Russian anger grows at Nazi crimes

29th December 1941: The Red Army recovers territory outside Moscow and find evidence of recent atrocities

Red Army troops setting out from Moscow in December 1941.

The German attack on Moscow had failed by mid December. The Red Army suddenly found themselves pushing back and retaking large areas that had fallen in the previous two months. There was relief that Moscow was no longer threatened but there was also cold anger when they discovered the reality of the German occupation.

The liberated city of Volokolamsk at the end of December 1941.

Alexander Werth¹ was a British journalist based in Moscow:

The hatred of the Germans had, if anything, grown since the Battle of Moscow. In recapturing numerous towns and many hundreds of villages, the Russian soldiers got their first first-hand experience of the “New Order”.

The magnificent New Jerusalem Monastery, founded in 1656, was blown up by the Germans during their brief occupation.

Everywhere the Germans had destroyed whatever they could; all but three houses had been burned down at Istra [a substantial town 40 miles southwest of Moscow] , for instance, where they had also blown up the ancient New Jerusalem Monastery.

‘The anger and resentment against the Germans, mixed with a feeling of infinite pity for the Russian people, for the Russian land, defiled by the invader, produced an emotional reaction of national pride and national injury’

The remains of the New Jerusalem Monastery after the Red Army had retaken the town of Istra in late December 1941. It was not fully restored until 2014.

Soviet people executed by the Germans. After the liberation of Volokolamsk, Date taken: December 21 - 31, 1941