Minsk was part of Tsarist Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histor...nance_timeline
You don't know your own country's history? My paternal grandfather (or his father -- lived to 102 BTW) was a peasant in Minsk in that movie's era ...
Belarus is White Russia. The White Russian Army (Monarchists) adopted that name and its Tsarist trained army generals fought in opposition to the Red Army (Bolsheviks) -- and lost.