Brest

Brest is a beautiful old city on the west of Belarus. It is a city and administrative center of the Brest region of the Republic of Belarus. The city is located on the right bank of the Western Boog River. Brest is a big economic and cultural center. It is also an important rail-way and auto-road node.

Geographically, the center of the Brest region is located 320 km southwest of Minsk, on the western outskirts of Polesye, which is a swampy flat lowland, rather deforested due to human impact. The relief of the territory on which Brest lies is flat (absolute heights from 123 m, the heights of the Western Bug edge, up to 130 m), slightly lowering towards the floodplain of the Mukhavets. On the western outskirts of the city, Mukhavets flows into the Western Bug, bifurcating into two branches. On the territory of Brest, Mukhavets does not receive tributaries. A small river Lesnaya flows along the northern outskirts of Brest, the right tributary of the Western Bug.

Brest is located in the time zone designated by the international standard as Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3). The area of ​​the city is 14,527 hectares, the share of green spaces is quite large. The city is surrounded by a forest park area covering an area of ​​2500 hectares. On the territory of Brest there are a number of parks (including the park named after May 1, the park of soldiers-internationalists, etc.) and squares. Starting from October 15, 2012, the boundaries of the city and the Brest region were changed by the Decision of the Brest Regional Council of Deputies dated September 11, 2012 No. 219 plots with a total area of ​​85.8281 hectares (0.86 km²), including 85.7071 hectares - land of the communal unitary agricultural enterprise "Sovkhoz Brestsky" and 0.121 hectares - land of the communal unitary enterprise "Brest city capital construction department", as a result of which the territory of the city at the moment is 14,612 hectares or 146.12 square meters kilometer.

Meteorological observations in Brest have been conducted since 1834[88]. The climate in the area of ​​the city is temperate continental. Due to the influence of sea air masses, mild winters and moderately warm summers are characteristic. The cyclones that cause this move from the Atlantic Ocean from west to east. The average temperature in January is −2.6 °C, in July +19.3 °C. The annual rainfall is 609 mm. The average annual air temperature in Brest is +8.2 °C, the average annual wind speed is 2.6 m/s, the average annual air humidity is 76%. The growing season lasts 214 days.

It rains on average 160 days a year and snows 68 days. Fogs are observed for 33 days, thunderstorms - 27 days.

The ecological situation in the city is assessed as one of the most prosperous among Belarusian cities. The main pollutants are motor transport (about 78% of pollutants emitted into the atmosphere) and thermal power[86]. According to the city district inspection of natural resources and environmental protection of Brest, vehicles emit more than 10 thousand tons of pollutants per year into the atmosphere of the city.

In 2004, 2276 tons of pollutants were emitted into the atmosphere from stationary sources of emissions located in the city. In total, there were 3,015 stationary sources of pollutant emissions on the territory of Brest in 2004, of which 452 sources are equipped with purification[86]. In 2017, a cycle lane was opened on the roadway[92], one of the first in Belarus.

14 Brest enterprises have wastewater outlets. In addition, there are 26 storm sewer outlets in the city, including 18 outlets into the Mukhavets River, 5 into the Lesnaya River and 3 into the floodplain of the Western Bug River.

According to information for 1870, in Brest, the inhabitants were considered husband. 13,783, female 8149 (Jews 9,874)

Women make up more than 54% of the population of Brest. The population of the city is made up of representatives of 61 nationalities, including Belarusians - more than 82%, Russians - 10.7%, Ukrainians - more than 4%, Poles - about 1%, Jews - 0.07%.

In 2017, 4329 people were born and 2913 people died in Brest, including 15 children under the age of 1 year. In terms of the number of births, Brest is ahead of Vitebsk and Mogilev, but inferior to Gomel and Grodno, and the number of deaths in Brest is the lowest among all regional centers.

Republic of Belarus - 10.8), mortality rate - 8.4 per 1000 people (average for the Brest region - 12.8, for the Republic of Belarus - 12.6). The birth rate in Brest is the highest among all regional centers, and the death rate is one of the lowest (slightly higher than in Grodno)

When the Reformation penetrated Lithuania, Berestye became one of the centers of Calvinism.

Country - Belarus

Status - Regional center

Chairman of the City Executive Committee - Oleksandr Stepanovich Rogachuk

Region - Brest

Internal division:

• Leninsky district
• Moskovsky district

History and geography - First mentioned 1017

Former names:

• Berestye
• Brest-Litovsk
• Brest over the Bug

Polish - Brześć nad Bugiem

Square - 146.12 km²

NUM height - 141 m

Climate type - temperate continental

Timezone - UTC+3:00

Population - 340,318 people (2021)

Density - 2399 people/km²

Nationalities Belarusians - 82.13%,

Russians - 10.67%,

Ukrainians - 4.16%,

others — 3.04%[10]

Confessions - Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Jews

Digital IDs

• Phone code +375 162
• Postal code 224000
• Car code 1

Other

Chairman of the City Council of Deputies - Nikolay Vasilyevich Krasovsky

Rivers:

• Western Bug
• Mukhavets

It is located in the southwestern part of the region, at the confluence of the Mukhavets River with the Western Bug, near the state border with Poland. A large railway junction, a river port on Mukhavets, an important road junction.

Belongs to the number of the oldest Slavic settlements. First mentioned in the Novgorod First (Synodal) Chronicle under 1017, in the Laurentian and Ipatiev Chronicles under 1019. Mentioned under the year 1017 as the city of the Drevlyans. Mentioned as Berestye in the Tale of Bygone Years under the year 1019, although under the year 980 it also mentions the village of Berestovo: “on Berestovo, in the village, the hedgehog is now Berestovoye”. According to the year of the first mention, Brest is the fifth city on the territory of present-day Belarus, only Polotsk (862), Vitebsk (974), Turov (980) and Volkovysk (1005) were previously mentioned. From 12/4/1939 the center of the Brest region of the BSSR (since 1991 the Republic of Belarus). The city was the center of the Berestey land and one of the most important cities of Kievan Rus and the Galicia-Volyn principality. Brest also served as a stronghold on the way to Kiev.

The ancient name of Brest is Берестье(Berestye). According to the most famous version, the name of the city comes from the word "береста" (the outer layer of birch bark), and the modern form Brest, probably already artificially - from the word "берест" (a kind of elm, Ulmus). In 1863, the traveler Pavel Shpilevsky wrote down a legend about the origin of the name Brest, connected with a trip to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by a wealthy merchant with his comrades. Suddenly, the wagon train was blocked by a swamp, around which many birches grew. The travelers cut down trees and were able to pass the swamp along the birch flooring. They went out to the island, which was formed by a large river and a small river flowing into it. For the fact that everything went well, the merchant decided to thank the pagan god Veles and built a temple on the island. After some time, returning from Lithuania, where there was a successful trade, the merchant and his comrades again stopped at the Veles temple, built huts and founded a city, which they called Berestye. In the annals of the 12th-13th centuries, the name Beresty is also found, in the historical documents of the 16th century - Berest (this name was used by residents of the city's environs until recently). In the 17th - early 20th centuries, the city was called Brest-Litovsky, and then Brest-Litovsk, which indicated its location in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and also made it possible to distinguish it from the Polish city of Brest-Kuyavsky, during the period of being part of Poland (1921-1939), the city was called Brest nad Bug (Polish Brześć nad Bugiem) to distinguish it from another Polish city of Polsk. Brześć Kujawski, whose name is now translated into Russian as Brześc-Kujawski, previously it was called Brest-Kujawski. Since September 1939, after joining the BSSR - Brest

In the chronicles of the 12th-13th century, the name Beresty (Берестий) is also found, in the medical documents of the 16th century - Berest (Бе́ресть) (this name was used by residents of the outskirts of the city until recently). In the XVII - early XX century, the city was called Brest-Litovsky, and then Brest-Litovsk, which indicated its location in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and also moved to distinguish from the Polish city of Brest-Kuyavsky, during the period of being in the past Poland (1921-1939) the city was called Brest over the Bug (pol. Brześć nad Bugiem) to distinguish it from another Polish city of Polsk. Bzhest Kuyavsky (Бжесць-Куявский), whose name in Russian is now transmitted as Bzhest-Kuyavsky (Бжесць-Куявский), previously it was called Brest-Kuyavsky. Since September 1939, after joining the BSSR - Brest (Брест)

In the West Polissian dialects, the name of the city is used in the form Baryst (Бэрысть), Berest (Бэрэсть).

The ancient origin of the city was confirmed as a result of archaeological excavations on the cape formed by the Western Bug River and the left branch of the Mukhavets River. Scientists have discovered the settlement of ancient Brest (now the territory of the Volyn fortification of the Brest Fortress). It consisted of the Brest citadel, triangular in plan, with an area of ​​about 1 ha, fortified on the floor side with a moat, an earthen rampart and a palisade, and a roundabout city (posada), which was located opposite the citadel on the island. Streets paved with wood, the remains of more than 200 residential and utility buildings, one-story log cabins made of coniferous logs, were excavated on the citadel.

During the excavations, tools, household utensils, various decorations and items made of metal, glass, stone, wood and leather were found. The finds testify to the development of crafts, trade and cultural ties with the cities of Ancient Russia and with neighboring countries. Archaeological studies allow us to conclude that Brest arose on the territory of the settlement of the Dregovichi - an East Slavic tribal association, the Beresteiskoye settlement existed in the 11th-13th centuries, the detinets was founded at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries. Now the archaeological museum "Berestye" has been created on its territory.

In the list of the mid-17th century, as part of the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon, edited by Joseph Trizna, there is a complex of Turov statutes, which includes a charter on the establishment of the Turov bishopric, according to which the Great Prince of Kiev Vasily (Vladimir Svyatoslavich) in the summer of 6513 (1005) gave Turov bishopric along with other cities and Berestei.

In the XI century, Berestye was a trading center and a fortress on the border with Polish and Lithuanian possessions. The place where the ancient Berestye was located was at the intersection of two ancient trade routes. One of them went along the Western Bug from Galician Rus and Volhynia to Poland, the Baltic states and Western Europe, the other - along Mukhavets, Bolot, Pina, Pripyat, Dnieper and connected Berestye with Kiev, the Black Sea region, and the Middle East. In connection with the border location, the city often acted as an object of internecine struggle and military clashes, passed from hand to hand, was looted and destroyed more than once. In 1016, he was conquered by the Polish prince Boleslav Brave. The Grand Duke of Kiev Yaroslav Mudryy undertook campaigns on Berestye in 1017, 1022 and 1031, and in 1044 he returned it to the Kiev principality. Since the second half of the 12th century, Berestye has been part of the Vladimir-Volyn principality (since 1199, the Galicia-Volyn principality), in the annals it is mentioned under 1153 as the possession of Prince Vladimir Andreevich, in 1173 - Prince Vladimir Mstislavich. In the early feudal period, it was one of the largest cities in the Berestey land, which, however, despite many attempts by the local nobility, did not stand out as an independent principality - the city developed only as a trade and craft center.

In the 12th century in Berestye, which once again turned out to be conquered by the Poles, King Kazimirom Spravedlivym built a wooden castle (it was rebuilt in the second half of the 13th century), a fortification for trade caravans. In Berestye they took "myt" (duty) for the transport of goods.

In 1210, the city was captured by Konrad Mazovetskiy and Leshek Krakovskiy, but in 1213 the army of Daniila Galitskogo returns it. In the 1240s, the Beresteiskaya land, which was still a subject of rivalry between the Galician-Volyn and Polish princes, was under the threat of subjugation by the Mongol-Tatars.

In January 1241, a battle between the Birch Regiment and a detachment of troops of khana Batyya took place near the city, as a result of which the defenders of the city and many residents were killed by the Mongols, the bodies of the dead lay unburied for 4 months until the Romanoviches returned in the spring of 1241. The chronicle says: “Danilov and his brother came to Berest. And I can’t go into the field, for the sake of the stench and the multitude of the beaten ”. In the second half of the 13th century, Berestye was owned by the Volyn prince Vladimir Vasilkovich, under whom a stone donjon tower was built on the territory of the castle in 1276-1288, and a stone church of St. Peter was erected. The tower subsequently helped the townspeople withstand brutal sieges. In 1319, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gedimin “without much resistance” annexed the Berestey land to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but already in 1320, Prince "Andrei I" of Vladimir-Volyn returned Berestye back to his principality. However, in 1321, Gediminas defeated the Russian army on the Irpin River, killed the last Russian prince of Vladimir-Volyn from the Romanovich family, Andrei I, took the cities of Vladimir, Lutsk, went to Berestye for the winter, and finally annexed it to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1379, Berestye was burned by the Teutonic knights.

At the end of the 14th century, Berestye, mentioned in the section “Lithuanian cities” of the chronicle “List of Russian cities far and near”, was a trade and craft center of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the population was about 2 thousand inhabitants. Local merchants exported furs, leather, timber, hemp, grain to Western Europe, imported salt, cloth, silk, paper, and much more. Merchants from Vilna, Kiev, Chernigov, Moscow passed through Berestye. In 1380, a guest yard was built in the city, fairs were organized, crafts were actively developed: pottery, blacksmithing, leather, jewelry, shoemaking, sewing, carpentry. In 1390 the city received the Magdeburg rights. Of the cities of present-day Belarus, he received it first. The management of the city began to be carried out by a council, consisting of lavniki, radtsev, two burmisters (Catholic and Orthodox), who alternately presided over it. The head of the city council, as well as the court, was a voit appointed by the Grand Duke of Lithuania. The power of the city extended to the territory adjacent to it. In 1390, according to the charter for the Magdeburg right, about 1500 hectares of arable land were granted to the city, in 1408 - the village of Kozlovichi.

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By the end of the 15th century, there were already more than 5 thousand inhabitants in Berestye, 928 built-up plots. The city has been exempted from paying taxes more than once. In 1500, the city was sacked by the troops of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Gerai. Since 1520, Berestye has been the center of the povet (county) of the Podlasie Voivodeship. In 1566 the city became the center of the Beresteysky Voivodeship. In 1554, according to the privilege of Sigismund II Augustus, Berest was allowed to use an official seal with the image of a hipped tower at the confluence of two rivers. According to the data of 1566, the city consisted of 3 main parts: the castle, erected on the former citadel of ancient Berestye, the "place" - the main urban area located on the island formed by the Western Bug and the branches of the Mukhavets and connected to the castle by a bridge, and "Zamukhavechya" - on the right bank of the Mukhavets. The city had 6-7 thousand inhabitants. In the central (castle) part of it there were the buildings of the magistrate and the court, the market square, the houses of wealthy citizens, churches and monasteries. The streets were paved with wood, in 1588 cobblestone pavements appeared. In the 16th century, Berestye was an important trade and craft center of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Brest merchants maintained close trade relations with important trading centers of Eastern Europe: Slutsk, Minsk, Mogilev, Polish Warsaw, Poznan, Torun, Lomza, Lublin, cities of the Russian state. The annual trade turnover of the city in the first half of the 16th century reached 750 thousand rubles, and the Brest customs took the second place in the income of the state treasury.

In 1614, a college of Jesuits was founded in Brest. By the second half of the 17th century, the city center was formed on the island (now the citadel of the Brest Fortress). There was a market square with a town hall and shops, stone buildings of the monasteries of the Jesuits, Basilians, Bernardines, the Uniate church, the synagogue. In 1659, the Brest Mint was founded, where in 1664-1666 small copper coins - solids - were minted with the image of the "chase" - the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 17th century, Brest-Litovsky became the meeting place for military confederations (1605, 1612), the Seim of the Commonwealth (1653). Brest-Litovsky, by that time one of the main cities of the Commonwealth, flourished. In the middle of the century, there were about 11 thousand inhabitants in the city, it was rich and was considered the “gateway” to the country, but the “Catastrophe” happened when Brest underwent three terrible devastating ruins in a short time. In 1648, the Cossacks of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, led by Colonel Maxim Gladky, occupied Brest with the help of local rebels. The Moscow ambassador Yegor Kunakov, who was passing through Brest at the beginning of 1649, testified:

Brest-Litovsky was devastated to the ground. All Poles, and Jews, and women, and their children were beaten without a trace, and the mansions, and the stone houses were drilled and scattered, and the wooden ones were burned and razed to the field exactly

During the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667 and the war unleashed by Sweden in 1655 against the Commonwealth and in 1656 against Russia, Brest-Litovsky was repeatedly in the zone of hostilities. On November 15, 1655, Russian troops under the command of the Novgorod governor Prince S. Urusov defeated the army of the hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania P. Sapieha near Brest-Litovsk, but they could not take the fortified city, which had a large garrison. In 1657, the Swedes and the Hungarians captured the Brest castle and devastated the city. In January 1660, the city was captured by Russian troops under the command of Prince Ivan Khovansky, who destroyed about 1,700 people who were hiding in the castle, leaving only 50 Starshin alive and sending them captive to Moscow, led by the commandant of the castle. In 1661 it was again occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian troops. As a result of Khovansky’s raid, the city of Brest-Litovsk, like other cities captured during a long raid by Russian troops, was “destroyed and burned down to the last building”, a “very small handful” of the population remained, all members of the magistrate died, shop documents burned down and magistrate books.

In the 17th century, the fortifications of Brest-Litovsk consisted of a pentagonal castle with bastions.

During the Northern War of 1700-1721, by agreement with the Elector of Saxony and the King of Poland, August II the Strong, the Russian army entered the territory of the Commonwealth in 1705. Provision warehouses were created in the city to supply the Russian army. In 1706, Swedish troops, pursuing the retreating army of Peter I, occupied Brest-Litovsky and ravaged it. The second half of the 17th - the first half of the 18th centuries in the history of the city is characterized by a sharp economic decline caused by prolonged wars, famines and epidemics. The number of its inhabitants decreased, handicraft production and trade fell into decline. It was not until the second half of the 18th century that the economy began to recover. Brest-Litovsky became the main river port on the Western Bug, through which grain, hemp, timber, etc. were exported. In the 1770s, A. Tyzengauz, a Lithuanian treasurer, founded a cloth factory in Brest-Litovsky, which had 7 looms.

At the end of the 18th century, there were 3.5 thousand inhabitants in the city. In 1792, the residence of the leaders of the Targowice Confederation was located here. In 1795, Brest-Litovsk, as a result of the third partition of the Commonwealth, was annexed to the Russian Empire. As a county town, at first it was part of Slonim, from 1797 - Lithuanian, from 1801 - Grodno province. The city was gradually built up, in 1797 there were 623 houses in it, of which 21 were stone, cloth factories and a distillery. Fires caused great damage to the city: in 1802, about 160 houses burned down, in 1822 - the commercial part of the city (150 shops) and 70 residential buildings.

In the 18th century, the chief marshal of France M. Saxony, speaking of Brest-Litovsk, noted: "Whoever owns this stronghold in wartime, he has great benefits over the adjacent country."

With the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian state, the decline of Brest-Litovsk begins: frequent fires, robberies of Polish troops, wars completely ruined the city.

In 1807, engineer-general P. Sukhtelen, by the Highest order, turns Brest-Litovsk into a stronghold for the defense of the western border of the empire and draws up a project for a new fortress, since before that the border was completely open. But the war of 1812 prevented its implementation.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, on the territory of the Brest land, the French army faced serious resistance from the Third Western Russian Army under the command of General A. Tormasov. On July 25, near Brest-Litovsk, the advanced units of the Russian troops, led by Major General A. Shcherbatov, defeated the enemy cavalry units and forced the French troops to leave the city. Military operations in the vicinity of the city continued to be conducted in October-November 1812.

At the end of the war, the Russian military decided to build a fortress in Brest-Litovsk as an element of the fortification system being created in the west of the country. The Brest-Litovsk fortress was built according to the project approved in 1830 on the territory of the city. As a result, the former city, which had existed for more than 500 years, was practically destroyed.

In 1819, the last Orthodox Simeonovskaya church burned down, and in 1823 the Simeonovsky monastery was abolished, and only in the dining room of the monastery a parish church was built for a small number of Orthodox townspeople, which was demolished in 1834 during the construction of the fortress, and the city was left without an Orthodox church.

In 1835, the urban development was moved to the east by 2 km, boundary signs were installed between the lands of the city and the fortress - rubble pillars (one of them was preserved at the corner of Lenin and Gogol streets). On April 26, 1842, the grand opening of the new fortress took place. The Brest-Litovsk fortress was reflected in the coat of arms of Brest-Litovsk approved in 1845: on the cape at the confluence of two rivers, a circle of silver shields, a fortress standard rises above it, in the upper part of the coat of arms there is a bison - the coat of arms of the Grodno province, in which moment entered Brest-Litovsk.

In order to build a fortress, the Russian authorities completely destroyed the old city located between the Western Bug and the branches of Mukhavets, in which there were ancient residential quarters with a town hall and a castle of the 17th century, and in its place in the 1830-1840s, according to the project of K. Opperman, fortifications were erected fortifications.

As part of the Russian Empire, the city finally got a respite from endless wars and raids. But the district Brest-Litovsk was only a pale copy of that prosperous and significant city of the Commonwealth, which once existed between the Mukhavets and Bug rivers. The economy developed slowly, the city was actually an “attachment” to a strategic fortress, its life was entirely dependent on the military. In 1825, about 11 thousand people lived in the city, in 1845 - about 18 thousand people. There were 250 shops in Brest-Litovsk, auctions were held 3 times a week, and 2 fairs annually. With the development of capitalism in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the city, which previously consisted of three-quarters of wooden houses and barracks, began to be built up, stone residential and public buildings, various enterprises and workshops were erected, and its territory expanded. In the 1860s, 5 tobacco factories, 8 candle factories, leather, sewing, dyeing and other workshops operated in Brest-Litovsk. In 1861 there were 178 shops, 60 taverns, 5 inns and 22 visiting houses, a tavern, a confectionery; population - 20.9 thousand people.

The growth of the city at the end of the 19th century was associated with a large-scale modernization of the Brest-Litovsk fortress (1878-1888) and, in particular, with the accelerated construction of railways that connected Brest-Litovsk with the center and south-west of Russia. In 1869, the Brest-Litovsk - Warsaw road was put into operation, in 1871 - Moscow - Brest-Litovsk, in 1873 - Kiev - Brest-Litovsk, in 1886 - Brest-Litovsk - Gomel. In 1886, the building of the railway station was built, which since 1888 has been lit with electricity (160 light bulbs were installed in the halls, service rooms and platforms).

In 1889, there were 2663 buildings in the city, 248 of which were made of stone[26]. The catastrophic fire of 1895 destroyed most of the city's buildings, including residential buildings, enterprises and workshops, shops, hospitals and schools, the railway station, burned out the city center; the damage amounted to 5 million rubles.

In 1889, there were 2663 buildings in the city, 248 of which were made of stone[26]. The catastrophic fire of 1895 destroyed most of the city's buildings, including residential buildings, enterprises and workshops, shops, hospitals and schools, the railway station, burned out the city center; the damage amounted to 5 million rubles.

The organizer of the square on Dumskaya Square in Brest-Litovsk Mayor of Brest-Litovsk. Merchant According to the first all-Russian census of 1897, the population of the city was 46,568 people (25,509 men and 21,059 women), of which 30,260 people were Jews and 12,141 were Orthodox. The native language was indicated: Jewish - 30,109, Russian - 10,217, Polish - 3358, Belarusian - 1231, Ukrainian - 704. However, the city had neither running water nor sewerage; almost the entire population used water from Mukhavets, in 1896 only 5 wells in the city had drinking water. There was one hospital with 15 beds. Since 1865, a four-class gymnasium has operated, at the end of the 1870s - city four-class and parochial schools, a private boarding school for noble maidens, since 1874 - a private library, since 1885 - a musical and drama amateur society, in 1903-1904 two high schools were built.

With the beginning of the First World War, the role of the city as a major transport and logistics hub increases. Here is how the Russian artillery officer Iosif Ilyin describes him in his diary, returning to the front at the end of 1914 after being cured.

29th of November. Brest. There is a very big traffic jam here, and therefore we will probably stand for two or three days until they deal with us ... Brest is a small, almost exclusively Jewish town. Today is Saturday, everything is closed, there are almost no cabs, because out of a hundred and fifty - one hundred and thirty Jews ... The weather here is amazing, eight or ten degrees of heat. It especially seems wild after deep snow, fox hunting. It turns out that there is almost no winter here at all, and no one even thinks about sleighs. A week before our arrival, a whole tragedy broke out here, and Nikolai Nikolayevich urgently came here. It is forbidden to write about it, and they try to keep it a secret. Eighty thousand shells exploded, killing about five hundred people, a whole company of sappers with officers who had recently been buried. Explosions went sequentially, starting from eight in the morning until five in the evening. Almost all the windows in the city burst, and fragments poured from the fortress; most fled in panic into the field outside the city. Fortunately, all the warehouses and cellars with pyroxylin survived and did not detonate, otherwise, as one officer told me, there would be no trace of the city, inhabitants and fortress. At the station just at that time, when the explosions began, there was a whole train loaded with pyroxylin, and only thanks to the ingenuity of the station chief and the courage of the drivers it was taken out, otherwise the whole station would have gasped.

During the "great retreat" of the Russian troops on August 7, 1915, the command of the Russian army decided to urgently evacuate the garrison of the fortress, already well prepared for the defense by that time, due to the fact that news had come of the fall of the fortresses in Kovno and Novogeorgievsk, which turned out to be defenseless from the applied gas by the Germans. On August 12, by order of the commandant of the fortress, artillery general V. Laiming, on the last day of the evacuation, already under German artillery fire, fortifications, forts, powder magazines were blown up, bridges, warehouses, and barracks were set on fire. The city, located not far from the burning fortress and in the center of two outer rings of exploding and burning defensive forts and fortifications, was almost completely engulfed in fire and burned out by 70%.

The High Command decided that the Brest-Litovsk fortress would not be on the defensive. She had to be evacuated. The cars were given to the military for the removal of property. Refugees were sent on foot, which was a tragedy for many locals.

Russian troops left the fortress on the night of August 12-13, 1915. The procedure for undermining the fortifications from August 12 to 13 was determined by order of the chief of staff of the 3rd Army. They destroyed everything they could. The retreating Russian troops set fire to the city during August 7-8.

On August 7-8, the city was burned by special teams of militias and Cossacks, who drove around the city, drove the locals who remained from their houses and set them on fire. Shopping arcades, shops, tenement houses - everything was on fire.

A participant in those events, the head of the fortress engineers, Major General Ivan Liders, looked at the burning city, standing on the highway near the Trishin farm:

“We witnessed an unforgettable, soul-shattering picture of an enchanting fire: not only the entire city was burning, its environs, the buildings of the engineering workshop at Fort III, but also the surrounding villages in all the space accessible to the eye, and even individual crosses sticking out in the cemetery were engulfed in flames and burned in the form of torches,” he wrote in his memoirs.

And here is what an officer of the German army, Captain Pelman, who observed the city from a hill on the left bank of the Mukhavets, wrote:

“As if rooted to the spot, we stopped, looking at this gigantic spectacle. As far as the eye could see, we saw a continuous huge sea of ​​fire rising to the sky, over which, darkening the sun, a huge cloud of smoke rose, announcing to the whole neighborhood: “Brest is dead.”

The fire destroyed 70% of the housing stock of Brest-Litovsk. Of the total number of 3670 houses that existed before the war, 2500 were destroyed with a total of 15 thousand dwellings.

The Germans entered the ashes and were engaged in the removal of what had survived, and the dismantling of the affected buildings into bricks. Bricks and channel bars were taken away and taken to Germany.

Leaving, the Russian troops blew up caponiers, casemates and powder magazines in almost all forts.

From December 9 (22), 1917 to March 3, 1918, peace negotiations between Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and Germany took place in Brest-Litovsk, as a result of which, on March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers was signed in the White Palace of the Brest Fortress, and also the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the Central Powers, according to the latest agreement, Germany and Austria-Hungary transferred territories south of the Kamenetz-Pruzhany line to the Ukrainian People's Republic, with subsequent clarification of the border by a mixed German-Ukrainian commission, taking into account the ethnic composition and wishes of the local population, which led to the fact that Brest-Litovsk ceded to the Ukrainian People's Republic as the administrative center of the land of Podlasie.

In March 1918, the Kholmsky provincial starostvo (province) was formed as part of the UNR, the administrative center of which became Berestye.

At this time, local residents began to return to Brest-Litovsk. Those that did not go deep into the Russian Empire, but settled in neighboring settlements. At least some life began to emerge in the city. And until that moment, it was impossible to enter Brest-Litovsk - the Germans forbade it. When the locals arrived, they gasped: there was no city.

During the Soviet-Polish war, from February 9, 1919, Brest-Litovsk was already under the control of the Polish Republic. On August 2, 1920, as a result of a counteroffensive, units of the Red Army occupied it. And on August 18, after the defeat of the Red Army near Warsaw, the city was again occupied by Polish formations. According to the results of the Riga Treaty, he went to the Polish Republic. Refugees began to return to the city en masse. It was the most difficult time, the conditions were terrible, epidemics broke out. City baths were urgently restored, and local residents needed to have a certificate that he visited the bath twice a month.Those who did not obey were fined and forced to wash themselves. City authorities removed construction debris, restored streets, buildings, social facilities. Humanitarian missions helped with the construction of barracks where refugees could be accommodated. There was not enough housing for everyone, the inhabitants huddled in tents, basements of destroyed buildings. The restoration of the city was carried out all 20 years during the period of interwar Poland. By the Second World War, Brest had not fully recovered.

Since 1923, the city was called Brest-nad-Bug (to distinguish it from another Polish city Brest-Kuyavsky), the center of the Polessky Voivodeship.

On September 14, 1939, during the Invasion of Poland, the German 19th Motorized Corps attacked the city and occupied it; On the morning of September 17, the Germans were occupied and protected. On September 22, Brest was handed over in accordance with the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), to the 29th Tank Brigade of the Red Army during an "impromptu parade" and incorporated into the USSR as the center of the newly formed Brest region of the BSSR. The Soviet-German state border ran along the Western Bug River.

On June 22, 1941, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the city and the fortress were among the first to be attacked by German troops. The defense of the Brest Fortress, in which at the time of the attack there were about 6-7 thousand Soviet military personnel, as well as members of the commanders' families, became a symbol of steadfastness, courage and military prowess. Instead of several hours allotted by the German command to capture the fortress, the 45th division of the Wehrmacht had to, suffering significant losses, fight here for a whole week, and separate pockets of resistance lasted for a month. Subsequently, two participants in the heroic defense - Lieutenant A. Kizhevatov (posthumously) and Major P. Gavrilov were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, many others from the legendary garrison were awarded orders and medals.

The occupation authorities included Brest in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

During the years of German occupation, about 40 thousand inhabitants of the city were destroyed; The Jews of Brest were herded into the Brest ghetto organized by the Nazis and almost completely destroyed. The economy of Brest has virtually ceased to exist.

On July 28, 1944, during the Lublin-Brest operation, the city was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front. In honor of this event, one of the streets of the city is named (st. July 28). Also July 28 is celebrated as City Day.

According to the results of the Yalta Conference, held in February 1945, the border of Poland along the Bug and the presence of Brest in the USSR was confirmed.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, Brest began to develop rapidly as an industrial center. The population of the city increased rapidly. In February 1947, the first bus route "Railway Station - Bagpipe - Southern Town" was opened.

From August 1955 to April 1959, the Brest regional organization of the Communist Party of Belarus was headed by P. Masherov, the future first secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b) of Belarus.

Since 1967, the construction of a new large residential microdistrict "Vostok" began. In 1981 trolleybus traffic was started. In 1986, a modern air terminal complex was built.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Republic of Belarus, in which Brest remained the regional center, the flow of tourists to the city decreased. At the same time, the Brest Fortress is the leader of Belarus in terms of attendance in 2012, and the 2nd place after the Nesvizh Museum in 2013. In 2013, 390 thousand people visited this historic place.

In the 2000s, the city streets were improved and large housing projects were built. Mass housing construction continued.

In 2001, the Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery was opened.

The 2010s were marked by the development of road infrastructure. The left-bank ("river") part of the city is actively developing.

In 2011, the city was affected by the events of the Revolution through social networks. From June 8, silent rallies began to take place there. The police responded by arresting the protesters, but their numbers were still growing. However, the authorities took measures (limited access to gathering points of protesters, arrested them, etc.), so the number of Brest demonstrators began to fall. After the actions on July 27, which took place in the markets and squares, a break was made. In September, the actions resumed again, but due to their small number they became ineffective and soon ceased.

Also in 2011, a stop-gasoline action was held near Brest.

Protests in Belarus in 2017 again affected Brest. On February 19, about 100 participants gathered, on February 26 - 300 participants, and on March 5 from 1000 to 2000 people.

Brest was one of the centers of the 2020 protests. On August 10, clashes between Special Police Detachment officers and protesters took place in the city, during which the Special Police Detachment used stun bombs, and the protesters set up barricades. In response, an unconventional method of temporarily neutralizing them was used against the security forces - spraying foam from spray cans on the transparent elements of helmets and shields. On August 11, protester Gennady Shutov (Belarus)rus was wounded in Brest. He was transferred in critical condition to the hospital of the Ministry of Defense, where he died on August 19.

Geographically, the center of the Brest region is located 320 km southwest of Minsk, on the western outskirts of Polesye, which is a swampy flat lowland, rather deforested due to human impact. The relief of the territory on which Brest lies is flat (absolute heights from 123 m, the heights of the Western Bug edge, up to 130 m), slightly lowering towards the floodplain of the Mukhavets. On the western outskirts of the city, Mukhavets flows into the Western Bug, bifurcating into two branches. On the territory of Brest, Mukhavets does not receive tributaries. A small river Lesnaya flows along the northern outskirts of Brest, the right tributary of the Western Bug.

Brest is located in the time zone designated by the international standard as Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3).

Brest is located in the time zone designated by the international standard as Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3). The area of ​​the city is 14,527 hectares, the share of green spaces is quite large. The city is surrounded by a forest park area covering an area of ​​2500 hectares. On the territory of Brest there are a number of parks (including the park named after May 1, the park of soldiers-internationalists, etc.) and squares. Starting from October 15, 2012, the boundaries of the city and the Brest region were changed by the Decision of the Brest Regional Council of Deputies dated September 11, 2012 No. 219 plots with a total area of ​​85.8281 hectares (0.86 km2), including 85.7071 hectares - land of the communal unitary agricultural enterprise "Sovkhoz Brestsky" and 0.121 hectares - land of the communal unitary enterprise "Brest city capital construction department", as a result of which the territory of the city at the moment is 14,612 hectares or 146.12 square meters kilometer.

On the territory of the city there is one natural monument of republican significance, a unique tree: a common spruce of a serpentine shape in the city park.

The landscapes surrounding the city are mainly anthropogenic - agricultural land, summer cottages, there are separate forests (pine, aspen, etc.).

Near Brest there is a landscape reserve of republican significance "Pribuzhskoe Polesie", as well as 3 reserves of local significance:

• "Bugsky" (in the floodplain of the Western Bug and Lesnaya rivers);
• "Brestsky" (in the floodplain of the Mukhavets River near the village of Vychulki);
• "Barbastella" (near the village of Kozlovichi), where the largest colony of bats in Belarus is guarded on the territory of ancient forts.

The ancient name of Brest is Берестье(Berestye). According to the most famous version, the name of the city comes from the word "береста" (the outer layer of birch bark), and the modern form Brest, probably already artificially - from the word "берест" (a kind of elm, Ulmus). In 1863, the traveler Pavel Shpilevsky wrote down a legend about the origin of the name Brest, connected with a trip to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by a wealthy merchant with his comrades. Suddenly, the wagon train was blocked by a swamp, around which many birches grew. The travelers cut down trees and were able to pass the swamp along the birch flooring. They went out to the island, which was formed by a large river and a small river flowing into it. For the fact that everything went well, the merchant decided to thank the pagan god Veles and built a temple on the island. After some time, returning from Lithuania, where there was a successful trade, the merchant and his

The ancient name of Brest is Берестье(Berestye). According to the most famous version, the name of the city comes from the word "береста" (the outer layer of birch bark), and the modern form Brest, probably already artificially - from the word "берест" (a kind of elm, Ulmus). In 1863, the traveler Pavel Shpilevsky wrote down a legend about the origin of the name Brest, connected with a trip to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by a wealthy merchant with his comrades. Suddenly, the wagon train was blocked by a swamp, around which many birches grew. The travelers cut down trees and were able to pass the swamp along the birch flooring. They went out to the island, which was formed by a large river and a small river flowing into it. For the fact that everything went well, the merchant decided to thank the pagan god Veles and built a temple on the island. After some time, returning from Lithuania, where there was a successful trade, the merchant and his comrades again stopped at the Veles temple, built huts and founded a city, which they called Berestye. In the annals of the 12th-13th centuries, the name Beresty is also found, in the historical documents of the 16th century - Berest (this name was used by residents of the city's environs until recently). In the 17th - early 20th centuries, the city was called Brest-Litovsky, and then Brest-Litovsk, which indicated its location in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and also made it possible to distinguish it from the Polish city of Brest-Kuyavsky, during the period of being part of Poland (1921-1939), the city was called Brest nad Bug (Polish Brześć nad Bugiem) to distinguish it from another Polish city of Polsk. Brześć Kujawski, whose name is now translated into Russian as Brześc-Kujawski, previously it was called Brest-Kujawski. Since September 1939, after joining the BSSR - Brest.

E. Dahlberg. 1657

During the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667 and the war unleashed by Sweden in 1655 against the Commonwealth and in 1656 against Russia, Brest-Litovsky was repeatedly in the zone of hostilities. On November 15, 1655, Russian troops under the command of the Novgorod governor Prince S. Urusov defeated the army of the hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania P. Sapieha near Brest-Litovsk, but they could not take the fortified city, which had a large garrison. In 1657, the Swedes and the Hungarians captured the Brest castle and devastated the city. In January 1660, the city was captured by Russian troops under the command of Prince Ivan Khovansky, who destroyed about 1,700 people who were hiding in the castle, leaving only 50 Starshin alive and sending them captive to Moscow, led by the commandant of the castle. In 1661 it was again occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian troops. As a result of Khovansky’s raid, the city of Brest-Litovsk, like other cities captured during a long raid by Russian troops, was “destroyed and burned down to the last building”, a “very small handful” of the population remained, all members of the magistrate died, shop documents burned down and magistrate books.

Plan of Brest in 1657

Brest-Litovsky railway station during the First World War (circa 1915), burned down during the retreat of Russian troops

During the "great retreat" of the Russian troops on August 7, 1915, the command of the Russian army decided to urgently evacuate the garrison of the fortress, already well prepared for the defense by that time, due to the fact that news had come of the fall of the fortresses in Kovno and Novogeorgievsk, which turned out to be defenseless from the applied gas by the Germans. On August 12, by order of the commandant of the fortress, artillery general V. Laiming, on the last day of the evacuation, already under German artillery fire, fortifications, forts, powder magazines were blown up, bridges, warehouses, and barracks were set on fire. The city, located not far from the burning fortress and in the center of two outer rings of exploding and burning defensive forts and fortifications, was almost completely engulfed in fire and burned out by 70%.

During the Soviet-Polish war, from February 9, 1919, Brest-Litovsk was already under the control of the Polish Republic.

Ukrainian delegates at the talks. 1918

During the Soviet-Polish war, from February 9, 1919, Brest-Litovsk was already under the control of the Polish Republic. On August 2, 1920, as a result of a counteroffensive, units of the Red Army occupied it. And on August 18, after the defeat of the Red Army near Warsaw, the city was again occupied by Polish formations. According to the results of the Riga Treaty, he went to the Polish Republic. Refugees began to return to the city en masse. It was the most difficult time, the conditions were terrible, epidemics broke out. City baths were urgently restored, and local residents needed to have a certificate that he visited the bath twice a month.Those who did not obey were fined and forced to wash themselves. City authorities removed construction debris, restored streets, buildings, social facilities. Humanitarian missions helped with the construction of barracks where refugees could be accommodated. There was not enough housing for everyone, the inhabitants huddled in tents, basements of destroyed buildings. The restoration of the city was carried out all 20 years during the period of interwar Poland. By the Second World War, Brest had not fully recovered.

The ancient name of Brest is Берестье(Berestye). According to the most famous version, the name of the city comes from the word "береста" (the outer layer of birch bark), and the modern form Brest, probably already artificially - from the word "берест" (a kind of elm, Ulmus). In 1863, the traveler Pavel Shpilevsky wrote down a legend about the origin of the name Brest, connected with a trip to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by a wealthy merchant with his comrades. Suddenly, the wagon train was blocked by a swamp, around which many birches grew. The travelers cut down trees and were able to pass the swamp along the birch flooring. They went out to the island, which was formed by a large river and a small river flowing into it. For the fact that everything went well, the merchant decided to thank the pagan god Veles and built a temple on the island. After some time, returning from Lithuania, where there was a successful trade, the merchant and his

The ancient name of Brest is Берестье(Berestye). According to the most famous version, the name of the city comes from the word "береста" (the outer layer of birch bark), and the modern form Brest, probably already artificially - from the word "берест" (a kind of elm, Ulmus). In 1863, the traveler Pavel Shpilevsky wrote down a legend about the origin of the name Brest, connected with a trip to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by a wealthy merchant with his comrades. Suddenly, the wagon train was blocked by a swamp, around which many birches grew. The travelers cut down trees and were able to pass the swamp along the birch flooring. They went out to the island, which was formed by a large river and a small river flowing into it. For the fact that everything went well, the merchant decided to thank the pagan god Veles and built a temple on the island. After some time, returning from Lithuania, where there was a successful trade, the merchant and his comrades again stopped at the Veles temple, built huts and founded a city, which they called Berestye. In the annals of the 12th-13th centuries, the name Beresty is also found, in the historical documents of the 16th century - Berest (this name was used by residents of the city's environs until recently). In the 17th - early 20th centuries, the city was called Brest-Litovsky, and then Brest-Litovsk, which indicated its location in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and also made it possible to distinguish it from the Polish city of Brest-Kuyavsky, during the period of being part of Poland (1921-1939), the city was called Brest nad Bug (Polish Brześć nad Bugiem) to distinguish it from another Polish city of Polsk. Brześć Kujawski, whose name is now translated into Russian as Brześc-Kujawski, previously it was called Brest-Kujawski. Since September 1939, after joining the BSSR - Brest.

E. Dahlberg. 1657

During the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667 and the war unleashed by Sweden in 1655 against the Commonwealth and in 1656 against Russia, Brest-Litovsky was repeatedly in the zone of hostilities. On November 15, 1655, Russian troops under the command of the Novgorod governor Prince S. Urusov defeated the army of the hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania P. Sapieha near Brest-Litovsk, but they could not take the fortified city, which had a large garrison. In 1657, the Swedes and the Hungarians captured the Brest castle and devastated the city. In January 1660, the city was captured by Russian troops under the command of Prince Ivan Khovansky, who destroyed about 1,700 people who were hiding in the castle, leaving only 50 Starshin alive and sending them captive to Moscow, led by the commandant of the castle. In 1661 it was again occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian troops. As a result of Khovansky’s raid, the city of Brest-Litovsk, like other cities captured during a long raid by Russian troops, was “destroyed and burned down to the last building”, a “very small handful” of the population remained, all members of the magistrate died, shop documents burned down and magistrate books.

Plan of Brest in 1657

Brest-Litovsky railway station during the First World War (circa 1915), burned down during the retreat of Russian troops

During the "great retreat" of the Russian troops on August 7, 1915, the command of the Russian army decided to urgently evacuate the garrison of the fortress, already well prepared for the defense by that time, due to the fact that news had come of the fall of the fortresses in Kovno and Novogeorgievsk, which turned out to be defenseless from the applied gas by the Germans. On August 12, by order of the commandant of the fortress, artillery general V. Laiming, on the last day of the evacuation, already under German artillery fire, fortifications, forts, powder magazines were blown up, bridges, warehouses, and barracks were set on fire. The city, located not far from the burning fortress and in the center of two outer rings of exploding and burning defensive forts and fortifications, was almost completely engulfed in fire and burned out by 70%.

During the Soviet-Polish war, from February 9, 1919, Brest-Litovsk was already under the control of the Polish Republic.

Ukrainian delegates at the talks. 1918

During the Soviet-Polish war, from February 9, 1919, Brest-Litovsk was already under the control of the Polish Republic. On August 2, 1920, as a result of a counteroffensive, units of the Red Army occupied it. And on August 18, after the defeat of the Red Army near Warsaw, the city was again occupied by Polish formations. According to the results of the Riga Treaty, he went to the Polish Republic. Refugees began to return to the city en masse. It was the most difficult time, the conditions were terrible, epidemics broke out. City baths were urgently restored, and local residents needed to have a certificate that he visited the bath twice a month.Those who did not obey were fined and forced to wash themselves. City authorities removed construction debris, restored streets, buildings, social facilities. Humanitarian missions helped with the construction of barracks where refugees could be accommodated. There was not enough housing for everyone, the inhabitants huddled in tents, basements of destroyed buildings. The restoration of the city was carried out all 20 years during the period of interwar Poland. By the Second World War, Brest had not fully recovered.