Many Belarusians Don't Notice This Strange Sign In The Minsk Metro

• 6.10.2026, 10:22

Is that written in Bulgarian?

Signs with a red “M” and the word “passage” are posted at the entrance to every Minsk Metro station. Thousands of the capital’s residents pass them by every day, paying no attention to one oddity that a Threads user noticed, writes blizko.by.

“Yes, it’s Bulgarian Cyrillic. But more important is the reason why ‘Bulgarian Cyrillic’ ended up in Minsk. In Bulgaria during the 1950s and 1960s, a distinct Cyrillic typeface tradition was taking shape—one adapted to the aesthetics of the Latin alphabet. In the early ’70s, a book on the history of typeface design was published, featuring samples of Bulgarian typefaces. It was a notable, substantial volume. It found its way into the hands of Soviet book designers during the period of stagnation. This marked the first trend in Cyrillic typography. By the 1980s, designers at VNIITE (Moscow Technological University—Blizko.by) were already actively introducing fresh forms into the urban environment,” said one Threads user.