The Nazi forces occupied the Pushkin Reserve for three years, from July 12, 1941, to July 12, 1944. The 3rd Baltic Front troops eventually drove them out, but before retreating, German engineers blew up the Assumption Cathedral, built in the 16th century by the order of Ivan the Terrible. In an act of extreme cruelty, the Nazis mined Pushkin’s grave, laying explosives as if it were a military target rather than a cultural monument. In the following years, more than 14,000 mines and other dangerous explosive objects were defused in the reserve, including 36 large mines, three state-of-the-art charges at the time, and thousands of other hazardous items. However, mines were found in the estates and the Pushkinskie Gory area until the 1950s. In 1953, an unexploded shell was discovered in the wall of the Sviatogorsk Monastery. Although the mines in Pushkin’s grave were defused without causing any damage, the demining efforts in the reserve didn’t go without casualties. A mass grave exists near the walls of Sviatogorsk Monastery, honoring the sappers who lost their lives while defusing these historical monuments.