updated publication of Minsk In Your Pocket, produced by natives of the city and packed with everything a visitor needs from information on the best hotels to where to get your hair cut. Minsk In Your Pocket welcomes comments and suggestions on any subject related to the city. Email us at minsk@inyourpocket.com.