Братское военное кладбище, Military cemetery in Minsk, Belarus

The Bratskoye Military Cemetery is a memorial complex in Minsk between Chervyakova Street and the Starovilensky Trakt, on the site of a necropolis for soldiers of the First World War. Its centrepiece is a small chapel with a cupola and cross, consecrated on 14 August 2011, open on three sides and closed off by wrought-iron grilles. Bronze bas-reliefs of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, John the Warrior and the Archangel Michael stand on its porticoes, and granite pedestals around it carry the names of buried soldiers found in the archives.

The city duma decided to create the cemetery in November 1914 on the initiative of Lieutenant General P. A. Smorodsky, head of the Alexandrovsky Committee for the Wounded, and bought a plot between the Vilensky and Dolginovsky roads. The first burials followed in 1915, after a wooden lodge, chapel and church were built. About 5,000 people are thought to lie here; the last burials were made in 1920. The cemetery was demolished in the late 1940s and its exact boundaries remain unknown.

The cemetery was not exclusively Orthodox: sections 4 and 8 were set aside for Christians of other confessions, and 107 lower ranks of the Roman Catholic faith are buried in section 8, 44 Evangelical Lutheran lower ranks in section 4. Officers and military officials of the Russian Imperial Army were buried in section 1. Most of the dead were infantrymen of infantry, grenadier and rifle regiments.

The grounds are accessible on foot with maintained paths and seating areas for visitors. A chapel on site provides a quiet space for ceremonies and reflection.

The cemetery was not exclusively Orthodox: sections 4 and 8 were set aside for Christians of other confessions, and 107 lower ranks of the Roman Catholic faith are buried in section 8, 44 Evangelical Lutheran lower ranks in section 4. Section 1 was reserved for officers and military officials of the Russian Imperial Army.