GPS June 2020

To support this propaganda task, the German propaganda ministry
and WPr launched a “program of actions” to demonstrate in reality
what had been only promised so far. It was decided to establish so-called
“Mustersiedlungen” in Russia, i.e. paragon settlements or estates, where
educated, happy and satisfied farmer families live in peace by farming
their own land, guarded by the Germans who would protect them from
the Bolshevik partisans.
The first “Mustergut” (paragon estate) was established by the
“Propaganda-Abteilung O” (propaganda department East) in May 1942.
It was the former sovkhozy Polonje near the town of Porchov in North
Russia. The second was established by PAW 400 miles further south,
near the town of Smolensk, in June 1942. It comprised a group of farmhouses
called Sloboda that were inhabited by approx. 30 people, and a
neighboring village called Skrylevshchina (Скрылевщина, in German
sources: Skrelewschtschina) , where about 100 people lived, and which
was situated approx. 12 miles south of Smolensk. [3] A note in the
German OKW propaganda status report of 6 July 1942 reads: “The
propaganda department W has occupied the estate of “Sloboda” that will
be used as a propaganda means in order to raise the willingness of the
population for reconstruction and production, as a propaganda center for
periodical meetings of the rural population, and as a starting point for
the operations against the partisans in the area.” (Image 6) [12]
Image 6. The Sloboda farm on a German military map of 1942 (left) and on an
internet map of today. The village of Skrylevshchina is only marked as a public
transport stop on modern maps.
A “Standortkommandantur” (garrison command) was stationed
in Sloboda consisting of a lieutenant, an administrator, an interpreter
and a few soldiers and Russian POWs for security. Sloboda and
Skrylevshchina were converted into a “Mustersiedlung”. Houses were
built or repaired and painted, roads made up, fences erected and bridges
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