The city was founded by the Slavs. As a town, Brest – Berestye in Kievan Rus – was first mentioned in the Russian Primary Chronicle in 1019 and is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. It became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, laid waste by the Mongols in 1241 (see: Mongol invasion of Europe), and was not rebuilt till 1275. In 1390 Brest became the first city in modern Belarus to receive 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 (see: Union of Lublin). During the period of the union of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden under king Sigismund III Vasa (Polish-Swedish union), diets were held there; and in 1594 and 1596 it was the meeting-place of two remarkable councils of the Roman-Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church bishops of the region; the 1596 council establishing the Uniate Church (known also as the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church in Belarus and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine). In 1657, and again in 1706, the town was captured by the Swedes; in 1794 it was the scene of Suvorov's victory over the Polish general Sierakowski. Brest passed to Russia when Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth was partitioned for the third time in 1795 (see: Partitions of Poland). During Russian rule in the 19th century a large fortress was built in and around the city. Brest railway station during World War I, circa 1915 Resurrection Church of Brest, the biggest in Belarus, commemorates the victims of World War II The town was captured by the German army in 1915, during World War I. In March 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. In 1918 the city was declared part of the short-lived Belarusian Democratic Republic. The newly reconstituted Poland took control of Brest in 1919. The city changed hands twice during the Polish-Soviet War and eventually stayed inside Polish borders, a development that was formally recognized by the Treaty of Riga in 1921. In the fortress, heavily damaged during World War I, Polish Army troops with the headquarters of the 9th Military District were stationed, and the city itself became a capital of Polesie Voivodeship. In 1930 Wincenty Witos and some other prominent Polish statesmen were detained here before the notorious trial in Warsaw. During the Invasion of Poland in 1939 the city was defended by a small garrison of four infantry battalions under General Konstanty Plisowski against the XIX Panzer Corps of General Heinz Guderian. After four days of heavy fighting the Polish forces withdrew southwards on September 17 (more in articles: Battle of Brześć Litewski). The Red Army entered the city in 1939 in accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact's Secret Protocol, and joint Nazi-Soviet military parade took place. Most Belarusians consider it a reunification of the Belarusian nation under one constituency (BSSR at that time). The city had a significant Jewish population: 30,000 out of 45,000 total population according to Russian 1897 census, which have fallen to 21,000 out of 50,000 according to the Polish 1931 census. On June 22, 1941 the fortress and the city was attacked by Nazi Germany at the beginning of the surprise war, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, but held out for six weeks. Nearly all the defenders perished. Brest's Jewish community was decimated under Nazi rule in 1942. The city was liberated by the Red Army on July 28, 1944. According to the agreements of the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Brest's status as part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was officially recognized. The Poles of Brest had a choice where to reside.
