Belarus

[John Musselwhite]

At 04:43 PM 3/16/97 -0600, James wrote:

>The Belarus is a piano made in the province of Be larus in Russia.  It

I might add that many of us on the prairies are (all too) familiar with
Belarus farm implements, particularly tractors. The pianos, like the farm
equipment, are likely to be not-very-clever copies of existing designs made
from whatever materials they had at hand. The last new Belarus tractor I saw
looked like a badly-rebuilt Massey-Ferguson from the 1960s. Most of the
other "Russian" pianos I see appear to be bad copies of Petroffs.

For those people unfamiliar with the name, it appears to be pronounced (as
near as I can do it in English) "bay-la-ROOSE". The province is east of
Poland and north of the Ukraine and is right in the middle of farming
country which is why they make tractors there. It seems like an odd place to
make pianos, though.


John Musselwhite, RPT
Calgary, Alberta Canada
musselj@cadvision.com