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The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, as part of investigating a criminal case regarding genocide during World War II, has established facts of the deliberate mass extermination of civilians and prisoners of war by Nazi German occupiers and their accomplices in the occupied territory of the Kalinin (Tver) region.

During the preliminary investigation, investigators from the Investigative Committee of Russia have interviewed eyewitnesses of the events of the Great Patriotic War. Their testimonies, combined with declassified archival materials and the results of search operations, confirmed that the Nazi German occupiers and their accomplices committed barbaric acts of mass extermination of the Soviet people. It has been reliably established that the population of the modern Tver region was subjected to mass shootings, torture, looting, and enslavement during the war years.

During the occupation, civilians were deprived of medical care, food, and warm clothing. Many people were held captive in inhumane conditions in concentration camps. "In the concentration camp, the prisoners were subjected to all kinds of abuse. Even during their transportation, some civilians had their shoes and gloves taken from them, and upon arrival in Rzhev, they were placed in barracks surrounded by barbed wire. Hundreds of people died from beatings, hunger, thirst, and cold," recalled one of the former prisoners. Exhausted by hard labor and hunger, the Germans forced people to work 18-20 hours a day.

The fascists exhibited inhumane cruelty even to those who were hospitalized in medical institutions. For instance, after occupying a psychiatric hospital, they killed all the helpless patients and turned the hospital buildings into stables.

Germans and their accomplices forced people to leave their homes and placed them in unbearable living conditions, where overcrowding and unsanitary environment led to outbreaks of infectious diseases. In the absence of medical care, this led to mass mortality.

The Nazis were also merciless even towards children, disfiguring their bodies and killing defenseless infants. The chairman of a local collective farm recalled: "The fascists burned alive two 9-month-old and one 7-month-old child."

During the occupation, the Germans constantly terrorized the local civilians, trying to break their will and make them doubt victory. They claimed that soon the peoples of the Soviet Union would lose their national identity, and Germans will deliver them German books and open schools for them where they would be taught and subsequently speak exclusively in the German language.

With the goal of exterminating the population of the region, the fascists created unbearable living conditions, destroying and burning industrial enterprises, schools, hospitals, and other objects of civilian infrastructure. Entire villages and collective farms were reduced to heaps of ashes and ruins, beyond repair. For example, in an act documenting the consequences of the occupation of the city of Rzhev, it was noted: "Having plundered all valuables, the occupiers turned the city into ruins. There is not a single building in the city that could be used without major restoration efforts and costs."

The evidence collected by the Investigative Committee of Russia further confirms the deliberate extermination of the population of the Soviet Union by Nazi punitive forces and their accomplices.