1 Rouble Defenders of the Brest Fortress

The Brest Fortress — formally the Brest-Litovsk Fortress, built under Nicholas I in the 1830s — became the site of one of the most ferocious early engagements of Operation Barbarossa when German forces attacked on June 22, 1941. The garrison, cut off and surrounded within hours, held out for weeks against units that were already deep inside Soviet territory. Soviet authorities later estimated resistance lasted over a month in isolated pockets.

Belarus issued several commemorative roubles through this period marking sites and events of what Russians and Belarusians call the Great Patriotic War. KM#80 is copper-nickel rather than the silver used in higher-denomination commemoratives from the same program.