28 January 2003
Moscow Military History Museum donates photocopies of archive documents to Brest Fortress museum
The Moscow Military History Museum last week donated to the Brest Fortress Defense Museum 600 photocopies of formerly top-secret documents pertaining to the construction of the fortress. The donation took place with the assistance of Russia's consul general in Brest,
Aleksandr Smirnov.
The Brest Litovsk Fortress, as it was formerly called, was built in the 19th century as a strongpoint for the Russian army on newly acquired territories, by order of the Russian emperor. The layout of the fortress was suggested by two renowned Russian generals, Maletsky and Opperman, and Colonel Feldman.
Since Brest became part of Poland and later of Belarus, all fortress-related documents were preserved in Moscow. Before January 22, the Brest museum staff had to go to Moscow in order to study the documents, which are kept in the Moscow Military History Museum. Now the photocopies are here to help them do renovations.
Although, the Moscow museum had donated similar documents before, the Brest museum's staff referred to the recent installment as "an invaluable gift." They intend to use it in restoring the fortress, cleaning up canals, and renovating forts located away from the central complex.
The Moscow government has promised to donate more than $120,000 this year for the renovation of the Brest Fortress memorial.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news350.html