Zhizdra River

The Schisdra at Tschernyscheno

Position of Schisdra ( Жиздра ) in the catchment area of the Oka

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Schisdra (Russian Жиздра ) is a 223 km long left tributary of the Oka in the European part of Russia.

Description

The Schisdra rises in the south-west of Kaluga Oblast about 15 km east of the city Ljudinowo. At first it flows south, but turn after a few miles to the east, where they reached the city Schisdra. Then it turns north to turn little downstream of turning in an easterly direction.

Curvy it flows through the central ridge in the southern Russian Kaluga Oblast. Before the city Kozelsk she turns back to the north. Shortly after flowing through the city it passes the monastery Optina Pustyn, a former spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church. Another 30 km further it flows from the left in the Oka.

The average Schisdra is from late November to early April, frozen. In April it occurs during the snowmelt to pronounced spring floods.

History

During the Second World War it came to the Schisdra serious and costly battles between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army. After 16 July 1942, the strategically important railway junction Millerowo, about 300 km west of Stalingrad, had fallen into the hands of the Germans, received on August 11, 1942 later promoted and highly decorated Colonel Hermann Balck, then commander of the 11th Panzer Division, the command that he should throw his fast units north over the Schisdra and form a bridgehead. Balck reports to the high command several times, his men could not carry out the command. On August 17, Hitler's chief adjutant appeared even, Major General Rudolf Schmundt, in the command post, to drive the division.