Brest Fortress is called. History of the Brest Fortress. Heroes of the Brest Fortress

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 were 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 officials drew attention to its favorable location. Russian army, concerned about strengthening the boundaries. 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 active 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. At the beginning, the defense capability of the fortress was undermined, oddly enough, by the military reform - it removed the infantry from 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 fortress was transferred to the 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, the 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 by Soviet soldiers continued 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 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 with 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 42nd Rifle Divisions), the 33rd separate engineer regiment of district subordination, the 132nd separate battalion of NKVD convoy troops, as well as regimental schools were located here , 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 of the personnel was busy working on the construction of the Brest fortified area, in the fortress on the night of June 22 there were from 7 thousand to 9 thousand military personnel, as well as about 300 families (more than 600 people) of commanders Red Army. 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 special-purpose heavy mortars, two mortar divisions, nine howitzers and two artillery installations 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 enormous destruction, but also to demoralize the survivors of the shelling and prompt 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 hurricane fire on Soviet territory, and the advanced units of the invading army began crossing bridges and 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). From the 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 design of the hero of the 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.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi 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 in Western Belarus began: 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);
***
SUVOROV A.M. Brest Fortress on the winds of history. Brest, 2004;
***
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 over 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

The Nazis, who broke through to the Central Island and seized the club building (the former Church of St. Nicholas), were attacked by soldiers of the 84th Infantry Regiment; at the Terespol Gate, border guards of the 9th outpost, soldiers of the 333rd and 455th Infantry Regiments attacked the enemy , 132nd separate battalion of NKVD convoy 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 over 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 of the eastern ramparts of the fortress did the same, 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;
***
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 work in the basement of the 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, the casemates in the earthen rampart on the opposite bank of the Mukhavets River and the Eastern Fort on the territory of the Kobrin fortification fought the longest. 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 the grandiose battles of 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

Years

June-July 1941 - Heroic defense of the fortress
Awards:

Coordinates: 52°05′00″ n. w. 23°39′10″ E. d. /  52.083333° s. w. 23.652778° E. d.(G) (O) (I)52.083333 , 23.652778

Construction and device

"The most popular Polish resort Brest nad Bug." Caricature of the imprisonment of opposition deputies in the Brest Fortress, October 5, 1930.

The construction of the fortress on the site of the center of the old city began in 1833 according to the design of military topographer and engineer Karl Ivanovich Opperman. Initially, temporary earthen fortifications were erected; the first stone of the fortress's foundation was laid on June 1, 1836. The main construction work was completed by April 26, 1842. The fortress consisted of a citadel and three fortifications that protected it with a total area of ​​4 km² and the length of the main fortress line was 6.4 km.

Defense of the Brest Fortress in 1941

Plan diagram of the fortification system of the Brest Fortress in 1941. 1. Kobrin fortification, 2. Volyn fortification, 3. Terespol fortification

Memorial complex "Brest Hero Fortress"

Memory of the defenders of the fortress

For the first time, the defense of the Brest Fortress became known from the German headquarters report on the capture of Brest-Litovsk, captured in the papers of the defeated 45th Infantry Division (kept in the Archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense, op. 7514, d. 1, l. 227-228) in February 1942 year in the Krivtsovo area near Orel in an attempt to destroy the Bolkhov group of German troops.

Based on the materials of the “Combat report on the capture of Brest-Litovsk” in the newspaper “Red Star” dated June 21, 1942, an article by Colonel M. Tolchenov “A year ago in Brest” was published (Brest Fortress. Guide to the places of battle./Ed. Gnedovets P . P.-M.: Voenizdat, 1965, pp. 36.-120 pp.). In 1948, an article by writer Mikhail Zlatogorov “Brest Fortress” appeared in Ogonyok; in 1951, the artist Pyotr Krivonogov painted the painting “Defenders of the Brest Fortress.” The credit for restoring the memory of the heroes of the fortress largely belongs to the writer and historian Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov, as well as Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, who supported his initiative. In 1955, Sergei Smirnov’s heroic drama “The Fortress on the Bug” was published; in 1956, Sergei Smirnov’s documentary story “Brest Fortress” was released, and a feature film based on the script by Konstantin Simonov “The Immortal Garrison” (honorary diploma of the Venice International Film Festival) was released on screens around the world.

From that time on, the Brest Fortress became a symbol of the unshakable fortitude of the Soviet people and an important symbol of official patriotic propaganda.

On May 8, 1965, the Brest Fortress was awarded the title of hero fortress. Since 1971 it has been a memorial complex. The Brest Hero Fortress memorial was built according to the designs of the sculptor Alexander Pavlovich Kibalnikov. The building of the Museum of Defense of the Brest Fortress and the ruins of the White Palace are adjacent to Ceremonial Square. The compositional center is the main monument “Courage”; on its reverse side there are relief compositions telling about individual episodes of the heroic defense of the fortress. The remains of 850 people are buried in a 3-tier necropolis, compositionally connected with the monument. The Eternal Flame of Glory burns in front of the ruins of the former engineering department. The observation platform contains the ruins of the barracks of the 333rd Infantry Regiment and other defensive and residential structures.

Brest Fortress in culture

A number of feature films are dedicated to the defense of the Brest Fortress: “Immortal Garrison” (1956), “Battle for Moscow” (the first film “Aggression”, one of the storylines, 1985); “I am a Russian soldier” (based on the book by Boris Vasiliev “Not on the lists”, 1995), the joint Russian-Belarusian “Brest Fortress” (2010), as well as the documentary “Brest Fortress. Crossing of Troops,” filmed by Mikhail Glushin in 2009. In 2010, the NTV channel released Alexey Pivovarov’s television film “Brest. Serf heroes."

Photos

see also

Notes

Literature

• Aliev Rostislav. Brest Fortress. A view from the German side // Front-line illustration No. 5, 2008
• Aliev Rostislav. Brest Fortress. M.: Veche, 2010
• Aliev Rostislav. Storming of the Brest Fortress. M.: Yauza-Eksmo, 2008
• Anikin V.I. Brest Fortress - a hero fortress. M.: Stroyizdat, 1985. (Architecture of hero cities).
• Beshanov V.V. Brest Fortress. Minsk, Belarus, 2004
• Bobrenok S. At the walls of the Brest Fortress. Mn., 1960.
• Brest. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1987.
• Gantser Krystyyan. Memory and forgetting: the love of the heroes of the Brestskaya krepastsi. In: Siyabgan Doucet, Andrey Dynko, Ales Pashkevich (eds.): Vartan to Europe: The past and future of Belarus. Warsaw 2011, pp. 141-147.
• Heroic defense // Sat. memories of the defense of the Brest Fortress in June-July 1941. Mn., 1966.
• Kalandadze L. Days in the Brest Fortress. Tbilisi, 1964.
• Kul-Syalverstava S. Brest cadet corps // Belarusian Historical Hours. 1998. No. 3.
• Lavrovskaya I. B., Kondak A. P. Brest. Journey through the centuries. Mn., 1999.
• Memory. Brest: In 2 vols. Mn., 1997.
• Polonsky L. In besieged Brest. Baku, 1962.
• Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress. M., 1970.
• Smirnov S.S. In search of the heroes of the Brest Fortress. M., 1959.
• Smirnov S.S. Stories about unknown heroes. M., 1985.
• Suvorov A. M. Brest Fortress on the Winds of History. Brest, Editorial Board of the magazine "SEZ", 2004
• Suvorov A. M. Fort V and other forts of the Brest Fortress. Brest, Printing, 2009
• Suvorov A. M. Brest Fortress. A touch of achievement. Brest, Printing, 2009, 2011
• Suvorov A. M. Brest Fortress. War and Peace. Brest, Printing, 2010
• Khametov M. I. Brest Hero Fortress. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1988. - 176, p. - (Hero Cities). - 65,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-00047-6(in translation)
• Khmelevsky Ya. M. Directory-calendar of the mountains. Brest-Litovsk in 1913.
• Ganzer Christian. Czy “legendarna twierdza” jest legendą? Oborona twierdzy brzeskiej w 1941 r. w świetle niemeckich i austriackich dokumentów archiwalnych. In: Wspólne czy osobne? Miesca pamięci narodów Europy Wschodniej. Białystok/Kraków 2011, S. 37-47.
• Ganzer Christian, Paškovič Alena. "Heldentum, Tragik, Kühnheit." "Das Museum der Verteidigung der Brester Festung." In: Osteuropa 12/2010, S. 81-96.
• Geresz J. Twierdza niepokonana 1939: obrona cytadeli w Brześciu nad Bugiem we wrześniu 1939 r. Biała Podlaska; Międzyrzec Podlaski 1994.
• Sroka J. Brześć nad Bugiem. Dzieje miasta i twierdzy. Biała Podlaska 1997.
• Sroka J. Obrońcy twierdzy brzeskiej we wrześniu 1939 r., Biała Podlaska 1992.
• Waszczukowna-Kamieniecka D. Brześć nezapomniane miasto. London, 1997.

• S. Smirnov. Brest Fortress (1963)

Some of the sources claim that the history of the Brest Fortress began a century before its heroic feat in 1941. This is somewhat untrue. The fortress has existed for a long time. The complete reconstruction of the medieval citadel in the town of Berestye (the historical name of Brest) began in 1836 and lasted 6 years.

Immediately after the fire of 1835, the tsarist government decided to modernize the fortress in order to give it the status of a western outpost of national importance in the future.

Medieval Brest

The fortress arose back in the 11th century; mentions of it can be found in the well-known “Tale of Bygone Years,” where the chronicle recorded episodes of the struggle for the throne between two great princes - Svyatopolk and Yaroslav.

Having a very advantageous location - on a cape between two rivers and Mukhavets, Berestye soon acquired the status of a large shopping center.

In ancient times, the main routes of merchant movement were rivers. And here are two waterways made it possible to move goods from east to west and vice versa. Along the Bug it was possible to get to Poland, Lithuania and Europe, and along Mukhavets, through Pripyat and the Dnieper, to the Black Sea steppes and the Middle East.

One can only guess how picturesque the medieval Brest Fortress was. Photos of illustrations and drawings of the fortress of the early period are very rare; they can only be found as museum exhibits.

Due to the constant transition of the Brest Fortress under the jurisdiction of one state or another and the development of the town in its own way, the plan for both the outpost and settlement underwent minor changes. Some of them were inspired by the requirements of the time, but for more than half a thousand years the Brest Fortress managed to preserve its original medieval flavor and appropriate atmosphere.

1812 French in the citadel

The border geography of Brest has always been the reason for the struggle for the town: for 800 years, the history of the Brest Fortress captured the dominion of the Turov and Lithuanian principalities, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland), and only in 1795 did Brest become an integral part of Russian lands.

But before Napoleon's invasion, the Russian government did not give of great importance ancient fortress. Only during the Russian-French War of 1812 did the Brest Fortress confirm its status as a reliable outpost, which, as people said, helps its own people and destroys its enemies.

The French also decided to leave Brest behind, but Russian troops recaptured the fortress, winning an unconditional victory over the French cavalry units.

Historical decision

This victory served as the starting point for the decision of the tsarist government to erect a new and powerful fortification on the site of a rather flimsy medieval fortress, corresponding to the spirit of the times in architectural style and military significance.

And what about the heroes of the Brest Fortress of the seasons? After all, any military action presupposes the appearance of desperate daredevils and patriots. Their names remained unknown to wide circles of the public at that time, but it is possible that they received their awards for courage from the hands of Emperor Alexander himself.

Fire in Brest

The fire that engulfed the ancient settlement in 1835 accelerated the process of general reconstruction of the Brest Fortress. The plans of the engineers and architects of that time were to destroy the medieval buildings in order to erect in their place completely new structures in terms of architectural character and strategic significance.

The fire destroyed about 300 buildings in the settlement, and this, paradoxically, turned out to be beneficial for the tsarist government, the builders, and the population of the town.

Reconstruction

Having given compensation to the fire victims in the form of cash and building materials, the state convinced them to settle not in the fortress itself, but separately - two kilometers from the outpost, thus providing the fortress with a single function - protective.

The history of the Brest Fortress has never known such a grandiose reconstruction: the medieval fortification was razed to the ground, and in its place grew a powerful citadel with thick walls, a whole system of drawbridges connecting three artificially created islands, with bastion forts equipped with ravelins, with an impregnable a ten-meter earthen rampart, with narrow embrasures, allowing the defenders to remain as protected as possible during shelling.

Defensive capabilities of the fortress in the 19th century

In addition to defensive structures, which, of course, play a leading role in repelling enemy attacks, the number and training of the soldiers serving in the border fortress are also important.

The defensive strategy of the citadel was thought out by the architects down to the subtleties. Otherwise, why give an ordinary soldier’s barracks the significance of a main fortification? Living in rooms with walls two meters thick, each of the servicemen was subconsciously ready to repel possible enemy attacks, literally, jumping out of bed - at any time of the day.

The 500 casemates of the fortress could easily accommodate 12,000 soldiers with a full set of weapons and provisions for several days. The barracks were so successfully camouflaged from prying eyes that the uninitiated could hardly have guessed their presence - they were located in the thickness of that same ten-meter earthen rampart.

A feature of the architectural design of the fortress was the inextricable connection of its structures: the towers protruding forward protected the main citadel from fire, and from the forts located on the islands it was possible to conduct targeted fire, protecting the front line.

When the fortress was fortified with a ring of 9 forts, it became practically invulnerable: each of them could accommodate an entire garrison of soldiers (that’s 250 soldiers), plus 20 guns.

Brest Fortress in peacetime

During the period of calm on state borders, Brest lived a measured, unhurried life. An enviable order reigned both in the city and in the fortress; services were held in churches. There were several churches on the territory of the fortress; however, one church could not possibly accommodate a huge number of military personnel.

One of the local monasteries was rebuilt into a building for meetings of officers and was named the White Palace.

But even in quiet periods it was not so easy to get into the fortress. The entrance to the “heart” of the citadel consisted of four gates. Three of them, as a symbol of its inaccessibility, have been preserved by the modern Brest Fortress. The museum begins with the old gates: Kholmsky, Terespolsky, Northern... Each of them was prescribed to become the gateway to paradise for many of its defenders in future wars.

Equipping the fortress on the eve of the First World War

During the period of unrest in Europe, the Brest-Litovsk fortress remained one of the most reliable fortifications on the Russian-Polish border. The main task of the citadel was to “facilitate freedom of action for the army and navy,” which did not have modern weapons and equipment.

Of the 871 weapons, only 34% met the requirements for combat in modern conditions, the remaining guns were obsolete. Among the guns, old models prevailed, capable of firing shots at a distance of no more than 3 miles. At this time, the potential enemy had mortars and artillery systems

In 1910, the aeronautical battalion of the fortress received its first airship, and in 1911, by a special royal decree, the Brest-Litovsk Fortress was equipped with its own radio station.

First war of the 20th century

I found the Brest Fortress engaged in a rather peaceful activity - construction. Attracted villagers from nearby and distant villages actively built additional forts.

The fortress would have been perfectly protected if military reform had not broken out the day before, as a result of which the infantry was disbanded and the outpost lost its combat-ready garrison. At the beginning of the First World War, only militias remained in the Brest-Litovsk Fortress, who during the retreat were forced to burn the strongest and most modern of the outposts.

But the main event of the first war of the 20th century for the fortress was not associated with military operations - the Brest Peace Treaty was signed within its walls.

The monuments of the Brest Fortress have a different appearance and character, and this treaty, significant for those times, remains one of them.

How did the people learn about the feat of Brest?

Most contemporaries know the Brest Citadel from the events of the first day of the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Information about this did not appear immediately; it was made public by the Germans themselves in a completely unexpected way: by showing discreet admiration for the heroism of the defenders of Brest in personal diaries, which were subsequently found and published by military journalists.

This happened in 1943-1944. Until that time, the feat of the citadel was unknown to a wide audience, and the heroes of the Brest Fortress who survived the “meat grinder,” according to the highest military officials, were considered ordinary prisoners of war who surrendered to the enemy out of cowardice.

The information that local battles took place in the citadel in July and even in August 1941 also did not immediately become public knowledge. But now historians can say for sure: the Brest Fortress, which the enemy expected to take in 8 hours, held out for a very long time.

Hell started: June 22, 1941

Before the war, which was not expected, the Brest Fortress looked completely unthreatening: the old earthen rampart had collapsed, was overgrown with grass, and there were flowers and sports grounds on the territory. In early June, the main regiments stationed in the fortress left it and went to summer training camps.

The history of the Brest Fortress for all centuries has never known such treachery: the pre-dawn hours of a short summer night became for its inhabitants Suddenly, out of nowhere, artillery fire was opened on the fortress, taking everyone in it by surprise, and 17,000 ruthless “well done” burst into the territory of the outpost "from the Wehrmacht.

But neither blood, nor horror, nor the death of comrades could break and stop the heroic defenders of Brest. They fought for eight days according to official data. And another two months - according to unofficial ones.

The not so easy and not so quick surrender of its positions in 1941 became an omen of the entire further course of the war and showed the enemy the ineffectiveness of his cold calculations and superweapons, which were defeated by the unpredictable heroism of the poorly armed, but ardently loving Slavs.

"Talking" stones

What is the Brest Fortress silently shouting about now? The museum has preserved numerous exhibits and stones on which you can read the notes of its defenders. Short phrases of one or two lines touch the heartstrings and touch representatives of all generations to tears, even though they sound stingy, masculine, dry and businesslike.

Muscovites: Ivanov, Stepanchikov and Zhuntyaev chronicled this terrible period - with a nail on a stone, with tears on a heart. Two of them died, the remaining Ivanov also knew that he did not have long left, he promised: “The last grenade remained. I won’t surrender alive,” and immediately asked: “Avenge us, comrades.”

Among the evidence that the fortress held out for longer than eight days were the dates in stone: July 20, 1941 is the clearest of them.

To understand the significance of the heroism and steadfastness of the defenders of the fortress for the entire country, you just need to remember the place and date: Brest Fortress, 1941.

Creation of a memorial

For the first time after the occupation, representatives of the Soviet Union (official and popular) were able to enter the territory of the fortress in 1943. It was during this period that the publication of excerpts from the diaries of German soldiers and officers appeared.

Before that, Brest was a legend, passed from mouth to mouth on all fronts and in the rear. To give events officiality, to stop all kinds of inventions (even positive character) and to capture the feat of the Brest Fortress through the centuries, it was decided to reclassify the western outpost as a memorial.

The implementation of the idea took place several decades after the end of the war - in 1971. Ruins, burnt and shelled walls - all this became an integral element of the exhibition. The wounded buildings are unique, and they form the main part of the evidence of the courage of their defenders.

In addition, during the years of peace, the Brest Fortress memorial acquired several thematic monuments and obelisks of later origin, which harmoniously fit into the unique ensemble of the fortress-museum and, with their severity and brevity, emphasized the tragedy that occurred within these walls.

Brest Fortress in literature

The most famous and even somewhat scandalous work about the Brest Fortress was the book by S. S. Smirnov. Having met with eyewitnesses and surviving participants in the defense of the citadel, the author decided to restore justice and clear the names of the real heroes, whom the then government blamed for being in German captivity.

And he succeeded, even though the times were not the most democratic - the mid-50s of the last century.

The book “Brest Fortress” helped many to return to a normal life, not despised by their fellow citizens. Photos of some of these lucky ones were widely published in the press, and their names were heard on the radio. There was even a series of radio broadcasts dedicated to the search for the defenders of the Brest Fortress.

Smirnov’s work became the saving thread along which, like the mythological heroine, other heroes emerged from the darkness of oblivion - the defenders of Brest, privates and commanders. Among them: Commissioner Fomin, Lieutenant Semenenko, Captain Zubachev.

The Brest Fortress is a monument to the valor and glory of the people, quite tangible and material. Many mysterious legends about its fearless defenders live among the people to this day. We know them in the form of literary and musical works, and sometimes we find them in oral folk art.

And these legends will live on for centuries, because the feat of the Brest Fortress is worthy of being remembered in the 21st, 22nd, and subsequent centuries.