Brest, Belarus
Brest, formerly Brest-Litovsk and Brest-on-the-Bug, is a city in south-western Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the Polish town of Terespol, where the Bug and Mukhavets rivers meet, making it a border town. It serves as the administrative center of Brest Region and Brest District, though it is administratively separated from the district. it has a population of 346,061.
Brest is one of the oldest cities in Belarus and a historical site for many cultures, as it hosted important historical events, such as the Union of Brest and Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Furthermore, the Brest Fortress was recognized by the Soviet Union as a Hero Fortress in honour of the defense of Brest Fortress in June 1941.
In the High Middle Ages, the city often passed between Poland, the principalities of Kievan Rus', and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. From the Late Middle Ages, the city was part of Lithuania, which later became a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569. In 1795, it was incorporated into the Russian Empire with the Third Partition of Poland. After the Polish-Soviet War, the city became part of the Second Polish Republic. In 1939, the city was captured by Nazi Germany during the invasion of Poland and then transferred to the Soviet Union per the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty. In 1941, it was retaken by the Germans during Operation Barbarossa. In 1944, it was retaken by the Soviet Red Army during the Lublin–Brest offensive. The city was part of the Byelorussian SSR, and since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Brest has been part of independent Belarus.
Etymology
Several theories attempt to explain the origin of the city's name. The name was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle as Берестий ; other variants of this traditional name included Бересте and Бересть. The traditional name rendered in Belarusian is Берасце, which is still commonly used. The modern name in Ukrainian is Берестя. The name could originate from Slavic root berest 'elm'. It could likewise have come from the Lithuanian word brasta 'ford'. The name Lietuvos Brasta was created by media in standard Lithuanian only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.Once a center of Jewish scholarship, the city has the Yiddish name , hence the term "Brisker" used to describe followers of the influential Soloveitchik family of rabbis.
Brest became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1319. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth formed in 1569, the town became known in Polish as Brześć, historically Brześć Litewski. Brześć became part of the Russian Empire under the name Brest-Litovsk or Brest-Litovskii in the course of the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. After World War I, and the rebirth of Poland in 1918, the government of the Second Polish Republic renamed the city as Brześć nad Bugiem on 20 March 1923. After World War II, the city became part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic with the name simplified as Brest.
Brest's coat of arms, adopted on 26 January 1991, features an arrow pointed upwards and a bow on a sky-blue shield. An alternative coat of arms has a red shield. Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, first granted Brest a coat of arms in 1554.
History
As a town, Brest – Berestij in Kievan Rus – was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle in 1019 when the Kievan Rus' took the stronghold from the Poles. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. It was hotly contested between the Polish rulers and Kievan Rus princes. It was recaptured by Poland in 1020, and unsuccessfully besieged by Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev in 1022. It was captured by Yaroslav the Wise, according to various sources, either in 1042 or 1044, then by 1076 recaptured by King Bolesław II the Bold of Poland, but then lost again by his successor Władysław I Herman. Afterwards, it often passed between the principalities of Turov and Volhynia. In 1164, it was briefly captured by Lithuanians. In 1178, it was captured by Casimir II the Just of Poland, and made the seat of his fraternal nephew Leszek, Duke of Masovia, who, however, soon lost it to the Principality of Minsk. In 1182, Casimir II the Just captured the city once again, and built a castle there, and then granted it as a fief to his sororal nephew Roman the Great the following year. From 1199 it was ruled by the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia, remaining under Polish suzerainty until 1205, when Roman the Great rebelled against Poland, but was killed in action in the Battle of Zawichost. Passing under Polish suzerainty again, in 1207, it was granted by Leszek the White as a fief to Princess Anna-Euphrosyne and her children. From 1210, it was directly part of Poland, until it passed to Galicia–Volhynia either in 1215 or 1217. In 1220, it passed to the Principality of Pinsk as a fief of Galicia–Volhynia. It was laid waste by the Mongols in 1241, and was not rebuilt until 1275. Possibly since the 1270s, the city was contested by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia.Grand Duchy of Lithuania
In 1319, the city became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Grand Duke Gediminas stayed in the city in the winter of 1319–1320, preparing to capture Kyiv. In 1349, it was captured by King Casimir III of Poland, however, it was restored to Lithuania in 1352. Its suburbs were burned by the Teutonic Order in 1379. In 1385, it became part of the Polish–Lithuanian union. During the Lithuanian Civil War, in 1390, the city was captured by Polish forces of Władysław II Jagiełło.In 1390, Brześć became the second city in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the first in the lands that now are Belarus, to receive Magdeburg rights. Given its proximity to Poland, it was a significant centre for trade with Poland.
In 1409 it was a meeting place of King Władysław II Jagiełło, Grand Duke Vytautas the Great and Khan Jalal al-Din Khan ibn Tokhtamysh under the Polish Deputy Chancellor Mikołaj Trąba's initiative, to prepare for war with the Teutonic Knights, which resulted in the Tatars aiding Poland and Lithuania in the Battle of Grunwald the following year. In 1410 the city mustered a cavalry banner that participated in the Polish-Lithuanian military victory at Grunwald.
In 1419 it became a seat of the starost in the newly created Trakai Voivodeship. Under Władysław II and Vytautas the city was significantly developed and granted privileges similar to those of the Polish city of Lublin. In 1425, the city hosted a congress attended by Władysław II, Vytautas, dukes of Masovia and Polish and Lithuanian nobles. In 1440, a Sejm of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was held in the city, at which Casimir IV Jagiellon was chosen Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1446, a meeting of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Polish senators regarding the political affiliation of Volhynia took place in the city, and in 1454 Casimir IV met with Lithuanian nobility to convince them to participate in the Polish–Teutonic War on the side of Poland.
Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth
In 1500, it was burned again by Crimean Tatars. From 1513, the city was administratively located in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. In 1563, the Brest Bible, the second complete Bible translation into Polish and the first such Protestant translation, was published in the city. In 1566, following the decree of Sigismund II Augustus, a new voivodeship was created – Brest Litovsk Voivodeship.During the union of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire under king Sigismund III Vasa, diets were held there. In 1594 and 1596, it was the meeting-place of two remarkable councils of regional bishops of the Roman-Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. The 1596 council established the Uniate Church. A Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was held in the city in 1653. A royal mint was founded in the city by King John II Casimir Vasa in 1665.
In 1657, and again in 1706, the town and castle were captured by the Swedish Army during its invasions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Then, in an attack from the other direction, on 13 January 1660, the invading Streltsy of the Tsardom of Russia under Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky took the Brest Castle in an early morning surprise attack, the town having been captured earlier, and massacred the 1,700 defenders and their families.
Partitions
On 23 July 1792, the defending Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, under the leadership of Szymon Zabiełło, and the invading Imperial Russian Army fought a battle near Brześć. On 19 September 1794, the area between Brest and Terespol was the site of another battle won by the Russian invaders led by Alexander Suvorov over a Polish-Lithuanian division under General Karol Sierakowski. Thereafter, Brest was annexed by Russia when the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth was partitioned for the third time in 1795.19th century to World War I
During Russian rule in the 19th century, Brest Fortress was built in and around the city. The Russians demolished the Polish Royal Castle and most of the Old Town "to make room" for the fortress. The main Jewish synagogue in the city, the Choral Synagogue, was completed c. 1862. In 1895, a massive fire rendered 15,000 people homeless, and dozens were killed. Because of the proximity of the fortress, only wooden buildings could be erected in the city; masonry construction was permitted only in exceptional cases and to a limited height. After the fire, more masonry buildings began to appear.During World War I, the town was captured by the Imperial German Army under August von Mackensen on 25 August 1915, during the Great Retreat of 1915. Shortly after Brest fell into German hands, war poet August Stramm, who has been called "the first of the Expressionists" and one of "the most innovative poets of the First World War," was shot in the head during an attack on nearby Russian positions on 1 September 1915.
In March 1918, in the Brest Fortress at the confluence of the Bug and Mukhavets rivers on the city' western outskirts, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, ending the war between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers and transferring the city and its surrounding region to the sphere of influence of the German Empire. This treaty was subsequently annulled by the Paris Peace Conference treaties which ended the war and even more so by events and developments in Central and Eastern Europe. During 1918, the city became a part of the Volhynia Governorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic as a result of negotiations and own treaty between the delegation of the Ukrainian Central Rada and Central Powers.