In the First World War, during the retreat of the Russian army in 1915, Brest was burned by order of the commanders. 75% of the housing stock was destroyed. After the war, Brest became the territory of the Polish Republic. The Poles developed a plan for the reconstruction of the city. They rebuilt many streets. Beautiful pavements, sidewalks and lawns were made. The Union Lubelskaya Street, under Soviet rule named September 17th Street, was paved with a trilinka (a road pavement in the form of hexagonal tiles).
The dirtiest street on which there were no lawns and trees was the currently named Cosmonaut Boulevard. The Poles called it Sobieski Street. According to the plan for the reconstruction of the city, this street was to become the main one. Therefore, it was named after one of the most famous kings of Poland, Jan Sobieski. The street had neither sidewalks, nor a pavement and was essentially impassable. It began from a swamp. Water flowed from the swamp into a ditch. The ditch stretched in the middle of the street from the beginning to the very end, that is, from the swamp to the Mukhavets River. The ditch pipe still remains there. And now the Gazoapparat plant is in place of the swamp.
Shkolnyj Lane, the former Bratskij Lane, is the lane between present Kujbysheva and Sovetskaya Streets. There is a wooden building from 1895 in the centre of the street where the Brotherhood Church used to be until 1906. The roof of the building used to be decorated with a small dome (the dome was removed in the 30s of the last century). After the five-domed church had been built nearby (the construction was completed and the church was consecrated in 1906) the temporary church became a home for ministers. Opposite the church there were trading stalls which began on Kujbysheva Street. On the 13th of May, 1937 the policemen Kendzjora was killed during the confiscation of illegal products in one of the shops of Bratsky Lane. The Jewish butcher stabbed him with a knife. Because of this incident, the infamous Jewish pogrom began in Brest. All losses from the pogrom were covered by the Jewish charitable organization “Joint”. Neither the shop nor the priest house or the street itself survived to today. Nowadays it is the territory of the knitting factory which also does not exist anymore. The wooden house, where the church used to nest, was dismantled during the Soviet times and transported to Belaye Vozera, where it became part of the camp site of the knitting factory (“trikotazhka”).
The intersection of Beta (Beta, now Gorkogo Street) and 3 Maya Streets (3 Maja, now Pushkinskaya Street), 1937. There is a building of the Jewish gymnasium on the left. In 1939–1941, an orphanage was established in that building. In 1944–1945, there was a hospital, then a medical and obstetric school and a medical college. The building was demolished together with other houses along Beta Street.
Brzesc n/B. Róg ulic 3 Maja i Dlugej. Sklepy sprzedazy wina, wodek i samochodow osobowych*. After 1939 — the corner of Pushkinskaya Street and Kujbysheva Street. The houses, where during Polish times people were selling alcohol and cars, were demolished during the construction of the city market.
Unii Lubelskoj Street (now Lenina Street), 1938. The veterans of the Polish Army, the members of the local Riflemen’s Union (Związek Strzelców) are preparing for a parade in honour of the day of the Constitution of 3-rd May.