_ It was not only bombarded, but pretty well sacked;
fortunately there was nothing in it of particular historical value.
Usspensky Cathedral had a shell-hole in one of the cupolas, but
except for a few feet of mosaic in the ceiling, was undamaged. The
frescoes on the porch of Blagovestchensky Cathedral were badly
damaged by a shell. Another shell hit the corner of Ivan Veliki.
Tchudovsky Monastery was hit about thirty times, but only one shell
went through a window into the interior, the others breaking the
brick window-moulding and the roof cornices.
The clock over the Spasskaya Gate was smashed. Troitsky Gate was
battered, but easily reparable. One of the lower towers had lost its
brick spire.
The church of St. Basil was untouched, as was the great Imperial
Palace, with all the treasures of Moscow and Petrograd in its cellar,
and the crown jewels in the Treasury. These places were not even
entered.
2.
LUNATCHARSKY’s DECLARATION
“Comrades! You are the young masters of the country, and although now
you have much to do and think about, you must know how to defend your
artistic and scientific treasures.
“Comrades! That which is happening at Moscow is a horrible,
irreparable misfortune…. The People in its struggle for the power has
mutilated our glorious capital.
“It is particularly terrible in these days of violent struggle, of
destructive warfare, to be Commissar of Public Education.
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