The Monument to the partisans of the Smolensk region

A memorial stone was set up at the entrance to the Przhevalskoe village (the Sloboda village up to 1964) of the Demidovsky district. This is the place where on July 16, 1941 the group of 64 partisans under the command of Mikhail Nesterovich Schultz had their first battle against the German military units, which delayed the enemy advance for eight hours. The partisans of Sloboda were the pioneers of the partisan resistance to the Nazi invaders during World War II.

In the year of the 70th anniversary of the Smolensk region liberation from the Nazi the tables with the names of all the heroes who died in that first terrible battle (a German teacher of the local school, an accountant, a district registrar, a newspaper employee, a vet and ect.) were set up next to the memorial stone.

On July, 16, there was a ceremony held at the renovated monument, which was attended by Deputy Governor - Head of the Administrative Office of the Smolensk region Administration Lev Platonov, the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the district and village authorities, local people and local historians.

The participants observed a minute of silence in memory of the dead and laid wreaths and flowers to the renovated memorial stone. On the same day the weeping birches alley of Memory and Sorrow was planted there.