We gladly announce that through the activity of the Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow and its director, member of our board Ekaterina Genieva, and thanks to the Open Society Institue all issues of the international newsletter "Spoils of War" published until now are translated into the Russian language. We think that this is a very important step not only for the distribution of the newsletter in this country but also for the general process of understanding through information in this complex and difficult matter. The purpose of our newsletter has always been international cooperation and exchange of information. This translation will help us to reach even more of our colleagues. However, those of our authors who do not wish to have their contributions translated, are asked to let us know. The following two contributions explain the background of the Russian edition. The personal statement of the Russian translator - for the openness of which we want to express our deepest gratitude and respect - shows the emotional dimension the topic of spoils of war still has in Russia.

On the Appearance of the Russian Edition of Spoils of War
We express our gratitude to the Open Society Institute whose generosity allowed us to participate in the International Program of Cooperative Actions directed to resolve the problems resulting from World War II, which nowadays, 50 years after this war's ending, continue to agitate us painfully. It is of special value that the Institute's aid has made it possible for us to translate the bulletin "Spoils of War" into Russian and to publish it. The publication is of the utmost necessity. The Russian public should be familiarized with the way other involved sides see the commonly inherited problem of restoring to the rightful owner what was lost or taken away, which is the actual meaning of restitution. Due to many reasons, we can hardly hope that mutual understanding, even approximately, could be reached easily, for too deep a gulf has separated us during all these years. The gulf is filled with the mythologemas of national self-identification, which for decades was built on a complex mixture of truth and fabricated lies, nice feelings and propaganda calculation. We here, even those who hated socialism, lived with the feeling of this country's martyrdom, righteousness, and global kindness. People abroad, having their own reasons, felt differently. Generally, in order to come to an understanding, you should express your opinion, then hear your opponent out, and do it not only once, but once and once again. The new knowledge is sometimes unpleasant, and to assimilate it you will have to get civic courage. Nevertheless, there is no other sensible way to settle the affairs. Now Russian-speaking, the bulletin "Spoils of War" will help us to hear each other, to look deeper into the opponent's arguments, to think over our own reasons. Now, while president Yeltsin's veto on the law "On Cultural Values Removed to the USSR during World War II and Located in the Territory of the Russian Federation" is not yet overcome, there is some hope to reach a reasonable decision, acceptable for everyone involved. The word 'reason', I believe, is the key word here.

Ekaterina Genieva,
General Director of the All-Russia Library for Foreign Literature (VGBIL), Moscow

From the Russian Edition's Translator
During the last month I have been translating, word by word, two issues of this bulletin, no. 1 and 2. I oblige myself to follow the intonation strictly. Sometimes I feel pain, sometimes resentment, my feelings are often wounded. I am tired of all wars in general, and I don't want to hear about World War II, but it's impossible not to. I was born after this war. For us, it is the Great Patriotic one. My father was in it, my grandfather perished in it, and two uncles, too. No, if I stop to think for a moment, many of my relatives were killed in this war. By the way, none of them had crossed our country's borders. But when, in any text, I see an impersonality like "Soviet soldiers", I see the faces from the faded photographs at home. I suppose a great number of the former USSR's inhabitants feel the same. And I don't doubt that Germans also, hearing the impersonal words "German soldiers", see faces dear to them... If I may digress, I will recall the library tour I made around Germany some years ago. My deepest impression then was the un-authenticity, the novelty of smallish, beautiful, ancient towns - Speyer, Hildesheim, Paderborn - which were bombed by the Allies for German edification. I felt myself disappointed, which is a wrong word, and tried to seek the right one for some vague sense of injury caused neither by Germany, nor by the Allies, but by life itself, by Something that orders to build, then to destroy, then to build again and so, the famous Roman cathedrals, which belonged first of all to God himself, then to humanity as a whole, and only lastly to the German people, stood new and fresh, not even feigning authenticity. Later, when I tried to tell about it in Moscow, I was invariably and austerely asked: "Well, have you forgotten about Pskov and Novgorod?" No, I have not. But I am against the opinion that if you ruin our Pskov, we will destroy your Leipzig. Because, as a result, we, all of us, become poorer. Actually, have we enriched ourselves concealing, to mention just one example, Renoir's roses shown at last, after 50-years incarceration, at the Hermitage exhibition "Hidden Treasures"? The matter is, hidden were not only the treasures brought from the Western countries. We, the general public, did not know, and up to now still do not know exactly, what treasures of our national heritage are lost to us because of the war. Ask anyone about our losses - you'll hear the names of destroyed cities, palaces, and the story about the Amber Room. But where is the comprehensive, detailed inventory? Soon the Russian reader will receive the third issue of "Spoils of War". Then, he will possibly find himself overwhelmed with facts rendered though in an intentionally dry manner. Sometimes, well-known facts, being interpreted from abroad, look differently, change plus for minus. And the gist of the matter, it seems to me, does not consist in the question if the interpretation is true. You just understand suddenly: that's what they think of us. That's how we look like in the world's eyes. And, at that, we are silent! This is a many-voiced, polyglot chorus, deprived of Russian speech. Now, let us hope, it will sound. Let us hope, then, that when the bulletin will be distributed all over Russia, the lack of information on the subject will be made up for, in some measure, and the public opinion will take the new knowledge into consideration. Let us hope that the response will be expressed also by letters to the editorial board written, perhaps, by those who work with spoils of war in museums, archives, and libraries. After all, it is a waste when the books and the museum exhibits bring people neither use nor joy. And, by having at least shown every item to the public, having named every one, we shall atone a little for "hidden treasures" for the offence of keeping them in the power of dark political forces.

Evelina Melenevskaya, Senior Bibliographer,
Acquisition Department, Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow