Belarus: The Capital Of Cold Hearts?

War veterans cut loose during Belarus's Independence Day celebrations.

A soldier slobbers through an endurance test while attempting to join Belarus's elite “Red Beret” unit.

A pensioner sees the glass half full as he drifts through flooded Khlupin village. A newly released “Global Emotions” Gallup poll quizzed 154,000 people in 145 countries. The pollsters found fewer than four in 10 Belarusians recalled feeling positive or negative emotions the previous day.

A young Belarusian on a tough day at kindergarten. The Gallup results placed Belarus onto the dubious podium of least emotional countries, alongside Azerbaijan and Yemen.

It’s safe to assume disabled rock fan Paval Konovalchik recalled this moment as a positive: The music aficionado was hoisted above the throng by a group of strangers during a set of one of his favorite bands near Minsk.

A schoolgirl flashes a cheery salute during young pioneer drills.

A relative of an antigovernment supporter who had been detained in Minsk dabs away a tear as she waits for news outside a police station.

A sopping youngster in Minsk during the dog days of summer. Megan Starr, a U.S. travel writer and contributor to National Geographic Traveler, told RFE/RL she was “very surprised” by the poll results.

An elderly Belarusian hollers as he plunges into icy Lake Komsomolskoye. Starr, who has traveled to more than 90 countries, says she has found Belarusians “some of the most animated people I’ve ever met.”

A woman weeps after leaving her sick dog, which she could no longer afford to take care of, at a shelter in Minsk.

A sausage challenge at a bikers' convention in Minsk.

Emotions definitely ticked upward during this brawl between ultranationalists and opposition supporters in Minsk.

Friends scrawl messages onto each other during the final day of a health camp for children near Minsk.

Antigovernment protesters push through a driving blizzard in Minsk.

High-school graduates hop through a farewell ceremony at a school in Minsk.
Dzmitry Hurnievic, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Belarus service, thinks there may be some truth to the Gallup poll findings.

The iconic face of a Red Army soldier at a war monument in Brest. Hurnievic says if Belarusians are dour, they have good reason to be. “[Belarus] is between Germany and Russia -- between two big empires -- so all our history is wars. So that’s why we want to be like a partisan in the forest, no smile, no happiness. Because we are afraid about ourselves.”

Young women swirl through traditional spring celebrations in Viazynka. But Starr believes Belarusians may be underestimating themselves on the emotion front. “When I tell my Belarusian friends that they are friendly and outgoing and warm, they are always surprised and think it’s not true. I don’t think they accurately see themselves.”