History of Russia: Exhibition “Destruction of palaces. 1941-1944” in the Museum Preserve “Tsarskoye Selo”

January 25, 2013 on the eve of the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege, in the Museum-Preserve “Tsarskoy Selo” opens the exhibition “Destruction of palaces. 1941-1944”. Visitors will first see dispassionate photographic images, depicting the splendor and destruction of palaces during the Great Patriotic War. All the pictures are amateur, made by the Nazis during the occupation of Pushkin town. 

A significant part of the exposition consists of photo documents and journals from the collection of historians Bair Irincheev and Denis Zhukov, collected by them for more than 10 years. All rare photographs are purchased at German online auctions; the majority is from amateur photo album of the German soldier.

In addition to photographs from the collections of Irincheev and Zhukov at the exhibition are featured materials from  the collection of Museum-Preserve – amateur photographs and photo camera Leica, donated to the museum by daughter of the german soldier, whose part was stationed in Pushkin; diary of the german soldier Kurt Butler, who kept it in 1941-1942.  For the first time in the museum are exhibited copies of photographs taken in November and December of the forty-first an amateur photographer of the 58th Infantry Division Wehrmacht under the command of Altrichter - Division quartered in the neighborhood, in Slutsk (Pavlovsk). The right to use these images was given to museum the Berlin researcher Dmitry Zilberman.

The history of occupation of Pushkin town during the Great Patriotic War is known only in a few episodes. For different reasons so far researcher were not able to handle the huge volume of documents, which are located in hundreds of archives around the world. So, the saved photographic image of the town, palaces and parks of that period – usually amateur – is of particular value.

The exhibition will run till March 3.