The Eve of the Storm

Echelons of the Red Army

We were watching the marching troops for almost a week and were mixing with the Red Army men, communicated with them and even got used to the fact that every new day would start with the morning meeting with the army. A long military column would begin at the ramp, move along Menzhinsky Street, turn to Pushkinskaya Street, walk along it and then along 17 Sentyabrya (Lenin) Street, turn left to Kashtanovaya Street in the direction of the fortress. The movement was demonstrative to the city inhabitants.

The soldiers marched along the streets of Brest not knowing what was ahead of them. In less than two months the war broke off. Some of them would disappear forever, “gone missing”, some would remain in history as defenders of the Brest Fortress. Some of them would die in the first days of defence, and some would go through the Nazi camps, and as it often happened in Stalin’s camps.

The beginning of June 1941. The ramp on Menzhinskogo Street (the former 11 Listopada Street). The place of discharge of the Red Army units.
The eve of the war. The military train with the Red Army soldiers and military equipment is moving from the Kovel direction through the crossing on Pushkinskaya Street.
The end of May — beginning of June, 1941. For almost 10 days the incoming troops had been discharging on the ramp at the beginning of Menzhinskogo Street. Then they walked in the direction of the Fortress, passing along Menzhinskogo  — Pushkinskaya — 17 Sentyabrya (Lenina) — Moskovskaya Streets. Armored fighting vehicles, anti-tank artillery and regimental artillery moved along the streets together with the infantry. The convoys went and stopped; the citizens were giving to the Red Army soldiers water and treated them with cigarettes. The movement ended in the first decade of June. Almost the same time — about 10 days — left before the war began. In historical publications about Brest, nothing is said about the arrival and relocation of military units on the war eve. Perhaps, authors do not know about it.
Translated from Russian by Leo Levine and Sofia Levine