Grography of the USSR Staraya Russa under German occupation

[TabsTabs1964]

Staraya Russa is a small and peaceful city in northern Russia, located on the southern shore of Lake Ilmen. Exactly 300 km by road south of Saint Petersburg (Leningrad in 1941). It is one of the oldest cities in Russia.



The word Stáraya ("old") was added to it in the 15th century, to distinguish it from new localities also called Russa.

Legend has it that there were once two brothers, Princes Russ and Sloven, who ruled all the land around Lake Ilmen. Sloven founded the city of Novgorod on the north shore of the lake, and his brother Russ chose the south shore. He named the two rivers that intersect there: Porussja and Polisst with the names of his wife and daughter; and to the city: Russa.

Before World War I, there was a large colony of German merchants, which maintained its own German church (the little wooden church in front of the city administration).


City landscape Staraya Russa. 1921. Boris Kutstodiev


City landscape Staraya Russa. 1921. Boris Kutstodiev

Until 1941, Staraja Russa occupied a small place in history because the Russian writer Dostoevsky (1821-1881) lived there for some summers at his dacha and there he set his immortal novel "The Brothers Karamazov"


Fyoódor Dostoevski (1821-1881)


Dostoevsky's dacha in the city


Cover of an edition of The Brothers Karamazov in English.


A postcard image of the city in the early 20th century.

[TabsTabs1964]

The german conquest.

Towards the end of July, the inexorable advance of Army Group North throughout its sector of the front, presaged that the city would fall into German hands.



Despite the German losses caused by the defense of the Soviet units, the advance in the first days of August reached the west bank of Lake Ilmen. To the north of it, the city of Novgorod and further towards Leningrad the banks of the Volkhov (which would end up marking the front line) and to the south of the lake, the small city of Staraja Russa




A village on the outskirts of Staraya Russa


The German long-range artillery causes fires and the exodus of the civil population from the surroundings

[TabsTabs1964]

The German advance continues and the Tuleblya train station is captured... The die has been cast




Tuleblya Bahnhof


tabstabs collection
German infantry units advance at forced marches across the front


This is not a highway, drive 20 an hour dear "swan"


When the Wehrmacht invaded the USSR in June 1941, Staraya Russa had about 38,000 inhabitants (almost the same population that the city has today). The city fell to the Germans on August 9.

Since time immemorial the main fishing facilities in the area were located in the area of the city of Staraya Russa. Thus, to the north of the city are the fishing villages of Vzvad, Bolshoy Uzhin and Korostyn.

[TabsTabs1964]

Two images of a KV-1 Knocked out in the vicinity


A BT-7 destroyed on the city streets.


Final combats against Soviet delay units




Lenin's house on fire


Image of the destruction of the city in September 1941. German artillery and dive bombers have done their share of the job

Staraya Russa has been conquered ....

[TabsTabs1964]

The city was occupied by the Germans from August 9, 1941 to February 18, 1944, but being on the same front line caused it to suffer several attempts at liberation by the Red Army.


Front line in December 1941 (on a US Army Historical Service map)

After stabilizing the front, it ran directly over Lake Ilmen. A shore, from southwest to northwest, occupied by the Germans. The other, a small area in Priilmenye in the east, remained under the control of the Red Army the entire time.



Already a few days after the German conquest, Red Army units launched a first counterattack that was unsuccessful. On September 1, the German offensive continued from Staraya Russa further east, the Wehrmacht occupied Demjansk and by autumn came to a halt near Valdai, which it was unable to take completely.


Signpost in Shimsk, 12 km from the west bank of the Lake. A group of smiling soldiers poses for the camera

Thus began the war of position. The front line from Lake Ilmen to Lake Seliger stretched for more than 200 km. So in the winter of 1941/1942, Staraya Russa was the basic supply hub and supply center for the German land front between Lake Ilmen and Lake Seeliger.

If the city falls, the front falls.

[TabsTabs1964]

The city the Germans found

As we have already said, the small town had suffered serious damage during the battle of conquest.


The nearby railway station soon began to be used for the transfer of Soviet POWs to the rear.


The Pioneer camp (the communist youths) in the vicinity, was intact.






The facade of the Red Army House building was ideal for German propaganda to use in these images of a soldier standing guard and officers entering the building.

But the truth was that the city and its infrastructures were severely damaged

[TabsTabs1964]

There are not many images of the city during the German occupation. Here are a few.








Die Kirche in der Nähe der Orst kommandantur. - The church near the Orst Kommandantur.




German Propaganda postcard. On the backs it says: Einer der Wenigen, die von bolschewistischer Blutgier verschont blieben. - One of the few who were spared Bolshevik bloodlust.

[TabsTabs1964]

This quiet city was crossed by the Porussja River. But the Germans did not come across this postcard image of the Porussja with the Schimkser Bridge.



What they found was the bridge blown up by Soviet sappers before leaving the city.





So the German engineers and their construction battalions had a tough job in that August 1941 at Staraya Russa .....


















Current image of the bridge

[Seafox]

What a great thread again. Very nice read on a rainy sunday morning. Thank you !

[TabsTabs1964]

The main religious monument of the city was the Cathedral of the Resurrection

As good tourists, the German soldiers left us some photographs of the place (although the photos are taken in different seasons of the year and in different years, I upload them here when describing the initial situation of the city after the conquest of the summer of 1941)


April 1943




German postcard: Aus dieser kirche machten die sowjets ein Gottlosenmuseum - The Soviets turned this church into a godless museum