In the 1920s, the town housed two competing cells of the Militant Atheists Union reporting directly to the national Union in Moscow.
Population, however, remained superstitious: in 1926 Bronnitsy were swept with an outbreak of alleged demonic possession blamed on a local homosexual healer.
The temples of Bronnitsy were closed in the 1930s and used as archives; they were struck off heritage register during Nikita Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign, but survived to date.
Religion persisted, sometimes literally underground: parents of Alexey Vdovin (born 1958) belonged to the Catacomb Church (in the 1980s, Vdovin himself initiated destruction of monument to Vladimir Lenin and repossession of churches in his hometown; he became a radical nationalist, activist of Pamyat and co-founder of the Russian National Union).

Human losses of Bronnitsy during the terror campaigns of the 1930s have been only partially estimated.
By 2007, 300 out of 31,000 victims of political terror in Moscow Oblast were identified as residents of Bronnitsy.

During World War II, Bronnitsy served as the southern vortex of Moscow's inner radar arc; the 337th air defense battalion, equipped with RUS-1 Reven (later RUS-2 and RUS-2c) radars, was based there since March 1941.
In 1945, Bronnitsy housed one of five displaced persons camps for the repatriation of American and British prisoners of war from the USSR.
Front-line action did not reach Bronnitsy but the town and country lost so many men that after the war the government resorted to returning "political" prisoners of Gulag to take up administrative jobs.

On April 16, 1964, Bronnitsy witnessed a mass riot after a local resident died in police custody.
A mob of around 300 attacked the jail; police did not dare to use firearms and there were no more casualties.
Eight of the protesters were prosecuted in court.
It was added to the list of the historical towns of the Moscow Oblast in 1990, and gained the status of a city of regional subordination, along with a new charter, in 1992.
A gas explosion occurred in a five-story apartment at 15:45 on October 17, 2011, resulting in two people killed and fifteen wounded.
It was apparently due to human error.
In the 1920s, the town housed two competing cells of the Militant Atheists Union reporting directly to the national Union in Moscow. Population, however, remained superstitious: in 1926 Bronnitsy were swept with an outbreak of alleged demonic possession blamed on a local homosexual healer. The temples of Bronnitsy were closed in the 1930s and used as archives; they were struck off heritage register during Nikita Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign, but survived to date. Religion persisted, sometimes literally underground: parents of Alexey Vdovin (born 1958) belonged to the Catacomb Church (in the 1980s, Vdovin himself initiated destruction of monument to Vladimir Lenin and repossession of churches in his hometown; he became a radical nationalist, activist of Pamyat and co-founder of the Russian National Union).
Human losses of Bronnitsy during the terror campaigns of the 1930s have been only partially estimated. By 2007, 300 out of 31,000 victims of political terror in Moscow Oblast were identified as residents of Bronnitsy.
During World War II, Bronnitsy served as the southern vortex of Moscow's inner radar arc; the 337th air defense battalion, equipped with RUS-1 Reven (later RUS-2 and RUS-2c) radars, was based there since March 1941. In 1945, Bronnitsy housed one of five displaced persons camps for the repatriation of American and British prisoners of war from the USSR. Front-line action did not reach Bronnitsy but the town and country lost so many men that after the war the government resorted to returning "political" prisoners of Gulag to take up administrative jobs.
On April 16, 1964, Bronnitsy witnessed a mass riot after a local resident died in police custody. A mob of around 300 attacked the jail; police did not dare to use firearms and there were no more casualties. Eight of the protesters were prosecuted in court. It was added to the list of the historical towns of the Moscow Oblast in 1990, and gained the status of a city of regional subordination, along with a new charter, in 1992. A gas explosion occurred in a five-story apartment at 15:45 on October 17, 2011, resulting in two people killed and fifteen wounded. It was apparently due to human error.
Bronnitsy