The fortress that did not surrender
Brest Fortress
- days Major Pyotr Gavrilov fought on before he was captured, wounded
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- days Major Pyotr Gavrilov fought on before he was captured, wounded
The enemy expected to take Brest Fortress in a few hours. Its defenders (soldiers, border guards, even officers’ children) held out for almost a month, far behind the front line. Later someone found words scratched on a wall: “I am dying, but I do not surrender. Farewell, Motherland. 20/VII/41.”
That morning the fortress held several thousand soldiers and the families of officers. From the first hours they were surrounded. Water ran short: men crawled to the river under fire, and the wounded and the children drank first.
For years nobody knew of the defenders' courage. Only after the war did the writer Sergei Smirnov track down the survivors and tell their story to the whole country. Today Brest Fortress is a memorial, and the heroes' names are carved into its stones.
See it on the map