Dynama market seller: Minsk business started here

“They said that it will work until the New Year's Day... There are lots of places where we can work. A lot of trade centres have opened in the city," one of Dynama sellers told me.

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Very few sellers work there now - about 300 people. Official BelTA has already informed that the Dynama market will be moved to Kurasoushchyna District. The entrepreneurs have not heard about it and are not going to move there. There are a lot of places where they can work in Minsk, they say.

The Dynama market appeared before the collapse of the USSR - in 1991. It seems incredible that those who brought sheepskin coats from Turkey to Minsk in the pre-Lukashenka time can still be found there. Valyantsin Kazlou sells sportswear for "guys from Shabany" now. There was a time when it was difficult to find room in "Dynama", he says.

“I came here in 1994. There were more entrepreneurs back then. It was the only market and everyone worked here. Many left later. There were many sellers and buyers. You could not find any room here at the weekend, you couldn't even shoulder your way through people."

Unbelievably, people used to be charged for entry almost ten years ago! The practice stopped at the end of the 90s. The cost of the tickets differed and even the old-timers cannot recall them. But many mentioned the sum of 50 cents. It would be 1.5 dollars now. Like a cinema ticket.

The choice of goods has not changed in "Dynama" since then. Most goods are brought from Russia. But the trade used to be different at first, Valyantsin says. Summer clothes and sneakers were sold in summer and warm clothes and footwear - in winter. The goods were almost the same everywhere but they were brought from Istanbul and Warsaw.

“Goods were brought from Turkey and Poland. You could find different clothes in one tent back then. Now people prefer specializing in something - jackets or footwear."

I asked about crime and crazy money. The tales about the roaring 90s are still circulating. But the seller calmed me down - Minsk is not Moscow, everything was quiet. Showdowns were not really noticeable.

Valyantsin has not made much money in the past 20 years. However, he could have.

“Somebody could make a lot of money... You could make money. It depended on your aspiration."

And many people had the aspiration. My interlocutor mentioned the trade centres where former Dynama sellers have shops now - "Nyamiha", "Parking", "Zerkalo". "They are everywhere, the business started here," the seller seems nostalgic.

Even the market administration is nostalgic. Accountant Natallya recalled that there used to be 5 thousand sellers working in "Dynama" in its palmy days. It was difficult to find room for tents.

 “The lane near the football school was occupied, there was no room in the central ground and in the lane near Ullyanau Street. Tents were everywhere."

This is what the forgotten Belarusian "Acropolis" with 300 sellers is like. They are not afraid of the reconstruction - they have moved to the lower ground a little father from the abat-jour that will be dismantled first. Even the administration cannot answer what will happen to the market.

“Тут я з 1994 года. Тады больш было прадпрымальнікаў. Тады адзін рынак быў — усе тут працавалі. А пасля раз’ехаліся. А было вельмі шмат гандляроў і пакупнікоў. У выходныя дні немагчыма было праціснуцца, прайсці нават немагчыма было”