US, Sept. 7 -- It is monumental, extraordinarily clean, inexpensive by Western European standards and unlike almost any capital remaining in Europe. Stalinist boulevards run through an immaculately maintained city of grand squares, parks, Orthodox churches, Soviet monuments, theaters and metro stations. Restaurants serve draniki, machanka, dumplings, mushrooms, dark bread, meat and distinctly Belarusian comfort food.

Outside Minsk are forests, villages and magnificent castles, including the UNESCO-listed Mir Castle and the Radziwill palace complex at Nesvizh. Most importantly, Belarus offers something increasingly rare in today's homogenized tourism world:

It feels different.

Go to Tallinn, Riga, Warsaw or Vilnius and you are unmistaka...