Mednoye () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in Kalininsky District of

Tver Oblast Tver Oblast (, ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was known as Kalinin Oblast (). Population: Tver Oblast is a region of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno. Much o ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, located on the Tvertsa River, 28 km west of

Tver Tver (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa rivers. Tver is located northwest of Moscow. Population: The city is ...

, by the

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

– St.Petersburg highway. Population: 3,047 (1992).

History

Mednoye was first mentioned as a votchina of one of Tver

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

s in some documents dating from the 14th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the village prospered due to its location on the road leading from Tver to

Torzhok Torzhok () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Tvertsa River along the federal highway M10 highway (Russia), M10 and a branch of the Oktyabrskaya Railway division of the Russian Railways. The ...

and

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

. During the Oprichnina, there were 104 households in the village. In the 19th century, Mednoye was a post station on the route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. One chapter of Alexander Radishchev's '' Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow'' is dedicated specifically to this village. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Mednoye was a centre of heavy tank fighting (October 1941) which formed part of the

Battle of Moscow The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...

. It also became known as a

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

mass execution site. Between April 3 and April 19, 1940, 6,311 Polish officers from the Ostashkov POW camp were brought to the area of Mednoye and subsequently shot to death behind the village of Yamka during the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

Sights

Apart from the Katyn war cemetery, the landmarks of Mednoye include the Church of Our Lady of Kazan (1764), the 18th-century post station, and the memorial house of Sergey Lemeshev.

References

External links

Officiаl site of the State memorial complex «Mednoye»
{{Authority control Rural localities in Kalininsky District Novotorzhsky Uyezd Katyn massacre Execution sites in Russia Sites of Soviet World War II crimes in Russia