In 1989, the Ministry of Culture of the USSR issued its opinion on the proposal to create a Hasidic pilgrimage center in the village of Lyubavichi, Smolensk region. It was rejected and the ministry justified its refusal, among other things, by the growing flow of tourists.
Dmitry Donskoy / RIA Novosti
The creation of a Hasidic pilgrimage center in the Smolensk region was rejected due to the large influx of tourists.
An interesting document, dated August 2, 1989, was published on the Telegram channel “Documentary Past” of the State Archive of the Russian Federation.
The conclusion follows that the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, together with the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR and the Regional Executive Committee of the Smolensk Region, jointly reviewed a letter from a certain citizen. The latter proposed to create “a memorial architectural ensemble in the village of Lyubavichi and turn it into a tourist pilgrimage center.”
Photo: t.me/garf_docs
“Lubavitch was one of the centers of development of the Chabad Hasidic school, the residence and resting place of several directors of this religious school,” explains the State Archives of the Russian Federation. “Proposals to simplify the pilgrimage to Lubavitch began to arrive in the USSR as relations with the United States improved, where it had been the center of Chabad since the 1950s.”
The Ministry of Culture has studied this issue extensively. Therefore, a request was made to the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee. The response received shows that before the revolution there was a rabbinical school in the village of Lyubavichi. However, in 1912 the village was severely damaged by a major fire.
During the same years, the headmaster of the rabbinical school died, after which it ceased to exist. The Jewish cemetery, where the late headmaster of the school was supposedly buried, was, according to the Ministry of Culture, in unsatisfactory condition. It was noted that no burials had been held there for more than half a century.
Other reasons were given for why the Ministry of Culture opposed the creation of the monument and the Hasidic pilgrimage, and some of them seemed unconvincing.
For example, the Ministry said that at that time, in 1989, the Smolensk region was visited annually by more than a million tourists, one tenth of whom came from capitalist countries.
“We are already experiencing significant difficulties in receiving them,” the USSR Ministry of Culture reported, which, apparently, should have advocated an increase in the tourist flow. “In addition, the area in the area of ” The village of Lyubavichi is not sufficiently maintained, there are no historical and cultural monuments on this territory or other attractions.”
In view of the above, the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee and the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR considered the construction of a pilgrimage center inappropriate, and the Ministry of Culture of the USSR supported their opinion.
