3rd Rifle Regiment of the 8th Division of the People’s Militia of the Krasnopresnenskiy District of Moscow was Formed in This Building in 1941
The 8th Moscow Rifle Division of the People’s Militia of the Krasnopresnenskiy district was formed from July 3 to July 6, 1941. The division included workers of the Trekhgornaya Manufactory, the Proletarian Labour factory, metalworkers of the Krasnaya Presnya plant, workers of the varnishes and paints factory, tramway workers, students and teachers of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, MGRI, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, artists of the Revolution Theatre, writers («Writers’ Company»), workers and employees of the Proletarian district. In addition to Muscovites, volunteers from the Kolomna, Zagorsk, Solnechnogorsk, Voskresensk, Noginsk and Podolsk districts of the Moscow Region joined the division. By July 6, 1941, six thousand people were called up. The formation of the division took place in the buildings of the regional court and the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University (address: 11, Herzen St.). The 1st Rifle Regiment was located in schools №. 83 (address: 14, Strelbischensky Lane), №. 89 and №. 95 (address: 37, Zamorenova St.) and clubs of the district. From July 9 to July 10, the regiments of the division left Moscow and settled in the area of Nikolo-Uryupin and Buzlanov. On July 30, the division was sent to the Rzhev-Vyazma line of defence. On August 4, units of the division arrived in Semlevo. A detachment of the division, together with a unit of the 6th Dzerzhinsky Division of the People’s Militia, surrounded and destroyed several groups of enemy paratroopers, including in the area of the village of Dudenka. After the battles near Yelnya on October 6-7, 1941, it practically ceased to exist: more than half of the personnel were lost, the division was cut off from the main forces. Some of the surviving fighters joined the partisan detachments, some went to their own. Officially, the 8th Moscow Rifle Division of the Krasnopresnensky District People’s Militia was disbanded at the end of November.
Address: Moscow, Mukomolny ave., 3, p. 1
