Pytalovo (Russian: Пыта́лово; Latvian: Pitalova or Abrene) is a town and the administrative center of Pytalovsky District in Pskov Oblast, Russia, located on the Utroya River (a tributary of the Velikaya), 102 kilometers (63 mi) southwest of Pskov, the administrative center of the oblast.

[12] Russophones comprised the majority of the population in a number of parishes during Latvia's initial independence, with further Russification ongoing.

[13] Historian Carl von Stern wrote of a cultural awakening amongst the region's inhabitants in the 1930s despite generations of Russification.

"[13] Audiences wept as they heard old familiar folk songs sung with words and a language lost over time.

[15] One is that it was named after Lieutenant Pytalov, a guard to Catherine the Great, who received the lands in 1766 for reasons unknown, that estate subsequently being sold off by his descendants.

[citation needed] After the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union in 1940, the town originally remained a part of the Latvian SSR.

On January 16, 1945,[2] the town and the surrounding areas were transferred to Pskov Oblast of the Russian SFSR and Pytalovsky District was established.

Russian President Vladimir Putin infamously proclaimed in 2005 that Latvia "will get the ears of a dead donkey but not Pytalovo [Abrene]".