Defense of the Brest Fortress - the heroic 28-day defense of the Brest fortress by Soviet troops at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, from June 22 to July 20, 1941. Brest was in the direction of the main attack of the right (southern) wing of the German Army Group Center. The German command set the task of taking the fortress of Brest with the move of its 45th Infantry Division, reinforced with tanks, artillery and air support.
Brest fortress before the war
1939 - the city of Brest became part of the USSR. The Brest Fortress was built in the 19th century and was part of the defensive fortifications of the Russian Empire on its western borders, but in the 20th century it had already lost its military significance. At the beginning of the war, the Brest Fortress was mainly used to accommodate garrisons of military personnel, as well as families of officers, a hospital and utility rooms. During the perfidious German attack on the Soviet Union, about 8 thousand military personnel and about 300 command families lived in the fortress. There were weapons and ammunition in the fortress, but their quantity was not designed for military operations.
Assault on the Brest Fortress
June 22, 1941, in the morning - simultaneously with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the assault on the Brest Fortress began. The barracks and residential houses of officers were the first to be subjected to heavy artillery fire and air strikes. Despite the fact that virtually all the officers were killed, the soldiers quickly managed to orient themselves and create a powerful defense. The surprise factor did not work as the Germans expected and the assault, which, according to the plan, was to be completed by 12 noon, dragged on for several days. 
Even before the start of the war, a decree was issued, according to which, in the event of an attack, the military must immediately leave the fortress itself and take up positions along its perimeter, but only a few managed to do this - most of the soldiers remained in the fortress. The defenders of the fortress were in a losing position, but even this fact did not allow them to give up their positions and enable the Nazis to quickly capture Brest.
Defense of the Brest Fortress
The soldiers occupied the barracks and various buildings that were located along the perimeter of the citadel, for the most effective organization of the defense of the fortress. On June 22, eight attempts were made to take the fortress from the German side, but they were repulsed, moreover, the Germans, contrary to all expectations, suffered significant losses. The Germans changed tactics - instead of an assault, they now decided to besiege the Brest Fortress. The soldiers who broke through were recalled and placed around the perimeter of the fortress.
June 23, morning - the fortress was bombed, after which the Germans again went on the assault. Some of the German soldiers were able to break through, but were destroyed - the assault failed again, and the Germans were forced to return to siege tactics. Protracted battles began, which did not subside for several days, which greatly exhausted both armies.
On June 26, the Germans made several more attempts to capture the Brest Fortress. Several groups were able to break through. Only by the end of the month the Germans were able to capture most of the fortress. But the groups, scattered and having lost a single line of defense, offered desperate resistance even when the German troops captured the fortress.
The fall of the fortress
The fortress fell. Many Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner. On June 29, the eastern fort fell. But the defense of the Brest Fortress did not end there! From that moment on, she became unorganized. Soviet soldiers who had taken refuge in the dungeon daily engaged in battle with the Germans. They did the almost impossible. A small group of Soviet soldiers, 12 people, under the command of Major Gavrilov, resisted the Nazis until July 12. These heroes held an entire German division in the area of the Brest Fortress for almost a month! But even after the detachment of Major Gavrilov fell, the fighting did not stop in the fortress. According to historians, the hotel pockets of resistance lasted until the beginning of August 1941.
Losses
The losses of the 45th German Infantry Division (according to German statistics) were 482 killed on June 30, 1941, including 48 officers, and more than 1000 wounded. The losses are quite significant, if we recall that in the same division in 1939, during the attack on Poland, there were 158 killed and 360 wounded.
To this figure, we should probably add the losses suffered by the Germans in separate skirmishes in July 1941. A significant part of the defenders of the fortress were captured, and about 2,500 people were killed. True, the information given in German documents about 7,000 prisoners in the Brest Fortress, apparently, includes not only the military, but also civilians.
The garrison of the Brest Fortress was one of the first to take the blow of the German army during the start.
The courage and heroism of its defenders are forever inscribed in the analogues of world history, which cannot be forgotten or distorted.
Treacherous attack
An unexpected assault on the fortress began at 4:00 in the early morning of June 22, 1941 with a hurricane of artillery fire.
Aimed and crushing fire destroyed ammunition depots and damaged communication lines. The garrison immediately suffered significant losses in manpower.
As a result of this attack, the water supply system was destroyed, which further complicated the position of the defenders of the fortress. Water was required not only for the fighters, who were ordinary living people, but also for machine guns.
Defense of the Brest Fortress 1941 photo
After a half-hour artillery attack, the Germans threw three battalions into the attack, which were part of the 45th Infantry Division. The number of attackers was one and a half thousand people.
The German command considered this number to be quite sufficient to cope with the garrison of the fortress. And, at first, the Nazis did not meet serious resistance. The effect of surprise did its job. The garrison ceased to be a single entity, but turned out to be divided into several pockets of resistance that were not coordinated among themselves.
The Germans, breaking into the fortress through the Terespol fortification, quickly passed through the Citadel and reached the Kobrin fortification.
Unexpected rebuff
The greater surprise for them was the counterattack of the Soviet soldiers who were in their rear. The soldiers of the garrison, who survived the shelling, grouped under the command of the remaining commanders, and the Germans received a tangible rebuff.
The inscription of the defenders of the Brest Fortress on the wall photo
In some places, the attackers were met with harsh bayonet attacks, which turned out to be a complete surprise for them. The attack began to choke. And not just choke, but the Nazis had to hold the defense themselves.
Quickly recovering from the shock from the unexpected and treacherous attack of the enemy, the garrison units that found themselves in the rear of the attackers were able to dismember and even partially destroy the enemy. The enemy met the strongest resistance on the Volyn and Kobrin fortifications.
A small part of the garrison was able to break through and leave the fortress. But most of it remained inside the ring, which the Germans closed by 9 o'clock in the morning. Between 6 and 8 thousand people remained inside the encirclement ring. In the Citadel, the Germans were able to hold only some areas, including the club building, which dominated the rest of the fortifications, converted from a former church. In addition, the Germans had at their disposal the dining room of the command staff and part of the barracks at the Brest Gates, which survived after shelling.
The German command allotted only a few hours to take the fortress, but by noon it became clear that this plan had failed. During the day, the Germans had to bring in additional forces left in reserve. Instead of the original three battalions, the group storming the fortress increased to two regiments. The Germans could not use artillery to the full extent, so as not to destroy their own soldiers.
Defense of the Brest Fortress
By the night of June 23, the German command withdrew its troops and shelling began. In between, there was an offer to surrender. About 2 thousand responded to it, but the main part of the defenders preferred resistance. On June 23, the united groups of Soviet soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Vinogradov, Captain Zubachev, Regimental Commissar Fomin, Senior Lieutenant Shcherbakov and Private Shugurov, drove the Germans out of the ring barracks they occupied at the Brest Gates and planned to organize a long-term defense of the fortress, hoping to receive reinforcements.
Brest Fortress, July 1941 photo
It was planned to create a Defense Headquarters, and even a draft Order No. 1 was written on the creation of a consolidated battle group. However, on June 24, the Germans were able to break into the Citadel. A large group of the garrison tried to break through the Kobrin fortification and, although they were able to break out of the outer side of the fortress, most of them were destroyed or captured. On June 26, the last 450 fighters of the Citadel were captured.
The feat of the defenders of the "Eastern Fort"
The defenders of the Eastern Fort held out the longest. There were about 400 of them. Major P.M. Gavrilov commanded this grouping. The Germans went on the attack in this area up to 10 times a day, and each time they rolled back, meeting fierce resistance. And only on June 29, after the Germans dropped an air bomb weighing 1800 kg on the fort, the fort fell.
Defense of the Brest Fortress photo
But even before August, the Germans could not carry out a total cleansing and feel like full masters. Every now and then, local pockets of resistance arose, when shooting from still living soldiers was heard from under the ruins. They preferred death to captivity. Major Gavrilov, who was seriously wounded, was among the latest captured, and this happened already on July 23.
Before visiting the fortress, and at the end of August, all the cellars of the fortress were flooded with water. Brest Fortress - a symbol of courage and steadfastness of Soviet soldiers In 1965, Brest was awarded the title of Hero Fortress.
The defense of the Brest Fortress (defense of Brest) is one of the very first battles between the Soviet and German armies in the period Great Patriotic War.
Brest was one of the border garrisons on the territory of the USSR, it even covered the central highway leading to Minsk, which is why Brest turned out to be one of the first cities to be attacked after the German attack. The Soviet army held back the onslaught of the enemy for a week, despite the numerical superiority of the Germans, as well as support from artillery and aviation. As a result of a long siege, the Germans were still able to capture the main fortifications of the Brest Fortress and destroy them, but in other areas the struggle continued for quite a long time - small groups that remained after the raid resisted the enemy with their last strength. The defense of the Brest Fortress became a very important battle in which the Soviet troops were able to show their readiness to defend themselves to the last drop of blood, despite the advantages of the enemy. The defense of Brest went down in history as one of the bloodiest sieges, and at the same time, as one of the greatest battles that showed all the courage of the Soviet army.
Brest Fortress on the eve of the war
The city of Brest became part of the Soviet Union shortly before the start of the war - in 1939. By that time, the fortress had already lost its military significance due to the destruction that had begun, and remained as one of the reminders of past battles. The Brest Fortress was built in the 19th century and was part of the defensive fortifications of the Russian Empire on its western borders, but in the 20th century it ceased to have military significance. By the time the war began, the Brest Fortress was mainly used to accommodate military garrisons, as well as a number of families of the military command, a hospital and utility rooms. By the time of the perfidious German attack on the USSR, about 8,000 military personnel and about 300 command families lived in the fortress. There were weapons and supplies in the fortress, but their number was not designed for military operations.
Assault on the Brest Fortress
The assault on the Brest Fortress began on the morning of June 22, 1941, simultaneously with the start of the Great Patriotic War. The barracks and residential buildings of the command were the first to be subjected to powerful artillery fire and air strikes, since the Germans wanted, first of all, to completely destroy the entire command staff in the fortress and thereby confuse the army, disorient it. Despite the fact that almost all the officers died, the surviving soldiers were able to quickly orient themselves and create a powerful defense. The surprise factor did not work as expected Hitler and the assault, which, according to the plans, was supposed to end by 12 noon, dragged on for several days.
Even before the start of the war, the Soviet command issued a decree according to which, in the event of an attack, the military must immediately leave the fortress itself and take up positions along its perimeter, but only a few managed to do this - most of the soldiers remained in the fortress. The defenders of the fortress were in a deliberately losing position, but even this fact did not allow them to give up their positions and allow the Germans to quickly and unconditionally take over Brest.
The defense of the Brest Fortress (lasted from June 22 - June 30, 1941) is one of the very first major battles of the Soviet troops with the Germans during the Great Patriotic War.
Brest was the first Soviet border garrison that covered the central highway leading to Minsk, so immediately after the start of the wars, the Brest Fortress was the first point that the Germans attacked. Soviet soldiers for a week held back the onslaught of the German troops, who had a numerical superiority, as well as artillery and aviation support. As a result of the assault at the very end of the siege, the Germans were able to take over the main fortifications, but in other areas the fighting still continued for several weeks, despite the catastrophic shortage of food, medicine and ammunition. The defense of the Brest Fortress was the first battle in which the Soviet troops showed their full readiness to defend the Motherland to the last. The battle has become a kind of symbol, showing that the plan for a swift assault and capture by the Germans of the territory of the USSR may be unsuccessful.
History of the Brest Fortress
The city of Brest was included in the USSR in 1939, at the same time, the fortress, located near the city, had already lost its military significance and remained only a reminder of past battles. The fortress itself was built in the 19th century as part of a system of fortifications on the western borders of the Russian Empire. By the time the Great Patriotic War began, the fortress could no longer perform its military functions, as it was partially destroyed - it was used mainly to accommodate border detachments, NKVD troops, engineering units, as well as a hospital and various border units. By the time of the German attack, there were about 8,000 military personnel, about 300 families of commanders, as well as medical and service personnel in the Brest Fortress.
Assault on the Brest Fortress
The assault on the fortress began on June 22, 1941 at dawn. The Germans subjected to powerful artillery fire, first of all, the barracks and residential buildings of the command staff in order to disorient the army and achieve chaos in the ranks of the Soviet troops. After the shelling, the assault began. The main idea of the assault was the surprise factor, the German command hoped that an unexpected attack would cause panic and break the will of the military in the fortress to resist. According to the calculations of the German generals, the fortress was to be taken by 12 noon on June 22, but the plans did not materialize.
Only a small part of the soldiers managed to leave the fortress and take up positions outside it, as stipulated in the plans in the event of an attack, the rest remained inside - the fortress was surrounded. Despite the unexpectedness of the attack, as well as the death of a significant part of the Soviet military command, the soldiers showed courage and unbending will in the fight against the German invaders. Despite the fact that the position of the defenders of the Brest Fortress was initially almost hopeless, the Soviet soldiers resisted to the last.
Defense of the Brest Fortress
The Soviet soldiers, who could not leave the fortress, managed to quickly destroy the Germans, who broke into the center of the defensive structures, and then take advantageous positions for defense - the soldiers occupied the barracks and various buildings that were located along the perimeter of the citadel (the central part of the fortress). This made it possible to effectively organize the defense system. The defense was led by the remaining representatives of the officers and, in some cases, ordinary ordinary soldiers, who were then recognized as heroes for the defense of the Brest Fortress.
On June 22, 8 attacks were made by the enemy, the German troops, contrary to forecasts, suffered significant losses, so it was decided in the evening of the same day to withdraw the groups that broke into the fortress back to the headquarters of the German troops. A blockade line was created along the perimeter of the fortress, military operations turned from an assault into a siege.
On the morning of June 23, the Germans began a bombardment, after which an attempt was again made to storm the fortress. The groups that broke through inside faced fierce resistance and the assault failed again, turning into protracted battles. By the evening of the same day, the Germans again suffered huge losses.
The next few days, resistance continued, despite the onslaught of German troops, artillery shelling and offers to surrender. The Soviet troops did not have the opportunity to replenish their ranks, so the resistance gradually faded away, and the forces of the soldiers were fading, but, despite this, it was still not possible to take the fortress. Food and water supplies were suspended, and the defenders decided that the women and children must surrender to stay alive, but some of the women refused to leave the fortress.
On June 26, several more attempts were made to break into the fortress, but only small groups succeeded. The Germans managed to capture most of the fortress only by the end of June. On June 29 and 30, a new assault was made, which was combined with shelling and bombing. The main groups of the defenders were captured or destroyed, as a result of which the defense lost its centralization and broke up into several separate centers, which ultimately played a role in the surrender of the fortress.
The results of the defense of the Brest Fortress
The remaining Soviet soldiers continued to resist until the autumn, despite the fact that the fortress was actually taken by the Germans, and the defense was destroyed - small battles continued until the last defender of the fortress was destroyed. As a result of the defense of the Brest Fortress, several thousand people were taken prisoner, the rest died. The battles in Brest became an example of the courage of the Soviet troops and went down in world history.
Krivonogov, Pyotr Alexandrovich, oil painting "Defenders of the Brest Fortress", 1951.
The defense of the Brest Fortress in June 1941 is one of the first battles of the Great Patriotic War.
On the eve of the war
By June 22, 1941, the fortress housed 8 rifle and 1 reconnaissance battalions, 2 artillery battalions (anti-aircraft defense and air defense), some special units of rifle regiments and units of corps units, training camps of the 6th Oryol and 42nd rifle divisions of the 28th rifle Corps of the 4th Army, units of the 17th Red Banner Brest Border Detachment, 33rd Separate Engineer Regiment, several units of the 132nd Separate Battalion of the NKVD escort troops, unit headquarters (the headquarters of the divisions and the 28th Rifle Corps were located in Brest), in total at least 7 thousand people, not counting family members (300 military families).
According to General L. M. Sandalov, “the deployment of Soviet troops in Western Belarus was not initially subject to operational considerations, but was determined by the presence of barracks and premises suitable for accommodating troops. This, in particular, explained the crowded location of half of the troops of the 4th Army with all their depots of emergency supplies (NZ) on the very border - in Brest and the Brest Fortress. " According to the cover plan of 1941, the 28th Rifle Corps, consisting of the 42nd and 6th Rifle Divisions, was supposed to organize defense on a wide front in prepared positions in the Brest fortified area... Of the troops stationed in the fortress, only one rifle battalion, reinforced by an artillery division, was provided for its defense.
The assault on the fortress, the city of Brest and the capture of bridges across the Western Bug and Mukhavets was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division (45th Infantry Division) of Major General Fritz Schlieper (about 18 thousand people) with reinforcement units and in cooperation with units of neighboring formations (including including mortar divisions attached to the 31st and 34th infantry divisions of the 12th army corps of the 4th German army and used by the 45th infantry division during the first five minutes of an artillery raid), a total of up to 22 thousand people.
Assault on the fortress
In addition to the divisional artillery of the 45th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, nine light and three heavy batteries, a high-power artillery battery (two super-heavy 600-mm Karl self-propelled mortars) and a mortar division were involved in artillery preparation. In addition, the commander of the 12th Army Corps concentrated on the fortress the fire of two divisions of mortars of the 34th and 31st Infantry Divisions. The order to withdraw units of the 42nd Rifle Division from the fortress, given personally by the commander of the 4th Army, Major General A.A. managed to complete.
On June 22, at 03:15 (4:15 Soviet “decree” time), heavy artillery fire was opened on the fortress, taking the garrison by surprise. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, the water supply was damaged (according to the surviving defenders, there was no water in the water supply two days before the assault), communications were interrupted, and serious damage was done to the garrison. At 3:23 the assault began. Up to one and a half thousand infantry from three battalions of the 45th Infantry Division advanced directly on the fortress. The surprise of the attack led to the fact that the garrison could not provide a single coordinated resistance and was divided into several separate centers. The assault detachment of the Germans, advancing through the Terespol fortification, initially did not meet with serious resistance and, having passed the Citadel, advanced groups reached the Kobrin fortification. However, the units of the garrison that found themselves in the rear of the Germans launched a counterattack, dismembering and almost completely destroying the attackers.
The Germans in the Citadel were able to gain a foothold only in certain areas, including the club building dominating the fortress (the former Church of St. Nicholas), the dining room for command staff and the barracks at the Brest Gates. They met strong resistance in Volyn and, especially, in Kobrin fortification, where it came to bayonet attacks.
By 07:00 on June 22, the 42nd and 6th Rifle Divisions left the fortress and the city of Brest, but many servicemen of these divisions did not manage to get out of the fortress. It was they who continued to fight in it. According to the historian R. Aliyev, about 8 thousand people left the fortress, and about 5 thousand remained in it. According to other sources, on June 22, there were only 3 to 4 thousand people in the fortress, since part of the personnel of both divisions was outside the fortress - in summer camps, at exercises, at the construction of the Brest fortified area (sapper battalions, an engineering regiment, one battalion each from each rifle regiment and by division from artillery regiments).
From the combat report on the actions of the 6th Infantry Division:
At 4 am on June 22, heavy fire was opened on the barracks, on the exits from the barracks in the central part of the fortress, on bridges and entrance gates and on the houses of the commanding staff. This raid brought confusion and caused panic among the Red Army personnel. The command staff, which was attacked in their apartments, was partially destroyed. The surviving commanders could not penetrate the barracks because of the strong barrage fire placed on the bridge in the central part of the fortress and at the entrance gate. As a result, the Red Army soldiers and junior commanders, without control from the middle commanders, dressed and undressed, in groups and singly, left the fortress, overcoming the bypass channel, the Mukhavets River and the rampart of the fortress under artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire. It was not possible to take into account the losses, since the scattered units of the 6th division mixed with the scattered units of the 42nd division, and many could not get to the assembly place because at about 6 o’clock artillery fire was already concentrated on it.
Sandalov L. M. Combat actions of the troops of the 4th Army in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War.
By 9 o'clock in the morning the fortress was surrounded. During the day, the Germans were forced to bring into battle the reserve of the 45th Infantry Division (135pp / 2), as well as the 130th Infantry Regiment, which was originally the reserve of the corps, thus bringing the assault force to two regiments.
Monument to the defenders of the Brest Fortress and the Eternal Flame
Defense
On the night of June 23, having withdrawn troops to the outer ramparts of the fortress, the Germans began shelling, in between offering the garrison to surrender. Surrendered about 1900 people. Nevertheless, on June 23, the remaining defenders of the fortress succeeded, having driven the Germans out of the section of the ring barracks adjacent to the Brest Gates, to unite the two most powerful pockets of resistance remaining on the Citadel - the battle group of the 455th rifle regiment, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov (chief chemical services of the 455th rifle regiment) and captain I.N. Zubachev (deputy commander of the 44th rifle regiment for the economic part), and the battle group of the so-called "House of Officers" - the units concentrated here for the planned breakthrough attempt, were led by regimental commissar E M. Fomin (military commissar of the 84th rifle regiment), senior lieutenant N. F. Shcherbakov (assistant chief of staff of the 33rd separate engineering regiment) and lieutenant A. K. Shugurov (executive secretary of the Komsomol bureau of the 75th separate reconnaissance battalion ).
Having met in the basement of the “House of Officers”, the defenders of the Citadel tried to coordinate their actions: a draft order No. 1 dated June 24 was prepared, which proposed the creation of a consolidated battle group and headquarters headed by Captain I. N. Zubachev and his deputy regimental commissar E. M. Fomin, count the remaining personnel. However, the next day, the Germans broke into the Citadel with a surprise attack. A large group of defenders of the Citadel, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov, tried to break out of the Fortress through the Kobrin fortification. But this ended in failure: although the breakthrough group, divided into several detachments, managed to break out of the main rampart, almost all of its fighters were captured or destroyed by units of the 45th Infantry Division, which were defending the highway that skirted Brest.
By the evening of June 24, the Germans had captured most of the fortress, with the exception of the section of the ring barracks (“House of Officers”) near the Brest (Three-arch) gates of the Citadel, casemates in an earthen rampart on the opposite bank of the Mukhavets (“point 145”) and located on the Kobrin fortification of the so-called "Eastern Fort" - its defense, which consisted of 600 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, was commanded by Major P. M. Gavrilov (commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment). Groups of fighters under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.E. Potapov (in the cellars of the barracks of the 333rd Rifle Regiment) and border guards of the 9th Frontier Outpost Lieutenant A.M. Kizhevatov (in the building of the frontier outpost) continued to fight in the Terespol Gate area. On this day, the Germans managed to capture 570 defenders of the fortress. The last 450 defenders of the Citadel were captured on June 26 after blowing up several compartments of the circular barracks of the "Officers' House" and point 145, and on June 29, after the Germans dropped an aerial bomb weighing 1800 kilograms, the Eastern Fort fell. However, the Germans managed to finally clean it up only on June 30 (because of the fires that began on June 29).
Only isolated centers of resistance and single fighters remained, gathering in groups and organizing active resistance, or trying to break out of the fortress and go to the partisans in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (many succeeded). In the cellars of the barracks of the 333rd regiment near the Terespol Gates, the group of A.E. Potapov and the border guards of A.M. Kizhevatov who joined it continued to fight until June 29. On June 29, they made a desperate attempt to break through to the south, towards the Western Island, in order to then turn to the east, during which most of its participants died or were captured. Major P. M. Gavrilov was captured wounded among the last - on July 23. One of the inscriptions in the fortress reads: “I am dying, but I do not give up! Farewell, Motherland. 20/VII-41". The resistance of single Soviet soldiers in the casemates of the fortress continued until August 1941, before A. Hitler and B. Mussolini visited the fortress. It is also known that the stone that A. Hitler took from the ruins of the bridge was discovered in his office after the end of the war. To eliminate the last pockets of resistance, the German high command gave the order to flood the cellars of the fortress with water from the Western Bug River.
About 3,000 Soviet servicemen were taken prisoner by German troops in the fortress (according to the report of the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant-General Shliper, 25 officers, 2877 junior commanders and soldiers were taken prisoner on June 30), 1877 Soviet servicemen died in the fortress .
The total losses of the Germans in the Brest Fortress amounted to 1197 people, of which 87 Wehrmacht officers on the Eastern Front in the first week of the war.
Experience learned:
Short strong artillery fire on the old brick walls, fastened with concrete, deep cellars and unobserved shelters does not give an effective result. Prolonged aimed fire is needed to destroy and fire of great strength is needed to thoroughly destroy fortified centers.
The commissioning of assault guns, tanks, etc. is very difficult due to the unobservability of many shelters, fortresses and a large number of possible targets and does not give the expected results due to the thickness of the walls of the structures. In particular, a heavy mortar is not suitable for such purposes.
An excellent means of moral shock to those in hiding is the dropping of large-caliber bombs.
An attack on a fortress in which a brave defender sits costs a lot of blood. This simple truth was once again proved during the capture of Brest-Litovsk. Heavy artillery also belongs to the strong stunning means of moral influence.
The Russians in Brest-Litovsk fought extremely stubbornly and persistently. They showed excellent infantry training and showed a remarkable will to fight.
Combat report of the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant-General Shliper, about the occupation of the Brest-Litovsk fortress, July 8, 1941
The memory of the defenders of the fortress
For the first time, the defense of the Brest Fortress became known from a German headquarters report captured in the papers of the defeated unit in February 1942 near Orel. In the late 1940s, the first articles about the defense of the Brest Fortress appeared in newspapers, based solely on rumors. In 1951, during the analysis of the rubble of the barracks at the Brest Gate, order No. 1 was found. In the same year, the artist P. Krivonogov painted the painting “Defenders of the Brest Fortress”.
The merit of restoring the memory of the heroes of the fortress largely belongs to the writer and historian S. S. Smirnov, as well as to K. M. Simonov, who supported his initiative. The feat of the heroes of the Brest Fortress was popularized by S. S. Smirnov in the book The Brest Fortress (1957, expanded edition 1964, Lenin Prize 1965). After that, the theme of the defense of the Brest Fortress became an important symbol of the Victory.
On May 8, 1965, the Brest Fortress was awarded the title of Hero Fortress with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Since 1971 the fortress has been a memorial complex. On its territory, a number of monuments were built in memory of the heroes, and there is a museum of the defense of the Brest Fortress.
Research challenges
The restoration of the course of events in the Brest Fortress in June 1941 is greatly hampered by the almost complete absence of documents from the Soviet side. The main sources of information are the testimonies of the surviving defenders of the fortress, received in their mass after a considerable time after the end of the war. There is reason to believe that these testimonies contain a lot of unreliable, including deliberately distorted, for one reason or another, information. So, for example, for many key witnesses, the dates and circumstances of captivity do not correspond to the data recorded in German prisoner of war cards. For the most part, the date of capture in German documents is given earlier than the date reported by the witness himself in post-war testimony. In this regard, there are doubts about the reliability of the information contained in such statements.
In art
Art films
"The Immortal Garrison" (1956);
"Battle for Moscow", the first film "Aggression" (one of the storylines) (USSR, 1985);
"State Border", the fifth film "Year forty-first" (USSR, 1986);
“I am a Russian soldier” - based on the book “I was not on the lists” by Boris Vasiliev (Russia, 1995);
"Brest Fortress" (Belarus-Russia, 2010).
Documentaries
"Heroes of Brest" - a documentary film about the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War (TsSDF Studio, 1957);
"Dear Hero Fathers" - an amateur documentary film about the 1st All-Union rally of the winners of the youth campaign to the places of military glory in the Brest Fortress (1965);
"Brest Fortress" - a documentary trilogy about the defense of the fortress in 1941 (VoenTV, 2006);
"Brest Fortress" (Russia, 2007).
"Brest. Fortress heroes. (NTV, 2010).
"Berasceyskaya krepasts: dzve abarons" (Belsat, 2009)
Fiction
Vasiliev B. L. Was not on the lists. - M.: Children's literature, 1986. - 224 p.
Oshaev H.D. Brest is a fiery nut. - M.: Book, 1990. - 141 p.
Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress. - M.: Young Guard, 1965. - 496 p.
Songs
“There is no death for the heroes of Brest” - song by Eduard Khil.
"Brest Trumpeter" - music by Vladimir Rubin, lyrics by Boris Dubrovin.
"Dedicated to the Heroes of Brest" - words and music by Alexander Krivonosov.
Interesting Facts
According to Boris Vasiliev's book "Not on the lists", the last known defender of the fortress surrendered on April 12, 1942. S. Smirnov in the book "Brest Fortress" also, referring to the stories of eyewitnesses, calls April 1942.
On August 22, 2016, Vesti Israel reported that Boris Faershtein, the last survivor of the defense of the Brest Fortress, died in Ashdod.
