Resurgent from ruins. Memorial "Brest fortress-hero" - 55 years

In the year of the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, September 25 marks 55 years since the opening of the Brest Hero Fortress memorial complex. Over these decades, the territory of the unconquered citadel, which after the war could only be accessed by a special pass, has become one of the most visited memorable places of Belarus and the Union State. Let's remember how it was.

Tests on the fortress vortices of history circled over the fortress long before the Great Patriotic War. Coming into operation in 1842 as a first-class for its time fortification, it caught the events of the First World War and the Soviet-Polish War. In 1918, the Brest Peace was signed in the White Palace. In September 1939, when the fortress was part of the Polish army, she took the first blows of the beginning of the Second world war. However, the most difficult events were the events of June 1941.

- For the fortress, it was destruction, incomparable with everything that it had experienced before, says the scientific secretary of the memorial complex Larissa Bibik. - Artillery and mortar fire, bombing, flamethrowers. Hunger and thirst. The fortress bled to death but did not surrender. Organized defense lasted until the end of June, then individual pockets of resistance were preserved. Enemy documents show that individual shots were heard in August and September.

When Brest was liberated on July 28, 1944, the Soviet soldiers who entered here saw traces of a fierce battle, about which they knew almost nothing. The reports of the first days of the war did not say how long the garrison held, many defense members were killed or captured. Only survivors could explain what they saw.

- For the liberators, the fortress remained a mystery, continues Larisa Grigorievna. They saw broken walls, collapsed floors, burned rooms, but could not restore the course of events. Even then, Brest understood that this place should be preserved. But the war continued, and after the Victory, the whole country restored the destroyed cities and returned to peaceful life.

Archive footage: the day of the solemn opening of the memorial complex on September 25, 1971 became unforgettable for veterans of the Brest garrison in 1941 and many other participants of the event. In the postwar years, military units were located in the fortress, so there was no free access to the territory. It could only be visited by permission.

- The first relics were found not by museum workers or archaeologists, but by the military who served here and carried out various works. The documents were burned, sometimes only parts of them remained. Still, everyone kept it safe.

The first Museum of Defense of the Brest Fortress opened on November 8, 1956. It occupied less than 400 square meters, but the significance of this event was not determined by the size of the exposure. For the first time, items collected among the ruins became part of a consistent story about the feat of the defenders of the fortress, and people were able to see the true evidence of those battles.

A great role in the return of the history of the fortress was played by the writer Sergey Smirnov. He searched for defense members and their relatives, met with them, told about their fates on the radio. So about the feat of the garrison learned the whole country.

Defenders at the Eternal Flame – Almost since the creation of the museum, the idea of a large monument has arisen, says Larissa Bibik. The more we learned about defense, the more we realized that small exposure was not enough. In 1961, a stone appeared in the citadel with the inscription that a monument would be built here.

After the awarding of the Brest Fortress the title of “Hero Fortress”, the idea received a new impetus. Several competitions were held in which architects, sculptors and artists participated. It was necessary to create not a separate monument, but a whole complex, preserving the original ruins as the main witnesses of the incident.

In 1968 construction began. A large team of Belarusian and Moscow authors under the leadership of Alexander Kibalnikov worked on the memorial. Professional builders and engineers were helped by residents of Brest, students and students who went on Saturdays.

On the eve of the opening, on September 18, 1971, the remains of 823 dead were reburied in the necropolis. On September 25, the grand opening of the memorial complex “Brest Hero Fortress” took place. It was an unforgettable day. About 600 veterans of the Brest garrison of 1941, defense participants and relatives of the victims, delegations of hero cities and all regions of Belarus, veterans of war and labor gathered in the fortress. Addressing the audience, the first secretary of the Brest Regional Committee of the CPB, Vladimir Mikulich, said the words that reflected the essence of the event: “The further the war time goes, the greater the feats of Soviet people committed in those harsh years become.”.

The main point of the ceremony was the lighting of the eternal flame. The flames were delivered to the Ceremonial Square on an armored car from the former memorial place at the ruins of the building of the 9th border post and the 333rd rifle regiment. The torch was carried by defense member Samvel Matevosyan - the first defender of the fortress, who managed to find the writer Sergey Smirnov. At the memorial plates, the torch was received by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, Hero of the Soviet Union Peter Masherov. He lit the eternal flame. Thus, the path from the plan to the memorial complex was completed and a new chapter in the history of the Brest Fortress began.

Today the Brest Fortress is one of the most visited places of the Union State and an important element of our historical memory. Roman Shcherbenkov Stop, think... Research and search work on the territory of the fortress did not stop for a single day. New finds were transferred to the museum, confirmed names appeared on memorial plates. Today, the remains of 1,055 people are buried in the necropolis, 264 names are known. The projects of the Union State helped to preserve historical buildings and continue the museumification of the territory.

One of the results of the project 2024-2026 was the memorial zone “Sorrow”. More than 70 defenders who died in the camps were immortalized here. Another 30 names appeared in the "Last Meter" zone of the Eastern Fort. The remains discovered during the work were reburied in the necropolis. The sculptural composition “Courage”, the main entrance to the fortress “Star” were restored.

Speaking about the further development of the complex, Larisa Bibik, whose life is connected with the fortress since 1983, especially emphasizes the need for a careful approach:

The memorial is constantly evolving, but I am cautious about the word “improvement”. Someone understands it primarily comfort. However, this is a special place where people come not only for a comfortable walk. Here a person should stop, think, feel something. Therefore, the goal is not to create as many new objects as possible. We need a precise plan that will help to reveal the history and not harm the fortress.

FIGURES

Over the past five years, the Brest Fortress has been visited by 2.8 million people, staff held 55 thousand excursions for representatives of 56 countries. In 2025, 723 thousand guests visited here. On September 4 this year, a 29 millionth visitor was welcomed to the fortress.

bogdan@sb.by