The Medvedev Forest massacre (russian: Медведевский расстрел) or Orel massacre (Орловский расстрел) was a mass execution in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

carried out by the Soviet secret police

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

on 11 September 1941. Taking place barely three months after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, 157 political prisoners incarcerated at

Oryol Prison The Oryol Prison has been a prison in Oryol since the 19th century. It was a notable place of incarceration for political prisoners and war prisoners of the Second World War. The building of prison, built in 1840, is one of the oldest buildings ...

were executed in Medvedev Forest, just outside the Russian city of

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, p=ɐˈrʲɵl, lit. ''eagle''), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast situated on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow. It is part of the Central Fed ...

, by personal order of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

. This execution was one of the many massacres of prisoners hastily committed by the NKVD in 1941 in the wake of German invasion. In 1941, the

contained some five thousand political prisoners. On 5 September 1941, on the order of

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...

, the NKVD composed a list of 170 Oryol prisoners to be executed. Beria claimed they formed the "more angry part of the prisoners" and that they "performed defeatist agitation and attempted to organize escapes with the aim of renewing underground activities". The list was sent to Stalin, who approved it. On 8 September, judges

Vasiliy Ulrikh Vasiliy Vasilievich Ulrikh (russian: Василий Васильевич Ульрих, 13 July 1889 – 7 May 1951) was a senior judge of the Soviet Union during most of the regime of Joseph Stalin. Ulrikh served as the presiding judge at man ...

(as chairman of the collegium), Dmitri Kandybin and Vasiliy Bukanov, without any litigation and without any kind of investigation, formally sentenced 161 persons to death. By the time of the execution, some in the list had already died or had been transferred while others had been released. Many of those executed were foreign citizens, among them

Fritz Noether Fritz Alexander Ernst Noether (7 October 1884 – 10 September 1941) was a Jewish German mathematician who emigrated from Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union. He was later executed by the NKVD. Biography Fritz Noether's father Max Noether ...

, whose liberation even

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

had demanded. Other detainees executed that day include

Christian Rakovsky Christian Georgievich Rakovsky (russian: Христиа́н Гео́ргиевич Рако́вский; bg, Кръстьо Георги́ев Рако́вски; – September 11, 1941) was a Bulgarian-born socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevi ...

Sergei Efron Sergei Yakovlevich Efron (russian: Сергей Яковлевич Эфрон; 8 October 1893 – 11 September 1941) was a Russian poet, White Army officer, and the husband of fellow poet Marina Tsvetaeva. While in exile, he was recruited by the ...

Olga Kameneva Olga Davidovna Kameneva (russian: Ольга Давыдовна Каменева, uk, Ольга Давидiвна Каменева; 1883 – 11 September 1941) (née Bronstein — Бронште́йн) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and ...

Garegin Apresov Garegin Abramovich Apresov (russian: Гарегин Абрамович Апресов; 6 January 1890 – 11 September 1941) was a Soviet diplomat, most notable for his tenure in Xinjiang during Sheng Shicai's rule. Life Garegin A. Apreso ...

, Maria Spiridonova and Dmitry Pletnyov (a famous doctor who had been sentenced to 25 years in a

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...

).Rabinowitch, Alexander (July 1995). "Maria Spiridonova's 'Last Testament' ". ''Russian Review'', Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 424-446.

References

External links

Chapter 3 The Orel Massacres, the Killings of Senior Military Officers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medvedev Forest massacre 1941 in Russia Massacres in 1941 NKVD Joseph Stalin Lavrentiy Beria Mass murder in 1941 Massacres in Russia Massacres in the Soviet Union Oryol Oblast September 1941 events Capital punishment in the Soviet Union