In 1955, the Soviet battle painter Pyotr Krivonogov finished his painting “The Defenders of the Brest Fortress”. That year he also received the title of the Honored Artist of the RSFSR and earlier he had been awarded the Stalin Prize.
The storming of the Brest Fortress on June 22, 1941 marked the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. By that time, the fortress had long ceased to perform defensive functions. It housed barracks, a hospital, and living quarters.
By the beginning of the war, the Brest garrison consisted of 8,000 Soviet soldiers. The fortress also housed about 300 families of servicemen, as well as medical and support personnel. At 4:15 am (3:15 Moscow time) on June 22, 1941, the Brest Fortress was unexpectedly attacked with heavy artillery fire.
On June 23, the Wehrmacht tried to take the fortress by storm. Bloody battles began. The Brest Fortress also suffered air strikes, which caused fires throughout its territory. Several groups of defenders tried to break out from the siege but failed and suffered many casualties, and a few were taken prisoner.
According to the plan of Operation Barbarossa, the Brest Fortress was to be captured in eight hours. However, the organized resistance lasted a week, and the last defender was taken prisoner a month later, on July 23, 1941. The defenders hoped that other Red Army units would arrive soon and help them defend the fortress. They did not know that they were surrounded by the enemy and that the German troops had already captured Minsk on June 28.
From the very beginning, the defense of the Brest Fortress was rather spontaneous. After the artillery shelling, about fifteen hundred enemy soldiers tried to take the fortress by storm. From the first minutes of defense, the residents were divided into several groups and could not join their forces to provide unified resistance.
The woman in the painting is Raisa Abakumova, a military nurse, and a defender of the Brest Fortress. On June 22, after the first attack, she organized an improvised hospital in one of the casemates of the Brest Fortress, where all the wounded were brought.
During the defense of the fortress, Raisa Abakumova was captured. Later, she managed to escape. After the Great Patriotic War, she worked as a senior researcher at the Memorial Complex “Brest Hero Fortress”.
The storming of the Brest Fortress on June 22, 1941 marked the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. By that time, the fortress had long ceased to perform defensive functions. It housed barracks, a hospital, and living quarters.
By the beginning of the war, the Brest garrison consisted of 8,000 Soviet soldiers. The fortress also housed about 300 families of servicemen, as well as medical and support personnel. At 4:15 am (3:15 Moscow time) on June 22, 1941, the Brest Fortress was unexpectedly attacked with heavy artillery fire.
On June 23, the Wehrmacht tried to take the fortress by storm. Bloody battles began. The Brest Fortress also suffered air strikes, which caused fires throughout its territory. Several groups of defenders tried to break out from the siege but failed and suffered many casualties, and a few were taken prisoner.
According to the plan of Operation Barbarossa, the Brest Fortress was to be captured in eight hours. However, the organized resistance lasted a week, and the last defender was taken prisoner a month later, on July 23, 1941. The defenders hoped that other Red Army units would arrive soon and help them defend the fortress. They did not know that they were surrounded by the enemy and that the German troops had already captured Minsk on June 28.
From the very beginning, the defense of the Brest Fortress was rather spontaneous. After the artillery shelling, about fifteen hundred enemy soldiers tried to take the fortress by storm. From the first minutes of defense, the residents were divided into several groups and could not join their forces to provide unified resistance.
The woman in the painting is Raisa Abakumova, a military nurse, and a defender of the Brest Fortress. On June 22, after the first attack, she organized an improvised hospital in one of the casemates of the Brest Fortress, where all the wounded were brought.
During the defense of the fortress, Raisa Abakumova was captured. Later, she managed to escape. After the Great Patriotic War, she worked as a senior researcher at the Memorial Complex “Brest Hero Fortress”.
