Beer sale on the streets of Brest. The present-day beer lovers accustomed to drinking beer from cans and plastic containers are not familiar with the taste of the real cask beer. In the 1950s, improvised beer selling spots could appear at any place on any street subject to meeting the following conditions: crowded area and proximity of a water column. The selling spot set: a barrel of beer, glasses, and a table with sink to wash glasses, and a saleswoman. Beer was imported from Grodno and Lida supplying beer brands “Zhigulevskoe”, “Barkhatnoye”, “Rizhskoye”. There was no brewery in Brest at that time. The old brewery at Adamkovo was blown up in 1915 by the retreating Russian troops; the new Brewery on Pivovarnaya Street was blown up in 1944 by the retreating German troops. Therefore, beer was expected with joy. At the same time, the sale of this liquid product was a great art.The position of saleswomen was strictly “blatnoye” (it could only be obtained through profitable connections). There was no random people selling beer. Canny vendors by under-filling, creating extra foam head and vulgar watering the beer (the appanage of the most greedy and dishonest) could make 1.5–2 beer barrels out of one. They were very rich ladies. They obviously had the appropriate “krysha” (cover-up protection) and were sharing their income. There was enough for everyone.
50–60s
Back in the early 50s this street was called Lenina Street, now it’s Kosmonavtov Boulevard. The quarter on Mayakovskogo Street, crossing former Lenina Street, is gone together with all houses. The territory of new school No. 3 spread over this site.
The city market — “the Small Market” — as it was called by the residents of Brest, who remembered its name from the pre-war times. The picture shows the market as it looked in the early 50s of the last century. Nearly always closed trading stalls bordering the corner of Kujbysheva Street and Shkolnyj Lane were still there. Nearby there was a wooden building with a workshop, where the local “handy men” were doing minor mechanical repair works, including Primus stoves repair. The city flea market was moved to the grass-green wasteland with many well-trodden paths which replaced the burnt-down quarter. The place was surrounded by a high fence. For the residents, it was like a manufactured goods department of a “bazaar supermarket”. Before the market was moved from there the sellers and buyers of all sorts of things had crowded at the intersection of Mitskevicha and Kujbysheva Streets, often blocking it completely. One could come to the flea market naked and leave it dressed from head to toe in everything new or worn depending on the thickness of the bundle of notes in a buyer’s hand. The only city department store and a handful manufactured goods shops could not compete with the flea market in either pricing or the variety of supplies. Over the years the market square became a bus station, and the market switched to the wasteland from Karbysheva Street to Kujbysheva Street facing Pushkinskaya Street. After multiple reconstructions, it has finally taken the appearance familiar to new generations of Brest residents.
The memorial sign, placed where the army of the military commander A. Suvorov reached the Mukhavts after the battle at Krupchitsy. On 17.09.1794 the rebel detachment of General Serakovsky was defeated near Kobrin. Pursuing him, Suvorov crossed the Mukhavets and stopped in the village of Trishin. On 19.09.1794 in the battle of Terespol the Serakovsky detachment was wiped out. The obelisk stood near the present Brest-Yuzhnyj railway station, but during its construction in the 70s of the 20th century it disappeared.
“Goluboj Dunaj” (Blue Danube) — popular drinking den of the 50s. It stood at the corner of Sovetskaya and Mitskevicha Streets on the site cleared from the corner house destroyed in 1944. At that time, bomb splinters damaged a near-by church fence. Their traces are still visible. The drinking den was colored blue which explains its nick-name given to it by the student of the Department of languages and literature Leonid Makarenko, an admirer of J. Strauss.
The beginning of Lenina Street in the 50s of the last century. On the left, there is Kashtanovaya Street, on the right — Ordzhonikidze Street. Below is the dining room of the former German soft drinks factory, depicted at the bottom of the picture. Nowadays the hotel “Bug” stands on this site.
The intersection of Sovetskaya and Pushkinskaya Streets in the 1950s — 1960s.
A chapel at the Brotherhood Church. It was demolished in the 60s after the closure of the object of religious worship. The State Archives were moved to the former church building.
The picture depicts the popular entertainment of Kievka teenagers. At the railway crossing near the intersection of Pivovarnaya and Minskaya Streets auto vehicles were slowing down. They were already expected by “interceptors” on skates, which were often just bounded with strings to their felt boots. The kids were “armed” with wire hooks used to cling to the sides of the truck and to spin along a snowy street. With the truck speeding and the ride becoming dangerous the guys would unhook, sometimes losing their hooks. The boldest guys were reaching the “Pozharka”, but the majority would unhook at Minsky Lane and would hurry up back to the railway-crossing for a new capture. Downfalls and bruises occurred. Naked cobblestones and vehicles driving behind were the main dangers. In the upper right corner, there is a courtyard of a POW camp behind the barbed wire. On the bottom right, there is a gatehouse of the Polish cemetery. The corner wooden house, the gatehouse and the concrete fence separating the cemetery from the roadway have not survived.
Benches in the shape of mushrooms are known and remembered by many generations of Brest residents as places for dating of lovers.
Park on Moskovskaya Street. The main entrance from Lenina Street. Beyond the gates visitors were greeted by ancient lindens.