1st Division of the People’s Militia of the Leninskiy District of Moscow Was Formed in This Institute in 1941, Stele on the Territory of the Moscow Mining Institute in Memory of the People’s Militia
The 1st Moscow Rifle Division of the People’s Militia of Leninskiy district was formed from July 3 to July 6, 1941. Its Ccommanders were Major General N.N. Pronin (July 2, 1941 – July 17, 1941), Major General L.I. Kotelnikov (July 18, 1941 – August 15, 1941), military commissar was S.I. Belov. The honorary name of the 1st Division of the People’s Militia of the Leninskiy district is the Sevsko-Warsaw Red Banner of the Order of Suvorov. The division was formed in the Leninskiy district of Moscow from volunteers aged 17 to 55 years, who were not subjects to conscription and not employed in the defence industry. In the first two days, 12 thousand people joined the militia. Volunteers from the largest enterprises of the district joined the division: the Red Proletarian machine-tool factory and machine-tool factory named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze, the 2nd ball bearing plant, carburetor plant, ENIMS plant, HPP № 2, the Lift and Glavpoligrafmash plants, the 1st taxi fleet, the People’s Commissariat of non-ferrous metals, the People’s Commissariat of Motor Transport, the Krasny Oktyabr confectionery factory and others. Teachers and researchers of institutes: Mining, Steel and Alloys, Petroleum, Textile and a number of institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In the future, the division was also replenished by residents of the Sokolniki district of Moscow and the Orekhovo-Zuevo and Leninskiy districts of the Moscow region. The commander of the division, as well as the commanders of regiments, artillery divisions and most of the battalions became regular military personnel. The division was formed at Moscow Mining Institute in Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street. At dawn on July 9, 1941, units of the division marched through the streets of the capital, heading to the area of construction of defensive structures near Moscow. In mid–July, the division made the transition along the Medyn – Yukhnov – Spas-Demensk route. Upon arrival, it occupied the 2nd defensive line, 10 km west of Spas-Demensk, where it was engaged in combat training and construction of defensive structures. On July 30, 1941, it became part of the 33rd Army of the Reserve Front. On August 15, 1941, the division was enlisted in the active army as the 60th Rifle Division. Since October 3, 1941, units of the division fought in the encirclement north of the town of Spas-Demensk, the Kaluga region. A memorial plaque has been erected in memory of the formation of the 1st Division of the People’s Militia of the Leninskiy district of Moscow.
Address: Moscow, Leninsky Prospekt, 6, p. 1
