Wartime Pages of Tver

19 points6 km3 hours

Walk through the places in Tver that preserve the tragic history of the Great Patriotic War. At that time the city was called Kalinin. You'll learn what Kalinin was like in the days of the occupation, what heroic deeds local people performed, and how the city was liberated.

Route author

Tver Tourist Information Center

Things to do

📜 Learn the city's history
🏛️🕰️ Compare the eras

Route points (19)

German Kommandantur in Tver

Point on route “Wartime Pages of Tver”

Point 9

German Kommandantur

📜 Historic site

Historical Background

During the occupation the Germans divided Kalinin into four districts. Each had its own council (uprava) and kommandantur. The uprava was the equivalent of today's district administration; the kommandantur was the unit that kept order in the area. The building of today's Tver City Administration housed the council of the First District. But later the Gestapo* pushed the council out and put officers' apartments on the second floor. The ground floor held the office, and the basement a prison. *The Gestapo was the secret state police of Nazi Germany. It operated from 1933 to 1945.

Fun Fact

In 1941 the crew of a T-34 tank commanded by Stepan Gorobets struck at the very heart of the occupiers. The tank burst onto the square without warning, braked, and fired two shots at the kommandantur building. The attack had a powerful psychological effect. In 1991 a memorial plaque commemorating the legendary raid of the T-34 crew of the 21st Tank Brigade was installed at 54 Sovetskaya Street.