The Architect Mark Borisovich Schneerson – The Savior of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa
Forgotten Alter Rebbe's Einiklach
Written by Anatoly Margoulis, translation from Russian via mentalblog charitable fund:
“Mark Borisovich Schneerson [Mordechay ben Boruch] was born on May 23, 1915, in Yekaterinoslav. His mother and my grandmother were cousins and best friends, both called Gittel. Gittel Schneerson lived with her sister in Dnepropetrovsk on Pushkinskaya Street, and I remember visiting them several times with my grandmother, right after the war.
In 1939, Mark entered the Dnepropetrovsk Construction Institute at the Faculty of Architecture. After the outbreak of the war, students were not conscripted into the army, they had to continue their studies. However, Mark Borisovich went to the front voluntarily. Since he studied in the construction institute, he was sent to the sapper unit.
The first operation in which Private Schneerson participated was the construction of a bridge across the Araks river for the entry of the Red Army into Iran. Stalin feared that Germany might negotiate with Iran on the passage of its troops through Iranian territory and try to capture Baku by the shortest route and, thus, deprive the USSR of the only source of fuel at that time for tanks, planes, cars.
The sappers were the first from the army units to reach the shore of the Araks through the mountain passes, they had to select a section of the shore to perform the earthworks to build a bridge that connected existing roads on both sides of the border. On this bridge, in accordance with the Iranian-Soviet Treaty, the 47th army of Major General Novikov entered Iranian Azerbaijan on August 25, 1941. The bridge was needed for tanks, cars, artillery. A few days later, the 53rd Separate Central Asian Army and the 44th Army entered Iran.
Some troops were transported to Iran by the Caspian Military Flotilla. During the construction of the bridge, the Iranian army did not resist, but when the Red Army units advanced to the city of Julfa, separate pockets of resistance appeared, which were suppressed and the troops entered Julfa and Tabriz. The danger of losing oil fields was averted. At the same time, British troops entered Iran from the south. (after the end of the war in November 1945, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed control of the territory inhabited mainly by Azerbaijanis. On the territory controlled by British troops, another new state has emerged – the Kurdish Republic with its center in the city of Mehabad. In 1946, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Iran. After that, both republics ceased to exist.
Given his training and the successful completion of the first task, Mark Borisovich was soon awarded the rank of Second Lieutenant. The 259th Sapper Battalion, in which Mark Borisovich served, was transferred to Ukraine. Hitler's army was seizing Ukraine. Sappers hindered the enemy's advance, mined roads, blew up bridges. At the same time, the sappers were the very last fighters of the Red Army before the advancing fascists and, as a rule, came under fire from the Nazis. A group of our sappers blew up the bridge across the Don literally "under the nose of the enemy." Mark Borisovich had to swim for his life.
After our army went on the offensive, the sappers' tasks changed: roads had to be cleared, and bridges had to be built. And again, the sappers were between our units and the Nazis and were the first to come under fire. Despite extensive experience in clearing enemy mines, one of them (the German "S 35") exploded almost in the hands of Mark Borisovich, he was severely concussed and hospitalized.
Mark Borisovich participated in the battles of Prokhorovka and on the Kursk Bulge, and the liberation of the Ukraine and Poland.
Mark Borisovich was a member of the commission for the investigation of fascist crimes. In the city of Slavuta, Kamenets-Podolsk region, he was present at the opening of a moat with the remains of more than forty thousands murdered Jews.
During the fighting in Poland, the sapper company, whose commander was Mark Borisovich, participated in the liberation of the city of Czestochowa. In this city there is the Yasnogorsky Monastery “Jasna Góra” with the famous icon "Matka Bozka Czestochowska" AKA Black Madonna of Częstochowa, which is considered a Polish national holy relic. The history of this icon is very dramatic. According to the legend, the icon was painted by the evangelist Luke on the cypress boards of the holy family table. First, the icon was placed in a monastery on Mount Athos, then it was transported to Russia, and then to the Yasnogorsky monastery*. Ilya Ehrenburg wrote that the eyes of the “Matka Bozka Czestochowska” follow you wherever you are standing. It became known to the Poles that during the retreat, the invaders mined the entire monastery. The Poles appealed to the command of the Red Army with a request to save the icon. Given the extensive experience of mine clearance, this was personally entrusted to Mark Borisovich. He entered the monastery through a high window (so as not to touch the door) and cautiously approached the icon. There were no visible signs of mining, but after a thorough inspection, he found several aerial bombs hidden from prying eyes under the altar. If one bomb exploded, the rest would detonate, and a pile of bricks would remain from the entire monastery. Thanks to his experience, Mark Borisovich was able to unscrew the fuses, and the icon was saved. Marshal Konev, the commander of the Western Front, was aware of this operation, and he presented Mark Borisovich with a medal. Marshal Konev had the right to award the medal immediately, without any bureaucratic “red tape”.
Then the military fate led Mark Borisovich to Germany, to Berlin, where he participated in the Battle of the Seelow Heights. In Berlin, he put his signature on the Reichstag - Марк Борисович Шнеерсон. He also can be a younger brother of the NKVD officer.
Mark Borisovich ended the war with the rank of Major and the head of the battalion's engineering service. He was awarded the Orders of the "Red Star", Order of "Patriotic War" and 14 medals.
After demobilization, Mark Borisovich graduated from the Construction Institute and worked as an architect in Dnepropetrovsk. Many buildings were built in the city center according to his projects. He married and had two sons, a daughter and three grandchildren. His wife, Maya Savelyevna Slutskina, was a close friend of our family. She worked as a doctor in our district hospital and treated our family. Now we are communicating with Mark Borisovich's daughter Anna, a doctor at one of the hospitals.
Mark Borisovich died in 2010 at the age of 95.
Mark Borisovich's father, Boruch Schneerson was a close relative of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. His mother Gittel corresponded with Menachem Schneerson.”
By Anatoly Margoulis.
Comment No. 1: Turns out Anatoly Margoulis wrote a biography in Russian where he list his relatives, he writes there:
“The daughter of Riva and Moses Arkin – Gitlya Arkin – and my grandmother Gitlya Korsunskaya (Granovskaya) were cousins and best friends. Gitlya Arkina married Boris (Berl) Schneerson, who had a cousin Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the future famous seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. Son of Gitley Schneerson (Arkina) Mark Borisovich Schneerson is a well—known Dnepropetrovsk architect, the author of several hospital complexes, the Rodina cinema, one medical institute building.”
Note No. 1: Mark Schneerson is mentioned here in Russian: Jewish Architects of Dnepropetrovsk.
Note No. 2: History of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa (via wiki):
“The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa has been intimately associated with Poland for the past 600 years. Its history before it arrived in Poland is shrouded in numerous legends that trace the icon's origin to Luke the Evangelist, who painted it on a cedar table-top from the Holy Family house. The same legend holds that the painting was discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by Helena, who brought it back to Constantinople and presented it to her son, Constantine the Great.
The oldest documents from Jasna Góra state that the picture traveled from Constantinople via Belz. Eventually, it came into the possession of Władysław Opolczyk, Duke of Opole, and adviser to Louis of Anjou, King of Poland and Hungary. Ukrainian sources state that earlier in its history, it was brought to Belz with much ceremony and honors by King Lev I of Galicia and later taken by Władysław from the Castle of Belz when the town was incorporated into the Polish kingdom. A famous story tells that in late August 1384, Ladislaus was passing Częstochowa with the icon when his horses refused to go on. He was advised in a dream to leave the icon at Jasna Góra.
Art historians say that the original icon was a Byzantine painting created around the sixth or ninth century. They agree that Prince Władysław brought it to the monastery in the 14th century.”
The painting above must be around 1770, before the Russian army led by the prevoulsy posted about Marshall Suvorov overan the poilish defenses and ultimately freed Yaakov Frank from the imprisoment in Jasna Góra in 1772, see below.
Note No. 3: The fortress and monastery in Jasna Góra in Czestochowa was the site of the 12 year imprisonment of the False Messiah Yaakov Frank.
Despondent of the harassment and bans by the mainstream Jews, Yaakov Frank and thousands of his chassidim converted en masse to Catholicism in 1759. The Polish Church suspected that Yaakov Frank was leading a movement not fully aligned with the Holy See and imprisoned him in the monastery of Jasna Góra. Yaakov Frank certainly meditated in the same sanctuary, later demined by Mark Borisovich Schneerson.
See page 169 of the Pawel Maciejko’s book on the kabbalistic meaning of the Maiden of Jasna Góra in the dreams and teachings of Yakov Frank, comparing "Matka Bozka Czestochowska", the Black Madonna, to the shechina herself. And how this ideological “feminization” played a role when the only daughter of Yaakov Frank, Eve, succeeded her father in leading of the Frankisten.
Note No. 4. God bless the courage. Margolia Schneerson’s brother, Avram, volunteered and MIA. Mark Borisovich Schneerson volunteered. There are countless like them in every family.