Date
Author
Юлия КАНТОР; Доктор Исторических Наук
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
The city that doesn't exist
Robbery Operations Headquarters
Already in 1940, a few months after the outbreak of the Second World War, the Operational Headquarters of Reichsleiter Rosenberg was created in Hitler's Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. (Alfred Rosenberg, 1893-1946, Hitler’s deputy for “spiritual and ideological training” of members of the Nazi Party, since 1940 Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. Born in Reval, now Tallinn, studied in Riga and Moscow, where he graduated in 1918, graduated from the Higher Technical School with a degree in civil engineering, and soon after that he repatriated to Germany. He was fluent in Russian.)
The operational headquarters was a single centralized organization that, during the Second World War, was engaged in identifying cultural property in the occupied territories, taking it “under control” and then exporting it to Germany. Its structure was quite flexible and ramified: the coordination of the activities of various divisions was carried out by the central department; in 1942, it was in charge of five main working groups - “France”, “Belgium and Northern France”, “Netherlands”, “Baltic States” (“Ostland” ") and "Ukraine". The last two - "Baltic", created on August 20, 1941 and based in Riga, and "Ukraine" with the main base in Kyiv, created on October 3, 1941 - carried out registration of cultural property in the occupied territories of the USSR. The main working group "Baltic", in turn, consisted of units "Lithuania", "Latvia", "Estonia" and a small mobile advanced team "Petersburg", operating in the army offensive zone in the north-west of Russia and entering the occupied cities directly behind the advanced units. In the occupied regions, special “settled” units were created “on the ground” - special groups “Novgorod” and “Pskov”, which were part of the “Estonia” working group. The specific tasks of the Operational Headquarters were formulated in Rosenberg’s orders of August 20 and October 3, 1941 - when creating the Baltic and Ukraine groups:
“-- Inspection of libraries, archives and “other ideological and cultural institutions of all kinds”, confiscation of materials of an ideological nature;
-- confiscation of cultural values owned by Jews, as well as those left without owners;
-- “shelter” and “taking under protection” of cultural property located in the occupied territories in order to prevent their damage or destruction.”
The leadership of the Operational Headquarters attached great importance to reporting documentation. The working groups were required to send monthly reports on their activities to the Berlin office of the Special Headquarters; Special groups and advance teams provided weekly and monthly reports. This is how an extensive archive of the Rosenberg Operational Headquarters was formed. It, which after the war found itself scattered among various collections, has been studied only very fragmentarily.
Spanish trace
An idea of the state of the Novgorod monuments after the end of the fighting at the disposal of the German occupation authorities is given by the “Inspection Report of November 26-27, 1941,” drawn up on December 4, 1941 by the head of the Estonia working group, Georg Friedrich von Kruzenstern: “The ancient city of Novgorod was destroyed by more than 90%. The German commandant's office is located in... the building of the Spiritual Monastery. The city, the Kremlin and the front section are occupied by the Spanish Blue Division (the Blue Division is a Spanish volunteer formation consisting of regular army personnel, civil war veterans and the Falangist - after the name of the far-right pro-fascist party of Spain - militia. - Yu.K. ) " .
“...Of the large number of churches on the other bank of the Volkhov, on the Sofia side, only one is open and used for church services... (the Church of the Archangel Michael on Prusskaya Street). The famous St. Sophia Cathedral of the 11th century. was subjected to artillery fire... In Soviet times, the building housed a museum of atheism and the richest historical museum collections. All that remains of the atheistic museum now are isolated posters, empty display cases, cabinets and descriptive texts. In numerous... rooms of the cathedral, in disorder among rubble and stones, lie... fragments of precious tombs, clothes of Russian princes, sculptures made of stone and wood, liturgical vestments made of gold-embroidered brocade, banners, standards, church utensils and the remains of the famous collection of Bibles. Since the glass in the windows was broken, there was a lot of snow and ice all around. Beautiful stylish furniture remains in the gallery.
Opposite the St. Sophia Cathedral in the corner building (in the Likhudov building) there was a large library, which still remained intact during the capture of the city. It was collected by the Bolsheviks from the very valuable ancient library of the Novgorod archbishop and other private libraries of nearby noble estates. Currently, the library has suffered significant damage from the soldiers of the Spanish division. I found about 10,000 books in many large rooms lying on the floor. Bricks and garbage (human waste) covered valuable leather volumes from the 17th to 19th centuries. There were no whole windows or doors in the library. Many books covered the windows in the barracks, others lay in the snow.
The medieval building in the Kremlin... housed two museums, currently used by soldiers of the Spanish division for housing and warehouses. I found bunks, straw beds and tables in them. According to the Russian burgomaster, the Soviets evacuated all exhibits from the museums. Only a medieval bell, hewn stone slabs and some large items that were difficult to transport were found in the vestibule. A church located not far from Sofia, used for museum purposes, was turned by the Spaniards into a forge; I saw how horses were shoed there. Other Kremlin buildings, such as the Archbishop's Palace, are used as morgues and warehouses or are empty...
Regarding the plight of the buildings in the Kremlin, the commandant referred to difficulties in relations with the Spanish division and the impossibility of organizing work to preserve monuments...”
Together with advanced teams and working groups, the objects were assessed by specialists, scientific experts - employees of special headquarters in various areas (“Archives”, “Music”, “Prehistory”, “Fine Arts”, “Science”, “Demography”, “ Ethnography”, etc.). In Novgorod, such an expert was Doctor of Art History Dieter Roskamp, a member of the Special Staff “Fine Arts”. From Roskamp's report of March 14, 1942:
“In general, in Novgorod it seems that the Russians deliberately set fire to and destroyed the most significant church buildings. In the Church of St. John on the Trade Side alone, which was burned by the Russians, about 3,000 collected ancient icons perished. During the years of Soviet power, many churches in Novgorod fell into disrepair. In the Church of Nicholas of the 12th century. there was a bank, in the aisles there were administrative services and a kindergarten... Enormous damage to the monuments was caused by soldiers of the Spanish division located in Novgorod... Most of the well-preserved iconostases were used by Spanish soldiers for heating (the Church of Theodore Stratelates). Other churches burned down due to the negligence of soldiers (Znamensky Cathedral), and their ancient decoration is now lost. All churches in Novgorod are open.
A special case is the Church of Michael the Archangel on Prusskaya Street, the only one operating during the years of Soviet power. The church is well preserved, and works of art from many other churches have been collected here. However, at the end of January 1942 (January 27-30), Spanish soldiers blew up the door with a hand grenade and got inside. Silver utensils and icons were stolen.”
The final part of Roskamp's report consists of brief descriptions of the state of Novgorod's monuments.
“In the St. Sophia Cathedral there is a temple icon - the image of St. Sophia, the royal doors from the iconostasis of one of the chapels, two thrones and a chandelier from the 16th century. taken out by Professor Zamm.
St. Nicholas Cathedral: in December 1941, the temple was still undamaged. It is now completely devastated by (Spanish) soldiers. Fragments of a carved iconostasis of the 18th century. lying on the floor in the snow.
Church of Praskeva Friday: valuable icons were located here. The church burned down.
Church of the Myrrh-Bearing Women: the interior decoration is completely destroyed.
Church of the Savior on Ilyin: damaged by artillery shelling.
Znamensky Cathedral: decoration and church objects were recently destroyed - burned by Spanish soldiers.
Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady of the St. Anthony Monastery: trash in the church; The iconostasis... suffers from rain and snow.
Church of Fyodor Stratilates: during the years of Soviet power it was used as a museum. The iconostasis was used for fuel by Spanish soldiers.
John's Church: used as a museum of icons. The Russians destroyed 3,000 icons by fire.
Church of Peter and Paul: here is one of the most significant iconostases of the 15th century. Now covered with snow and endangered. Members of the Russian commission for the rescue of artistic treasures in the late autumn of 1941 covered the most important icons with paper.
The Historical Museum and the Museum of Russian Art (both in the Kremlin) no longer have works of art. The buildings are used by the soldiers of the Spanish division as a morgue and a store."
The refrain of almost all known documents are references to the uncontrollability of the Spaniards and their barbaric attitude towards cultural values: “Churches were opened and looted, iconostases and individual icons were destroyed by the Spaniards... It is necessary to ensure order in this part of the city, hang signs, close churches in order to prevent further looting and destruction of monuments.” Employees of the Operational Headquarters of Reichsleiter Rosenberg could not look with indifference at the legionnaires who neglected “the relics conquered by the Third Reich from the inferior Slavs.” Signs were posted, but it had no effect: “Everywhere on the doors of ancient temples there are prohibitory inscriptions in German and Spanish, but the Spaniards do not pay any attention to these inscriptions, break open the doors and take away icons from the temples.”
Spain, where traces of many Soviet cultural treasures lost during the war lead, alas, is still terra incognita for specialists in displaced art: practically no systematic research is being conducted here regarding Russian losses. One of the rarest events of this kind is the discovery and subsequent return in 2004 of the cross of the main dome of the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral, taken from the occupied city in 1942 by the Spanish Blue Division. The relic was handed over to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II by the then Minister of Defense of Spain Jose Bono.
"Russian burgomaster"
The first burgomaster of Nazi-occupied Novgorod was the archaeologist Vasily Ponomarev - a figure for the Novgorod military and post-war history that was both noticeable and controversial. The grandson of the famous archaeologist and collector in the Novgorod province, the founder of the local society of antiquity lovers Vasily Peredolsky, Ponomarev followed in his grandfather’s footsteps: he graduated from Moscow University and became an archaeologist. He was repressed in 1933 in the case of the “Russian Student Christian Movement”, after the camps, in 1939-1941, despite the stigma of “enemy of the people”, he was able to return to the museum and work in his specialty. He agreed to cooperate with the Nazi occupation authorities, served as burgomaster of Novgorod for several months, but was soon removed from it. He was entrusted with the initial study of the repositories of cultural property, organizing measures for their preservation, and subsequently removing them from the city, first to Pskov and Riga, and then to Germany. In addition, during the period of fascist occupation, he was engaged in archeology - with the help of Wehrmacht soldiers and Soviet prisoners of war assigned to him for “dirty work,” he continued the excavations of Slavic burial mounds on the Oredezh River that had begun before the war (the Nazis were interested in antiquities and jewelry). Vasily Ponomarev, with the favorable attitude of the staff of Rosenberg’s headquarters, went to accompany cultural treasures to Germany, where in 1944 he was engaged in the description of Novgorod archaeological collections at the University of Greifswald. After the war he ended up in the American occupation zone. He did not return to the USSR, not unreasonably believing that he would not be forgiven for collaborating with the occupation regime. He taught history and archeology. He died in 1978 in Marburg, without accepting German citizenship (according to some sources, because he did not want to be a citizen of a country that attacked his homeland; according to others, no less probable, because the status of a stateless person provided the greatest protection from extradition) . He did not maintain any contact with his relatives who remained in the Soviet Union, naturally fearing to cause trouble for them. Assisted the German authorities in their efforts to return Novgorod and Pskov valuables to the USSR. In our country, of course, he was “persona non grata” until the early 90s. In recent years, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, and now in Novgorod Ponomarev is spoken of almost exclusively as the savior of valuables from imminent destruction. Several years ago, on the initiative of his relatives, his remains were reburied in his homeland.
The library of the University of Marburg houses the archive of Vasily Ponomarev, fragments of which - memoirs about the occupation of Novgorod, written in the early 50s, apparently based on earlier war diaries - were recently published. For all their outward dispassion, it is difficult not to notice the difference in the author’s attitude towards the occupiers and towards the “retreating Soviets” - not in favor of the latter.
From the memoirs of Vasily Ponomarev:
“At the beginning of the war, Novgorod, although subjected to German air raids, which became especially frequent since the end of July, suffered relatively little... Apparently, the German bombers had a special order to spare churches. Seeing this, the population took refuge in churches in droves, turning them into improvised bomb shelters. Novgorodians, already in front of the eyes of the Soviet authorities... raised fervent prayers to heaven for salvation from impending death... Detinets (Kremlin - Yu.K. ) was bombed only on the day the German troops captured the Sofia side of the city, 15.8.41. (Novgorod stands on two banks of the Volkhov River: on one bank there is the Sofia side, named after the St. Sophia Cathedral located on the territory of the Kremlin; the second, where merchant people lived in ancient times, is named after “professional characteristics” - Torgovaya. - - Yu.K. ) At the same time, one bomb hit the St. Sophia Cathedral. Another bomb completely destroyed the southern half of the 18th century house. at the belfry... An artillery shell pierced the roof of the museum tower. Other buildings in the southern half of Detinets were completely burned down... During the five-day battle for crossing the river. Volkhov from the Sofia to the Trade side of the city, only the Church of the Savior on Ilyin (with frescoes by Theophanes the Greek - Yu.K. ) received severe damage . Leaving Novgorod, the Soviet authorities set the entire city on fire. The huge fire lasted for several days. However, the strong masonry of Novgorod churches resisted the fire, and the majority of even the burned churches remained relatively undamaged, fully preserved as architectural monuments. The stabilization of the front on Volkhov and the positional war that lasted here for several years turned out to be disastrous for them... Mutual, even not very intense, shelling, finishing off the city, destroyed ancient monuments one after another. At the beginning of September, Soviet artillery dealt them the first two heavy blows. The shells smashed the dome of the Church of Ivan on Opoki, and the fire destroyed the entire collection of Novgorod museums stored in this building... On July 5, 1942, Soviet artillery conducted systematic shelling of the St. Sophia Cathedral... The sight was taken on the sparkling golden helmet-shaped dome... The destruction of the oldest Novgorod the temple, one of the greatest shrines of the Russian people, was the target and shameful result of Soviet artillery fire."
From a memo by Vasily Ponomarev on measures to protect monuments of art and antiquity in Novgorod the Great on April 22, 1942:
“After the occupation of Novgorod by German troops, measures were taken to protect the archive, St. Sofia, library and museum fund. I, appointed on August 29 (1941) as the first burgomaster of the city of Novgorod, was tasked with finding out the condition of these storage facilities, the most important valuables of which, as it turned out, were evacuated by the Soviet authorities.
Then, at the beginning of October, Professor Zamm removed several ancient icons from the St. Sophia Cathedral (including the temple miraculous image of St. Sophia and the royal doors from the iconostasis of the Nativity chapel of the cathedral) and several paintings transferred to the cathedral from the art gallery.
In November, my father Vasily Nikolaevsky, a priest of the Novgorod Parish Church, organized the church-Archaeological committee and for the collected donations made work to clean the cathedral ...
Since December 25, due to the evacuation of the entire civilian population from Novgorod, the work organized by the Church and Archaeological Committee was terminated, and I was entrusted with monitoring the state of the Sofia Cathedral.
At the end of February 1942, the commission arrived from Riga ... Having examined the state of the monuments of art and antiquity of Novgorod, I entrusted me with the implementation of measures to protect them, which I began with the assistance of the Novgorod German commandant’s office .. ”
No statute of limitations
In December 1941, the books of the museum library were postponed by employees of the operational headquarters from the Likhudov Corps to the chapel of the Sofia Cathedral. And in February 1942, the head of the Special Group Novgorod, the representative of the Special Headquarters of the Library, Doctor of Philology Paul Vaal took out church books and manuscripts from Novgorod first to Pskov, and then to Riga. The most valuable of them were shown at the Reichsliter Rosenberg organized in April 1942 in April 1942, the exhibition "Novgorod libraries and their treasures". Among them: the Gospel of 1644 in the salary from the Church of Nikola in Navolok (under the sacrifice), the Gospel of 1606 from the Yuryev monastery, “Life and miracles of St. Moses, Archbishop of Novgorod, ”of the 17th century, the Gospel of 1663 from the old Russa and a number of gospels of the XVII-- XVIII centuries in silver salaries.
The processing of a unique collection was completed by September 1942, as evidenced by the report of the main working group "Baltic" to the leadership of the operational headquarters "On the Processing of the Novgorod Library". According to him, 33,892 volumes were sent to Riga from Novgorod; Lists of books on 68 sheets according to the sections “Archeology”, “Ethnography” and “Rarity” were attached to the report. Among them are 1260 Bibles, the Gospels and other liturgical books of the XVI-XVIII centuries, belonging to the Novgorod Museum and originating from various meetings-the Novgorod church library, the libraries of the Brotherhood of St. Sofia, Yuryev Monastery, Sofia Cathedral, personal libraries of Archbishop Arseny and bishop of Grigory Libinsky, as well as a number of churches near Novgorod. The collection was intended to transfer the exarchate of the Orthodox Church in Latvia in Riga. But in the protocol held in Riga on November 27, 1942, the transfer by the main working group "Baltic" to the exarchate of the Orthodox Church in the person of the Metropolitan of Lithuania and Vilensky Sergius is already mentioned only 1026 liturgical manuscript and printed books from Novgorod. “Saved” by Rosenberg’s headquarters “from the Bolsheviks used by the Bolsheviks as a Museum of Atheism of the Sofia Cathedral” Books were transmitted for “temporary use” with the condition of their return in “subsequent time” (i.e., after the end of the war victorious for Nazi Germany. - Yu.K. ) Orthodox church in Novgorod.
The marking of works of art according to the system of the main working group "Baltic states" was performed in Riga. It is characteristic that quite detailed lists practically do not contain information about the origin of the works of art described in them: the Hitler art historians were not interested in the belonging of their treasures. Today, historians and museum workers, when identifying surviving displaced values, are sometimes forced to navigate only according to the complex of old (museum) numbers listed in detail in the descriptions (this was necessary in order to avoid confusion in the presence of, say, two icons or utensils with the same name).
Since the beginning of 1943, the export of cultural and artistic values to the West acquires a mass character and becomes very hasty. By this time, when, after the Battle of Stalingrad, it became clear that the “subsequent time” for the third Reich would not occur, the installations of the operational headquarters in relation to values in the occupied eastern territories have changed significantly. The artistic values taken out of Novgorod at the end of 1943 were first determined for storage in Pskov, where their inventory and compilation of inventories were carried out. Then they were transported to Riga, to the base of the General Working Group "Baltic" for further processing, packaging and sending to Germany.
In April 1944, an exhibition was opened in the premises of the Riga State Museum, the organizer of which was the Commissioner for the Protection of Arts of the Army Group North, Count Ernst Otto Zolms-Laubakh, director of the art museum in Frankfurt-on-main. The documents have information about sending from Riga to Germany, to the Lerberg town, and from there to storage to Kolberg Castle on April 3 and May 13, 1944, five wagons with art values, among which 650 icons of the XIV-XVII centuries from Novgorod, Pskov, Pskov, Pskov, Pskov. Tikhvina, Gatchina, Peterhof and Pavlovsk.
From the report of Diter Roskamp on the packaging of art objects “saved” by the North military group, dated April 29, 1944:
“In the second half of April in Riga, a package of objects of art saved in Russia was carried out in Russia for their further transfer to the Reich. After the prepared 2 cars with 81 box of porcelain, furniture, etc. (April 3) were sent from Riga, there were still about 650 icons from the Novgorod churches and museums, from Tikhvin and the museum in Pskov ... Icons, first of all, iconostases of the Novgorod churches, outstanding quality and rise to the most part to the XIV- XVIIII centuries They belong to the best works of art that were saved in Russia.
... The inventory of the works of art saved by the headquarters was prepared on the basis of the label of labels performed ... with the participation of Russian specialists. The catalog is incomplete, but contains much more things than now in stock, because One of the ... wagons along the way from Pskov (underwent shelling) was lost. Inventory numbers (corresponding to the catalog) are on the back of the icons. Professor Doctor of History Archaeologist Karl Engel in Grainwald Pereslavs 7 boxes with archaeological materials from Novgorod. ”
On January 20, 1944, Novgorod was released. According to the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of November 1, 1945, Novgorod was one of the 15 Soviet cities subject to priority restoration. Then, a group of architects, led by Aleksei Schusev, developed a general plan for the development of Novgorod, which provided for the preservation of the historical foundations of its urban planning and the development of historical and musical infrastructure. But already in the 1950s, the city began to rapidly build up industrial facilities and block residential buildings. It increased repeatedly in size and lost many ancient elements of its layout, such as the Gzen River, the Fedorovsky stream, the shaft sections and the ditch of a roundabout city. From the architectural monuments of the historical center of Veliky Novgorod, which will be 1150 years old in September, no more than a third has been restored. The consolidated catalog of cultural losses has not yet been compiled. In local bookstores, in connection with the anniversary of abundant guidebooks and colorful albums, mainly dedicated to Novgorod antiquities, you will not find the literature telling about Novgorod the military, about the occupation and liberation. As my interlocutors explained to me with bitterness - teachers of the University of Novgorod named after Yaroslav the Wise, employees of the Novgorod Kremlin museum-reserve and the heads of several book publishers, in the federal program of the celebration of the 1150th anniversary, adopted several years ago, have not been provided for serious historical publications, and even more so for professional research on military issues. As in the scheduled federal budget of the event of the upcoming 65th anniversary of the Victory, among others to this region.