The problems of cultural values lost during the World War II: The historiographical review of literature

Abstract

During the Second World War, European countries lost a significant number of cultural values, including book collections. These losses were not the result of the usual costs of conducting military operations, but were the result of the purposeful activities of various Nazi special squads engaged in looting and destroying cultural values. The problems of plundering, destruction, rescue and preservation of cultural values are reflected in the research works by domestic and foreign authors. The author analyzes the publications on the cultural values lost during the World War II. The peculiarities of the studies during the Soviet and post-Soviet period are identified. The gap in the resource base of the Soviet era due to the lack of access to foreign sources is revealed. The debatable aspects of the p roblem a re h ighlighted. A n umber o f p ublications b y f oreign a uthors were analyzed. On this basis, the author concludes that the significant part of domestic research differs from the publications by foreign authors in conceptual approach. He argues that this is owing to diametrically opposite assessments of the WWII outcomes.