She volunteered as a nurse at the hospital in the Minsk Polytechnic Institute, which had been set up to care for wounded members of the Red Army. In addition to caring for the soldiers, she helped them escape by smuggling civilian clothing and false identity papers into the hospital. A patient told the Germans what Bruskina was doing, and she was arrested on October 14, 1941, by members of the Wehrmacht's 707th Infantry Division and the 2nd Schutzmannschaft Battalion, Lithuanian auxiliary troops under the command of Major Antanas Impulevičius.