Description
“We will die, but we will not leave the fortress”, “I am dying, but I will not give up” - who among Belarusians has not heard these words? The defense of the Brest Fortress is a page in history that every resident of our country is rightfully proud of. Children are told about this at school, written in newspapers, and shown on television. Until now, the courage of the defenders of the fortress serves as a source of inspiration for writers and poets, and makes the hearts of boys beat faster. This is a Monument with a capital M. A monument not only to courage, but also to boundless love for the Motherland.
A fortress with a difficult fate
The Brest Fortress is the heart of the city, it is from here that the history of Brest began many centuries ago. It was here that the Nadbuzh Slavs in ancient times formed the settlement of Berestye, which was first mentioned in 1019 in the Tale of Bygone Years. Years passed, the city grew, strengthened, and became the political, economic and cultural center of this region.
The third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 led to the fact that Brest-Litovsk (it was called that way then) became part of the Russian Empire. And almost immediately the need arose to build additional fortifications in order to strengthen the defense capability of the state’s borders. The War of 1812 showed that the construction of a number of military fortresses on the western borders, including in Brest-Litovsk, was inevitable.
In 1830, military engineers - generals K.I. Opperman and N.M. Maletsky, Colonel A.I. Feldman - developed a plan for the construction of the Brest-Litovsk Fortress. According to the plan, it was to be built on the site of the old city. This led to the destruction of a large number ancient buildings Brest-Litovsk, only a few cultural buildings remained - monasteries and churches, which were adapted to the needs of the fortress garrison. The new city was built two kilometers from the fortress fence.
In 1833, the first work began on this territory, and three years later the first stone of the future glorious fortress was laid. In addition to the first stone, a memorial plaque and a box with coins were walled into the base of the Citadel. The official opening of the Brest-Litovsk Fortress took place in 1842. It consisted of the Citadel and three fortifications that formed the main fortress fence and covered the Citadel on three sides: Volynskoye - from the south, Terespolskoye - from the west and Kobrinskoye - from the east and north. The fortress was protected by a bastion front - a fortress fence (an earthen rampart with brick casemates inside), which stretched for 6.4 km and was 10 meters high. In addition, the fortress fence was also strengthened by a bypass channel filled with water. The total area of the fortifications was 400 hectares.
The Citadel itself was a natural island, along the perimeter of which a closed two-story barracks (length 1.8 km) was built. The barracks had about 500 casemates, which could accommodate up to 12 thousand soldiers. Bridges and gates connected the Citadel with other fortifications.
In the early 50s of the 19th century, construction of the Orthodox St. Nicholas Church began here. This project was developed by academician Russian Academy arts architect D.I.Grimm.
In the second half of the 19th century, a decision was made to build additional defensive fortifications - forts. In addition, reconstruction of the fortress itself began. Over the course of 10-15 years, nine first-line forts were built, each of which could accommodate up to 250 soldiers and 20 guns. The length of the defensive fortifications has now reached 30 km.
The reconstruction of the Brest-Litovsk Fortress continued at the beginning of the 20th century. By the beginning of the First World War, the fortress defense line consisted of 14 forts, 21 intermediate strong points, 5 defensive barracks, 7 powder magazines and 38 artillery batteries.
In the first months of the First World War, intensive work was carried out in the fortress: five forts that had been started earlier were completed here. The defense line was now 45 km. True, the command decided to evacuate the fortress garrison; from August 12 to 13, 1915, Russian soldiers left the city. Part of the forts and barracks was blown up, ammunition and property were taken away. The fortress and the city fell into the hands of the Germans.
One of the most important events of this war for Russia took place on the territory of the fortress: the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was concluded here. This happened on March 3, 1918 in the building of the White Palace of the fortress. According to this peace treaty, Russia lost 780 thousand square meters. km of territory with a population of 56 million people.
In the period from 1918 to 1939. both the fortress and the city were Polish territory. Brest-Litovsk, which since 1923 was called Brest-nad-Bug, became administrative center Polesie Voivodeship of Poland, and Polish military units were located in the fortress. In 1939, Brest became part of the BSSR.
Two years later, the Brest Fortress came face to face with one of the most terrible wars in the history of mankind - the Second World War. In Belarus, this war is usually called the Great Patriotic War.
On June 22, 1941, German troops attacked the Brest Fortress. There were about 8 thousand people here that night. Almost 300 families of command and control personnel also met the war in the fortress. The selfless defense became one of the most heroic and tragic pages of the war; thanks to the courage of the defenders of the Brest Fortress, this place is known throughout the world.
The fortress was stormed by soldiers of the 45th Infantry Division of Major General Fritz Schlieper, together with all the units and reinforcements there were about 20 thousand of them. At 3:15 European time (4:15 Moscow time), hurricane artillery fire was opened on the fortress, as a result of which the water supply was seriously damaged, communications were interrupted, and the garrison suffered serious losses.
The first shock passed quickly, and the defenders of the Citadel began to desperately resist. The names of Kizhevatov, Zubachev, Fomin, Gavrilov and other commanders will forever remain in the memory of all Belarusians. The Germans planned to capture the Brest Fortress in a day, but organized resistance lasted for more than a month. Major P.M. Gavrilov was one of the last to be captured - on July 23. To this day, in the Museum of Defense of the Brest Fortress you can see the inscription “I am dying, but I am not giving up. Goodbye, Motherland. 20/VII-41." According to eyewitnesses, shooting was heard in the fortress almost until the beginning of August. To eliminate the last pockets of resistance, the German high command gave the order to flood the basements with water from the Western Bug.
The feat of the defenders of the Brest Fortress will forever go down in history as an example of courage and patriotism. About 150 participants in the legendary defense were awarded high government awards, and Major P. M. Gavrilov and Lieutenant A. M. Kizhevatov (posthumously) were awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.
For the exceptional services of the defenders of the Brest Fortress to the Motherland, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1965, the Brest Fortress was awarded the honorary title “Hero-Fortress” with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
To be remembered
The memorial complex “Brest Hero Fortress” was inaugurated on September 25, 1971. The complex consists of surviving buildings, preserved ruins, ramparts and works of modern monumental art. A whole team of authors worked to perpetuate the feat of the defenders of the Brest Fortress; the main artistic director was the People's Artist of the USSR, sculptor A. Kibalnikov.
The complex itself is located in the eastern part of the Citadel. There is not a single random element here: each is designed to emphasize the greatness of the soldiers’ feat. Already at the entrance, an atmosphere is created that does not allow you to be indifferent to visiting the fortress. The main entrance is made in the shape of a five-pointed star; passing through it, the visitor hears the legendary “ Holy war Alexandrov, as well as the voice of Levitan, reading out a government message about the treacherous attack of the German fascist troops. Here, at the entrance, there is a board with the text of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1965, according to which the Brest Fortress was awarded the title “Hero-Fortress.”
From the main entrance there is a direct alley to the Ceremonial Square. A little before reaching the square, on the left, there is a sculptural composition “Thirst”: a Soviet soldier pulls his helmet towards the water. Left without drinking water under hurricane fire, the defenders of the fortress tried with all their might to get it. A lot of soldiers died at that very moment, when they tried to get water from Mukhavets.
Then the alley leads to the main square of the complex - Ceremonial Square. All public celebrations take place here. Adjacent to the square is the Museum of Defense of the Brest Fortress and the ruins of the White Palace. The compositional center of the ensemble is the “Courage” monument, which is a chest-length sculpture of a warrior 33.5 meters high. This monument is made of concrete. On back side It contains relief compositions telling about the heroic episodes of the defense of the fortress. “Attack”, “The Last Grenade”, “Party Meeting”, “Machine Gunners”, “Feat of the Artillerymen”: all these episodes took place in real story. Under the monument there is a 3-tier necropolis where the remains of 823 people are buried. There are memorial plaques nearby, but there are only 201 names here. All the rest could not be identified. The Eternal Flame of Glory burns here. Two steps from the “Courage” monument, a hundred-meter-tall obelisk bayonet rises into the sky.
On the observation deck you can see types of artillery weapons from the middle of the 19th century, as well as from the times of the Great Patriotic War. The ruins of the barracks of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, the defensive barracks, and the building of the club of the 84th Infantry Regiment have been preserved. Towards the Northern Gate there are ruins of a medical unit and residential buildings, and the Eastern Fort.
Every visitor should visit the Museum of the Defense of the Brest Fortress at least once. It is there that you can put all the information together and understand how great the feat of the defenders of the fortress was. The museum is located in one of the restored barracks on the central island of the Citadel. This barracks was built back in 1842 and is already a landmark itself - an architectural monument of the 19th century.
The museum here was opened in 1956; it was created on the basis of a museum room in which objects found during excavations and all the collected material were stored. In 1959, the museum was admitted to the International Association of Museums of Weapons and Military History. In the same year, military units were withdrawn from the fortress, and entry here became free. The museum developed, its funds were actively replenished. By 1961, there were already 8,108 museum exhibits.
The museum is still active today. Its main exhibition is located on the second floor. It occupies ten halls, each of which sequentially narrates the facts of the long history of the fortress.
Deep into the centuries
On the territory of the memorial complex there is another unique object - the Berestye archaeological museum. It was opened on March 2, 1982, and over time became one of the most visited museums in the Brest region.
In 1969-1981, excavations were carried out on the territory of the city of Detinets, which is located at the confluence of the left branch of Mukhavets with the Bug. They were led by a doctor historical sciences, Professor P.F. Lysenko. The results of the excavations shocked the whole of Belarus. Archaeologists discovered a village from the 11th to 13th centuries: wooden houses and sheds, pavements, palisades, as well as a large number of household items.
This find served as the basis for the creation of a wonderful museum - the Berestye Museum. The museum building, with its outlines, resembles an ancient dwelling, inside of which there is an archaeological excavation. Here you can see 28 small wooden residential and outbuildings from the 13th century, two wooden pavements, and a preserved palisade. Around the excavation site there are 14 niche pavilions that tell about the life of ancient Berestye. More than 42 thousand exhibits are collected here. Among them there are also very rare ones: a boxwood comb with an alphabet (early 13th century), a bone figurine of a chess king, an oak plow for plowing the land, a bronze cross-encolpion, writing objects (wrote, tsera - writing tablet, book clasps), jewelry products, including a gold ring (early 14th century), all kinds of children's toys, leather goods and many other items.
"Berestye" is considered one of the most visited museums in the Brest region. There are always visitors here who are happy to leave rave reviews. Recently, a souvenir shop opened in the museum building, where you can buy memorable souvenirs.
Brest Fortress - this phrase evokes in any person an association about the heroic defenders who fought against the treacherously attacked fascist invaders in the early summer of 1941. How long did her defense last? Official sources say about eight days, unofficial sources say that the soldiers defended it until August 1941.
The history of this world-famous symbol of the heroism of Soviet soldiers began long before the events that glorified it.
The appearance of a medieval fortress
The first mention of the fortress is found in the literary monument “The Tale of Bygone Years” in the eleventh century. Berestye - that’s what the settlement of those times was called - was located between two rivers - the Western Bug and Mukhavets. In those days the main trade routes passed mainly along waterways. There was also the best possible place - along the Bug it was possible to sail to the European part - Lithuania, Poland and beyond, and along Mukhavets - through the steppes to the Middle East.
It is practically impossible to restore the original appearance of the medieval fortress - very rare museum documents have been preserved about how the fortress originally looked. Over the course of many centuries, it passed from the power of one state to the possession of another, its appearance underwent changes, and the fortress was overgrown with buildings. But, despite the changes inspired by the demands of the times, the fortress managed to retain its medieval charm for a very long time.
Military history of the fortress
The fortress finally became Russian possession only at the end of the eighteenth century. Before that, it was owned by Lithuanians and Poles, and it was also under the jurisdiction of the Principality of Turov.
In the Russian Empire, fortresses were not given strategic importance until the nineties of the eighteenth century. It was then that the top ranks of the Russian army, concerned about strengthening the borders, drew attention to its favorable location. But they did not succeed in realizing their plans for restructuring and strengthening it soon.
Every Russian feels like the year of the invasion of Napoleonic troops. It was then that the military history of the fortress began. Russian troops successfully repulsed the cavalry attack, preventing the enemy from gaining a foothold in Brest. That military episode impressed the tsarist government, which decided to build a powerful defensive structure on the site of ancient buildings.
In 1825, Emperor Nicholas I ascended the throne. He considered strengthening the western borders of the Russian Empire one of the main priorities of his state activities. In 1829, General K.I. Opermann created a project for the Brest-Litovsk Fortress, and in 1830 it was already put on the table of the emperor for approval.
Fire in the old fortress
Originated on old fortress in 1835, a fire accelerated the construction of a new structure, and already on June 1, 1836, the commander-in-chief of the army, Prince I.F. Paskevich laid the first stone in construction. The work was completed in April 1842. The fortress was a citadel, the thickness of the walls of which was about two meters, fortified by a fortress wall, the length of which was 6.4 km. The five hundred casemates located there could accommodate more than 12 thousand people. It was located on an island and connected to the main land through drawbridges. At the time of its opening, it was the most powerful and modern structure in Russia.
The military managed to convince the emperor that it was inappropriate to house the civilian population in the fortress. That’s why the cadet corps settled there. The residents of the old fortress who had previously suffered from the fire were given money and recommended to settle in another place, a couple of kilometers away. Thus, the fire clearly played into the hands of all participants - the government resolved the issue of relocating residents, residents received compensation for arranging a new life, and the military received a well-fortified fortress.
In peacetime, the rhythm of life in Brest was very measured. There were several churches, services were held, and officer meetings were held in the White Palace, which previously served as a monastery.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the fortress was no longer a model of advanced military thought. Only a third of the weapons the military had were modern. By the beginning, the defense capability of the fortress had crippled, oddly enough, military reform– she led the infantry out of the citadel, and the militia became the defenders of the fortress. They began to urgently reconstruct the fortress - thousands of civilians were involved in this construction. In the spring of 1915 Russian borders received one of the most powerful defensive structures.
But by decision of the command, already in August 1915, valuable property was taken away, the fortress was partially blown up and abandoned by Russian troops.
The humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The next significant event that occurred here dates back to March 3, 1918. The humiliating agreement was signed precisely in Brest, which came into the possession of first the Germans and then the Poles. The latter, with the outbreak of the Soviet-Polish war in 1919, set up a camp for Russian prisoners of war in it.
In 1920, Brest was conquered, but then fell back to the Poles. Brest was finally annexed to Poland for several decades after the conclusion of the Peace of Riga in 1921.
The Poles used the fortress for its intended purpose - as a barracks, and there were military warehouses there. A political prison was also located there, where political figures opposed to the current government were kept.
On September 2, 1939, the Germans launched an attack on the fortress and recaptured it from Poland. And on September 22, 1939, the transfer of the fortress took place Soviet side. In honor of this, a joint parade of German and Soviet troops took place. That day can be considered the date of Brest’s entry into the USSR.
The most dramatic history of the fortress
By the day Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the garrison numbered 9 thousand soldiers, not counting the families of military personnel. On June 22, the most dramatic page in the history of the fortress opened. The garrison woke up to heavy fire, which the Germans opened at 4.15 am. By noon German command planned to capture Brest and move on. But the defenders, taken by surprise, managed to mobilize. And although it was not possible to organize a general command in this fiery chaos, the fighters began to resist, interacting in small groups. Even bayonet battles began at the Volyn and Kobrin fortifications.
Two days later, the Germans managed to capture the Volyn and Terespol fortifications, and their garrisons went under the protection of the Citadel. Every day the defenders repelled several attacks, they were subjected to heavy fire, interrupted by the Nazis only to invite the remaining defenders to surrender. On June 26, the Citadel finally fell, three days later - the Eastern Fort. But the resistance did not end there - single fighters and small groups continued to put up fierce resistance, trying to break into the partisan detachments.
Single resistance Soviet soldiers lasted until August. This is evidenced by the inscriptions on the stones left by soldiers of the Soviet Army. In order to clear the fortress of the last fighting soldiers, the Wehrmacht was forced to flood the basements of the buildings.
The results of this fierce and heroic resistance were large-scale losses on both sides: the Germans lost approximately 1,200 people, more than a hundred of them officers. The Soviet army lost about 7,000 prisoners, 1,877 killed.
The world-famous memorial has become a symbol of the unwavering resilience of the Soviet people during World War II. assigned to the Brest Fortress honorary title“Hero-Fortress”, an incredible number of books have been written and many feature films have been shot, and the Belarusians themselves called it one of the seven wonders of Belarus.
Myths and facts
The construction of the current symbol of the city - the Brest Fortress - began with the complete destruction of Brest in 1833. After the annexation of Belarusian lands to Russian Empire The authorities began developing a project for a powerful system of structures to protect the new western borders of the state. By order of Emperor Nicholas I ancient settlement was moved two kilometers east (this is where the center of Brest is now located). Numerous temples, monasteries, parochial schools, taverns and baths, as well as all residential buildings were dismantled, and residents were given a loan for the construction of new housing.
The fortress was located on 4 islands formed by the branches of the Mukhavets and Western Bug rivers, as well as a system of canals. The main defensive unit was the Citadel - an island with a two-story closed barracks, the walls of which reach two meters in width and a length of almost two kilometers. The Citadel was connected to the other three islands by drawbridges. TO end of the 19th century century, the complex was surrounded by a 32 km ring of forts. At the beginning of the 20th century, expansion continued with the construction of a second ring of fortifications, which was not completed due to the outbreak of the First World War.
In 1915-1918, the fortress was occupied, then it passed to the Poles, who placed a political prison there. The next day of World War II, September 2, 1939, Brest was bombed for the first time. The Poles held the citadel for two weeks, despite the fact that the entire city was already occupied by the German army, whose forces were several times greater. After the capture, the Germans handed over the fortress to the Red Army and Brest became part of the USSR.
At dawn on June 22, 1941, the Brest Fortress received the first blow from the fascist invaders. The garrison, initially consisting of 9 thousand people, held the defense in complete encirclement for more than a month. German army numbering about 17 thousand people. There is information that the last pockets of resistance were destroyed only at the end of August, before Hitler’s arrival. In order to eliminate the last defenders, an order was given to flood the basements of the fortress with water from the river. It is also known that Hitler took a stone from the ruins of the bridge and kept it in his office until the end of the war (Defense of the Brest Fortress).
The citadel was practically destroyed. In 1971, the memorial complex “Brest Hero Fortress” was opened on its territory, but in order to perpetuate the feat Brest defenders most of structures remain to this day in the form of ruins.
What to see
The total area of the Brest Fortress is about 4 sq. km. In the eastern part of the Citadel there is a memorial complex. The sculptural and archaeological ensemble includes surviving structures, preserved ruins, ramparts and modern monuments.
The main passage is an opening in the form of a five-pointed star in a monolithic reinforced concrete mass, which rests on the shaft and walls of the casemates. On the front side there is a board with the text about conferring the honorary title “hero” on the fortress.
From the main entrance, an alley leads across the bridge to the Ceremonial Square, where public events. To the left of the bridge there is a sculptural composition “Thirst” - a figure Soviet warrior, who stretches his helmet towards the water. Adjacent to Ceremonial Square is a museum and the ruins of the White Palace.
The compositional center of the complex is the main monument “Courage” - a bust of a warrior and an obelisk bayonet. On the reverse side of the monument, bas-reliefs depict individual episodes of the defense of the fortress. Nearby there is a tribune and a three-tier necropolis, where the remains of 850 people are buried, and the names of 224 fighters are engraved on memorial tablets.
Next to the ruins of the former engineering department, the Eternal Flame burns, on which are cast the words: “Fought to the death, glory to the heroes.” Nearby is the site of the “hero cities” with capsules filled with the soil of these cities.
The memorial complex "Brest Hero Fortress" is open daily from 9.00 to 18.00, except the last Tuesday of the month.
Cost: 2200 rub. ($0.26)
Official site:
The famous Brest Fortress has become synonymous with unbroken spirit and perseverance. During the Great Patriotic War, the elite forces of the Wehrmacht were forced to spend 8 full days, instead of the planned 8 hours. What motivated the defenders of the fortress and why this resistance played an important role in the overall picture of the Second World War.
Early in the morning of June 22, 1941, the German offensive began along the entire line of the Soviet border, from the Barents to the Black Sea. One of the many initial targets was the Brest Fortress - a small line in the Barbarossa plan. The Germans took only 8 hours to storm and capture it. Despite the loud name, this is a fortification structure that was once former pride The Russian Empire turned into simple barracks and the Germans did not expect to encounter serious resistance there.
But the unexpected and desperate resistance that the Wehrmacht forces met in the fortress entered the history of the Great Patriotic War so vividly that today many believe that the Second World War began precisely with the attack on the Brest Fortress. But it could have happened that this feat would have remained unknown, but chance decreed otherwise.
History of the Brest Fortress
Where the Brest Fortress is located today, there used to be the city of Berestye, which was mentioned for the first time in the Tale of Bygone Years. Historians believe that this city originally grew up around a castle, the history of which is lost in the centuries. Located at the junction of Lithuanian, Polish and Russian lands, it has always played an important strategic role. The city was built on a cape formed by the Western Bug and Mukhovets rivers. In ancient times, rivers were the main communications routes for traders. Therefore, Berestye flourished economically. But the location on the border itself also entailed dangers. The city often moved from one state to another. It was repeatedly besieged and captured by the Poles, Lithuanians, German knights, Swedes, Crimean Tatars and troops of the Russian kingdom.
Important fortification
The history of the modern Brest Fortress originates in imperial Russia. It was built by order of Emperor Nicholas I. The fortification was located at an important point - on the shortest land route from Warsaw to Moscow. At the confluence of two rivers - the Western Bug and Mukhavets there was a natural island, which became the site of the Citadel - the main fortification of the fortress. This building was a two-story building that housed 500 casemates. There could be 12 thousand people there at the same time. The two-meter thick walls reliably protected them from any weapons that existed in the 19th century.
Three more islands were created artificially, using the waters of the Mukhovets River and a man-made ditch system. Additional fortifications were located on them: Kobrin, Volyn and Terespol. This arrangement suited the commanders defending the fortress very much, because it reliably protected the Citadel from enemies. It was very difficult to break through to the main fortification, and bringing battering guns there was almost impossible. The first stone of the fortress was laid on June 1, 1836, and on April 26, 1842, the fortress standard soared above it in a solemn ceremony. At that time it was one of the best defensive structures in the country. Knowledge of the design features of this military fortification will help you understand how the defense of the Brest Fortress took place in 1941.
Time passed and weapons improved. The range of artillery fire was increasing. What was previously impregnable could now be destroyed without even getting close. Therefore, military engineers decided to build an additional line of defense, which was supposed to encircle the fortress at a distance of 9 km from the main fortification. It included artillery batteries, defensive barracks, two dozen strong points and 14 forts.
An unexpected find
February 1942 turned out to be cold. German troops were rushing deep into the Soviet Union. The Red Army soldiers tried to restrain their advance, but most often they had no choice but to continue to retreat deeper into the country. But they were not always defeated. And now, not far from Orel, the 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division was completely defeated. It was even possible to capture documents from the headquarters archives. Among them they found “ Combat report about the occupation of Brest-Litovsk."
The careful Germans, day after day, documented the events that took place during the protracted siege in the Brest Fortress. Staff officers had to explain the reasons for the delay. At the same time, as has always been the case in history, they tried their best to extol their own courage and downplay the merits of the enemy. But even in this light, the feat of the unbroken defenders of the Brest Fortress looked so bright that excerpts from this document were published in the Soviet publication “Red Star” to strengthen the spirit of both front-line soldiers and civilians. But history at that time had not yet revealed all its secrets. The Brest Fortress in 1941 suffered much more than the trials that became known from the documents found.
Word to the witnesses
Three years passed after the capture of the Brest Fortress. After heavy fighting, Belarus and, in particular, the Brest Fortress were recaptured from the Nazis. By that time, stories about her had practically become legends and an ode to courage. Therefore, there was immediately increased interest in this object. The powerful fortress lay in ruins. At first glance, traces of destruction from artillery strikes told experienced front-line soldiers what kind of hell the garrison located here had to face at the very beginning of the war.
A detailed overview of the ruins provided an even more complete picture. Literally dozens of messages from participants in the defense of the fortress were written and scrawled on the walls. Many boiled down to the message: “I’m dying, but I’m not giving up.” Some contained dates and surnames. Over time, eyewitnesses of those events were found. German newsreels and photo reports became available. Step by step, historians reconstructed the picture of the events that took place on June 22, 1941 in the battles for the Brest Fortress. The writings on the walls told about things that were not in the official reports. In the documents, the date of the fall of the fortress was July 1, 1941. But one of the inscriptions was dated July 20, 1941. This meant that resistance, albeit in the form partisan movement, lasted almost a month.
Defense of the Brest Fortress
By the time the fire of World War II broke out, the Brest Fortress was no longer strategically important object. But since it was inappropriate to neglect existing material resources, it was used as a barracks. The fortress turned into a small military town where the families of the commanders lived. Among the civilian population permanently residing in the territory were women, children and the elderly. About 300 families lived outside the walls of the fortress.
Due to military exercises planned for June 22, rifle and artillery units and senior army commanders left the fortress. 10 rifle battalions, 3 artillery regiments, air defense and anti-tank battalions left the territory. Less than half the usual number of people remained - approximately 8.5 thousand people. The national composition of the defenders would be a credit to any UN meeting. There were Belarusians, Ossetians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Tatars, Kalmyks, Georgians, Chechens and Russians. In total, among the defenders of the fortress there were representatives of thirty nationalities. 19 thousand well-trained soldiers, who had considerable experience of real battles in Europe, were approaching them.
Soldiers of the 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division stormed the Brest Fortress. This was a special unit. It was the first to triumphantly enter Paris. Soldiers from this division traveled through Belgium, Holland and fought in Warsaw. They were considered practically the elite of the German army. The Forty-fifth Division always quickly and accurately carried out the tasks assigned to it. The Fuhrer himself singled her out from others. This is a division of the former Austrian army. It was formed in Hitler's homeland - in the district of Linz. Personal devotion to the Fuhrer was carefully cultivated in her. They are expected to win quickly, and they have no doubt about it.
Fully ready for a quick assault
The Germans had detailed plan Brest Fortress. After all, just a few years ago they had already conquered it from Poland. Then Brest was also attacked at the very beginning of the war. The assault on the Brest Fortress in 1939 lasted two weeks. It was then that the Brest Fortress was first subjected to aerial bombing. And on September 22, the whole of Brest was pompously handed over to the Red Army, in honor of which a joint parade of Red Army soldiers and the Wehrmacht was held.
Fortifications: 1 - Citadel; 2 - Kobrin fortification; 3 - Volyn fortification; 4 - Terespol fortification Objects: 1. Defensive barracks; 2. Barbicans; 3. White Palace; 4. Engineering management; 5. Barracks; 6. Club; 7. Dining room; 8. Brest Gate; 9. Kholm Gate; 10. Terespol Gate; 11. Brigid Gate. 12. Building border outpost; 13. Western Fort; 14. East Fort; 15. Barracks; 16. Residential buildings; 17. North-West Gate; 18. North Gate; 19. East Gate; 20. Powder magazines; 21. Brigid Prison; 22. Hospital; 23. Regimental school; 24. Hospital building; 25. Strengthening; 26. South Gate; 27. Barracks; 28. Garages; 30. Barracks.
Therefore, the advancing soldiers had all the necessary information and a diagram of the Brest Fortress. They knew about the strengths and weaknesses of fortifications, and had a clear plan of action. At dawn on June 22, everyone was in place. We installed mortar batteries and prepared assault troops. At 4:15 the Germans opened artillery fire. Everything was very clearly verified. Every four minutes the line of fire was moved 100 meters forward. The Germans carefully and methodically mowed down everything they could get their hands on. A detailed map of the Brest Fortress served as an invaluable help in this.
The emphasis was placed primarily on surprise. The artillery bombardment was supposed to be short but massive. The enemy had to be disoriented and not given the opportunity to provide united resistance. During the short attack, nine mortar batteries managed to fire 2,880 shots at the fortress. No one expected any serious resistance from the survivors. After all, in the fortress there were rear guards, repairmen, and families of commanders. As soon as the mortars died down, the assault began.
The attackers passed the South Island quickly. Warehouses were concentrated there, and there was a hospital. The soldiers did not stand on ceremony with bedridden patients - they finished them off with rifle butts. Those who could move independently were killed selectively.
But on the western island, where the Terespol fortification was located, the border guards managed to get their bearings and meet the enemy with dignity. But due to the fact that they were scattered into small groups, it was not possible to restrain the attackers for long. Through the Terespol Gate of the attacked Brest Fortress, the Germans broke into the Citadel. They quickly occupied some of the casemates, the officers' mess and the club.
First failures
At the same time, the newly-minted heroes of the Brest Fortress begin to gather in groups. They take out their weapons and take defensive positions. Now it turns out that the Germans who broke through find themselves in a ring. They are attacked from the rear, and yet undiscovered defenders await ahead. The Red Army soldiers purposefully shot officers among the attacking Germans. The infantrymen, discouraged by such a rebuff, try to retreat, but are then met with fire by the border guards. German losses in this attack amounted to almost half of the detachment. They retreat and settle in the club. This time as besieged.
Artillery cannot help the Nazis. It is impossible to open fire, since the probability of shooting your own people is too great. The Germans are trying to get through to their comrades stuck in the Citadel, but Soviet snipers with careful shots they force them to keep their distance. The same snipers block the movement of machine guns, preventing them from being transferred to other positions.
By 7:30 in the morning, the seemingly shot fortress literally comes to life and completely comes to its senses. Defense has already been organized along the entire perimeter. The commanders hastily reorganize the surviving soldiers and place them in positions. Nobody has a complete picture of what is happening. But at this time, the fighters are sure that they just need to hold their positions. Hold out until help comes.
Complete isolation
The Red Army soldiers had no contact with the outside world. Messages sent over the air went unanswered. By noon the city was completely occupied by the Germans. The Brest Fortress on the map of Brest remained the only center of resistance. All escape routes were cut off. But contrary to the expectations of the Nazis, resistance only grew. It was absolutely clear that the attempt to capture the fortress had failed outright. The offensive stalled.
At 13:15 the German command throws the reserve into battle - the 133rd infantry regiment. This does not bring results. At 14:30, the commander of the 45th division, Fritz Schlieper, arrives at the German-occupied site of the Kobrin fortification to personally assess the situation. He becomes convinced that his infantry is not able to take the Citadel on its own. Shlieper gives the order at nightfall to withdraw the infantry and resume shelling from heavy guns. The heroic defense of the besieged Brest Fortress is bearing fruit. This is the first retreat of the famous 45th Division since the beginning of the war in Europe.
The Wehrmacht forces could not simply take and leave the fortress as it was. In order to move forward it was necessary to occupy it. The strategists knew this, and it has been proven by history. The defense of the Brest Fortress by the Poles in 1939 and the Russians in 1915 served as a good lesson for the Germans. The fortress blocked important crossings across the Western Bug River and access roads to both tank highways, which had crucial to transport troops and provide supplies to the advancing army.
According to the plans of the German command, troops aimed at Moscow were to march non-stop through Brest. German generals considered the fortress a serious obstacle, but simply did not consider it as a powerful defensive line. The desperate defense of the Brest Fortress in 1941 made adjustments to the plans of the aggressors. In addition, the defending Red Army soldiers did not just sit in the corners. Time after time they organized counterattacks. Losing people and rolling back to their positions, they rebuilt and went into battle again.
This is how the first day of the war passed. The next day, the Germans gathered the captured people, and, hiding behind women, children and the wounded from the captured hospital, they began to cross the bridge. Thus, the Germans forced the defenders to either let them through or shoot their relatives and friends with their own hands.
Meanwhile, artillery fire resumed. To help the besiegers, two super-heavy guns were delivered - 600 mm self-propelled mortars of the Karl system. These were such exclusive weapons that they even had their own names. In total, only six such mortars were produced throughout history. The two-ton shells fired from these mastodons left craters 10 meters deep. They knocked down the towers at the Terespol Gate. In Europe, the mere appearance of such a “Charles” at the walls of a besieged city meant victory. The Brest Fortress, as long as the defense lasted, did not even give the enemy a reason to think about the possibility of surrender. The defenders continued to fire even when seriously wounded.
The first prisoners
However, at 10 am the Germans take the first break and offer to surrender. This continued during each of the subsequent breaks in the shooting. Insistent offers to surrender were heard from German loudspeakers throughout the entire area. This was supposed to undermine the morale of the Russians. This approach has brought certain results. On this day, about 1,900 people left the fortress with their hands raised. Among them there were a lot of women and children. But there were also military personnel. Mostly reservists who arrived for training camp.
The third day of defense began with artillery shelling, comparable in power to the first day of the war. The Nazis could not help but admit that the Russians were defending themselves courageously. But they did not understand the reasons that forced people to continue to resist. Brest was taken. There is nowhere to wait for help. However, initially no one planned to defend the fortress. In fact, this would even be a direct disobedience to the order, which stated that in the event of hostilities, the fortress was to be abandoned immediately.
The military personnel there simply did not have time to leave the facility. The narrow gate that was the only way out then, they were under targeted fire from the Germans. Those who failed to break through initially expected help from the Red Army. They didn't know that German tanks already in the center of Minsk.
Not all the women left the fortress, having heeded the exhortations to surrender. Many stayed to fight with their husbands. German attack aircraft even reported to the command about women's battalion. However, there were never female units in the fortress.
Premature report
On the twenty-fourth of June, Hitler was informed about the capture of the Brest-Litovsk Fortress. That day, the stormtroopers managed to capture the Citadel. But the fortress has not yet surrendered. That evening, the surviving commanders gathered in the engineering barracks building. The result of the meeting is Order No. 1 - the only document of the besieged garrison. Because of the assault that had begun, they didn’t even have time to finish writing it. But it is thanks to him that we know the names of the commanders and the numbers of the fighting units.
After the fall of the Citadel, the eastern fort became the main center of resistance in the Brest Fortress. Stormtroopers try to take the Kobrin rampart repeatedly, but the artillerymen of the 98th anti-tank division firmly hold the defense. They knock out a couple of tanks and several armored vehicles. When the enemy destroys the cannons, the soldiers with rifles and grenades go into the casemates.
The Nazis combined assaults and shelling with psychological treatment. With the help of leaflets dropped from airplanes, the Germans call for surrender, promising life and humane treatment. They announce through loudspeakers that both Minsk and Smolensk have already been taken and there is no point in resistance. But the people in the fortress simply do not believe it. They are waiting for help from the Red Army.
The Germans were afraid to enter the casemates - the wounded continued to shoot. But they couldn’t get out either. Then the Germans decided to use flamethrowers. The terrible heat melted brick and metal. These stains can still be seen today on the walls of the casemates.
The Germans issue an ultimatum. It is carried to the surviving soldiers by a fourteen-year-old girl - Valya Zenkina, the daughter of the foreman, who was captured the day before. The ultimatum states that either the Brest Fortress surrenders down to the last defender, or the Germans will wipe the garrison off the face of the earth. But the girl did not return. She chose to stay in the fortress with her people.
Current problems
The period of the first shock passes, and the body begins to demand its own. People understand that they haven’t eaten anything all this time, and the food warehouses burned down during the very first shelling. Worse yet– Defenders have nothing to drink. During the first artillery shelling of the fortress, the water supply system was disabled. People suffer from thirst. The fortress was located at the confluence of two rivers, but it was impossible to reach this water. There are German machine guns along the banks of rivers and canals. The attempts of the besieged to get to the water are paid for with their lives.
The basements are overflowing with the wounded and families of command personnel. It is especially difficult for children. The commanders decide to send women and children into captivity. With white flags they go out into the street and go to the exit. These women did not remain in captivity for long. The Germans simply released them, and the women went either to Brest or to the nearest village.
On June 29, the Germans call in aviation. This was the date of the beginning of the end. Bombers drop several 500 kg bombs on the fort, but it survives and continues to snarl with fire. After lunch, another super-powerful bomb (1800 kg) was dropped. This time the casemates were penetrated through. Following this, stormtroopers burst into the fort. They managed to capture about 400 prisoners. Under heavy fire and constant assaults, the fortress held out for 8 days in 1941.
One for all
Major Pyotr Gavrilov, who led the main defense in this area, did not surrender. He took refuge in a hole dug in one of the casemates. The last defender of the Brest Fortress decided to wage his own war. Gavrilov wanted to take refuge in the northwestern corner of the fortress, where there were stables before the war. During the day he buries himself in a pile of manure, and at night he carefully crawls out to the canal to drink water. The major eats the remaining feed in the stable. However, after several days of such a diet, acute pain in the abdomen begins, Gavrilov quickly weakens and begins to fall into oblivion at times. Soon he is captured.
The world will learn much later how many days the defense of the Brest Fortress lasted. As well as the price the defenders had to pay. But the fortress began to become overgrown with legends almost immediately. One of the most popular ones originated from the words of one Jew, Zalman Stavsky, who worked as a violinist in a restaurant. He said that one day, while going to work, he was stopped German officer. Zalman was taken to the fortress and led to the entrance to the dungeon around which soldiers gathered, bristling with cocked rifles. Stavsky was ordered to go downstairs and take the Russian fighter out of there. He obeyed, and below he found a half-dead man, whose name remained unknown. Thin and overgrown, he could no longer move independently. Rumor attributed to him the title of the last defender. This happened in April 1942. 10 months have passed since the beginning of the war.
From the shadow of oblivion
A year after the first attack on the fortification, an article was written about this event in Red Star, where details of the soldiers’ protection were revealed. The Moscow Kremlin decided that it could raise the fighting fervor of the population, which had subsided by that time. It was not yet a real memorial article, but only a notification about what kind of heroes those 9 thousand people who came under the bombing were considered. Numbers and some names were announced dead soldiers, the names of the fighters, the results of the surrender of the fortress and where the army is moving next. In 1948, 7 years after the end of the battle, an article appeared in Ogonyok, which was more reminiscent of a memorial ode to the fallen people.
In fact, the presence of a complete picture of the defense of the Brest Fortress should be credited to Sergei Smirnov, who at one time set out to restore and organize the records previously stored in the archives. Konstantin Simonov took up the historian’s initiative and a drama, a documentary and a feature film were born under his leadership. Historians conducted research in order to get as much documentary footage as possible and they succeeded - the German soldiers were going to make a propaganda film about the victory, and therefore there was already video material. However, it was not destined to become a symbol of victory, so all the information was stored in archives.
Around the same time, the painting “To the Defenders of the Brest Fortress” was painted, and since the 1960s, poems began to appear where the Brest Fortress is presented as an ordinary city having fun. They were preparing for a skit based on Shakespeare, but did not suspect that another “tragedy” was brewing. Over time, songs have appeared in which, from the heights of the 21st century, a person looks at the hardships of soldiers a century earlier.
It is worth noting that it was not only Germany that carried out propaganda: propaganda speeches, films, posters encouraging action. The Russian Soviet authorities also did this, and therefore these films also had a patriotic character. The poetry glorified courage, the idea of the feat of small military troops in the territory of the fortress, who were trapped. From time to time, notes appeared about the results of the defense of the Brest Fortress, but the emphasis was placed on the decisions of the soldiers in conditions of complete isolation from the command.
Soon, the Brest Fortress, already famous for its defense, had numerous poems, many of which were used as songs and served as screensavers for documentaries during the Great Patriotic War and chronicles of the advance of troops towards Moscow. In addition, there is a cartoon that tells the story of the Soviet people as foolish children ( junior classes). In principle, the reason for the appearance of traitors and why there were so many saboteurs in Brest is explained to the viewer. But this is explained by the fact that the people believed the ideas of fascism, while sabotage attacks were not always carried out by traitors.
In 1965, the fortress was awarded the title of “hero”; in the media it was referred to exclusively as the “Brest Hero Fortress”, and by 1971 a memorial complex was formed. In 2004, Vladimir Beshanov published the full chronicle “Brest Fortress”.
History of the complex
The existence of the museum “The Fifth Fort of the Brest Fortress” is due to communist party, who proposed its creation on the 20th anniversary of the memory of the defense of the fortress. Funds had previously been collected by the people, and now all that remained was to get approval to turn the ruins into a cultural monument. The idea originated long before 1971 and, for example, back in 1965 the fortress received the “Hero Star”, and a year later it was formed creative Group for museum design.
She did extensive work, right down to specifying what kind of cladding the obelisk bayonet should have (titanium steel), the main color of the stone (gray) and the required material (concrete). The Council of Ministers agreed to implement the project and in 1971 a memorial complex was opened, where sculptural compositions are correctly and neatly arranged and battle sites are represented. Today they are visited by tourists from many countries around the world.
Location of monuments
The resulting complex has a main entrance, which is a concrete parallelepiped with a carved star. Polished to a shine, it stands on a rampart, on which, from a certain angle, the desolation of the barracks is especially striking. They are not so much abandoned as they are left in the condition in which they were used by the soldiers after the bombing. This contrast especially emphasizes the condition of the castle. On both sides there are casemates of the Eastern part of the fortress, and from the opening you can see central part. This is how the story begins that the Brest Fortress will tell the visitor.
A special feature of the Brest Fortress is the panorama. From the elevation you can see the citadel, the Mukhavets River, on the coast of which it is located, as well as the largest monuments. The sculptural composition “Thirst” is impressively made, glorifying the courage of the soldiers left without water. Since the water supply was destroyed in the first hours of the siege, the soldiers themselves needed drinking water, gave it to families, and used the remains to cool the guns. It is this difficulty that is meant when they say that the soldiers were ready to kill and walk over corpses for a sip of water.
The White Palace, depicted in the famous painting by Zaitsev, is surprising; in some places it was completely destroyed even before the bombing began. During the Second World War, the building served as a canteen, club and warehouse at the same time. Historically, it was in the palace that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and according to myths, Trotsky left famous slogan“no war, no peace,” captured over a billiard table. However, the latter is not provable. During the construction of the museum, approximately 130 people were found killed near the palace, and the walls were damaged by potholes.
Together with the palace, the ceremonial area forms a single whole, and if we take into account the barracks, then all these buildings are entirely preserved ruins, untouched by archaeologists. The layout of the Brest Fortress memorial most often denotes the area with numbers, although it is quite extensive. In the center are slabs with the names of the defenders of the Brest Fortress, a list of which was restored, where the remains of more than 800 people are buried, and titles and merits are indicated next to the initials.
Most visited attractions
The eternal flame is located near the square, above which it rises Main monument. As the diagram shows, the Brest Fortress rings this place, making it a kind of core of the memorial complex. Memory Fast organized at Soviet power, in 1972, has been serving next to the fire for many years. Young Army soldiers serve here, whose shift lasts 20 minutes and you can often get a shift change. The monument also deserves attention: it was made from reduced parts made from plaster at a local factory. Then they took impressions of them and enlarged them 7 times.
The engineering department is also part of the untouched ruins and is located inside the citadel, and the Mukhavets and Western Bug rivers make an island out of it. There was always a fighter in the Directorate who never stopped transmitting signals via the radio station. This is how the remains of one soldier were found: not far from the equipment, until his last breath, he did not stop trying to contact the command. In addition, during the First World War, the Engineering Directorate was only partially restored and was not a reliable shelter.
The garrison temple became an almost legendary place, which was one of the very last to be captured by enemy troops. Initially the temple served Orthodox Church However, by 1941 there was already a regiment club there. Since the building stood very advantageously, it became the place for which both sides fought intensely: the club passed from commander to commander and only at the very end of the siege remained with German soldiers. The temple building was restored several times, and only by 1960 was it included in the complex.
At the very Terespol Gate there is a monument to the “Heroes of the Border...”, created according to the idea State Committee in Belarus. A member of the creative committee worked on the design of the monument, and construction cost 800 million rubles. The sculpture depicts three soldiers defending themselves from enemies invisible to the observer, and behind them are children and their mother giving precious water to a wounded soldier.
Underground tales
The attraction of the Brest Fortress are the dungeons, which have an almost mystical aura, and around them there are legends of different origins and content. However, whether they should be called such a big word still needs to be figured out. Many journalists made reports without first checking the information. In fact, many of the dungeons turned out to be manholes, several tens of meters long, not at all “from Poland to Belarus.” played his role human factor: Survivors mention underground passages as something great, but often the stories cannot be backed up with facts.
Often, before looking for ancient passages, you need to study the information, thoroughly study the archive and understand the photographs found in newspaper clippings. Why is it important? The fortress was built for certain purposes, and in some places these passages may simply not exist - they were not needed! But certain fortifications are worth paying attention to. The map of the Brest Fortress will help with this.
Fort
When constructing forts, it was taken into account that they should only support the infantry. So, in the minds of the builders, they looked like separate buildings that were well armed. The forts were supposed to protect the areas between themselves where the military were located, thus forming a single chain - a line of defense. In these distances between fortified forts, there was often a road hidden on the sides by an embankment. This mound could serve as walls, but not as a roof - there was nothing for it to support. However, researchers perceived and described it precisely as a dungeon.
Availability underground passages as such, not only is it not logical, but it is also difficult to implement. The financial expenses that the command would incur were absolutely not justified by the benefits of these dungeons. Much more effort would have been spent on construction, but the passages could have been used from time to time. Such dungeons can be used, for example, only when the fortress was defended. Moreover, it was beneficial for the commanders for the fort to remain autonomous and not become part of a chain that provided only a temporary advantage.
There are certified written memoirs of the lieutenant, describing his retreat with the army through the dungeons, stretching in the Brest Fortress, according to him, 300 meters! But the story briefly talked about the matches that the soldiers used to illuminate the path, but the size of the passages described by the lieutenant speaks for itself: it is unlikely that they would have had enough such lighting for such a distance, and even taking into account the return journey.
Old communications in legends
The fortress had storm drains and sewers, which made it a real stronghold from an ordinary pile of buildings with large walls. It is these technical passages that can most correctly be called dungeons, since they are made as a smaller version of the catacombs: a network of narrow passages branched over a long distance can only allow one person of average build to pass through. A soldier with ammunition will not pass through such cracks, much less several people in a row. This is an ancient sewerage system, which, by the way, is located on the diagram of the Brest Fortress. A person could crawl along it to the point of blockage and clear it so that this branch of the highway could be used further.
There is also a gateway that helps maintain the required amount of water in the fortress moat. It was also perceived as a dungeon and took on the image of a fabulously large hole. Numerous other communications can be listed, but the meaning will not change and they can only be considered dungeons conditionally.
Ghosts taking revenge from the dungeons
After the fortification was surrendered to Germany, legends about cruel ghosts avenging their comrades began to be passed on from mouth to mouth. Real basis There were such myths: the remnants of the regiment hid for a long time in underground communications and shot at the night watchmen. Soon, descriptions of ghosts that never missed began to frighten so much that the Germans wished each other to avoid meeting the Fraumit Automaton, one of the legendary avenging ghosts.
Upon the arrival of Hitler and Benito Mussolini, everyone’s hands were sweating in the Brest Fortress: if, while these two brilliant personalities pass by the caves, ghosts fly out of there, trouble will not be avoided. However, this, to the considerable relief of the soldiers, did not happen. At night, Frau did not stop committing atrocities. She attacked unexpectedly, always swiftly, and just as unexpectedly disappeared into the dungeons, as if she had disappeared into them. From the descriptions of the soldiers it followed that the woman had a dress torn in several places, tangled hair and a dirty face. Because of her hair, by the way, her middle name was “Kudlataya.”
History had real basis, since the wives of the commanders also came under siege. They were trained to shoot, and they did it masterfully, without a miss, because the GTO standards had to be passed. In addition, being in good physical shape and being able to handle various types of weapons was an honor, and therefore some woman, blinded by revenge for her loved ones, could well have done this. One way or another, the Fraumit Automaton was not the only legend among German soldiers.
The heroic Brest Fortress was one of the first to take the blow of the fascist troops. The Germans were already near Smolensk, and the defenders of the fortress continued to resist the enemy.
Defenders of the Brest Fortress. Hood. P.A. Krivonogov. 1951 / photo: O. Ignatovich / RIA Novosti
The defense of the Brest Fortress went down in history solely thanks to the feat of its small garrison - those who in the first days and weeks of the war did not panic, did not run or surrender, but fought to the end...
Five times superiority
In accordance with the Barbarossa plan, the path of one of the main shock wedges of the invasion army ran through Brest - the right wing of the Center group consisting of the 4th Field Army and the 2nd Tank Group (19 infantry, 5 tank, 3 motorized, 1 cavalry , 2 security divisions, 1 motorized brigade). The Wehrmacht forces concentrated here, in terms of personnel alone, were almost five times greater than the forces of the opposing 4th Soviet Army under the command of Major General Alexandra Korobkova, responsible for covering the Brest-Baranovichi direction. The German command decided to cross the Western Bug tank divisions south and north of Brest, and the 12th Army Corps of the general was allocated to storm the fortress itself Walter Schroth.
“It was impossible to bypass the fortress and leave it unoccupied,” Field Marshal General, the commander of the 4th Wehrmacht Army, reported to his superiors Gunther von Kluge, “since it blocked important crossings across the Bug and access roads to both tank highways, which were crucial for the transfer of troops, and above all for ensuring supplies.”
The Brest Fortress is located to the west of the city - in the place where the Mukhavets River flows into the Bug, on the very border. Built in the 19th century, in 1941 it had no defensive significance, and the fortress buildings were used as warehouses and barracks to house Red Army units. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, units of the 28th rifle corps(primarily the 6th Oryol Red Banner and the 42nd rifle divisions), the 33rd separate engineering regiment of district subordination, the 132nd separate battalion of NKVD convoy troops, as well as regimental schools, transport companies, musician platoons, headquarters and other units. There were two military hospitals on the territory of the Volyn fortification. Border guards of the 9th outpost of the 17th Red Banner border detachment served in the fortress.
In the event of the outbreak of hostilities, the stationed units had to leave the fortress and occupy fortified areas on the border.
“The deployment of Soviet troops in Western Belarus,” the general wrote in his memoirs Leonid Sandalov(in June 1941 - chief of staff of the 4th Army) - at first was not subordinated to operational considerations, but was determined by the availability of barracks and premises suitable for housing troops. This, in particular, explained the crowded location of half the troops of the 4th Army with all their warehouses of emergency supplies (ES) on the very border - in Brest and the former Brest Fortress.”
It took the combat units at least three hours to leave the fortress. But when the commander of the troops of the Western Special Military District, Army General Dmitry Pavlov gave the order to bring troops to combat readiness, it was already late: there was about half an hour left before the German artillery preparation began.
Beginning of the invasion
Despite the fact that on the eve of the war a significant part personnel was busy working on the construction of the Brest fortified area; on the night of June 22, there were from 7 thousand to 9 thousand military personnel in the fortress, as well as about 300 families (more than 600 people) of Red Army commanders. The condition of the fortress garrison was well known to the German command. It decided that powerful bombing and artillery strikes would so stun the people taken by surprise that it would not be difficult for the assault units to occupy the fortress and “cleanse” it. The entire operation took several hours.
It seemed that the enemy did everything to ensure that this happened. The 45th Infantry Division, a regiment of heavy mortars for special purposes, two divisions of mortars, nine howitzers and two artillery installations of the Karl system, whose 600-mm guns fired concrete-piercing and high-explosive shells weighing 2200 and 1700 kg, respectively. The Germans concentrated their artillery on the left bank of the Bug in such a way that the attacks would hit the entire territory of the fortress and hit as many of its defenders as possible. The shots from the specially powerful "Karl" guns were supposed to not only lead to huge destruction, but also to demoralize the survivors of the shelling and encourage them to immediately surrender.
5–10 minutes before the start of the artillery preparation, German assault groups captured all six bridges across the Western Bug in the Brest area. At 4:15 a.m. Moscow time, the artillery opened heavy fire on Soviet territory, the advanced units of the invading army began to cross over bridges and by boats to the eastern bank of the Bug. The attack was sudden and merciless. Thick clouds of smoke and dust, pierced by fiery flashes of explosions, rose above the fortress. Houses burned and collapsed, military personnel, women and children died in the fire and under the rubble...
History of the Brest Fortress
Brest-Litovsk became part of Russia in 1795 - after the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. To strengthen the new borders in St. Petersburg, it was decided to build several fortresses. One of them was supposed to appear on the site of the city of Brest-Litovsk. The solemn ceremony of laying the first stone of the future fortress took place on June 1, 1836, and already in 1842 the Brest-Litovsk Fortress became one of the operating first class fortresses of the Russian Empire.
The fortress consisted of the Citadel and three extensive fortifications, forming the main fortress fence and covering the Citadel from all sides: Volyn (from the south), Terespol (from the west) and Kobrin (from the east and north). WITH outside the fortress was protected by a bastion front - a fortress fence (an earthen rampart with brick casemates inside) 10 meters high, 6.4 km long and a bypass channel filled with water. The total area of the fortress was 4 square meters. km (400 hectares). The citadel was a natural island, along the entire perimeter of which a closed two-story defensive barracks with a length of 1.8 km was built. The thickness of the outer walls reached 2 m, the inner walls - 1.5 m. The barracks consisted of 500 casemates, which could accommodate up to 12 thousand soldiers with ammunition and food.
In 1864–1888, the fortress was modernized according to the hero’s design Crimean War General Eduard Totleben and surrounded by a ring of forts 32 km in circumference. On the eve of the First World War, construction of a second ring of fortifications with a length of 45 km began (the future Soviet general Dmitry Karbyshev took part in its design), but it was never completed before the start of hostilities.
The Russian army did not have to defend the Brest Fortress then: the rapid advance of the Kaiser’s troops in August 1915 forced the command to decide to abandon the fortress without a fight. In December 1917, in Brest, negotiations were held on a truce at the front between delegations of Soviet Russia on the one hand and Germany and its allies (Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria) on the other. On March 3, 1918, the Brest Peace Treaty was concluded in the building of the White Palace of the fortress.
As a result of the Soviet-Polish War of 1919–1920, the Brest Fortress became Polish for almost 20 years. It was used by the Poles as a barracks, military warehouse and maximum security political prison, where the most dangerous state criminals were kept. In 1938–1939, the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera served his sentence here, who organized the murder of the head of the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs and was sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment.
September 1, 1939 fascist Germany attacked Poland. The Polish garrison surrounded in the fortress resisted from September 14 to 16. On the night of September 17, the defenders abandoned the fortress. On the same day, the liberation campaign of the Red Army began in Western Belarus: Soviet troops crossed the state border in the area of Minsk, Slutsk and Polotsk. The city of Brest, together with the fortress, became part of the USSR.
In 1965, the fortress, whose defenders showed unparalleled heroism in the summer of 1941, was awarded the title “Hero Fortress.”
SMIRNOV S.S. Brest Fortress (any edition);
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SUVOROV A.M. Brest Fortress on the winds of history. Brest, 2004;
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Brest Fortress... Facts, evidence, discoveries / V.V. Gubarenko and others. Brest, 2005.
First assault
Of course, the shelling of the barracks, bridges and entrance gates of the fortress caused confusion among the soldiers. The surviving commanders, due to heavy fire, could not penetrate the barracks, and the Red Army soldiers, having lost contact with them, independently, in groups and individually, under enemy artillery and machine-gun fire, tried to escape from the trap. Some officers, such as the commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment, Major Peter Gavrilov, we managed to get through to our units, but it was no longer possible to get people out of the fortress. It is believed that in the first few hours, approximately half of those who were in the barracks on its territory managed to leave the fortress. At 9 o'clock in the morning the fortress was already surrounded, and those who remained had to make a choice: surrender or continue the fight in hopeless conditions. Most preferred the latter.
Wehrmacht artillerymen are preparing to fire a 600-mm self-propelled mortar "Karl" in the Brest area. June 1941
Pastor of the 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division Rudolf Gschöpf later recalled:
“At exactly 3.15 a hurricane began and swept over our heads with such force that we had never experienced either before or in the entire subsequent course of the war. This gigantic concentrated barrage of fire literally shook the earth. Thick black fountains of earth and smoke grew like mushrooms above the Citadel. Since at that moment it was impossible to notice the enemy's return fire, we believed that everything in the Citadel had been turned into a pile of ruins. Immediately after the last artillery salvo, the infantry began to cross the Bug River and, using the effect of surprise, tried to capture the fortress with a quick and energetic throw go. It was then that bitter disappointment immediately emerged...
The Russians were raised straight from their beds by our fire: this was evident from the fact that the first prisoners were in their underwear. However, the Russians recovered surprisingly quickly, formed into battle groups behind our broken companies and began to organize a desperate and stubborn defense.”
Major General A.A. Korobkov
Regimental Commissar E.M. Fomin
Having overcome the initial confusion, the Soviet soldiers hid the wounded, women, and children in the basements and began to cut off and destroy the Nazis who had broken into the fortress, and to build a defense of the most dangerous areas. In the western part of the Citadel, the fighting was led by lieutenants Andrey Kizhevatov And Alexander Potapov, at the Kholm Gate and in the Engineering Directorate - regimental commissar Efim Fomin, in the area of the White Palace and the barracks of the 33rd engineering regiment - senior lieutenant Nikolay Shcherbakov, at the Brest (Three Arched) Gate - lieutenant Anatoly Vinogradov.
Major P.M. Gavrilov
“Officers’ ranks were invisible in that hell, but it was like this: whoever speaks skillfully and fights bravely, the better they followed and respected him better,” recalled the former secretary of the party bureau of the regimental school of the 33rd engineering regiment Fedor Zhuravlev.
The fighting, which turned into hand-to-hand combat, took place on the first day at all fortifications: the western - Terespol, the southern - Volyn, the northern - Kobrin, as well as in the central part of the fortress - the Citadel.
Lieutenant A.M. Kizhevatov
On the Nazis who broke through to Central Island and seized the club building (the former Church of St. Nicholas), soldiers of the 84th Infantry Regiment went on the attack, at the Terespol Gate, border guards of the 9th outpost, soldiers of the 333rd and 455th Infantry Regiments, and the 132nd Separate Convoy Battalion attacked the enemy NKVD troops. A certificate from a participant has been preserved about the counterattack of soldiers of the 84th Infantry Regiment at the Kholm Gate Samvel Matevosyan(in June 1941, executive secretary of the Komsomol bureau of the regiment):
“When he shouted: “Follow me!” For the Motherland! – many were ahead of me. Literally at the exit I ran into a German officer. He's a tall guy, I'm lucky that he's also armed with a pistol. In a split second... they shot at the same time, he caught my right temple, but he remained... I bandaged the wound, our orderly helped me.”
The surviving German soldiers were blocked in the church building.
Lieutenant A.A. Vinogradov
“Our situation is hopeless”
The morning assault failed. The first victory strengthened the spirit of those who had been depressed by the force and suddenness of the artillery attack and the death of their comrades. The heavy losses of the assault groups on the very first day of the offensive forced the German command to decide to withdraw their units at night to the outer ramparts of the fortress, surrounding it with a dense ring in order to break the resistance of the defenders with the help of artillery and aviation. The shelling began, interrupted by calls through the loudspeaker to surrender.
Trapped in the basements, people, especially the wounded, women and small children, suffered from heat, smoke and the stench of decomposing dead bodies. But the most terrible test was thirst. The water supply was destroyed, and the Nazis kept all approaches to the river or bypass canal under targeted fire. Every flask, every sip of water was obtained at the cost of life.
Realizing that they could no longer save children and women from death, the defenders of the Citadel decided to send them into captivity. Addressing the wives of the commanders, Lieutenant Kizhevatov said:
“Our situation is hopeless... You are mothers, and your sacred duty to the Motherland is to save the children. This is our order for you."
He assured his wife:
“Don't worry about me. I won't be captured. I will fight until my last breath and even when there is not a single defender left in the fortress.”
Several dozen people, including wounded soldiers and, possibly, those who had already exhausted their strength to fight, marched under a white flag to the Western Island along the Terespolsky Bridge. On the fourth day of defense, the defenders did the same eastern ramparts fortresses, sending their relatives to the Germans.
Most family members of the Red Army commanders did not survive to see the liberation of Brest. At first, the Germans, after keeping them in prison for a short time, released everyone, and they settled down as best they could somewhere in the city or its environs. But in 1942, the occupation authorities carried out several raids, deliberately searching for and shooting the wives, children and relatives of Soviet commanders. Then the lieutenant's mother was killed Kizhevatova Anastasia Ivanovna, his wife Ekaterina and their three children: Vanya, Galya and Anya. In the fall of 1942, a three-year-old boy was also killed Dima Shulzhenko, rescued by unknown heroes on the first day of the war, he was shot along with his aunt Elena...
Who knows why the Germans did this: maybe they were taking revenge for their powerlessness, for the defeat near Moscow? Or were they driven by fear of inevitable retribution, of which they were reminded by the fire-molten casemates of the fortress that had long been silent by that time?..
Memories of the Defenders
Photo by Igor Zotin and Vladimir Mezhevich / TASS Photo Chronicle
Any description of the first days of the war, and especially the events in the Brest Fortress, must be based almost exclusively on the memories of their participants - those who managed to survive. The documents of the headquarters of the 4th Army, and even more so of the divisions that were part of it, were mostly lost: they were burned during the bombing or, so as not to fall into the hands of the enemy, they were destroyed by staff members. Therefore, historians still do not have accurate data regarding the number of units that ended up in the Brest “mousetrap” and the places where they were quartered, and they reconstruct and even date the episodes of the battle in different ways. Thanks to the many years of work of the staff of the Museum of the Heroic Defense of the Brest Fortress, opened in 1956, as well as the journalistic investigation of the writer Sergei Smirnov, a whole collection of memories was collected. They are difficult and scary to read.
“Our apartment was in the Terespol Tower,” recalled Valentina, the daughter of the sergeant major of the musician platoon of the 33rd engineering regiment Ivan Zenkin. – During the shelling of the Terespol Tower, two water tanks were pierced by shells. Water poured from the ceiling onto the stairs and began to flood our apartment. We didn't understand what was going on. The father said: “This is war, daughter. Get dressed, go downstairs, fragments are flying here. But I need to go to the regiment.”
Silently he stroked my head. So I parted with my father forever. Behind the roar, roar and smoke, we did not hear or see how the enemies burst into the power plant premises and began throwing grenades in front of them, shouting:
“Rus, give up!” One grenade exploded near the power plant. Children and women screamed. We were driven to the bank of the Mukhavets River. Then we saw wounded Red Army soldiers lying on the ground. The Nazis stood above them with machine guns. From the windows of the casemates between the Kholm Gate and the Terespol Tower, the soldiers opened fire on the Nazis who had captured us.
But when they saw women and children, they stopped shooting in our direction. “Shoot, why did you stop? The Nazis will still shoot us! Shoot! – one of the wounded Red Army soldiers shouted, standing up. Before my eyes they began to beat one of our wounded black-haired soldiers with their boots. They shouted and insulted him, showing with gestures that he was a Jew. I felt very sorry for this man. I grabbed onto the fascist and began to pull him away. “This is a Georgian, this is a Georgian,” I repeated...”
She left another clear evidence of the courage of the fortress defenders. Natalya Mikhailovna Kontrovska I, the lieutenant's wife Sergei Chuvikov.
“I saw,” she said, “the heroism shown by the border guards, soldiers and commanders of the 333rd Infantry Regiment... I will never forget the border guard who was wounded by machine gun fire in both legs. When I helped him and the women wanted to take him to a shelter, he protested and asked to tell Lieutenant Kizhevatov that he could still beat the Nazis while lying at a machine gun. His request was granted. On the afternoon of June 22, when the hurricane artillery fire subsided for a while, we saw from the basement that not far from the commandant’s office, among a pile of ruins, lay Tonya Shulzhenko and her little son was crawling around her corpse. The boy was in a zone of constant shelling. I will never forget the fighter who saved Dima. He crawled after the child. He extended his hand to pull the boy towards him, and remained there... Then the two wounded men crawled to Dima again and saved him. The baby was injured..."
Heroic defense. Collection of memoirs about the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress in June-July 1941. Minsk, 1963;
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GREBENKINA A.A. Living pain. Women and children of the Brest garrison (1941–1944). Minsk, 2008.
“I’m dying, but I’m not giving up!”
On June 24, the defenders of the Citadel tried to coordinate their actions in order to prepare a breakthrough from the fortress in order to go into the forests and join the partisans. This is evidenced by draft order No. 1, the text of which was found in 1951 during search operations in the basement of a barracks at the Brest Gate in the field bag of an unknown Soviet commander. The order talked about the unification of several combat groups and the creation of a headquarters led by captain Ivan Zubachev and his deputy regimental commissar Efim Fomin. A breakthrough attempt was made under the command of Lieutenant Anatoly Vinogradov through the Kobrin fortification on the morning of June 26, but almost all of its participants died or were captured after they managed to overcome the outer ramparts of the fortress.
The inscription on the wall of one of the casemates of the Brest Fortress: “I am dying, but I am not giving up! Goodbye, Motherland. 20/VII-41" / photo: Lev Polikashin/RIA Novosti
By the end of the third day of the war, after the introduction of reserves into battle (now the units operating here already numbered two regiments), the Germans were able to establish control over most of the fortress. The defenders of the ring barracks near the Brest Gate, casemates in earthen rampart on opposite bank the Mukhavets River and the Eastern Fort on the territory of the Kobrin fortification. Part of the barracks, where the defense headquarters was located, was destroyed as a result of several explosions carried out by German sappers. The defenders of the Citadel, including the leaders of the defense, died or were captured (Fomin was shot shortly after his capture, and Zubachev died in 1944 in the Hammelburg prison camp). After June 29, only isolated pockets of resistance and single fighters remained in the fortress, gathering in groups and trying to escape from encirclement at any cost. One of the last among the defenders of the fortress to be captured was Major Petr Gavrilov- this happened on July 23, on the 32nd day of the war.
German soldiers in the courtyard of the Brest Fortress after its capture
Staff Sergeant Sergey Kuvalin, captured on July 1, among other prisoners of war, worked to clear rubble near the Terespol Gate.
“On July 14-15, a detachment of German soldiers, about 50 people, passed by us. When they reached the gate, an explosion suddenly sounded in the middle of their formation, and everything was covered in smoke. It turns out that one of our fighters was still sitting in the destroyed tower above the gate. He dropped a bunch of grenades on the Germans, killing 10 people and seriously wounding many, and then jumped down from the tower and fell to his death. We didn’t know who he was, this unknown hero, and they didn’t let us bury him,” recalled Sergei Kuvalin, who went through many German camps and escaped from captivity at the end of the war.
In 1952, an inscription was discovered on the wall of the casemate in the northwestern part of the defensive barracks:
“I'm dying, but I'm not giving up! Goodbye, Motherland. 20/VII-41".
Unfortunately, the name of this hero also remains unknown...
The path to immortality
Memorial complex “Brest Hero Fortress” in Belarus Lyudmila Ivanova/Interpress/TASS
Having easily defeated Poland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, capturing hundreds of cities and fortresses, the Germans for the first time since the beginning of World War II were faced with such a stubborn defense of a generally very insignificant fortified point. For the first time they met an army whose soldiers, even realizing the hopelessness of their situation, preferred death in battle to captivity.
Perhaps it was in Brest, losing soldiers and officers in battles with the defenders of the fortress dying of hunger and thirst, that the Germans began to understand that the war in Russia would not be an easy walk, as the high command had promised them. And indeed, as the German army advanced eastward, the resistance of the Red Army increased - and in December 1941, for the first time since the beginning of the war, the Nazis suffered a major defeat near Moscow.
It would seem that the scale of events at the walls of a small border fortress is incomparable with grandiose battles this war. However, it was there, at the walls of the Brest Fortress, that the road of unparalleled courage and feat of Soviet people defending their Fatherland began, the road that ultimately led us to Victory.
Yuri Nikiforov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences