Napoleonic troops invading Russia were in for an unpleasant surprise - on the banks of the deep Berezina, where until recently only a small town had been located, a formidable stronghold rose. “No fortress was as useful to Russia as Bobruisk in 1812,” wrote the first official historian of the Patriotic War, V.N., about its defense. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky. In 1854, on the farthest western islands of the Russian Empire, the garrison of the unfinished Bomarsund fortress took on an unequal battle. Russian soldiers and Finnish riflemen fought for 10 days against ten times superior enemy forces, supported by a powerful fleet. They fully fulfilled their duty to the Sovereign and the Fatherland. In 1904, the Russian fortress of Port Arthur withstood a siege by superior forces of the Japanese army and navy for 11 months. In Soviet times, there was a lot of talk about cowardice, treason and mediocrity of leaders, but during the entire 20th century there were no cases of longer defense of the fortress. In our country there are almost no monuments to the heroes of Bobruisk, Bomarzund and Port Arthur. Perhaps because our contemporaries know nothing about these forgotten battles of the empire? It's time to remember them too.