Reconstruction of the battle in the Brest fortress. To not happen again

Today, thousands of people gathered at the Northern Gates of the Kobrin fortification of the Brest Fortress - Brest residents, guests of the city, to see a large-scale military-historical reconstruction “June 22. Brest Fortress". There were three times more reenactors than last year. Clubs and reenactors arrived from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Japan, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, France, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, China, Japan. This increase is explained by the fact that this year June 22 falls on a day off.

The reconstruction consisted of two parts: a peaceful day and an episode of the battle. A little over an hour in time.

The audience saw the feat of corporal Vasily Volokitin, the attack of Samvel Matevosyan, the capture of Major Pyotr Gavrilov and the families of commanders. They also showed a "human shield" - the Germans broke through to the island, hiding behind women and children.

The reenactors used weapons provided by Belarusfilm, pyrotechnics and a 45 mm anti-tank gun.

Reconstruction in the fortress took place for the ninth time.

What attracts reenactors on June 22 in Brest? Chairman of the Council of the public association "Military-Historical Club Garrison" Yuri Kireev believes that it is important for reenactors to live in a tent camp according to military regulations:

- Preparation takes several months. We accept applications and conduct a rigorous selection process. We have the Red Army, and the Wehrmacht, and civilians. Today, for the first time, about 70 people are participating in the reconstruction, the rest are familiar with each other, they have come more than once. In order to live that era for several days, people travel hundreds of kilometers. We will be glad if the young people who came to the Brest Fortress today become interested in history - they read books, watch films to form a picture.

Brest resident Alexander Zharkov, military-historical club "Rubezh", participates in the reconstruction for the ninth time:

- On June 22 you will not rewrite. But we try to present the details in different ways. And this allows you to relive the events of that fateful morning again and again. We get used to the role and every time we experience this tragedy. Without living history, it is difficult for the current generation to show and tell how it was. Without these explosions, without these hordes of Germans, without the screams of the wounded, without those who surrendered, without women and children, whom the men had to send to surrender, it is not easy for young people to imagine the tragedy. For the sake of this we are here today - we are experiencing, leaving a piece of the soul. For everyone to remember. So that the tragedy does not happen again in our land.

In the early morning of June 22, several thousand people gathered on the territory of the memorial complex "Brest Hero Fortress" to watch the theatrical performance, during which an attempt was made to reconstruct the events that took place in the fortress on that day in 1941.

The prelude to the "military-historical festival" itself, as the organizers called it, was the "march of re-enactments" along the central streets of Brest on the evening of June 21. At the same time, on the main pedestrian street of Brest - Sovetskaya - they tried to recreate the atmosphere of the last peaceful evening of 1941. With posters of those times, household items of the pre-war city, photographs. Some cafes and restaurants offered special menus based on pre-war recipes.

"War- no reason for publicity

Local residents have an ambiguous attitude towards the trend of recent years, in which the mournful anniversary becomes an occasion for theatrical performances. Doctor of Sciences Irina Lavrovskaya says that she was born in a family of front-line soldiers. “I was brought up in respect and empathy for those who went through the horrors of war, so I am sure that the memory of it should not be used for entertainment, political PR or justification for a low standard of living 70 years after the end of hostilities,” she says.

Lavrovskaya defended her dissertation on the architecture of old Brest. In her opinion, if earlier “reconstructions” on the eve of June 22 caused only irritation, now they are simply dangerous, since they involve, among other things, representatives of Russian “military-historical clubs” who actively participated in hostilities in the Donbass.

A similar point of view is shared by pensioner Stanislava Kucherova, who is surprised that now Memorial Day in Brest annually turns into a kind of holiday, "when they dance and sing, instead of going to church and lighting candles for those who died in that war and from its consequences."

Not a show but" awakening interest"

The organizers of the "military-historical reconstruction" do not put on a show, but simply try to convey the idea of ​​the inadmissibility of the repetition of those events, says the secretary of the city committee of the Belarusian Republican Youth Union Piotr Pitsko. “In our production, there is no euphoria from victory and beautiful captures of enemy positions, rejoicing over a defeated enemy,” Pitsko says. “Probably, the historical reconstruction in the Brest Fortress is the only one where this is not present.”

As arguments in favor of the event, officially called a "military-historical festival," the city authorities cite other arguments, including "awakening interest in historical events" among young people and an attempt to attract tourists to Brest. According to Oleg Grebennikov, a representative of the Garrison military-historical club, every year the interest in the event is growing and the geography of participants is expanding. "This time about 500 people from thirteen countries took part in the reenactment of the events of June 1941," Grebennikov specified, adding that much more applications were received, but the organizers had to limit the number of participants.

Requiem in the Shadow of Reconstruction

A similar simulation has been held in the Brest Fortress for the sixth year in a row. Prior to this, the main, and sometimes the only event in memory of the tragic date was a meeting-requiem in the memorial complex. The official mourning ceremony is still held today, but it gathers much fewer people. It is attended by veterans, local officials and foreign delegations, as well as representatives of labor collectives of Brest, who are sent to the event "on order".

Context

Unlike the meeting-requiem, residents and guests of Brest city come to the theatrical performance willingly. This is facilitated by the fact that on the night of June 22, local authorities transport participants and spectators by bus free of charge.

The people didn't splurge

Transportation costs are by no means the only item of budgetary expenses for holding an event. However, the Brest city executive committee did not make public the amount it costs.

In 2017, the initiators unsuccessfully tried to raise funds on one of the crowdfunding Internet sites. Of the declared 5,000 Belarusian rubles (in terms of about 2,380 euros), only 430 rubles, or 9 percent of the required amount, were received. As a result, as it became known to DW, the authorities of Brest appealed to the heads of enterprises and organizations of the city with an insistent request to act as sponsors of the event.

As for the festival program itself, the authorities said they were ready to discuss its format with local residents in the future and take into account their wishes. For example, fireworks at dawn on June 22 have already been abandoned.

See also:

• Memorial sites in Germany

  Memorials and monuments

  On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. This day is now celebrated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day - six million Jews killed, and in Germany also - Day of Remembrance for all victims of National Socialism who died in concentration and labor camps, prisons, involuntary labor and in killing centers.



Memorial sites in Germany

Berlin

The central memorial to the Jews of Europe killed during the Nazi era is located in Berlin near the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. It was opened in 2005. The documentation center is located in its underground part. Some of the documents of his exposition in Russian are materials collected after the war during the investigation of crimes committed in the "Third Reich".



Memorial sites in Germany

"Crystal Night"

During the Jewish pogroms on the so-called "Kristallnacht" on November 9-10, 1938, more than 1,400 synagogues and prayer houses were destroyed on the territory of Nazi Germany and in some parts of Austria. One of the synagogues was located on the Kazernenstrasse in Düsseldorf. After the war, monuments or memorial plaques were erected here and in many other such places.



Memorial sites in Germany

Dachau

41,500 people died in the Dachau concentration camp. It was created in 1933 near Munich for political prisoners. Later, Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and representatives of other groups persecuted by the Nazis began to be sent to Dachau. All other concentration camps of the "Third Reich" were organized according to his model.



Memorial sites in Germany

Buchenwald

One of the largest camps was located in Thuringia near Weimar. From 1937 to 1945, about 250 thousand people were imprisoned in Buchenwald. 56 thousand prisoners died. Among them were also several hundred deserters and those who refused to serve in the Wehrmacht. After the war, they continued to be considered "traitors" and "cowards" in Germany for a long time, and the first memorial stone was installed in Buchenwald only in 2001.



Memorial sites in Germany

Gypsy genocide

This monument, erected in Buchenwald in 1995 on the territory of the former block number 14, is dedicated to the gypsies who died here - European Roma and Sinti. The names of all the camps of the "Third Reich" to which they were sent are engraved on the stones. The total number of victims of the Roma genocide in Europe is still unknown. According to various sources, it can range from 150 thousand to 500 thousand people.



Memorial sites in Germany

Langenstein-Zwieberg death camp

Buchenwald had over 60 so-called outer camps. One of them is "Malachite" in Langenstein-Zwieberg near Halberstadt. Its prisoners were building an underground plant for the Junkers. Two thousand prisoners died from disease and exhaustion, were victims of torture and execution. Another 2,500 died or were killed during the death march, when the camp was evacuated due to the approach of the front.



Memorial sites in Germany

Dora-Mittelbau

Another outer camp of Buchenwald was formed in 1943 near the city of Nordhausen in Thuringia to organize production at the underground Mittelwerk plant, where V-2 rockets and other weapons were assembled. For a year and a half, 60 thousand people passed through the Dora-Mittelbau camp. Most of the prisoners were from the Soviet Union, Poland and France. Every third of them died.



Memorial sites in Germany

Bergen-Belsen

Memorial on the territory of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony. In total, about 50 thousand people died in this camp, among them 20 thousand prisoners of war. In April 1945, 15-year-old Anne Frank died here - the author of the famous diary denouncing Nazism and translated into many languages ​​of the world.



Memorial sites in Germany

Sachsenhausen

"Work makes you free" - this sign in German over the gates of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Brandenburg has become a household word. In total, over 100 thousand people were killed or died in this camp, including from 13 to 18 thousand Soviet prisoners of war. Among them is Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili. The national memorial, established by the government of the GDR, was opened here in 1961.



Memorial sites in Germany

Flossenbürg

"I have heard of Dachau and Auschwitz, but never of Flossenbürg" - such a quote greets visitors in a former concentration camp in Bavaria. 30,000 people died in this camp. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a well-known German pastor, theologian and participant in a conspiracy against Hitler, was among his prisoners of war, and Andrei Yushchenko, the father of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, was among the Soviet prisoners of war.



Memorial sites in Germany

Barrack No. 13

In the Berlin district of Schöneweide was one of the many camps for forced laborers driven from other countries for forced labor in Germany. Their total number during the years of the "Third Reich" amounted to several million people. The exposition of the documentation center in one of the surviving barracks of this camp is devoted to the fate of forced laborers.



Memorial sites in Germany

Ravensbrück

Sculpture of a mother with a child on the lake in Ravensbrück, the largest women's concentration camp in the "Third Reich". It was established in 1939, 90 kilometers north of Berlin. The number of prisoners during its existence amounted to more than 130 thousand people - about 40 nationalities. 28 thousand prisoners died. Medical experiments were also carried out in the camp.



Memorial sites in Germany

"Siemens barracks" in Ravensbrück

The prisoners of Ravensbrück and its numerous subcamps were used for forced labor. In 1940, textile production was established here, and in 1942, the electrical engineering concern Siemens & Halske AG built 20 industrial barracks. According to the testimonies of the surviving prisoners, at the end of 1944 up to 3,000 women and children worked here daily for this company.



Memorial sites in Germany

Stoves for Auschwitz

Former Topf & Söhne factory in Erfurt. Here, by order of the National Socialists, furnaces were produced in which people who died in Auschwitz and other concentration camps were burned. On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2011, a documentation center was opened in the former factory building.



Memorial sites in Germany

"Stumbling Stones"

Such metal signs embedded in the sidewalks can be seen in many cities in Germany. "Stumbling Stones" - Stolpersteine. The first one was installed by the German artist Gunther Demnig in Cologne in 1995. Stones commemorate the victims of National Socialism near the houses in which they lived. There are already more than 45 thousand of them in 800 German settlements and 200 outside of Germany.



Memorial sites in Germany

Gestapo

Numerous documentation centers are also involved in the study of the crimes of Nazism in Germany. In Cologne, such a center and museum are located in the former Gestapo building - EL-DE-Haus. In its basement there were cells for prisoners, on the walls of which there were inscriptions, including in Russian.



Memorial sites in Germany

Homosexuals

Since 1935, the Nazis also began to persecute homosexuals. In total, more than 50 thousand of them were convicted in the "Third Reich". About 7 thousand died in concentration camps. In 1995, a monument was erected on the embankment in Cologne - the Pink Triangle. The memorial shown in the photo was opened in 2008 in Berlin's Greater Tiergarten park. Another one is in Frankfurt - Frankfurt Angel (1994).

"The last peaceful day". This is the name of the reconstruction carried out in Brest in memory of the victims of the Second World War. Three million residents of Belarus, or, in other words, every third did not return home. It would seem that we know almost everything about the Second World War, however, even on the day of the 76th anniversary of the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, there are more questions than answers.

Almost two years after the start of World War II, on June 22, 1941, the war came to the USSR. Soviet historiography called the next four years the Great Patriotic War.

In Brest, the beginning of the war has been remembered for more than a year with the help of such military historical reconstructions . The event was called "The Last Day of the World".

As is known from chronicles and documents, the history of Brest in World War II did not begin with the defense of the Brest Fortress. Residents of a modern city are unlikely to see the reconstruction of a joint Soviet-German parade, which took place on September 22, 1939, after the invasion of Nazi troops into Poland.

“Compatriots from Brest, organize a reconstruction of how the NKVD officers, the prison guards, fled on June 22. Organize the reconstruction of the deportations, which were carried out by the future defenders, the fighters of the NKVD escort regiment, which was stationed in the fortress,” Andrey Dynko, editor-in-chief of the Nasha Niva publication, comments on such reconstructions.

He calls this approach to history "half-truths to order." For Western Belarusians, the war started earlier.

“The first dead were precisely from September 1, 1939. And then until 1941, you know, many were taken prisoner. And these guys, from the western territories, waited until 1941. Then their fate developed in different ways,” notes historian Kuzma Kozak.

But what were the first days after the attack of the Third Reich on the USSR? Many historians agree that the Soviet army was not ready, and Stalin successively denied the possibility of an attack. Archival reports of military leaders of that time were published today for the first time by the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

“Even on the night of June 22, I personally received an order from the Chief of Staff of the Klenov Front in a very categorical form - by dawn on June 22, withdraw the troops from the border, withdraw them from the trenches, which I categorically refused to do and the troops remained in positions. In general, there was a lot of nervousness, inconsistency, ambiguity, fear of “provoking” a war”, - this is how he described the events of those days lieutenant general Peter Sobennikov.

Many questions remain about Joseph Stalin's method of waging war. The human losses of the USSR, winning country, amounted to almost 42 million military and civilians. The victims of Nazi Germany - 12 million.

At the same time, in modern Russia, the legal successor of the Soviet Union, Stalin's military policy is criticized less and less. 20 years ago, a third of Russians surveyed attributed the colossal number of victims to cruelty generalissimo. In 2017, there were 12% of such people. For Belarus, the Second World War means the loss of three million people, every third inhabitant.

Kuzma Kozak assesses the significance of the war:

“It is destructive, it is disgusting, and using the example of a disgusting war, you can still build and educational programs, and show people that war is a disaster."

The only question is, should the memory of a devastating war go hand in hand with the praise of militarism?

Read also:

When shells explode before your eyes, a machine gun beats in agony, and clouds of gray smoke do not let the sun's rays through, you realize how scary it is in war. But this is just a reconstruction of the tragic event of June 1941 - the treacherous attack on the USSR by fascist Germany.

And although you understand that the mines are inert, the cartridges are blank, and the blood on the soldier's tunics is fake, this does not make you feel more comfortable ...

It should be reminded that more than 500 reenactors from Belarus, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, China and Kazakhstan took part in the reconstruction on June 21-22. For the first time clubs of reenactors from the Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the forum.

A bit of history (from Wikipedia)

June 22 at 3:15(04:15 Soviet “decree” time) a hurricane of 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 serious resistance and, having passed

The citadel, advanced groups went to 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 7:00 June 22 The 42nd and 6th rifle divisions left the fortress and the city of Brest, but many soldiers 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).

By 9 o'clock 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 group of attackers to two regiments.

On the night of June 23, withdrawing 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 managed, having driven the Germans out of the section of the ring barracks adjacent to the Brest Gate, 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 ).

By the evening of June 24 the Germans 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 the so-called “Eastern Fort” located on the Kobrin fortification - 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 ring barracks "House of Officers" 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 June 30th. 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.

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 - 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 thousand Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner by German troops in the fortress(according to the report of the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant-General Shliper, on June 30, 25 officers, 2877 junior commanders and soldiers were taken prisoner), 1877 Soviet soldiers 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.

Thousands of Brest residents and tourists today became spectators of the military-historical reenactment “June 22. ".

The events of the June days of 1941 on the territory of the Kobrin fortification were recreated for the seventh time.

Despite such an early hour, about 10 thousand residents of Brest, as well as guests from other regions of Belarus and from abroad, came to watch the theatrical performance. In about an hour, representatives of military-historical associations showed the main episodes of the perfidious attack of the Nazis on the Brest Fortress and its heroic defense.

First, the audience plunged into the atmosphere of the last pre-war evening. The peaceful picture was suddenly replaced by the invaders' artillery attack on the citadel. Those present saw the selfless battle of the border outpost, the battle for the hospital, Samvel Matevosyan's bold attack, attempts to break out of the fortress, and the assault on the casemates.

The most touching and tragic moment left no one indifferent - the surrender of the wives and children of the commanders to the enemy.

The reality of what was happening was added by sound effects, explosions and shots. The reenactors imitated a real battle, from time to time engaging in a fight with the enemy and hand-to-hand. “The general outline of the reconstruction remains unchanged - to show people the main episodes of the defense of the fortress. Only minor details are added to the script. Reenactors choose prototypes of real heroes, and then bring these images to life,” said Oleg Grebennikov, chief of staff of the Garrison military history club.

Aivars Abolins from Riga came to Brest for the third time. This year he decided to play the role of a countryman. “I learned that on the first day during the defense of the Brest Fortress, a Latvian, commander of the 455th Infantry Regiment, was killed. I decided to embody the image of this officer. I was preparing for almost a year: I sewed a uniform, found awards for the corresponding type, I had to glue a mustache, ”said the man. - Reconstruction is the same hobby as fishing for someone. We read a lot of various sources, look through old photographs, study archives. In general, this work is very interesting," he stressed.

More than 500 people from Belarus, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, China, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic and Slovakia acted out episodes of the tragic events of 76 years ago in the Brest Fortress. The youngest participant is only 10 years old. Brest resident Artem Nesteruk joined the club of reenactors at the age of six, following his brother. “I got the role of the commander’s child. During the reconstruction, it was scary when I heard explosions, I ran away from the Germans through the pits. It was difficult. I don't want these events to be repeated or to be forgotten. People should always remember how terrible war can be, ”the student shared his emotions.

The organizers of the international military historical festival are the Brest regional and city executive committees, the Ministry of Defense, the 38th separate airborne assault brigade, the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, the military historical club Garrison public association.