IMG 2849

This bronze stranger has a real-life model and a very sad story. During the war, when Minsk was being bombed, a girl ran out of a burning house, grabbing only her grandmother's raincoat and an old umbrella. She had lost her parents and stood in the pouring rain, the water still pouring down on her through the holes in the fabric. The monument was erected in memory of all the innocent victims of the war, of lost childhoods. Look at her legs: they are crossed, and her right foot seems to warm her left—a gesture of vulnerability. This is one of the most heartwarming monuments in Minsk.