Marina Tikhomirova, a Peterhof museum specialist and later chief curator, commenting on the destruction of the 18th century palace during the 28-month German occupation (1941-1944):

“The first thing that rose before my eyes beyond the ruined gates and fence of the Upper Garden was the indescribable chaos of some kind of debris, half-buried in snow, a huge anti-tank ditch cutting across the entire garden, and beyond it the charred ruins of the Grand Palace without its golden cupolas. From above, the Lower Park seemed like a snowy wasteland with dead black trees tangled in wires, and in the littered basin of the cascade stood the empty pedestal of Samson.

We had to make our way through the park along narrow paths and saw more and more ruins: the marble columns of the Lion Cascade smashed to pieces, the half-destroyed Golden Mountain with its steps stripped of their gold facing, the charred remains of the Marly Palace, and finally the Hermitage, where its lift-table with its intricate mechanism was gone, while upstairs a gun stood, its barrel, aimed at Kronstadt, protruding from the broken wall of the upper hall.”