during the war; of 640 buildings that existed in 1941, all but 34 were destroyed. Most of the devastation occurred just before the Nazi retreat on January 28, 1944, when the 37th SS police battalion formed in Tartu set wooden buildings on fire and set explosives into those of stone. Among the destroyed historical buildings was the unique ensemble of two 15th and 16th-century churches that survived the Bolshevik anti-religion campaigns. On August 23, 1944, the district was transferred to the newly established Pskov Oblast. The town was reconstructed during the 1950s and 1960s and continued to expand until the economic and demographic collapse of the early 1990s. In 1993 an exact copy of St. Dmitry Solounskiy church was built at its original location at the Gdov Kremlin, financed exclusively by crowdfunding. Administrative and municipal status Within the framework of administrative divisions, Gdov serves as the administrative center of Gdovsky District, to which it is directly subordinate. As a municipal division, the town of Gdov, together with sixty-two rural localities, is incorporated within Gdovsky Municipal District as Gdov Urban Settlement. Economy Industry The economy of Gdov is based on the food and timber industries. Transportation A railway line via Gdov connecting Narva and Pskov was built before WWI. Later a new line from Gdov to Slantsy and Veimarn was constructed and used for passenger and cargo connections to Leningrad. During WWII the Gdov–Pskov stretch was destroyed, thus making Gdov the terminal station. There was one pair of passenger trains daily servicing the St. Petersburg–Gdov route. In the mid-2010s, passenger traffic between Slantsy and Gdov was discontinued for commercial reasons. The railway between Slantsy and Gdov was deserted and, as of 2021, mainly demolished. Between the 1950s and 1980s an unpaved airfield in Gdov was used for commuter air transit to the neighbouring towns of Slantsy, Pskov and Tartu aboard an An-2 passenger biplane. Gdov is connected by paved roads to Pskov, Kingisepp via Slantsy, and Plyussa. There are daily bus services to Pskov, Slantsy, Saint-Petersburg, and neighbouring villages. In the mouth of the Gdovka there is a harbour for fishing and leisure boats. However, due to the lack of customs and border guard offices, sailing to Estonia is not possible. Military installations During World War II Gdov briefly hosted the headquarters of the Chudskoye Lake Flotilla (1941). The Russian Airforce base Smuravyevo, now abandoned, was located northeast of the town.