The big story of a small village. The German occupation of Smolensk in July 1941

The big story of a small village. The German occupation of Smolensk in July 1941

About a year ago, I came across an archive consisting of just one medium-format black-and-white roll of film made by the German company Perutz. There was no information about the photographer or the archive. The film itself was in very poor condition, with partial separation of the photographic emulsion layer, but the fact that it had survived and reached our days is a miracle in itself. After carefully cleaning, straightening, and scanning the frames, it became clear that the film was shot during the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union. Gradually, piecing together all the details, we managed to reconstruct the history of this archive and place.

The archive was photographed by an unknown photographer who served in the German army as part of the Wehrmacht's 19th Panzer Division. The insignia of this division, as mentioned in the Wehrmacht order of December 12, 1940, was the “vertical Wolfsangel”. All photos from the archive were taken during Nazi Germany's attack on the USSR as part of Operation Barbarossa. The 19th Tank Division was formed in November 1940 on the basis of the 19th Infantry Division. From June 22, 1941, it participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union as part of the 57th Motorized Corps of General Hoth's 3rd Tank Group of Army Group Center. The division was located in the Suwalki Gap. It had 173 tanks, which made it a fairly impressive force. The division was in the rear of the motorized corps. After a long march, it secured its position in the Trab area (between Minsk and Vilnius). In this sector, the division fought fierce battles with Soviet troops attempting to break out of the Minsk pocket in a north-easterly direction. On July 13, 1941, the German army invaded the Smolensk region, and on the evening of July 16, their advance units broke into Smolensk. The 19th Tank Division took an active part in the battles for Smolensk and its environs, seeking to break through the Soviet defenses and ensure a further advance on Moscow. During the first two months of the war against the USSR, the division suffered such heavy losses that one of its three tank battalions had to be disbanded by August.

Based on the terrain and buildings depicted in the photographs, we were able to determine the exact location where the photographs from the found archive were taken. An unknown photographer captured the period of the occupation of the Smolensk region in approximately July-August 1941, specifically the occupation of the village of Glaskovo in the Demidov district of the Smolensk region. Today, the village of Glaskovo (55°32'39.8" N 31°54'45.5"E) is part of the Slobodskoye rural settlement on the banks of the Yelsha River and is located in the northwestern part of the Smolensk region, 39 km northeast of Demidov, 38 km west of the R133 Smolensk-Nevel highway. This small village has a rich history.

At the end of the 18th century, a church was built in the village in honor of the Akhtyr Icon of the Mother of God. Archival documents indicate that the first known owner of the village of Glaskovo was the aforementioned Gerasim Andreevich Mitsky. It was with the funds of Second Major Gerasim Andreevich Mitsky that the church was built in 1787. The main altar was consecrated in honor of the Akhtyr Icon of the Mother of God, and the side altar was dedicated to St. John the Theologian. The construction of the church raised the village's status, and it became a village in the Porechsky district. At some point, it began to be called Glazkovo. In 1823, His Eminence Bishop Joseph (Velichkovsky) issued a new antimension to the Akhtyrskaya Church. One version of the origin of the name Glazkovo is that the village got its name from the voice of the bells of the Akhtyrskaya Church, whose ringing could be heard for several dozen kilometers. The last landowner of Glazkovo-Glaskova was Khariton Pavlovich Pashetkin, a merchant from Velizh, or Pashketka, as the local peasants called him. At that time, there was a severe shortage of workers in the village and a complete lack of day laborers, as the local peasants preferred to engage in timber rafting, which brought in more income than peasant labor. Little by little, the church fell into disrepair. And during the Soviet era and its fierce fight against religion, in 1930, the Smoloblispolkom (Smolensk City Executive Committee) decided to turn the Akhtyrskaya Church into a local club. After the Akhtyrskaya Church was closed, Glazkovo lost its rural status and reverted to being the village of Glaskovo. Some of the photographs taken by an unknown German photographer were taken in the Akhtyrskaya Church. To this day, only ruins remain of the church, with rare remnants of paintings that the German photographer managed to preserve in his photographs.

During the occupation of the Smolensk region, including the village of Glaskovo, from July 1941 to October 1943, the region suffered enormous human and material losses. More than 98,000 residential buildings were destroyed and burned down. Mass shootings and burnings of civilians, including women and children, were recorded in the villages. More than 510,000 residents of the Smolensk region fell victim to the Nazi regime, including 90,000 civilians, 300,000 prisoners of war, and 120,000 people who were taken to Germany for forced labor.

Today, in the village of Glaskovo, the only thing that reminds us of those events is a typical rural memorial with a plaque reading “Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in battle for the freedom and independence of our Motherland” and a red star on top. The ruins of the Akhtyrskaya Church, whose bell tower still has a cross, are a reminder of the village's ancient history. The village of Glaskovo itself is doomed today. There is no school, no club, no mill left here. There is no decent road or anything else that could keep people in this place. Of the 46 residents recorded in 2007, almost no one remains today.