Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, situated on the Desna River, 379 kilometers southwest of Moscow. It has a population of 379,152 at the 2021 census. Bryansk is the one of the oldest cities in the oblast, with 985 regarded as the year of foundation. It was part of the Kievan Rus', Mongol Empire and Lithuania during the medieval period, then was contested by Moscow and Poland–Lithuania in the early modern period, before ultimately passing to Russia, within which it was a major regional trading center.