Zhukov, Maloyroslavets, Ilyinskoye.
Last Saturday, I was in the Kaluga region. The first town on my way was Zhukov. It’s a little town that’s known mainly for being the birthplace of General Georgy Zhukov. He was born into a poor peasant family in Strelkovka, Maloyaroslavsky Uyezd, Kaluga Governorate, which later merged into the town of Zhukov in Zhukovsky District of Kaluga Oblast.
The town looks like a village, as it’s composed mostly of small wooden houses. In the center of the town, you will find the Museum of Zhukov, facing the square. The building that houses the museum looks massive, but once inside you see that the museum itself is not very large in comparison. The entrance fee is 130 rubles, plus another 50 rubles for the right to take photos.
This large oil painting was created in 1976. It depicts the battle of Berlin in 1945.
It was exhibited in the Berlin suburb of Wünsdorf, and in 1993, when Soviet forces were withdrawn from Germany, it was taken to Russia.
There was a plan to exhibit it in the museum of the Great Patriotic war on Poklonnaya hill, but the size and configuration of the canvas would not fit, so it was restored and given to the Museum of Zhukov.
Other parts of the museum are not so interesting, but there are some items exhibited there that belonged to General Zhukov.
This coat shows how short Zhukov was (166 sm.).
During World war 1, Zhukov was awarded the Cross of St. George twice. The first one was awarded for capturing a German officer.
The monument to prisoners of Nazi concentration camps is on one of the walls of the demolished old original building. Before the Bolshevik revolution, it was a bank. A two-story building, the first floor is made of brick and the second of wood. On the second floor is a balcony where the Germans once hanged the commander of the local partisan squad, Michail Guryanov. In the mid-1970s, the building burned down, then was demolished, and part of the wall was left as a monument.
After my visit to Zhukov, I drove to Maloyroslavets--a town 20 kilometers away--via Warsaw road. Maloyaroslavets is mainly known for a battle that took place near the town on October 12 (24) of 1812. On September 14 of that year, Napoleon had moved into Moscow. However, he was surprised that a delegation from the city did not come to meet him. At the approach of a victorious general, civil authorities customarily presented themselves at the gates of their city with the keys to the city in an attempt to safeguard the population and their property. Since no one received Napoleon, he sent his aides into the city, seeking out officials with whom the arrangements for the occupation could be made. When none could be found, it became clear that the Russians had left the city.
On the first night of French occupation a fire broke out. As Moscow was composed largely of wooden buildings, what began as several small fires soon grew out of control, and it became a massive blaze that destroyed four-fifths of the city.
Relying on classical rules of warfare aiming at capturing the enemy's capital (even though Saint Petersburg was the political capital at that time, Moscow was the spiritual capital of Russia), Napoleon had expected Tsar Alexander I to offer his capitulation at the Poklonnaya Hill, but the Russian command entertained no thought of surrendering.
Sitting in the ashes of a ruined city with no foreseeable prospect of Russian capitulation, idle French troops and supplies diminished by use and through Russian operations of attrition. Napoleon had little choice but to withdraw his army from Moscow. He began the long retreat by the middle of October, 1812. At the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, Kutuzov was able to force the French army into using the same Smolensk road on which they had earlier moved east, the corridor of which had been stripped of food by both armies. This is often presented as an example of “scorched earth” tactics. Continuing to block the southern flank in order to prevent the French from returning by a different route, Kutuzov employed partisan tactics to repeatedly strike at the French train where it was weakest. As the retreating French train broke up and became separated, Cossack bands and light Russian cavalry assaulted isolated French units.
Supplying the French army became an impossibility. The lack of grass and feed weakened the remaining horses, almost all of which died or were killed for food by starving soldiers. Without horses, the French cavalry ceased to exist; cavalrymen had to march on foot. Lack of horses meant many cannons and wagons had to be abandoned as well. Much of the lost artillery was replaced in 1813, but the loss of thousands of wagons and trained horses weakened Napoleon's armies for the remainder of his wars. Starvation and disease took their toll, and desertion soared. Many of the deserters were taken prisoner or killed by Russian peasants. Badly weakened by these circumstances, the French military position collapsed.
The first bulding you see in the town when you drive by Walsaw road is an old chapel, where the part of the Museum of Patriotic War of 1812 is now housed. The chapel was built by retired Major Maksimov, a local landlord. He had stated, "In commemoration of the battle of Maloyraslavets, where I was wounded and where many of my friends heroically perished, I want to build a chapel near the graves of those dead, at my own expense".
The chapel was built in 1860. A large painting of the Maloyroslavets battle is exhibited there.
For 100 years, the mass graves of Russian soldiers who died in the battle of Maloyaroslavets had the appearance of earth mounds. By 1912, at the initiative of General A. I. Litvinov monuments were erected on the graves. The project belonged to the military engineer A. V. Vechnovsky, and the money to construct the monuments was collected throughout Russia.
It's amazing how the monuments survived throughout the early Soviet period and German occupation.
Assumption church was built on public donations, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the victory in the battle of Maloyaroslavets, on the site of an 18th Century charch that had been destroyed during the battle. Recently, it was restored, but the color for the domes was a poor choice in my opinion—too bright. I think the church actually looked better before the restoration.
The church nearby has the same strange color on the dome.
This monument became the first monument to the events of 1812. Opened on 29 November, 1844 by the decree of Emperor Nicholas I, it was decided to erect the monuments on the ground of the six most significant battles: at Borodino, in Smolensk, Krasnoye, Kovno, Polotsk, and Maloyaroslavets. In the early 1930s, the monument was destroyed and a sculpture of Lenin was built on its place.
In 2011, the monument was rebuilt on its original place.
Chernostrovsky monastery was established in the late 16th century on the site of the Church built by the princes Obolenski in the 14th century. In the beginning of the 17th century, during the time of Troubles, the monastery was pillaged, and only until 1659 did the monk life continue there. In 1812, the monastery, like the entire town, suffered greatly from hostilities.
All its buildings were burned, with only the main gates left. They were riddled with buckshot and larger holes, which are purposely left as a visual reminder.
In 1813, by the decree of Alexander I, a restoration of Chernostrovsky monastery began, as a monument to the events of 1812.
Like most other orthodox communities, the monastery was closed during the Soviet years. Different institutions there changed, and in 1991 the monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
St Nicholas cathedral (1839).
There is an artificial hill behind the area of the monastery. This is an ancient hill-fort of Vyatchities (one of the Slav tribes). They had had a wooden fortress on the hill. There are many similar hill-forts remaining in the Kaluga region.
I’m always thankful that such places have a special and unique atmosphere.
Fallen idol.
Old house.
The next stop in my trip was the village Ilyinskoye. In 1941, it became an area of fierce battle.
On the morning of 5 October, 1941 officials in Moscow received shocking information – the Germans had taken Yukhnov. It was a disaster, as now the German forces were in the rear of the Western and Reserve fronts, where there were no Soviet units. In order to allow time for Russian troops to arrive to defend the area, it was necessary to delay the enemy’s for a few days. On October 5, about 1,500 cadets of artillery and 2,000 infantry school cadets from the town of Podolsk were pulled from the classes, put on high alert, and sent to defend Maloyaroslavets. The consolidated group of students was tasked to block the path of the Germans and defend the area for 5-7 days, until suitable reserves from deeper in the country could come forward. On October 6, the students arrived at the Iyinsky area and took up defensive positions along the Luzha and Vipreika Rivers. Within a few days, the brave cadets held the advancing Germans, beating back an attack from a superior force on 11 October, and on October 13, an attack from the rear. The German tanks displayed red flags, but the deception was discovered, and the tanks were destroyed. On October 6. German troops captured defensive lines in the village of Ilyinskoye, and most of the cadets who were defending that area perished. The surviving cadets moved to the village Lukyanovo, where they moved their command post. For two days, they defended Lukyanova and Kudinovo. The Germans were able to circumvent the cadets’ position, but they continued to defend the road to Maloyaroslavets, which denied the Germans opportunity to transfer ammunition and reinforcements to their advanced troops. On October 19, the Germans in the area of Kudinovo surrounded the cadets, but they managed to escape. The evening of the same day, cadets received orders from their regimental command to move back to the turn of the Nara river to connect with their main forces. On 25 October, the surviving cadets were withdrawn to the rear. They were then ordered to complete training in the town Ivanovo.
The museum about those events is located in this wooden building, but it was closed by the time I arrived.
A map of fortifications on the outside wall of the museum.
It was the first of them that I found. As you can see it was damaged in wartime.
Rear view.
Monument to the Podolsk cadets, with an eternal flame.
Another pillbox—one that I found in the forest behind the monument.
All pillboxes have plaques on them with the names of the cadets who fought and died there.
Another one--badly damaged during the war.
I searched other fortifications and wandered amidst abandoned agricultural buildings until nightfall, so I had best return in the summer!
The town looks like a village, as it’s composed mostly of small wooden houses. In the center of the town, you will find the Museum of Zhukov, facing the square. The building that houses the museum looks massive, but once inside you see that the museum itself is not very large in comparison. The entrance fee is 130 rubles, plus another 50 rubles for the right to take photos.
This large oil painting was created in 1976. It depicts the battle of Berlin in 1945.
It was exhibited in the Berlin suburb of Wünsdorf, and in 1993, when Soviet forces were withdrawn from Germany, it was taken to Russia.
There was a plan to exhibit it in the museum of the Great Patriotic war on Poklonnaya hill, but the size and configuration of the canvas would not fit, so it was restored and given to the Museum of Zhukov.
Other parts of the museum are not so interesting, but there are some items exhibited there that belonged to General Zhukov.
This coat shows how short Zhukov was (166 sm.).
During World war 1, Zhukov was awarded the Cross of St. George twice. The first one was awarded for capturing a German officer.
The monument to prisoners of Nazi concentration camps is on one of the walls of the demolished old original building. Before the Bolshevik revolution, it was a bank. A two-story building, the first floor is made of brick and the second of wood. On the second floor is a balcony where the Germans once hanged the commander of the local partisan squad, Michail Guryanov. In the mid-1970s, the building burned down, then was demolished, and part of the wall was left as a monument.
After my visit to Zhukov, I drove to Maloyroslavets--a town 20 kilometers away--via Warsaw road. Maloyaroslavets is mainly known for a battle that took place near the town on October 12 (24) of 1812. On September 14 of that year, Napoleon had moved into Moscow. However, he was surprised that a delegation from the city did not come to meet him. At the approach of a victorious general, civil authorities customarily presented themselves at the gates of their city with the keys to the city in an attempt to safeguard the population and their property. Since no one received Napoleon, he sent his aides into the city, seeking out officials with whom the arrangements for the occupation could be made. When none could be found, it became clear that the Russians had left the city.
In a normal surrender, the city officials would be forced to find billets and make arrangements for the feeding of the soldiers, but the lack of those arrangements in this case caused a free-for-all in which every man was forced to find lodgings and sustenance for himself. To make matters worse, Moscow had been stripped of all supplies by its governor, Feodor Rostopchin, who had also ordered the prisons to be opened.
Before the order was received to evacuate Moscow, the city had a population of approximately 270,000 people. As much of the population pulled out, the remainder were burning or robbing the remaining stores of food, depriving the French of their use. As Napoleon entered the Kremlin, there still remained one-third of the original population, mainly consisting of foreign traders, servants and people who were unable or unwilling to flee.On the first night of French occupation a fire broke out. As Moscow was composed largely of wooden buildings, what began as several small fires soon grew out of control, and it became a massive blaze that destroyed four-fifths of the city.
Relying on classical rules of warfare aiming at capturing the enemy's capital (even though Saint Petersburg was the political capital at that time, Moscow was the spiritual capital of Russia), Napoleon had expected Tsar Alexander I to offer his capitulation at the Poklonnaya Hill, but the Russian command entertained no thought of surrendering.
Sitting in the ashes of a ruined city with no foreseeable prospect of Russian capitulation, idle French troops and supplies diminished by use and through Russian operations of attrition. Napoleon had little choice but to withdraw his army from Moscow. He began the long retreat by the middle of October, 1812. At the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, Kutuzov was able to force the French army into using the same Smolensk road on which they had earlier moved east, the corridor of which had been stripped of food by both armies. This is often presented as an example of “scorched earth” tactics. Continuing to block the southern flank in order to prevent the French from returning by a different route, Kutuzov employed partisan tactics to repeatedly strike at the French train where it was weakest. As the retreating French train broke up and became separated, Cossack bands and light Russian cavalry assaulted isolated French units.
Supplying the French army became an impossibility. The lack of grass and feed weakened the remaining horses, almost all of which died or were killed for food by starving soldiers. Without horses, the French cavalry ceased to exist; cavalrymen had to march on foot. Lack of horses meant many cannons and wagons had to be abandoned as well. Much of the lost artillery was replaced in 1813, but the loss of thousands of wagons and trained horses weakened Napoleon's armies for the remainder of his wars. Starvation and disease took their toll, and desertion soared. Many of the deserters were taken prisoner or killed by Russian peasants. Badly weakened by these circumstances, the French military position collapsed.
The first bulding you see in the town when you drive by Walsaw road is an old chapel, where the part of the Museum of Patriotic War of 1812 is now housed. The chapel was built by retired Major Maksimov, a local landlord. He had stated, "In commemoration of the battle of Maloyraslavets, where I was wounded and where many of my friends heroically perished, I want to build a chapel near the graves of those dead, at my own expense".
For 100 years, the mass graves of Russian soldiers who died in the battle of Maloyaroslavets had the appearance of earth mounds. By 1912, at the initiative of General A. I. Litvinov monuments were erected on the graves. The project belonged to the military engineer A. V. Vechnovsky, and the money to construct the monuments was collected throughout Russia.
It's amazing how the monuments survived throughout the early Soviet period and German occupation.
Assumption church was built on public donations, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the victory in the battle of Maloyaroslavets, on the site of an 18th Century charch that had been destroyed during the battle. Recently, it was restored, but the color for the domes was a poor choice in my opinion—too bright. I think the church actually looked better before the restoration.
The church nearby has the same strange color on the dome.
This monument became the first monument to the events of 1812. Opened on 29 November, 1844 by the decree of Emperor Nicholas I, it was decided to erect the monuments on the ground of the six most significant battles: at Borodino, in Smolensk, Krasnoye, Kovno, Polotsk, and Maloyaroslavets. In the early 1930s, the monument was destroyed and a sculpture of Lenin was built on its place.
In 2011, the monument was rebuilt on its original place.
Chernostrovsky monastery was established in the late 16th century on the site of the Church built by the princes Obolenski in the 14th century. In the beginning of the 17th century, during the time of Troubles, the monastery was pillaged, and only until 1659 did the monk life continue there. In 1812, the monastery, like the entire town, suffered greatly from hostilities.
All its buildings were burned, with only the main gates left. They were riddled with buckshot and larger holes, which are purposely left as a visual reminder.
In 1813, by the decree of Alexander I, a restoration of Chernostrovsky monastery began, as a monument to the events of 1812.
Like most other orthodox communities, the monastery was closed during the Soviet years. Different institutions there changed, and in 1991 the monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
St Nicholas cathedral (1839).
There is an artificial hill behind the area of the monastery. This is an ancient hill-fort of Vyatchities (one of the Slav tribes). They had had a wooden fortress on the hill. There are many similar hill-forts remaining in the Kaluga region.
I’m always thankful that such places have a special and unique atmosphere.
Fallen idol.
Old house.
The next stop in my trip was the village Ilyinskoye. In 1941, it became an area of fierce battle.
On the morning of 5 October, 1941 officials in Moscow received shocking information – the Germans had taken Yukhnov. It was a disaster, as now the German forces were in the rear of the Western and Reserve fronts, where there were no Soviet units. In order to allow time for Russian troops to arrive to defend the area, it was necessary to delay the enemy’s for a few days. On October 5, about 1,500 cadets of artillery and 2,000 infantry school cadets from the town of Podolsk were pulled from the classes, put on high alert, and sent to defend Maloyaroslavets. The consolidated group of students was tasked to block the path of the Germans and defend the area for 5-7 days, until suitable reserves from deeper in the country could come forward. On October 6, the students arrived at the Iyinsky area and took up defensive positions along the Luzha and Vipreika Rivers. Within a few days, the brave cadets held the advancing Germans, beating back an attack from a superior force on 11 October, and on October 13, an attack from the rear. The German tanks displayed red flags, but the deception was discovered, and the tanks were destroyed. On October 6. German troops captured defensive lines in the village of Ilyinskoye, and most of the cadets who were defending that area perished. The surviving cadets moved to the village Lukyanovo, where they moved their command post. For two days, they defended Lukyanova and Kudinovo. The Germans were able to circumvent the cadets’ position, but they continued to defend the road to Maloyaroslavets, which denied the Germans opportunity to transfer ammunition and reinforcements to their advanced troops. On October 19, the Germans in the area of Kudinovo surrounded the cadets, but they managed to escape. The evening of the same day, cadets received orders from their regimental command to move back to the turn of the Nara river to connect with their main forces. On 25 October, the surviving cadets were withdrawn to the rear. They were then ordered to complete training in the town Ivanovo.
The museum about those events is located in this wooden building, but it was closed by the time I arrived.
A map of fortifications on the outside wall of the museum.
It was the first of them that I found. As you can see it was damaged in wartime.
Rear view.
Monument to the Podolsk cadets, with an eternal flame.
Another pillbox—one that I found in the forest behind the monument.
All pillboxes have plaques on them with the names of the cadets who fought and died there.
Another one--badly damaged during the war.
I searched other fortifications and wandered amidst abandoned agricultural buildings until nightfall, so I had best return in the summer!
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