Mitskevicha Street

Brest, July 15 or July 16, 1945. When Stalin was traveling to the Potsdam Conference emergency precautions were taken to guard the station, the station forecourt, and the train tracks. The first line of the cordon passed along Mitskevicha Street, the second line passed along Ordzhonikidze Street. The soldiers did not allow anyone to approach the station. The authorities cleared the station from passengers, only a few station workers remained there. The picture of a normal, everyday life of Brest Central Station was staged. The staff of the Ministry of State Security acted as passengers and porters carrying hand luggage. The station buffet, filled with products sold at long-forgotten pre-war prices (not at commercially over-expensive prices) remained open. The rumours about this fact quickly reached the population and were hotly discussed by the residents of Brest rather than the passage of Stalin through the city. Everyone wanted to get to the station to shop cheaply. The authorities tried in every possible way to stop those rumours, “slanderers” were threatened to be imprisoned. I’m not aware if the supreme leader had ever been looking out of the window, but he had never left the carriage, and didn’t stay in Brest for a long time. The carriage shift was not required since a wide gauge had been laid all the way to Berlin. An hour and a half later the train left. The cordon was lifted and people spread different ways to their homes, not knowing the reason for their detention.