6 November 2003
World War I remains reburied in Brest
The remains of some 570 Russian soldiers killed during World War I were reburied at the Garrison Cemetery in Brest on November 4.
The bones were found this past summer by construction workers who were digging trenches to lay down communications
cable in Brest's Dubrovka neighborhood.It took search squads more than three months to unearth the remains. The searchers discovered a tombstone put up in 1928 that said in Polish that the grave contained the remains of 38 unknown Russian soldiers buried in 1915. Apart from
the human remains, the searchers found a Bible book with bullet holes in it, military badges, coins and a fourth-class Saint George Cross (Russia's combat order).
Experts so far cannot say whether the site is a former military cemetery and whether the mass grave contains the remains of soldiers only, Alla Kondak, an official with the Brest city government's Culture Department, told BelaPAN. She noted that the excavations would continue the following year. The remains were put into 30 coffins that were placed into one mass grave. The bones of the holder of the Saint George
Cross were put into a separate grave. Crosses and tombstones were erected on the graves. Representatives of the Brest City Executive Committee, the City Soviet and the City Military Registration and Enlistment Office laid wreaths. The ceremony involved a military brass band and honor guards, who fired a salute.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news479.html