On 25 November 1941, as German forces drew near the Ryazhsky district, NKVD officers from Ryazan and police from Ryazhsk shot 36 prisoners held in the Ryazhsk transit prison. Eleven were women. 24 had been convicted of “Anti-Soviet Agitation” (Article 50-10, part 2, RSFSR Criminal Code); the remaining 12 were found guilty of military offences. Some, evidently, belonged to the congregation of the True Orthodox Church in Kuiman village. Certain sources indicate that policeman A.E. Meshkov was also then executed for refusing to take part in the shootings. The names of the victims are known. All convicted under Article 58-10 (part 2), were posthumously rehabilitated in the 1950s.

The bodies of those executed were secretly buried about 2-3 kms from Ryazhsk in the Shuvalov woods near the “Shuvalov dacha”. The exact location of the burials is not indicated in any documents and, as of 2018, it had not been identified. The search continues and the building of the former manor house, located in the Shuvalov woods, has been chosen as a symbolic commemorative site. Each year memorial ceremonies are held nearby.

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In spring 2018, a memorial to those shot in Ryazhsk on 25 November 1941 was erected and consecrated in the town’s new cemetery (the location of their burial had still not been established). The commemorative cross was accompanied by a memorial plaque listing the 36 victims.