Robbery and salvation. Russian museums during the Second World War. Zubkova E.Yu., Kur-Korolev K., Schmigelt-Iltig U.

Having made millions of human victims with it, the Second World War also became a cultural disaster: many museums were looted, the churches were destroyed, and works of art and libraries died in fire or were taken out as “trophies”. The book, prepared by the Russian-German team of authors, talks about the fate of the cultural values ​​of Russia, lost in those years. In the center of the study “Military History” of several museum complexes: suburban palaces near St. Petersburg-Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk, Gatchina and ancient Russian cities of Novgorod and Pskov.

What measures were taken to protect and save museum meetings? How and by whom were they plundered? In what ways did the stolen works of art go west? Who tried to save them under bombing, in occupation and evacuation? The authors are looking for answers to these questions where the stories of museums are intertwined with the stories of people - those who saved museum values, and those who were engaged in their robbery. This is a story that has not yet ended.