Near the Svislach River, a neat one-story house is tucked away that outwardly seems like an ordinary residential building. It was here in 1898 that the First Congress of the then still only emerging Russian Social Democratic Labour Party took place, which would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The clandestine meeting was more symbolic than practical in nature. Vladimir Ulyanov was not present at the congress, and neither the party charter nor its program was adopted.
The delegates agreed only on the name of the organization, without defining any clear goals for their forthcoming activities. Nevertheless, 25 years later it was decided to establish a house-museum dedicated to this important event, which in one way or another influenced the course of history.
During the Great Patriotic War, as a result of German aggression, the House-Museum of the First Congress of the RSDLP was almost completely destroyed, and then carefully restored - one of the first in postwar Minsk.
At present, the museum is of interest not only to scholars specializing in the history of the CPSU. It also contains information and materials about the life and everyday existence of ordinary residents of Minsk in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
