Medvedev Forest massacre
1941 CE.
Shown on the map at 53.018°, 36.163°.
The Medvedev Forest massacre (Russian: Медведевский расстрел) or Orel massacre (Орловский расстрел) was a mass execution in the Soviet Union carried out by the Soviet secret police NKVD on 11 September 1941. Less than three months after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, 157 political prisoners incarcerated at Oryol Prison were executed in Medvedev Forest, just outside the Russian city of Oryol, on the personal order of Joseph Stalin. This execution was one of the many massacres of prisoners hastily committed by the NKVD in 1941 in the wake of Nazi Germany's invasion. In 1941, the Oryol Prison contained some five thousand political prisoners. On 5 September 1941, on the order of Lavrentiy Beria, 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.
Text from the Wikipedia article Medvedev Forest massacre, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.