Today in Russia Day of memory and grief

Today in Russia Day of memory and grief. Exactly 75 years ago began the Great Patriotic war. The first blow of Hitler's troops took over the fortress. She resisted for 2 months and fell after the Nazis occupied Minsk and Smolensk.

This night Brest did not sleep. It is a tribute of remembrance and respect for those who are early on the morning of 22 June 1941, was awakened by the shots of the German guns. The area in front of the Central monument filled to capacity. At the memorial meeting-Requiem come with families. From the entrance of the fortress to the citadel leads the burning road. 1.5 thousand of oil lamps put volunteers from Russia and Belarus. Every visitor can light a candle in memory of the fallen in a terrible war.

The first fire was lit Zoya Pavlovna Smirnova. In 1941, she was 7 years old. The shells fired from the German guns exploded in the yard of her house. In June 1941 the offensive, the Nazis started across the Soviet border, but Brest has earned particular fame. The fortress, which capture the German command took 8 hours, lasted more than two months. At the turn of the Kobrin fortification were the most fierce battles. German generals from the first days of the war realized that the fighting on the Eastern front, very different from anything they had seen in Europe.

The chief of staff of the 4th army Gunter Blumentritt wrote in their reports "the Number of units bears to a 50% loss, which was not for all of the French company. The most fierce resistance providing units of the OGPU and the women's battalions of the red army". But no women's battalions were not. Women, locked in the fortress took up the weapons of fallen husbands and brothers and continued fighting. Fortress in the result fell too unequal were the strength, but the spirit of the defenders to break and failed.

The summer of 1941 so tragic, so heroic. It Brest fortress and its defenders have taken the first step to victory. The memory of this feat is still alive. Flowers to the Eternal flame continue to bear the whole day.

sections: Society