Kozelsk () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and the

administrative center An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

Kozelsky District Kozelsky District () is an administrativeCharter of Kaluga Oblast and municipalLaw #7-OZ district (raion), one of the twenty-four in Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administr ...

Kaluga Oblast Kaluga Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kaluga. The Russian Census (2021), 2021 Russian Census found a population o ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, located on the

Zhizdra River The Zhizdra () is a river in Kaluga Oblast in Russia, a left tributary of the Oka. The length of the river is . The area of its basin is .

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the Oka), southwest of

Kaluga Kaluga (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census. Kaluga's most famous residen ...

, the administrative center of the

oblast An oblast ( or ) is a type of administrative division in Bulgaria and several post-Soviet states, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Historically, it was used in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The term ''oblast'' is often translated i ...

. Population:

History

It was first mentioned in an 1146

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

as a part of

Principality of Chernigov The Principality of Chernigov was one of the largest and most powerful states within Kievan Rus'. For a time the principality was the second most powerful after the Principality of Kiev. The principality was formed in the 10th century and maint ...

. Kozelsk became famous in the spring of 1238, when its twelve-year-old prince Vasily, son of Titus, had to defend the town against the army of

Batu Khan Batu Khan (–1255) was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Golden Horde, a constituent of the Mongol Empire established after Genghis Khan's demise. Batu was a son of Jochi, thus a grandson of Genghis Khan. His '' ulus'' ruled over the Kievan ...

. The latter dubbed it an "evil town" because its citizens had been fighting the attackers for seven weeks in a row, killing around four thousand enemy soldiers during the

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

. The citizens of Kozelsk were greatly outnumbered and almost all of them died in battle. In 1446, Kozelsk was temporarily under the rule of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

. In 1494, the town was finally annexed by the

Grand Duchy of Moscow The Grand Principality of Moscow, or Muscovy, known as the Principality of Moscow until 1389, was a late medieval Russian monarchy. Its capital was the city of Moscow. Originally established as a minor principality in the 13th century, the gra ...

. In 1607, one of

Ivan Bolotnikov Ivan Isayevich Bolotnikov (; 1565–1608) headed a popular uprising in Russia in 1606–1607 known as the Bolotnikov Rebellion (''Восстание Ивана Болотникова''). The uprising formed part of the Time of Troubles in Russia ...

's units was located in Kozelsk and showed resistance to the

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

's army. The much-venerated monastery,

Optina Pustyn The Optina Pustyn (, literally ''Opta's hermitage'') is an Eastern Orthodox monastery for men near Kozelsk in Russia. In the 19th century, the Optina was the most important spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church and served as the model fo ...

, is close by. In the 19th century, this hermitage gained wide renown for its " startsy". After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

camp was established in the monastery for Polish officers taken captive by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during the Polish Defensive War of 1939. Between April and May 1940, the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

transferred approximately 5,000 of them to a forest near Katyn, where they were executed in what became known as the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

. The remaining two hundred officers were sent to a camp in Pavlishchev Bor and then to

Kornilyevo Kornilyevo () is a rural locality (a village) in Rostilovskoye Rural Settlement, Gryazovetsky District, Vologda Oblast, Russia. The population was 99 as of 2002. Geography Kornilyevo is located 6 km south of Gryazovets (the district's administr ...

. The town was occupied by the German army from October 8, 1941 until December 27, 1941 and suffered considerable damage. It was rebuilt after the war.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Kozelsk serves as the

, to which it is directly subordinated. As a municipal division, the

of Kozelsk is incorporated within Kozelsky Municipal District as Kozelsk Urban Settlement.Law #7-OZ

Military

After

became the home for the 28th Guards Rocket Division of the

Strategic Missile Troops The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN RF; ) is a separate combat arm of the Russian Armed Forces that controls Russia's land-based intercontinental ballistic miss ...

. Up to a third of the population of Kozelsk was connected in one way or another with the missile division. It has missiles silos with

RS-24 Yars The RS-24 Yars (РС-24 Ярс – ракета стратегическая (strategic missile)-modification 24) also known as Topol-MR, NATO reporting name SS-29 or SS-27 Mod 2), is a Russian MIRV-equipped, thermonuclear armed intercontinen ...

ICBMs.http://www.janes360.com/images/assets/692/47692/Russia_upgrades_its_missile_arsenal.pdf

References

Notes

Sources