Karachev (Russian: Карачев) is a town and the administrative center of Karachevsky District in Bryansk Oblast, Russia.

[9] First chronicled in 1146, it was the capital of one of the Upper Oka Principalities in the Middle Ages, until its rulers moved their seat to Peremyshl.

Karachev was occupied by the German Army from 5 October 1941[10] to 15 August 1943.

The Germans operated a Nazi prison and temporarily also the Dulag 185 prisoner-of-war camp in the town.

[11][12] Local Jews were confined in a ghetto and eventually massacred by the occupiers on 12 December 1941, with some 100 victims.