Press releases

In his words, the interest has been rising in the reenactment of the events of June 1941 at the Brest Fortress. Every year the 6th International Military and History Festival welcomes more participants, with a record-high 560 people taking part this year. “We are doing our best to make the festival interesting both to its participants and the audience which is expected to exceed 20,000 people this year,” said Viktor Ivanov.

The 45-minute reenactment that will kick off at 5 a.m. on 22 June will show the most important moments from the defense of the Brest Fortress. These will be Samvel Matevosyan’s counterattack, the defense of the 9th frontier post under Andrei Kizhevatov’s command, the battles at the state border near the 62nd Brest-Litovsk fortified zone, surrender of wives and children of the commanding personnel, attempts to break out the encirclement and Mayor Gavrilov’s captivity.

“We will try to show the tragedy of the war to the audience, first of all young people. We are doing this to avoid misunderstanding and rewriting of the history of the Great Patriotic War. Our reenactment is based solely on the events that took place at the Brest Fortress at the start of the war. Our major goal is to make sure this never happen again,” said Oleg Grebennikov, head of the headquarters of the reenactment club Garnizon under the Brest Committee of the BRSM Youth Union.

He noted that every year the requirements to the festival participants get tougher: the authenticity of uniforms and equipment is a must. Selection is tough within the clubs. “For many it has become an iconic event, and only the best are selected to take part,” added Oleg Grebennikov.

Participants of the festival are the military-historical reconstruction clubs from 26 regions of Russia, almost all regions of Belarus, and also Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Japan, the United States, Israel, Bulgaria, Spain, France, and Poland.