The Brest Fortress in the borderland context: Symbolism, memory and heritage

Drawing hundreds of thousands of tourists annually, predominantly from Belarus and Russia, Brest Fortress plays a pivotal role in shaping pro-Russian consciousness. It achieves this by reviving (post-)Soviet ideological motifs and by highlighting the self-sacrifice and heroism of the Fortress’s defenders in 1941, effectively translating these narratives into contemporary anti-Western contexts. For other nationalities—Poles, Germans, etc.—this tourist product could also hold significant historical importance related to the events of World War I and II as a site of remembrance. The main goal of the paper has been to examine and assess the symbolic perception by tourists of different nationalities of the Brest Fortress—including both the Memorial Complex on the Belarusian side of the border and the Terespol Bridgehead on the Polish side.