The glass flask from the museum collection belonged to a Red Army soldier. It was found in the ruins of the Kobrin Fortification of the Brest Fortress. The fortress was the frontier stronghold when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
Under the command of Captain Ivan Zubachyov and the regiment’s political commissar Yefim Fomin, 3,500 defenders of the garrison held off the attack of the 45th German Infantry Division for a week. Individual groups of Soviet soldiers continued to defend the Brest Fortress until August 1941.
The Kobrin Fortification was defended by the 125th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division of the Red Army and the 131st Artillery Regiment. Like other defense areas, this fortification in the northeast of the fortress was subjected to artillery shelling and air strikes.
Incendiary ammunition and tear gas were used against the defenders of the fortress. Bloody battles took place in extremely difficult conditions as the fortress suffered a catastrophic shortage of food and water. The summer of 1941 was hot. The water supply system was out of order, and there were neither wells nor any water reserves available.
Although the Brest Fortress is located on four islands, it was almost impossible to obtain water from the rivers, because all the approaches to the fortress were under enemy fire. At the same time, water was vital for the defenders of the fortress, as well as the wounded, women, and children who had taken refuge inside.
After the war, broken helmets, mugs, flasks, and remains of the dead were often found on the banks of the rivers surrounding the first frontier stronghold that fought the Nazi invaders. The small round glass flask with a narrow neck from the collection of the Military Medical Museum has been miraculously preserved. It was found in the ruins of the 125th Rifle Regiment’s medical unit by Mikhail Gavrilkin, a military doctor of the second rank.
Such glass flasks were made in the volume of 0.75 and 1.0 liters. A flask was sealed with a rubber or wooden cork, which usually had a string. Such flasks were carried in fabric covers. Glass flasks were widespread in the army as well as aluminum ones.
Under the command of Captain Ivan Zubachyov and the regiment’s political commissar Yefim Fomin, 3,500 defenders of the garrison held off the attack of the 45th German Infantry Division for a week. Individual groups of Soviet soldiers continued to defend the Brest Fortress until August 1941.
The Kobrin Fortification was defended by the 125th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division of the Red Army and the 131st Artillery Regiment. Like other defense areas, this fortification in the northeast of the fortress was subjected to artillery shelling and air strikes.
Incendiary ammunition and tear gas were used against the defenders of the fortress. Bloody battles took place in extremely difficult conditions as the fortress suffered a catastrophic shortage of food and water. The summer of 1941 was hot. The water supply system was out of order, and there were neither wells nor any water reserves available.
Although the Brest Fortress is located on four islands, it was almost impossible to obtain water from the rivers, because all the approaches to the fortress were under enemy fire. At the same time, water was vital for the defenders of the fortress, as well as the wounded, women, and children who had taken refuge inside.
After the war, broken helmets, mugs, flasks, and remains of the dead were often found on the banks of the rivers surrounding the first frontier stronghold that fought the Nazi invaders. The small round glass flask with a narrow neck from the collection of the Military Medical Museum has been miraculously preserved. It was found in the ruins of the 125th Rifle Regiment’s medical unit by Mikhail Gavrilkin, a military doctor of the second rank.
Such glass flasks were made in the volume of 0.75 and 1.0 liters. A flask was sealed with a rubber or wooden cork, which usually had a string. Such flasks were carried in fabric covers. Glass flasks were widespread in the army as well as aluminum ones.
