“The priest Amvrosy Ivanov writes from the village of
Iklinskoye, in the Moscow region:
“‘Before the arrival of the Germans the church was in complete
order. A German officer ordered me to take everything out of the
church. . . . At night troops arrived, occupied the church,
brought in their horses. . . . Then they began to smash and
break everything in the church and to build bunks. They threw
out everything: the altar, the holy gates and banners, and the
holy shroud. In a word, the church was turned into a robbers’
den.’”