Abschwangen massacre
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Abschwangen (Tishino)
| Abschwangen Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of World War I | |
| Location | 54°29′59″N 20°45′41″E / 54.4996°N 20.7613°E Abschwangen (Tishino) |
| Date | 29 August 1914 |
| Target | German civilians in Prussia |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 65 |
| Perpetrators | |
The Abschwangen massacre was a massacre committed by Russian troops during World War I on 29 August 1914 in the occupied village of Abschwangen (now Tishino) near Preussisch Eylau some 30 km (19 mi) south of Königsberg, in which 65 German civilians, including 28 locals and 37 refugees from other places, were killed.
After Russian troops started their first World War I offensive in East Prussia in August 1914, they reached the small village of Abschwangen on August 27, 1914, without struggle, and marched through. On August 29, 1914, an Imperial German Army reconnaissance unit of four cavalrymen came into the unoccupied village and confronted an Imperial Russian Army motorcar and opened fire. During the ensuing firefight, a single Russian officer, a member of the wealthy and powerful Trubetskoy family of the Russian nobility, was killed, and the car returned to the village of Almenhausen (now Kashtanovo), some 5 km (3.1 mi) east of Abschwangen.[citation needed]