Engelen des doods

One hundred kilometres southeast of the Russian city St. Petersburg the village Mjasnoi Bor is located. What was once a prospering farming community is today a desolate and lugubrious environment. The knowledge that in the surrounding swamps thousands of soldiers are buried - who vainly attempted to liberate the former Leningrad from the Germans in 1942 - makes people skirt round Mjasnoi Bor. The soldiers were subject to the orders of general Vlasov who, as became clear later on, had betrayed his men to the Germans. Although this is a concealed page in Russian history, until today the word ‘vlasovite’ is used to indicate a traitor. Now, 55 years later, the swamps are turned over and the dead soldiers‘ histories surface. Leo de Boer (1953) teaches at the Art Academy in Utrecht. In 1996, together with Karina Meeuwse, he directed DE RUSLUI - OPKOMST EN ONDERGANG VAN DE VRIEZENVEENSE HANDELSKOLONIE IN ST. PETERSBURG 1720-1920.