“The Hitlerites looted and then set on fire the famous Borodino
Museum, the historical exhibits of which related to the struggle
against the armies of Napoleon in 1812, particularly dear to the
Russian people. The invaders looted and set fire to the Pushkin
House Museum in the hamlet of Polotnyany Zavod.
“In Kaluga the Hitlerites assiduously destroyed the exhibits in
the house-museum in which the eminent Russian scientist K. E.
Tsiolkovsky, whose services in the field of aeronautics enjoy
world-wide fame, lived and worked.
“The fascist vandals used Tsiolkovsky’s portrait as a target for
revolver practice. Extremely valuable models of dirigibles,
together with plans and instruments, were trampled underfoot.
One of the museum rooms was turned into a hen coop and the
furniture burned. One of the oldest agricultural institutions in
the U.S.S.R., the Shatilov selection station in the Orel
district, was destroyed by the invaders, who blew up and
consigned to the flames 55 buildings of this station, including
the agrochemical and other laboratories, the museum, the library
containing 40,000 volumes, the school, and other buildings. Even
greater frenzy was shown by the Hitlerites when looting the
cultural institutions and historical monuments of the Ukraine
and of Bielorussia.”
I omit two paragraphs and pass on to the last paragraph of this
quotation:
“There was no limit to the desecration by the Hitlerite vandals
of the monuments and homes representing Ukrainian history,
culture, and art. Suffice to mention, as an example of the
constant attempts to humiliate the national dignity of the
Ukrainian people, that after plundering the Korolenko Library in
Kharkov, the occupiers used the books as paving stones for the
muddy street in order to facilitate the passage of German motor
vehicles.”
The German vandals treated with particular hatred these cultural
monuments which were most dear to the Soviet people. I shall quote
several instances:
The Hitlerites plundered Yasnaya Polyana, where one of the greatest
writers, Leo Tolstoy, was born, lived, and worked.
They plundered and despoiled the house where the great Russian composer,
Tschaikovsky, lived and worked. In this house Tschaikovsky created the
world-famous operas _Eugen Onegin_ and _The Queen of Spades_.
In Taganrog they destroyed the house where the great Russian writer
Chekhov lived; in Tikhvin they destroyed the residence of the Russian
composer Rimsky-Korsakov.
As evidence, Your Honors, I shall read into the record an excerpt from
the note of Foreign Commissar Molotov, dated 6 January 1942. This
document has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number
51(2). This excerpt is on Page 317 of the document book. I quote:
“For a period of 6 weeks, the Germans occupied the world-famous
property of Yasnaya Polyana where Leo Tolstoy, one of the
greatest geniuses of mankind, was born, lived, and created. This
glorious memorial to Russian culture was wrecked, profaned, and
finally set on fire by the Nazi vandals. The grave of the great
writer was desecrated by the invaders. Irreplaceable relics
relating to the life and work of Leo Tolstoy, including rare
manuscripts, books, and paintings, were either plundered by the
German soldiers or thrown away and destroyed. A German officer
named Schwartz, in reply to a request of one of the museum’s
staff collaborators to stop using the personal furniture and
books of the great writer for firewood and to use wood available
for this purpose, answered, ‘We don’t need firewood; we shall
burn everything connected with the name of your Tolstoy.’
“When the town of Klin was liberated by the Soviet troops on 15
December, it was ascertained that the house in which P. I.
Tschaikovsky, the great Russian composer, had lived and worked
and which the Soviet State had turned into a museum, had been
wrecked and plundered by fascist officers and soldiers. In the
museum building proper, the Germans set up a garage for
motorcycles, heating this garage with manuscripts, books,
furniture, and other museum exhibits, part of which had in any
case been stolen by the German invaders. In doing this, the Nazi
officers knew perfectly well that they were defiling one of the
finest monuments of Russian culture.
“During the occupation of the town of Istra, the German troops
established an ammunition dump in the famous ancient Russian
monastery known as the New Jerusalem Monastery, founded as far
back as 1654. The New Jerusalem Monastery was an outstanding
historical and religious monument of the Russian people and was
known as one of the most beautiful specimens of religious
architecture. This did not, however, prevent the German fascist
vandals from blowing up their ammunition dump in the New
Jerusalem Monastery on their retreat from Istra, thereby
reducing this irreplaceable monument of Russian church history
to a heap of ruins.”