Kornilyevo

Kornilyevo is located 6 km south of Gryazovets (the district's administrative centre) by road. Talitsa is the nearest rural locality.[3]

During World War II, the former monastery was the location of a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp for Polish, Finnish and German POWs. Initially, it housed over 3,000 Poles from the German-Soviet invasion of Poland until November 1939, then nearly 700 Finns from the Soviet invasion of Finland until April 1940, and then again 395 Polish POWs from June 1940.[4] Both Poles and Finns were exposed to poor conditions, including cold, shortages of food and medicines, overcrowding, mistreatment by Russian guards and attempts at communist indoctrination.[5] They often suffered from depression and illnesses, and some died.[5] They were also deprived of the possibility of corresponding with relatives.[5] Some Polish POWs were deported to camps in Starobilsk and Ostashkov, and eventually murdered in the Katyn massacre.[6] Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, in August 1941, Polish General Władysław Anders visited the camp, and the Poles were released to join the Anders' Army.[7] From 1942 to 1948, the camp housed several thousand German POWs.[8]

After 1948, the former camp housed a prison and later a psychiatric hospital.[9]