Heading northeast from pl Nezalezhnastsi is the main part of pr Nezalezhnastsi and the bustling heart of Minsk, including the Soviet-era GUM department store. The KGB was never disbanded in Belarus after the collapse of the USSR, and continues to operate from the yellow neoclassical building with an ominous, templelike Corinthian portal at No 17. On the other side of the street is a long, narrow park with a bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky , the founder of the KGB's predecessor (the Cheka) and a native of Belarus.
