I omit the next paragraph and close this quotation.
Acting upon directions of the German Military Command, the Hitlerites destroyed and annihilated the cultural-historic monuments of the Russian people connected with the life and work of the great Russian poet, Alexander Sergeivitch Pushkin.
The report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, the original copy of which is now submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-40 (Exhibit Number USSR-40), reads as follows:
“To preserve the cultural and historical memorials of the Russian people connected with the life and creations of the gifted Russian poet and genius, Alexander Sergeivitch Pushkin, the Soviet Government, on 17 March 1922, declared the poet’s estate at Mikhailovskoye, as well as his tomb at the monastery of Svyatogorsky and the neighboring villages of Trigorskoye, Gorodischtsche, and Voronitch, a state reservation.
“The Pushkin reservation, and especially the poet’s estate at Mikhailovskoye, was very dear to the Russian people. Here Pushkin finished the third and created the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of _Eugen Onegin_. Here, too, he finished his poem _Gypsies_, and wrote the drama _Boris Godunov_, as well as a large number of epic and lyrical poems.
“In July 1941 the Hitlerites forced their way into the Pushkin reservation. For 3 years they made themselves at home there, ruined everything, and destroyed the Pushkin memorials.”
I shall omit the beginning of Page 1 of the report.
“The plundering of the museum had already begun in August 1941.”
I shall also omit the next paragraph. I read on:
“In the autumn of 1943 the commander of the Pushkin Military Kommandantur, Treibholz, urged Director K. V. Afanassiev to prepare for the evacuation of all the museum valuables. All these valuables were packed into cases by the German authorities, loaded into trucks, and sent to Germany.”
“At the end of February 1944 the Germans turned Mikhailovskoye into a military objective and into one of the strongpoints of the German defense. The park area was dug up for combat and communication trenches; shelters were constructed. The cottage of Pushkin’s nurse was taken to pieces and next to it, and partly on its former site, the Germans constructed a large dugout, protected by five layers of timber. The Germans built a similar dugout near the former museum building.