Brest, formerly Brest-Litovsk and Brest-on-the-Bug, Berestia,[lower-alpha 1] is a city in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the Polish town of Terespol, where the Bug and Mukhavets rivers meet, making it a border town. It serves as the administrative center of Brest Region and Brest District, though it is administratively separated from the district.[2] As of 2024, it has a population of 344,470.[2]
Several theories attempt to explain the origin of the city's name. The name could originate from Slavic root berest 'elm'. It could likewise have come from the Lithuanian word brasta 'ford'.[4]
Traditionally, Belarusian speakers called the city Берасце (Bieraście), similar to the Ukrainian name Берестя (Berestia).
Once a center of Jewish scholarship, the city has the Yiddish name בריסק (Brisk), hence the term "Brisker" used to describe followers of the influential Soloveitchik family of rabbis.
Brest's coat of arms, adopted on 26 January 1991, features an arrow pointed upwards and a bow (both silver) on a sky-blue shield. An alternative coat of arms has a red shield. Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, first granted Brest a coat of arms in 1554.
History
In 1019, Brest was first mentioned in chronicles as "Berestye"
As a town, Brest – Berestij in Kievan Rus – was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle in 1019 when the Kievan Rus' took the stronghold from the Poles. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus.[7] It was hotly contested between the Polish rulers (kings, principal dukes and dukes of Masovia) and Kievan Rus princes. It was recaptured by Poland in 1020, and unsuccessfully besieged by Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev in 1022. It was captured by Yaroslav the Wise, according to various sources, either in 1042[8] or 1044,[9] then by 1076 recaptured by King Bolesław II the Bold of Poland,[9] but then lost again by his successor Władysław I Herman. Afterwards, it often passed between the principalities of Turov and Volhynia.[8] In 1164, it was briefly captured by Lithuanians.[8] In 1178, it was captured by Casimir II the Just of Poland, and made the seat of his fraternal nephew Leszek, Duke of Masovia, who, however, soon lost it to the Principality of Minsk. In 1182, Casimir II the Just captured the city once again, and built a castle there,[8][9] and then granted it as a fief to his sororal nephew Roman the Great the following year. From 1199 it was ruled by the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia,[10] remaining under Polish suzerainty until 1205, when Roman the Great rebelled against Poland, but was killed in action in the Battle of Zawichost.[8] Passing under Polish suzerainty again, in 1207, it was granted by Leszek the White as a fief to Princess Anna-Euphrosyne and her children.[11] From 1210, it was directly part of Poland, until it passed to Galicia–Volhynia either in 1215[12] or 1217.[11] In 1220, it passed to the Principality of Pinsk as a fief of Galicia–Volhynia.[13] It was laid waste by the Mongols in 1241, and was not rebuilt until 1275. Possibly since the 1270s, the city was contested by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia.[14]
In 1390, Brześć became the second city in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (after the capital Vilnius), and the first in the lands that now are Belarus, to receive Magdeburg rights.[1] Given its proximity to Poland, it was a significant centre for trade with Poland.[1]
In 1419 it became a seat of the starost in the newly created Trakai Voivodeship. Under Władysław II and Vytautas the city was significantly developed and granted privileges similar to those of the Polish city of Lublin.[9][20] In 1425, the city hosted a congress attended by Władysław II, Vytautas, dukes of Masovia and Polish and Lithuanian nobles.[21] In 1440, a Sejm of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was held in the city, at which Casimir IV Jagiellon was chosen Grand Duke of Lithuania.[9][19] In 1446, a meeting of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Polish senators regarding the political affiliation of Volhynia took place in the city, and in 1454 Casimir IV met with Lithuanian nobility to convince them to participate in the Polish–Teutonic War on the side of Poland.[9][22]
In 1657, and again in 1706, the town and castle were captured by the Swedish Army during its invasions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Then, in an attack from the other direction, on 13 January 1660, the invading Streltsy of the Tsardom of Russia under Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky took the Brest Castle in an early morning surprise attack, the town having been captured earlier, and massacred the 1,700 defenders and their families (according to an Austrian observer, Captain Rosestein).
During Russian rule in the 19th century, Brest Fortress was built in and around the city. The Russians demolished the Polish Royal Castle and most Old Town "to make room" for the fortress.[citation needed] The main Jewish synagogue in the city, the Choral Synagogue, was completed c. 1862. In 1895, a massive fire rendered 15,000 people homeless, and dozens were killed.[24]
On 9 February 1919, Polish troops entered the city, and it returned to Poland, which regained independence three months earlier.[28][29] During the Polish–Soviet War it was occupied by the Soviet Russians on 1 August 1920,[30] and recaptured by the Poles on 20 August,[28] with borders formally recognized by the Treaty of Riga of 1921. In 1921, it became the temporary capital of the Polesie Voivodeship instead of Pińsk.[31][32] It was renamed Brześć nad Bugiem (Brest on the Bug) on 20 March 1923.
The city was developed significantly and a number of representative public buildings were erected in Neoclassical and Modernist styles, especially at Ulica Unii Lubelskiej (Union of Lublin Street, now Lenin Street), including the Bank of Poland, Tax Chamber, Regional Chamber of the State Control, Healthcare Fund and Voivodeship Office.[33] Other notable projects include the officials' housing estate, stylistically inspired by historic manor houses of Polish nobility and the garden city movement, and the Warburg Residential Colony, dedicated to poor Jews who had lost their homes in World War I, founded by Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers.[34] In 1929, city limits were greatly expanded.[35][36]
In the twenty years of Poland's sovereignty, of the total of 36 brand new schools established in the city, there were ten public, and five private Jewish schools inaugurated, with Yiddish and Hebrew as the language of instruction. The first-ever Jewish school in Brześć history opened in 1920, almost immediately after Poland's return to independence. In 1936 Jews constituted 41.3% of the Brześć population or 21,518 citizens. Some 80.3% of private enterprises were run by Jews.[37][38][39] The Polish Army troops of the 9th Military District along with its headquarters were stationed in Brześć Fortress.
The city had an overwhelmingly Jewish population in the Russian Partition: 30,000 out of 45,000 total population according to Russian 1897 census, which fell to 21,000 out of 50,000 according to the Polish census of 1931.[40][41]
In early September 1939, the Polish government evacuated a portion of the Polish gold reserve from Warsaw to Brześć, and then further southeast to Śniatyn at the Poland-Romania border, from where it was transported via Romania and Turkey to territory controlled by Polish-alliedFrance.[42]
The Begin family of the Brest-Litovsk Jewish community in 1932. Top left to right Herzl; Menahem; Rachel. In front their parents. Only Menahem and Rachel survived the HolocaustA monument in memory of the Jews of Brest who were murdered in the Holocaust. In Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv
On 22 June 1941, Brest Fortress and the city were attacked by Nazi Germany on the first day of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. The fortress held out for six days. Nearly all its Soviet army defenders perished. The Germans placed Brest under the administration of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The remaining municipal Jewish population (about 20,000) was sequestered in the Brest ghetto established by the German authorities in December 1941 and later murdered in October 1942. Only seven Jews survived the Nazi executions.[41]
The Germans also operated a Nazi prison, a forced labour "education" camp for men and women, a forced labour camp for Jews, the AGSSt 3 prisoner-of-war assembly center, the Dulag 314 transit POW camp for Italians, the Stalag 397 POW camp for Soviet POWs and a subcamp of the Stalag 360 POW camp in the city.[44][45][46][47]
The city was re-occupied by the Red Army on 28 July 1944, and eventually annexed from Poland the following year.
Post-war period
In 1945, the Związek Obrońców Wolności ("Freedom Defenders Association") Polish resistance organization was founded in the city, with its activities including secret Polish schooling, rescuing historical Polish monuments from devastation and organising aid for repressed people and those in a difficult material situation.[48] The organization was crushed by the NKVD in 1948, and its members were deported to Gulagforced labour camps for 25 years.[48]
In early 2019, a mass grave containing the remains of 1,214 people were found in the Brest Ghetto area during a construction project. Most are believed to have been Jews murdered by Nazis.[49][50]
Geography
Brest lies astride the Mukhavets River which flows west through the city, dividing it into north and south, and meets the Bug River in the Brest Fortress. The river flows slowly and gently. Today the river looks quite broad in Brest. The terrain is fairly flat around Brest. The river has an extremely broad floodplain, that is about 2 to 3 kilometres (1 to 2 miles) across. Brest was subject to flooding in the past. One of the worst floods in recorded history occurred in 1974.[citation needed]
In the 2000s, two new residential areas were developed in the southwest of Brest.
To the east of Brest, the Dnieper–Bug Canal was built in the mid-nineteenth century to join the river to Pina, a tributary of the Pripyat River which in turn drains into the Dnieper. Thus Brest has a shipping route all the way to the Black Sea. If not for a dam and neglected weirs west of Brest, north-western European shipping would be connected with the Black Sea also.
Climate
Brest has a humid continental climate but slightly leans towards oceanic due to the irregular winter temperatures that mostly hover around the freezing point. However, summers are warm and influenced by its inland position compared to areas nearer the Baltic Sea.
Climate data for Brest (1991–2020, extremes 1888–present)
Rowing course in BrestA southern stretch of the ring barracks of the Citadel with a projecting semi-tower on the left
A majestic Soviet-era war memorial was constructed on the site of the 1941 battle to commemorate the known and unknown defenders of the Brest Fortress. This war memorial is the largest tourist attraction in the city. The Berestye Archeological Museum of the old city is located on the southern island of the Hero-Fortress. It has objects and huts dating from the 11th – 13th century that were unearthed during the 1970s.
The Museum of Rescued Art Treasures has a collection of paintings and icons. Brest City Park is over 100 years old and underwent renovations from 2004 to 2006 as part of a ceremony marking the park's centennial. In July 2009, the Millennium Monument of Brest was unveiled. Sovetskaya Street is a popular tourist destination in Brest; it was dramatically reconstructed in 2007–2009. Other important landmarks include the Brest Railway Museum.
The city of Brest is served by Brest-Tsentralny railway station. Because of the break-of-gauge at Brest, where the Russian broad gauge meets the European standard gauge, all passenger trains, coming from Poland, must have their bogiesreplaced here, to travel on across Belarus. The freight must be transloaded from cars of one gauge to cars of another. Some of the land in the Brest rail yards remains contaminated due to the transhipment of radioactive materials here since Soviet days. However, cleanup operations have been taking place.[citation needed]
The local airport, Brest Airport (code BQT), operates flights on a seasonal schedule to Kaliningrad[55] in the Russian Federation and seasonal charter flights to Burgas and Antalya.[56]
The sports venues are located on the northern riverside on the hydraulic fill, consisting of an indoor track-and-field centre, the Brest Ice Rink,[57] and Belarus' first outdoor baseball stadium. On the opposite riverside is a large rowing course opened in 2007, home of the National Center for Olympic Training in Rowing. It meets international requirements and can host international competitions. Moreover, it has accommodation and training facilities, favourable location, 3 kilometres (2 miles) away from the border crossing along Warsaw Highway (the European route E30).
In March 2022, the Polish city of Biała Podlaska suspended its partnership with Brest as a reaction to the Belarusian involvement in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[59]
1 2 3 Bardach, Juliusz (1980). "Miasta na prawie magdeburskim w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim od schyłku XIV do połowy XVII stulecia". Kwartalnik Historyczny (in Polish). Vol.87, no.1. p.25.
↑ Auzias, Dominique; Labourdette, Jean-Paul (2010). "Brest et sa région". Biélorussie. Country Guides. Petit Futé. p.121. ISBN9782746937796. D'abord russe, ensuite polonaise, en 1319, Brest est conquis par le prince Gedimin et rattaché au grand-duché de Lituanie. [At first Russian, then Polish, Brest in 1319 was conquered by Prince Gediminas and absorbed into the grand Duchy of Lithuania.]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom I (in Polish). Warszawa. 1880. p.399.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Вялікае Княства Літоўскае. Энцыклапедыя (in Belarusian). Vol.1. Minsk. 2007. p.313. ISBN978-985-11-0393-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Halecki, Oskar (2013). Dzieje Unii Jagiellońskiej. Tom I. W wiekach średnich (in Polish). Warszawa: Instytut Historyczny Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Wydawnictwo Neriton. p.46. ISBN978-83-7543-277-0.
↑ Halecki, Oskar (2013). Dzieje Unii Jagiellońskiej. Tom I. W wiekach średnich (in Polish). Warszawa: Instytut Historyczny Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Wydawnictwo Neriton. pp.133–134. ISBN978-83-7543-277-0.
1 2 Christopher R. Browning, Nazi policy, Jewish workers, German killers', Google Print, p.124
↑ Wróbel, Janusz (2002). "Wojenne losy polskiego złota". Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). No.8-9 (19-20). IPN. pp.55–58. ISSN1641-9561.
1 2 Ziółkowska, Ewa (2009). "Kuropaty". Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). No.1–2 (96–97). IPN. p.51. ISSN1641-9561.
↑ Megargee, Geoffrey P.; Overmans, Rüdiger; Vogt, Wolfgang (2022). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. pp.39, 117, 363, 385–386. ISBN978-0-253-06089-1.
1 2 Krajewski, Kazimierz; Łabuszewski, Tomasz (2009). "Ostatni obrońcy Kresow Połnocno-Wschodnich". Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). No.1–2 (96–97). IPN. pp.105–106. ISSN1641-9561.
Pszczółkowski, Michał (2014). "Architektura Brześcia nad Bugiem w latach II Rzeczypospolitej". Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki (in Polish and English). Vol.59, no.3. Translated by Pszczółkowska, Karolina. Komitet Architektury i Urbanistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk. ISSN0023-5865.
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The Brześć Ghetto or the Ghetto in Brest on the Bug, also: Brześć nad Bugiem Ghetto, and Brest-Litovsk Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto created in occupied Western Belarus in December 1941, six months after the German troops had invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Less than a year after the creation of the ghetto, around October 15–18, 1942, most of approximately 20,000 Jewish inhabitants of Brest (Brześć) were murdered; over 5,000 were executed locally at the Brest Fortress on the orders of Karl Eberhard Schöngarth; the rest in the secluded forest of the Bronna Góra extermination site, sent there aboard Holocaust trains under the guise of 'resettlement'.
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