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53 I.V.Samylovskii and V.Maliarov to V.G.Dekanozov

COPY:AVP RF, F.012, OP.6, D.177, LL.1-6.

[Moscow] 20 October 1945

Secret

MEMORANDUM ON OUR PROPERTY IN PALESTINE ( Supplement to the Memorandum of 11 October 1945 on this Question)1

Our property in Palestine consists of 35 plots of land (see appendix) totaling up to 2 km2, together with the buildings erected on them (compounds, hotels, hospitals, churches etc.). According to data of Narkomindel of the USSR, the value of these plots with the buildings erected on them is reckoned to be &I million sterling. In legal terms, the whole of this property falls into four

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Groups:(i)property which belonged to the Russian government; (2)property which belonged to the former Ecclesiastical Mission; (3)property which belong to the former Russian Orthodox Palestine Society; (4)property which was spuriously registered in the names of private persons, but which was acquired by the Ecclesiastical Mission or the Palestine Society. In those days, according to Ottoman law, foreign societies, firms or private persons could not own real estate. The right to own real estate was limited to Turkish subjects, although an exception was made for members of the Russian imperial family. This explains why the title-deeds of many plots of land and other property in Palestine are drawn up in the name of Grand Duke Sergel Aleksandrovich, who was president of the Palestine Society.

   Legally, this should all be recognized as Soviet state property by virtue of the decree on the nationalization of the property of the former imperial family. In dealing with this matter, we can cite as a precedent the decision of the Lebanon transferring to us the property of the Palestine Society in the Ashrafiyeh quarter of Beirut, which was registered in the name of the former Grand Duke Sergel Aleksandrovich.

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   In 1914, after the outbreak of war between Turkey and Russia, the Turks occupied the compounds of the Palestine Society and the hospital and other buildings of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission. In 1917, when British troops occupied Palestine, all these very important buildings were seized by units of the British army. On 24 July 1922, Great Britain was given the mandate for Palestine. According to article 13 of this mandate, Britain was made responsible for all the ‘holy’ places and religious buildings in Palestine. All the property of the former Russian Ecclesiastical Mission and also of the former Palestine Society falls under the heading of ‘religious sites’ since, according to article 1 of the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Palestine Society, the duties of the society were to assist Orthodox pilgrims in their pilgrimage to the ‘holy’ places of the East, and to collect scholarly information about ‘holy’ places of the East. It follows that the British government is responsible for the state of our property in Palestine.

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   In implementing the mandate, the British high commissioner for Palestine issued a number of orders dealing with the property of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission and of the Palestine Society. These orders provided for the appointment of special administrators with very broad powers,including the righ commissioner’s orders say nothing about property belonging to the former Russian government (such as the Russian consul-general’s house in Jerusalem). The legal status of that property is wholly unclear.

   According to data in the files, the British treat our property as if it were their own. Most of the inhabitable buildings are either occupied by British institutions or by British troops, or are leased. White émigré organizations also have use of our property. For example, the British have handed over the very considerable property of the former Russian Ecclesiastical Mission to the ‘religious mission’ headed by Archimandrite Antonii Senkevich, who is a lackey of the British. The head of the self-styled ‘Russian Palestine Society’, Antipov, who was Russian consul in Persia, is also there. Currently, he is a British official.

                                                 Director of the Near East Department

of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR

I.Samylovskii

Assessor of the Near-East Department

                  V.Maliarov

Appendix: List of Russian Properties in Palestine

     LIST OF RUSSIAN PROPERTIES IN PALESTINE2

1.       Jerusalem (within the city walls)—a plot of land, Dabbagha, with hostel (Aleksandrovskii) and church

2.       Jerusalem (within the city walls)—a plot of land in Bab Hutta

3.       Jerusalem (outside the city walls)— old Russian buildings (Muskubiyya al-Qadima). The area includes: a) the consulate building; b) cathedral and church; c) three compounds- Elizavetskii, Mariinskii and Nilolaevskii; d) hospital; e) hospital

4.       Jerusalem (outside the city walls)—plot of land, Khumsi or Moris-al-Asali with house for consular officials

5.       Jerusalem (outside the city walls)—Sergievskii compound or Muskubiyya al-Jadida

6.       Jerusalem (outside the city walls)—Veniaminovskii compound

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7.       Jerusalem (outside the city walls)—plot of land with two houses on the street Sheikh-Ukasha

8.       Jerusalem (outside the city walls near the Damascus Gate)—plot of land, Egneml or Hakurat a-Barajiyya

9.       Jerusalem (outside the city walls near the Mailla pond)—two plots of land under the name of ‘Mamilla’.

10.   Village of A-Tur on the top of the Mount of Olives—church and three hospices, plots of land

11.   On the mount of Olives- plot of land, Karm al-Harab with tombs of prophets.

12.   On the mount of Olives—plot of land, Karm al-Qazal.

13.   On the Mount of Olives—(place called Viri-Galilei)—plot of land, Ars al-Habail.

14.   On the slopes of the Mount of Olives, near Gethsemance—plot of land, with chapel with two buildings (hospices) and reservoir.

15.   Village of Sliwan—plot of land with cave and adjacent second plot

16.   Village of Silwan—plot of land known as Hakurat al-Byadir

17.   Kedron Valley ‘Wadis-Sau-Ahireh’—plot of land with the caves Rumaniyya and Dayresiniyya.

18.   Village of Ein-Karem—plot of land with church, two hospices and forty small houses.

19.   Near village of Ein-Karem at the place called Qarya Djevari—a plot of land

20.   Bethlehem—plot of land known as El-Atr

21.   Village of Beit Jalla near Bethlehem—plot of land, consisting of two parts: on them a boarding house for women, a school and a dispensary.

22.   Near the village of Beit Jalla—plot of land known as Ras-On on the hillof the same name.

23.   Village of Anata—plot of land known as Bei al-Haraba.

24.   Jaffa (outside the town, in the suburb of Sabil al=Shifa)—plot of land; on it a garden with church and hospice for pilgrims.

25.   Jaffa (outside the town in the suburb of Sabil al-Shifa)—narrow strip of land opposite a garden, separated from it by the road called Sikkat ai-Sabil.

26.   Near the town of Hebron—plot of land known as Sibta with hospice for pilgrims

27.   Near the town of Hebron—two plots of land known as Hakurat al-Burj with hospice for pilgrims.

28.   Jericho—plot of land, on it a garden known a  Hakurat ai-Burj with hospice for pilgrims.

29.   Jericho—plot of land with garden known as al-Burka with two hospices for pilgrims.

30.   Haifa (on the seashore)—a plot of land.

31.   Nazareth—plot of land known as Hakurat al-Tin with hospice for pilgrims.

32.   Nazareth—plot of land known as ‘small plot’.

33.   Nazareth—plot of land in the al-Ayn ward.

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34.   Tiberias (on the shore of the lake)—plot of land, on it hospice for pilgrims.

35.   Village of Ramalia—plot of land under the name of Ayn al-Mazarib