Having unexpectedly attacked the Soviet Union, the fascist command hoped to reach Moscow in a few months. However, the German generals met resistance as soon as they crossed the border of the USSR. The Germans took several hours to capture the first outpost, but the defenders of the Brest Fortress held back the power of the huge fascist army for six days.

The siege of 1941 became

for the historical Brest Fortress, however, it was subjected to attacks even before that. The fortress was built by the architect Opperman in 1833 as a military structure. The war reached it only by 1915 - then it was blown up during the retreat of the Nikolaev troops. In 1918, after the signing, which took place in the Citadel of the fortress, it remained under German control for some time, and by the end of 1918 it was in the hands of the Poles, who owned it until 1939.

The real hostilities overtook the Brest Fortress in 1939. The second day of the Second World War began for the garrison of the fortress with the bombing. German aircraft dropped ten bombs on the citadel, damaging the main building of the fortress - the Citadel, or the White Palace. Then in the fortress there were several random military and reserve units. The first defense of the Brest Fortress was organized by General Plisovsky, who from the scattered troops he had managed to assemble a combat-ready detachment of 2,500 people and evacuate officer families in time. Against the armored corps of General Heinz, Plisovsky could only oppose an old armored train, several of the same tanks and a couple of batteries. Then the defense of the Brest Fortress lasted three full days

From September 14 to 17, while the enemy was almost six times stronger than the defenders. On the night of September 17, the wounded Plisovsky led the remnants of his detachment south, towards Terespol. After that, on September 22, the Germans handed over Brest and the Brest Fortress to the Soviet Union.

The defense of the Brest Fortress in 1941 fell on the shoulders of nine Soviet battalions, two artillery battalions and several separate units. In total, this amounted to about eleven thousand people, excluding three hundred officer families. The fortress was stormed by the infantry division of Major General Shliper, which was reinforced with additional units. In general, about twenty thousand soldiers were subordinate to General Schliper.

The attack began early in the morning. Due to the suddenness of the attack, the commanders did not have time to coordinate the actions of the fortress garrison, so the defenders were immediately divided into several detachments. The Germans immediately succeeded in capturing the Citadel, but they were not able to gain a foothold in it - the invaders were attacked by the Soviet units left behind, and the Citadel was partially liberated. On the second day of defense, the Germans offered

surrender, to which 1900 people agreed. The remaining defenders united under the command of Captain Zubachev. The enemy forces, however, were immeasurably higher, and the defense of the Brest Fortress was short-lived. On June 24, the Nazis managed to capture 1250 fighters, another 450 people were captured on June 26. The last stronghold of the defenders, the Eastern Fort, was crushed on June 29 when the Germans dropped a 1800-kilogram bomb on it. This day is considered the end of the defense, but the Germans cleared the Brest Fortress until June 30, and the last defenders were destroyed only by the end of August. Only a few managed to escape Belovezhskaya Pushcha to the partisans.

The fortress was liberated in 1944, and in 1971 it was mothballed and turned into a museum. At the same time, a memorial was erected, thanks to which the defense of the Brest Fortress and the courage of its defenders will be remembered forever.

"Enlightened" Europeans and others will never understand normal Russian people who gave their lives for their Motherland during the war! Not for a bun with sausage and schnapps, but for the Motherland. They still do not realize that the Motherland is more important than sausage...

70 years ago, at 4 o'clock in the morning, an event took place that turned the life of every citizen of our country upside down. It seems that a lot of time has passed since that moment, but there are still a lot of secrets and reticences. Over some of them we tried to lift the veil.

Underground heroes

“The losses are very heavy. For all the time of the fighting - from June 22 to June 29 - we lost 1121 people killed and wounded. The fortress and the city of Brest are captured, the bastion is under our complete control, despite the cruel courage of the Russians. The soldiers are still being fired upon from the basements - lone fanatics, but we will soon deal with them.

This is an excerpt from a report to the General Staff by Lieutenant General Fritz Schlieper, commander of the 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division - the same one that stormed the Brest Fortress. The official date of the fall of the citadel is June 30, 1941. The day before, the Germans launched a large-scale assault, capturing the last fortifications, including the Kholm Gate. The surviving Soviet soldiers, having lost their commanders, went into the cellars and flatly refused to surrender. To the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War"AiF" conducted a special investigation and tried to find out who the last heroes of the Brest Fortress were, and how many days their underground war lasted ...

lone ghosts

- After capturing the citadel guerrilla war I spent at least a month in the casemates,” explains Alexander Bobrovich, a historian and researcher from Mogilev. – In 1952, an inscription was found on the wall of the barracks near the Bialystok Gate: “I am dying, but I do not give up. Farewell, Motherland. July 20, 1941. They fought according to the “shoot-and-run” tactics: they made a couple of accurate shots at the Germans and went back to the cellars. On August 1, 1941, non-commissioned officer Max Klegel wrote in his diary: “Two of ours died in the fortress - a half-dead Russian stabbed them with a knife. It's still dangerous here. I hear gunfire every night."

... The archives of the Wehrmacht dispassionately record the heroism of the defenders of the Brest Fortress. The front went far ahead, the fighting was already going on near Smolensk, but the destroyed citadel continued to fight. On July 12, "a Russian rushed from the tower to a group of sappers, holding two grenades in his hands - four were killed on the spot, two died in the hospital from wounds." July 21 "Corporal Erich Zimmer, went out for cigarettes, was strangled with a belt." How many fighters were hiding in the casemates is unclear.

There is no consensus on who the last defender of the Brest Fortress could be. Historians of Ingushetia refer to the testimony of Stankus Antanas, a captured SS officer: “In the second half of July, I saw an officer of the Red Army get out of the casemates. Seeing the Germans, he shot himself - in his pistol was the last cartridge. During the search of the body, we found documents in the name of senior lieutenant Umat-Girey Barkhanoev.”

The latest case is the capture of Major Pyotr Gavrilov, head of the defense of the Eastern Fort. He was taken prisoner on July 23, 1941 at the Kobrin fortification: a wounded man killed two German soldiers in a shootout. Later, Gavrilov said that he hid in the basements for three weeks, making sorties at night with one of the fighters until he died. How many more such lone ghosts remained in the Brest Fortress?

... In 1974, Boris Vasiliev, the author of the book “The Dawns Here Are Quiet ...”, published the novel “He Was Not on the Lists”, which received no less fame. The hero of the book, Lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, fights alone in the Brest Fortress ... until April 1942! Mortally wounded, he learns the news that the Germans are defeated near Moscow, leaves the basement and dies. How reliable is this information?

– I should note that the novel by Boris Vasiliev is purely piece of art, - Valery Hubarenko, director of memorial complex « Brest Fortress-Hero", Major General. - And the facts of the death of the last defender of Brest given there are no documentary evidence unfortunately they don't.

Little Known Facts

1. The Brest Fortress was stormed not by the Germans, but by the Austrians. In 1938, after the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria to the Third Reich, the 4th Austrian division was renamed the 45th infantry division Wehrmacht - the very one that crossed the border on June 22, 1941.

2. Major Gavrilov was not repressed, as indicated in the credits of the movie hit "Brest Fortress", but in 1945 he was expelled from the party ... for losing his party card in captivity!

3. In addition to the fortress, the Nazis could not take the Brest railway station for 9 days. Railway workers, police and border guards (about 100 people) went into the basements and at night made attacks on the platform, shooting Wehrmacht soldiers. The soldiers ate cookies and sweets from the buffet. As a result, the Germans flooded the basements of the station with water.

Flamethrowers against courage

Meanwhile, on August 15, 1941, the Nazi press published a photo of soldiers with flamethrowers "performing combat mission in the Brest Fortress,” is living proof that skirmishes in the casemates went on for almost two months after the start of the war. Having lost patience, the Germans used flamethrowers to smoke out the last brave men from the shelters. Half blind in the dark, without food, without water, bleeding, the fighters refused to surrender, continuing to resist. The inhabitants of the villages around the fortress claimed that the shooting from the citadel was heard until mid-August.

- Presumably, the end of the resistance of the Soviet border guards in the fortress can be considered August 20, 1941, - Tadeusz Krulevsky, a Polish historian, believes. - A little earlier, the German commandant of Brest, Walter von Unruh, was visited by Colonel of the General Staff Blumentritt and ordered to "immediately put the fortress in order." For three days in a row, day and night, using all types of weapons, the Germans carried out a total cleansing of the Brest Fortress - probably, these days its last defenders fell. And already on August 26, two people visited the dead fortress - Hitler and Mussolini ...

... Lieutenant General Fritz Schlieper himself in the same report indicated: he cannot understand the meaning of such fierce resistance - "probably the Russians fought purely out of fear of execution." Schliper lived until 1977 and, I think, did not understand: when a person rushes with a grenade at enemy soldiers, he does not do this because of someone's threats. And just because he is fighting for his homeland ...

Alexey Seredin, Georgy Zotov

On the very first day of the Great Patriotic War, June 22, 2941, the Brest Fortress was attacked, in which there were approximately 3.5 thousand people. Despite the fact that the forces were clearly unequal, the garrison of the Brest Fortress defended with honor for a month - until July 23, 1941. Although there is no consensus on the issue of the duration of the defense of the Brest Fortress.

Some historians believe that it ended already at the end of June. The reason for the rapid capture of the fortress was the surprise attack by the German army on the Soviet garrison. This was not expected, and therefore they were not prepared, the Russian soldiers and officers who were on the territory of the fortress were taken by surprise.

The Germans, on the contrary, were carefully preparing to capture the ancient fortress. They practiced each on a mock-up created from aerial photographs. The German leadership understood that the fortification could not be captured with the help of tanks, therefore the main emphasis was placed on.

Reasons for the defeat

Already by June 29-30, the enemy captured almost all military fortifications, battles were going on throughout the garrison. Nevertheless, the defenders of the Brest Fortress courageously continued to defend themselves, although they had practically no water and food.
And no wonder, the Brest Fortress was attacked by forces that were many times greater than those that were in it. The infantry and two armored units inflicted frontal and flank attacks on all entrances to the fortress. Warehouses with ammunition, medicines, food were subjected to shelling. The German shock assault groups followed.

By 12 noon on June 22, the enemy broke communications and broke through to the Citadel, but the Soviet troops managed to repel it. In the future, the buildings of the Citadel repeatedly passed from the Germans.

On June 29-30, the Germans launched a two-day continuous assault on the Citadel, as a result of which Soviet military commanders were captured. Thus, June 30 is called the day of completion of the organized resistance of the Brest Fortress. However, isolated centers of resistance, to the surprise of the Germans, appeared, according to some sources, until August 1941. No wonder Hitler brought Mussolini to the Brest Fortress to show what a serious enemy he had to fight.
Some Soviet soldiers and

Defense of the Brest Fortress (defense of Brest) is one of the very first battles between the Soviet and German armies during the Great Patriotic War.

Brest was one of the border garrisons on the territory of the USSR, it covered the path to the central highway leading to Minsk. That is why Brest was one of the first cities to be attacked after the German attack. Soviet army for a week held back the onslaught of the enemy, 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. However, 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 an important battle in which 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 Soviet Union shortly before the start of the war - in 1939. By that time, the fortress had already lost its military value because of the beginning of the destruction and only reminded of past battles. The Brest Fortress was built in the 19th century. and was part of the defensive fortifications Russian Empire on its western borders, however, in the 20th century. it ceased to be of military importance.

By the time the war began, the Brest Fortress was mainly used to accommodate garrisons of military personnel, as well as a number of families of the military command, there was also 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 first of all wanted to completely destroy the entire command staff in the fortress, and thereby introduce confusion into the army, disorient it.

Although 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, and the assault, which 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 they did not give up their positions and did not allow the Germans to quickly and unconditionally take control of Brest.

The course of the defense of the Brest Fortress

The Soviet soldiers, who, contrary to their plans, could not quickly leave the fortress, quickly organized a defense and within a few hours drove the Germans out of the territory of the fortress, who managed to get into its central part. The soldiers occupied the barracks and various buildings along the perimeter in order to most effectively organize the defense of the fortress and be able to repel enemy attacks from all flanks. Despite the absence of the commanding staff, volunteers were quickly found from among ordinary soldiers who took over the leadership of the operation.

On June 22, 8 attempts were made to break into the fortress by the Germans, but they did not give a result. Moreover, german army, contrary to all forecasts, suffered significant losses. The German command decided to change tactics: instead of an assault, a siege of the Brest Fortress was now planned. The troops that had broken through inside were withdrawn and sorted around the perimeter of the fortress in order to begin a long siege and cut off the path of the Soviet troops to the exit, as well as to disrupt the supply of food and weapons.

On the morning of June 23, the bombardment of the fortress began, after which an assault was again attempted. Groups of the German army broke through, but faced fierce resistance and were destroyed - the assault failed again, and the Germans had to return to siege tactics. Long battles began, which did not subside for several days and greatly exhausted both armies.

Despite the onslaught of the German army, as well as shelling and bombing, the Soviet soldiers held the line, although they lacked weapons and food. Delivery stopped after a few days drinking water, and then the defenders decided to release women and children from the fortress so that they would surrender to the Germans and stay alive, but some women refused to leave the fortress and continued to fight.

On June 26, the Germans made several more attempts to break into the Brest Fortress, they managed to do this partially - several groups broke through. Only by the end of the month, the German army was able to capture most of the fortress, killing Soviet soldiers. However, the groups, scattered and having lost a single line of defense, still continued to offer desperate resistance even when the fortress was taken by the Germans.

The meaning and results of the defense of the Brest Fortress

Resistance individual groups the soldiers continued until the autumn, until these groups were destroyed by the Germans and the last defender of the Brest Fortress died. During the defense of the Brest Fortress, Soviet troops suffered colossal losses, but at the same time, the army showed genuine courage, thereby showing that the war for the Germans would not be as easy as Hitler expected. The defenders were recognized as heroes of the war.

I read it today with a colleague poltora_bobra post . I thought, but, really, how long did the Brest Fortress fight? How to count? From June 22 to June 29, 1941 (organized resistance, the fall of the Eastern Fort ended), or until the moment when her last defender was killed or captured? Judging by the information from the Internet, the commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment, Major Gavrilov, after all, could be Not last defender fortresses. How reliable are the stories that such could have been up to the beginning of February 1942, I do not know. But logic and common sense I am told that this is unlikely to be true. And, here, the fact that on July 23, 1941, being seriously wounded, Major Gavrilov was captured is well known. He fought as much as he could, as long as his human strength was enough, fought like a hero. His defense of the Brest Fortress is not 7 days, it is a month. Such an account!

By June 22, 1941, the Germans already had experience of fighting for this fortress. In September 1939, the Poles defended her from September 14 to 17, after which they left. They fought then well, competently, they could fight further, but they preferred to leave. Later, on September 22, 1939, Germany handed over Brest and the fortress to the USSR.

The Germans took into account the experience of the battles of September 1939, but, nevertheless, they miscalculated in the "small" - the Poles are not Russians!

"The German command planned to capture the Brest Fortress on the very first day - by 12 o'clock, because the direct assault on the fortress was entrusted to the assault detachments of the 45th division, formed in the mountains of Upper Austria - in Hitler's homeland and therefore distinguished by special devotion to the Fuhrer. To storm the fortress, the division was reinforced three artillery regiments, nine mortars, heavy mortar batteries and super-powerful Karl and Thor siege guns.

But here it was different than in Europe. The soldiers and officers ran out of the houses and barracks, looked around for a moment, but instead of raising their hands, pressed against the walls of the buildings and, using any cover, began to shoot. Some, riddled with German bullets, remained where they had taken their first and last Stand; others, continuing to shoot back, left ...

In the first hours, the enemy captured the territory of the fortress, many buildings and fortifications, but remained in the hands of Soviet soldiers were so well located that they made it possible to keep significant areas under fire. The defenders were sure that they would not have to defend themselves for a long time - the regular units were about to come up and sweep away the Nazis. But hours and days passed, the position of the defenders worsened: there was almost no food, there was not enough water ... Mukhavets is nearby, but can you really get to him! Many fighters crawled for water - and did not return ...

The fascists did not take seriously the resistance of disparate, even unconnected groups, and expected that very soon the besieged would raise a white flag. But the fortress continued to fight, and soon the Nazis realized that the Russians were not going to surrender. And then, with a piercing squeal, shells of heavy artillery rushed from behind the Bug, and then the Nazis went on the attack again, and again they had to retreat, leaving the dead and carrying away the wounded ... "

“It was July 23, 1941, that is, on the thirty-second day of the war ... On this day, the Nazis brought a major who had just been captured in the fortress to the camp hospital. The captured major was in full command uniform, but all his clothes turned into tatters, his face was covered with powder soot and dust and overgrown with a beard. He was wounded, unconscious and looked emaciated to the extreme. It was in the full sense of the word a skeleton covered with skin. To what extent exhaustion had reached, one could judge from the fact that the prisoner could even make a swallowing movement: he did not have enough strength for this, and the doctors had to apply artificial nutrition to save his life. German soldiers, who took him prisoner and brought him to the camp, told the doctors that this man, in whose body life was barely glimmering, only an hour ago, when they caught him in one of the casemates of the fortress, single-handedly accepted a battle with them, threw grenades, fired a pistol and killed and wounded several Nazis. They spoke of this with involuntary reverence, frankly amazed at the fortitude of the Soviet commander, and it was clear that only out of respect for his courage the prisoner was left alive. ... within a few days, German officers came from Brest who wanted to look at the hero who showed such amazing stamina, such will in the fight against the enemy "

C. Smirnov "Brest Fortress"


Former commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment of the 42nd Infantry Division, retired Major Gavrilov. 1961 Photo from the archive of Alexander Vasilyevich Kurpakov


Hero's grave


Major Gavrilov performed by Alexander Korshunov. Film "Brest Fortress"