Memorial Day Dedicated to the Heroes of the Defense of the Brest Fortress at the Smolensk State Institute

The article provides a brief overview of the speeches at the Memorial Day dedicated to the participants of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and the international round table “Smolyans — Defenders of the Brest Fortress” (March 26, 2025). The events were prepared on the bases of the materials of the bio-bibliographic reference book “Smolyans — Defenders of the Brest Fortress”, which was worked on by Russian and Belarusian researchers. Information about the soldiers of the Brest garrison, natives of the Smolensk province and conscripted from the Smolensk region, was collected from the funds of the Brest Hero Fortress memorial complex, the Smolensk Region During the Great Patriotic War 1941—1945 Museum, the Velizhsky Regional Museum of Local Lore of the Smolensk region, Russian and Belarusian publications, Internet resources, personal archives of soldiers’ relatives. This handbook has become a valuable contribution to the study of the biographies of Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War (1941—1945), and its updating seems very timely.