I omit the rest of this page and pass on to Page 54, of my report.
“Over 2 years of Hitlerite rule in Novgorod brought about the ruin of many other wonderful, ancient monuments of Russian architecture. . . . By order of the commanding general of the 18th German Army, Generaloberst Lindemann, the German barbarians dismantled and prepared for removal to Germany the monument to ‘a thousand years of Russia.’ This monument was erected in the Kremlin Square in 1862 and represented, in artistic images, the main stages of the development of our native land up to the sixties of the 19th century. . . .
“The Hitler barbarians dismantled the monument and smashed the statuary. They did not, however, succeed in shipping it off and melting down the metal.”
Citizen Youri Nikolaievich Dimitriev, in his affidavit, gives a very detailed account of the barbarous destruction by the Germans of the monuments of ancient Russian art in the cities of Novgorod and Pskov. Dimitriev, since 1937, was the custodian of the Ancient Russian Art Section of the Russian State Museum in Leningrad. He began the study of the historical monuments of Novgorod and Pskov in 1926. As a great expert in this particular sphere of art, he was asked by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union to participate in the investigation of the crimes of the German fascist invaders.
I submit to the Tribunal the original of Dimitriev’s depositions, duly certified, in accordance with legal procedure in the U.S.S.R., as Document Number USSR-312 (Exhibit Number USSR-312). You will find it, Your Honors, on Pages 335 and 347 in your document book. In submitting his affidavit, I shall omit facts already known to the Tribunal from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission previously read into the record. I quote only a few short excerpts which will be found on Pages 336 and 339. Mr. Dimitriev stated as follows—I read:
“The greater part of Novgorod is razed to the ground; only a few districts were left by the Germans and even these were in ruins. Pskov was also left in ruins by the Germans; during their retreat they blew up the buildings and monuments. Of 88 buildings of historical and artistic value in Novgorod only two buildings are without grave damages. . . . Only a few isolated monuments in Pskov were left undamaged.
“In Novgorod and Pskov the Germans deliberately destroyed monuments of historical and artistic value.”
And further:
“The German Army, while destroying and damaging monuments of historical and artistic value, plundered and carried off works of art and valuable objects which formed part of, or were contained in, these monuments.
“At the same time the German troops profaned and desecrated several ecclesiastical monuments of historic and artistic value in Novgorod and Pskov.”