The city market

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.