Stalin's Stash: The True Story of Soviet War Booty

In the dying days of World War II, the Soviet Army swept through eastern Europe to seize Berlin and bring an end to the Third Reich. Along the way, the Soviets plundered museums and private collections in a bid to extract ‘reparations’ from the Nazi state.

Countless books, artefacts and works of art were captured by the Red Army and returned to Russia, where they have lain dormant and hidden for over 60 years. The story of this Soviet war booty continues to cause controversy today.

Europe, 1945

In April 1945, a continent lay in ruins as Hitler’s regime crumbled around him. For the Allies, it was a race to Berlin to end the war once and for all. From the west marched the forces of Britain, the USA and France; from the east came Stalin’s Red Army.

The Soviets arrived first. Through twelve days in April and May 1945, the Red Army waged a bloody battle to capture Berlin. For Stalin it was a matter of pride to beat the Allies to the prize.

In the aftermath, the Allies were able to carve up Germany as they pleased. And for Stalin, it was chance for payback.

Hitler – Stalin’s one-time ally – had wreaked untold damage on the Soviet Union in his catastrophic eastern campaign. Some 25million Soviet soldiers and citizens died in the war – far exceeding the casualty rate of any other country. Added to this were substantial financial and physical losses sustained during the fighting. Small wonder that Stalin was interested in reparations.

War Booty

The dictator’s solution was to seize thousands of cultural items from occupied Germany. Claiming these objects would not only compensate for some of the massive devastation wreaked by Germany – it would serve as form of cultural rape.

Robbing Germany of her history, culture and art was a form of poetic justice – suitable punishment, perhaps, for a country that had tried to assert its dominance over the East. The Nazis themselves had planned to strip Russia of her artistic gems, with Hitler dreaming of building a museum in Austria to showcase loot from his empire. During the Nazi advance on Leningrad, several Tsarist palaces were plundered and their treasures hauled back to Germany.

With the shoe now very much on the other foot, Stalin dispatched organised ‘trophy brigades’ to sweep through Germany’s private collections and transport booty to Russia. The contents of whole museums were shipped lock, stock

Some of the art had been sent to eastern Germany for safekeeping, moved away from zones targeted by Allied bombs. These artefacts fell straight into Soviet hands when the Red Army invaded.

Stories abound of the rough treatment meted out to priceless works of art. Canvases by famous artists were tossed casually onto train trucks by soldiers who had little concept or appreciation of what they were transporting.

In total, scholars believe that over two and a half million artworks and over two million books were removed from Germany to Russia in the aftermath of the war. Priceless art treasures such as paintings by Raphael, El Greco and Van Gogh disappeared in what has been described as one of the largest movements of artwork in history.

The Treasure of Priam

One of the most valuable artefacts seized by the Russians following the war was the so-called ‘Treasure of Priam’.

This collection of ancient Greek vases, weapons and gold trinkets was discovered by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik, Turkey in 1873. The gold was sent to the Imperial Museum of Berlin, before being moved to an anti-aircraft bunker during the war.

Like many of the artefacts removed by Russia, the treasure was believed to have been lost or destroyed. Confirmation that it survived the war only came in 1993, when the Pushkin Museum in Moscow announced the gold was in its collection. An exhibition in 1996 put the treasures on display for the first time in 50 years.

The Pergamon Altar

Another Soviet spoil of war were the frieze reliefs of the enormous Pergamon Altar, which were transported to Leningrad’s Hermitage Museum. Dating from 160BC, the altar was dedicated to the great god Zeus. The 113m-long frieze depicts an awesome battle of Gods and giants.

The reliefs were returned in 1958 at the behest of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the altar is now the centrepiece of the Pergamon Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island.

1950s Exchanges

The death of Stalin in 1953 saw a temporary relaxation in Soviet attitudes. Stalin’s successor, Khrushchev, saw a chance to make political capital out of returning some of Russia’s war booty – but only to museums in the East German republic, the GDR, which was then the USSR’s closest ally.

In typically grandiose style, Khrushchev made a unilateral decision to return numerous significant artefacts. In addition to the Pergamon Altar, he sanctioned the return of the entire collection of the Dresden Museum in 1955. A farewell exhibition at the Pushkin Museum was organised before the objects were shipped back to Germany.

In total, around one and a half million artefacts were returned to the GDR in the late fifties. Amid the fanfare that greeted Russia’s display of generosity, few questioned just how many artworks were still in Soviet possession.

1990s Developments

Following the brief liberalisation under Khrushchev, the question of Soviet war booty remained largely dormant until the fall of communism in 1991. It was a pair of Russian scholars who first alerted the West to the fact that vast amounts of looted art remained hidden in storerooms across the former USSR.

In 1991, Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorii Kozlov published an account of their research into Soviet war booty. Their article triggered a new wave of requests from German museums demanding the return of their plundered art.

Whilst some Russian museums have indicated they are amenable to applications for the return of artwork, others have insisted the loot was seized legitimately as war reparations. Crucially, they are backed by a 1998 Russian law that declared all war booty the legal property of the Russian Federation. Exceptions were allowed for art that had belonged to churches, Jewish people or opponents of the Nazi regime.

This law has hampered several planned exchanges, and has made Russian museums wary of loaning items from their collections to foreign galleries for fear they will be seized under international law.

In 2008, the Russian government made the rare decision to return 117 panes of stained glass to the German town of Frankfurt an der Oder. The exquisite glasswork dates from the 14th century and was removed from Marienkirche by Stalin’s brigades. It remains to be seen whether this gesture will lead to further repatriations of art.

How Much Art is Still Missing?

Russia has taken some steps towards opening its archives for investigation. In 2002, a project called ‘Heritage Revealed’ attempted to collate information on works of art held in Russian storerooms. It also hoped to identify items that were stolen by the Nazis and are still missing.

However, the project was discontinued in 2005, possibly because it encouraged too many claims for restitution from the descendants of the artworks’ original owners.

The fact of the matter is no one truly knows how much lost art is still stored in Russia – although experts estimate the figure could be in the millions.

It is likely that numerous artefacts, books and paintings are still held privately by former army and KGB officers or their families – the spoils of a war that finished over 60 years ago. It is also impossible to know the condition of these artworks and whether they are in need of restoration.

While German museums continue to press for the return of their objects, countries such as Turkey, Greece and Egypt are increasingly vociferous in pointing out that many of these artefacts were taken from them during the 19th century, further muddying the waters of who owns what.

For the time being, it seems that political considerations will continue to dominate the story of Soviet war booty – a story that is far from over.

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