Qualla: Perimilovsky Heights

Perimilovsky Heights: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wilberus, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bronze soldier stands 28 meters above the ridgeline, his PPSh submachine gun raised overhead, frozen in the act of charging forward. Below him, the ground drops more than 50 meters in steep, nearly unclimbable slopes to the Moscow Canal and the town of Yakhroma. In late November 1941, this ridge was the easternmost point the Wehrmacht reached on the fronts north of Moscow. The soldiers who held it were not seasoned troops but newly drafted civilians from the towns of Sergiev Posad and Dmitrov, rushed to the front line in dark coats that stood out against the snow. Many of them died on these slopes. The counterattack that followed, launched on December 6, became the first major Soviet offensive of the war.

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Image: Wilberus | CC BY-SA 3.0

Perimilovsky Heights: The Canal as a Last Line

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Георгий Долгопский, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Moscow-Volga Canal, opened just a few years before the war, was far more than a waterway. It was a vital artery for water supply, energy, and transportation, with highways and railways running along its banks. By late November 1941, the front line had reached the canal. Germa...

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Image: Георгий Долгопский | CC BY-SA 3.0

Perimilovsky Heights: An Armored Train and a Phone Call from Stalin

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Moneycantbuy, CC BY-SA 4.0. There were no regular military units in Dmitrov when the Germans broke through to the canal. What arrived first was NKVD armored train No. 73, dispatched from the town of Verbilki under Captain Malyshev's command. During a three-hour engagement, the armored train repulsed five Ge...

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Image: Moneycantbuy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Perimilovsky Heights: Black Silhouettes on White Snow

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ilyakha, CC BY-SA 4.0. The men of the 1st Shock Army went into battle with minimal training, many still wearing civilian clothes. Their dark coats and overcoats were starkly visible against the December snow. They attacked at full height, upright and exposed, against the German 7th Panzer Division posi...

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Image: Ilyakha | CC BY-SA 4.0

Perimilovsky Heights: The Road That Began in Forty-One

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kotjara kamenskaja, CC BY-SA 4.0. On December 6, 1941, Soviet forces launched the Moscow counteroffensive along the entire front. Within ten days, Yakhroma was liberated, and by December 10, the entire Dmitrov district was free of German forces. It was the first significant reversal of Wehrmacht momentum in the w...

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Image: Kotjara kamenskaja | CC BY-SA 4.0

Perimilovsky Heights: A Poet's Five Words

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kotjara kamenskaja, CC BY-SA 4.0. Visitors climbing from the Yakhroma side follow zigzag paths cut into the slope, with observation platforms offering views of the town below and the canal stretching to the north and south. Roughly a third of the way up, a granite pedestal bears a five-line poem by Robert Rozhdes...

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Image: Kotjara kamenskaja | CC BY-SA 4.0