Here I visit the Fortress Complex with my guide Anton.  The fortress, as the name implies, is in Brest, Belarus, formerly the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The fortress was attacked by the wehrmacht on June 22, 1941.  The last defender did not surrender until a month later.  The fortress is a symbol of the resolve, the heroism and the tenacity of the Red Army and the NKVD.

The fortress was secured in about a week after fierce fighting.  The Soviet forces were outnumbered, 9,000 to 17,000.

My guide Anton grew up in the fortress complex in a military garrison on the Polish border.

For more on the defense of the fortress, you can read _Brest Fortress_ by Sergei Smirnov and watch the films “Immortal Garrison” and “Fortress of War”.

Of course, there is also wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Brest_Fortress

If anyone would like to pay the fortress a visit, which I do recommend, the Belarusski government has a website with more information.  The visitors center at the Brest Intourist Hotel also can set you up with guides.

http://www.brest-fortress.by/en/

I’ll be publishing more videos of the fortress this week.  Watch this space.