Editing Brest, Belarus (section)

===19th century to World War I===
[[File:Bieraście, Buh, Terespalski most. Берасьце, Буг, Тэрэспальскі мост (M. Zaleski, 1846).jpg|thumb|left|[[Brest Fortress]] on a painting by [[Marcin Zaleski]] from 1846]]
During Russian rule in the 19th century, [[Brest Fortress]] was built in and around the city. The Russians demolished the [[Brest Castle (Belarus)|Polish Royal Castle]] and most of the Old Town "to make room" for the fortress.{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} The main Jewish synagogue in the city, the [[Choral Synagogue (Brest)|Choral Synagogue]], was completed c. 1862. In 1895, a massive fire rendered 15,000 people homeless, and dozens were killed.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1895-05-19 |title=Brest-Litovsk's Disastrous Fire. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1895/05/19/archives/brestlitovsks-disastrous-fire.html |access-date=2024-08-28 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

During [[World War I]], the town was captured by the [[Imperial German Army]] under [[August von Mackensen]] on 25 August 1915, during the [[Great Retreat (Russian)|Great Retreat of 1915]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robson |first=Stuart |url=http://archive.org/details/firstworldwar0000robs_r5x1 |title=The First World War |publisher=Pearson Longman |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4058-2471-2 |edition=1 |location=Harrow, England |pages=30 |language=en |ref=None |via=Archive Foundation}}</ref> Shortly after Brest fell into German hands, [[war poet]] [[August Stramm]], who has been called "the first of the [[Expressionist]]s" and one of "the most innovative poets of the First World War,"<ref>Tim Cross (1988) ''The Lost Voices of World War I'', page 124.</ref> was shot in the head during an attack on nearby Russian positions on 1 September 1915.

[[File:bfc Brest train station.jpg|thumb|Brest railway station during [[World War I]], c. 1915]]
In March 1918, in the Brest Fortress at the confluence of the [[Bug (river)|Bug]] and [[Mukhavets]] rivers on the city' western outskirts, the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Russia–Central Powers)|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] was signed, ending the war between [[Soviet Russia]] and the [[Central Powers]] and transferring the city and its surrounding region to the [[Ober Ost|sphere of influence]] of the [[German Empire]]. This treaty was subsequently annulled by the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]] treaties which ended the war and even more so by events and developments in [[Central and Eastern Europe]]. During 1918, the city became a part of the [[Volhynia Governorate]] of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] as a result of negotiations and own treaty between the delegation of the [[Ukrainian Central Rada]] and Central Powers.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Ivan Katchanovski|last2= Zenon E.|first2= Kohut|last3= Bohdan Y. |first3= Nebesio|last4= Myroslav|first4= Yurkevich|date= 2013|title= Historical Dictionary of Ukraine|publisher= Scarecrow Press|pages= 60–61|isbn= 9780810878471}}</ref>