Units of the 8th Division of the People’s Militia of the Krasnopresnenskiy District of Moscow Were 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, workers of the Proletarian Labor factory, metalworkers of the Krasnaya Presnya factory, workers of the Varnish and Paint Factory, tramway workers, students and teachers of Moscow University, MGRI, Tchaikovskiy Conservatory, artists of the Revolution Theater, writers (“Writers’ Company”), workers and employees of the Proletarskiy district. In addition to Muscovites, volunteers from Kolomenskiy, Zagorskiy, Solnechnogorskiy, Voskresenskiy, Noginskiy and Podolskiy districts of the Moscow Region joined the division. By July 6, 1941, 6 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 (11 Herzen Street). The 1st Rifle Regiment was located in schools № 83 (14 Strelbischensky Lane); № 89 and № 95 (37 Zamorenova Street) and clubs of the district. From July 9 to July 10, the division’s regiments left Moscow and settled in the area of Nikolo-Uryupin and Buzlanov. On July 30, the division was sent to the Rzhev-Vyazma defense line. On August 4, units of the division arrived in Semlevo. A detachment of the division, together with a unit of the 6th Dzerzhinskiy Division of the People’s Militia, surrounded and destroyed several groups of enemy paratroopers, including those who stayed near 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 Krasnopresnenskiy District People’s Militia was disbanded at the end of November.
Address: Moscow, Bolshaya Nikitskaya str., 11/4, p. 1
