We didn't forget about our promise to show not just footage but our special report from Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But for this program, the report prepared for June 22nd, the day when the Great Patriotic War began in 1941, is ready.
June 22nd. Day of Sorrow and Remembrance
Today, the Ministry of Defense declassified unique materials about what happened in the Brest Fortress in the first days of the war. Oddly enough, only today, we learn all of the details of that unprecedented feat.
Mikhail Fedotov studied the newly disclosed papers.
On June 22nd, 1941, at dawn, a squall of fire fell upon the sleeping Brest Fortress. German artillery fired over 7,000 shells. The newly declassified documents have new details of the first minutes of the assault. Here is a political report of a regiment commissar of the 42nd rifle division. The Nazis attacked the fortress not only from the ground but from the air.
Viktoria Kayaeva, Defense Ministry's Archive Official: "On June 22nd, at 4 a.m., the artillery of the German fascists started to fire heavily at our units in cooperation with dive bombers and fighters".
Germans planned to seize the fortress by noon but faced fierce resistance. The archives have information about the fate of the defenders of the garrison. The detachment led by Major Gavrilov held the line for a month. It was at the Northern gate of the Kobrin fortification, the garrison of the Eastern fort. They managed to take the severely injured Gavrilov prisoner only on July 23rd. Here's the decree conferring the highest state award.
"For the exemplary performance of military duty in defending the former Brest Fortress in 1941 and showing courage and heroism, comrade Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov is awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and given the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal".
Viktoria Kayaeva: "For several days, according to doctors, German officers came from Brest to the camp hospital where they looked at the Soviet commander, who showed such courage and perseverance in battle".
The feat of the defenders of the garrison remained unknown after the war until the writer and historian, Sergey Smirnov, began searching for Red Army soldiers. His book "The Brest Fortress" is the result of 10 years of work, trips around the country, meetings, and conversations with front-line soldiers. It was first published in 1956. The archives describe the feat of all of the defenders of the garrison.
Sergey Smirnov, writer: "I had the honor to be one of the first to speak about how people fought in 1941. You see, contrary to the opinion of laymen, we didn't retreat, didn't flee, as laymen say sometimes".
It's about the titanic work of Smirnov that is mentioned in another declassified document. This is the decree of the political department and the personnel department of the Defense Ministry addressed to Marshal Zhukov. He was the Minister of Defense then.
"In connection with the appearance in press and books of a description of the exemplary performance of military duty by servicemen of the Soviet army in the battle with the German fascist invaders in the territory of the former Brest Fortress, the data about the participants of that military feat were collected".
Almost every defender of the Brest Fortress went through German camps. And only after Stalin's death, and then after the 20th Party Congress, they managed to tear off the shameful label of "traitors" and "enemies of the people." Smirnov's son says that it's mostly thanks to Smirnov's books, speeches on radio and TV.
Konstantin Smirnov, Sergey Smirnov's son: "Nikita Sergeevich started to influence, not Joseph Vissarionovich. It became warmer. Of course, he raised those issues because it's only in our country that it could happen that prisoners of war became enemies".
118 people then were rehabilitated and recommended for awards. The declassified documents have information about them.
This is the case of Vladimir Shablovsky. The Germans led the captive captain and other Red Army soldiers across the bridge over the river.
Viktoria Kayaeva: “He kissed his little daughter that he was carrying in his arms, handed her to his wife, and said to the fighters, "Those who don't want to remain prisoner follow me!" He rushed over the bridge railing into the water, and some of his fighters followed him. He and others were immediately shot by machine gunners".
This episode of the defense of the Brest Fortress was reflected in the Immortal Garrison written by Konstantin Simonov. But in the film, the feat is performed by the regimental commissar Efim Fomin.
"Follow me!"
Another declassified case, the testimony of surviving witnesses, is from the '90s. They managed to establish the fate of the missing, using the testimonies.
- I can't believe it, it feels like touching history, the unknown.
Viktoria Kayaeva: Yes, it isn't just history, it's the fates of living people, which they didn't know for a long time, probably even preferred not to talk about them.
Now, millions of Russians can if not touch that history, then at least look at it.
Mikhail Fedotov, Renat Gareev, Vadim Klevanov, Kirill Puzyrny, and Oleg Ivanov for Vesti on Saturday.
