Brest - City of Belarus

Brest formerly also Brest-on-the-Bug and Brest-Litovsk, is a city in Belarus at the border with Poland, where the Western Bug and Mukhavets rivers meet. It is the capital city of the Brest voblast.

Being situated on the main railway line connecting Berlin and Moscow, and an intercontinental highway, Brest became a principal border crossing since World War II in Soviet times. Today it links the European Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Because of the break of railway gauge at Brest between the Russian broad-gauge system and the European standard gauge, all passenger cars continuing service beyond Brest must have their bogies changed here, and cargo in freight trains must be transshipped. Some of the land in the Brest rail yards remains contaminated as a result of the transshipment of radioactive materials here since Soviet days.

The city was founded by Slavs. As Berestye it was first mentioned in the Russian Primary Chronicle in 1019 as a town in Kievan Rus. It was subdued several times by Poland and by Lithuania, laid waste by the Mongols in 1241 and was not rebuilt till 1275, in 1390 received Magdeburg rights its suburbs were burned by the Teutonic Knights in 1379 and in the end of the 15th century the whole town met a similar fate at the hands of a khan of the Crimea. It was renamed Brest-Litovsk in the 16th century, after it became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569 .

The town was captured by the German Empire in 1915, during World War I. In March of 1918, in the Brest-Litovsk fortress on the western outskirts of Brest at the confluence of the Western Bug and Mukhavets Rivers, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, ending the war between 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 treaties which ended the war.


The city was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939 in accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact's Secret Protocol effectively partitioning Poland signed with Nazi Germany in August 1939. Some Belarusians considered it a reunification of the Belarusian nation under one constituency .

According to the agreements of the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Brest's status as part of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was officially recognised and the Poles, the majority of the inhabitants, were expelled. It is now part of the independent country of Belarus.

Breton is not commonly spoken in the city of Brest and is not an official language . It is being taught in some schools and universities. The association Sked federates all Breton cultural activities.

Brest was the only "French-speaking" city in western Brittany before the 1789 revolution.

The city is host to several events to celebrate its long maritime history, the largest of which happens every four years, when the town organises a tall ship meeting. The last occurrence of that event was "Brest 2008".

Brest also hosts a yearly Short Film Festival called "Festival Européen du Film Court de Brest".

The city was also the setting for the 1982 art film Querelle.

Brest has a university Université de Bretagne Occidentale .École nationale d'ingénieurs de Brest . École nationale supérieure des télécommunications de Bretagne.École nationale supérieure des ingénieurs des études et techniques d'armement.

Institut supérieur de l'électronique et du numérique de Brest.École supérieure de commerce de Bretagne .Brest also is one of the hosts for the Indiana University Honors Foreign Language Program .