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The following photos belong to a large series of pictures taken by an unknown member (probably an officer) of IR 415 in and around Nikolajew / Mykolaiv at some point between October 1918 and the final German evacuation on 16th March 1919, as well as on the voyage home aboard the steamer Stambul.

Some pictures from this series are reproduced in the IR 415 regimental history. I included two in the article (Fig. 7 and 8). Multiple prints of some of the photos have been seen to exist; the ones in my collection all have typewritten captions on the reverse and nothing to identify the studio where they were printed.

Soldatenfriedhof Nikolajew - under construction

Above: Construction in progress at Soldatenfriedhof Nikolajew. This German military cemetery is known to have contained 150 dead including 48 from the initial fighting for the city in March 1918, thirteen from Saxon units of 212.ID and one German nurse. A further three German soldiers (all from Prussian units) were buried in a Jewish cemetery. This cemetery was not rediscovered in 1990 and its exact location and fate are unknown. A published list of names taken from W. Fest, Nikolajew, der letzte deutsche Posten am Schwarzen Meer (Duisburg 1919) can be found on denkmalprojekt.org.

Soldatenfriedhof Nikolajew - planned final appearance

Above: The planned final appearance of the cemetery, including tastefully arranged trees and a central memorial. Like so many other German projects in Ukraine, it would never come to fruition. Nikolajew, der letzte deutsche Posten am Schwarzen Meer provides the following credits: "Design of the entire site Gefreiter Pries, modeling work for the 5 metre high memorial Gefreiter Beyer, construction of the foundation for the memorial and installation work Sergeant Weller, landscaping and crosses Oberleutnant Eulen."

Admiral Greig memorial in Nikolajew with German 'tourists'

Above: Statue of the Scottish-Russian Admiral Aleksey Greig (1775-1845) in Mykolaiv, from the same series of photos taken by an unknown 415er in late 1918 or early 1919. Greig was from 1816 to 1833 both commander of the Black Sea Fleet and a popular and successful governor of Sevastopol and Mykolaiv, where he was responsible for numerous reforms and improvements. This statue was erected in his honour in 1875 at the corner of Admiralstrasse (Admiralska) and Alexandrowskaja (Soborna) facing the Inhul river. Sadly it did not survive Bolshevik rule, while the City Duma building on Greig's left did not survive the fighting here during the Second World War. The Lenin statue which displaced Greig has also subsequently been destroyed (twice!).

Pre-war postcard of the Admiral Greig memorial in Nikolajew

Above: Pre-war picture postcard of the Admiral Greig memorial for comparison (found online).

Marinekaserne in Nikolajew

Above: The Marinekaserne, an ex-Russian naval barracks at the northern end of Mykolaiv.

Junction of the Alexandrowskaja (Soborna) and Chersonskaja (Central Avenue)

Above: Street scene from besieged Mykolaiv, looking northeast up the Alexandrowskaja (Soborna) at the junction with the Chersonskaja (Central Avenue). The Londonskaja Hotel (Fig. 7 in the article) lay 700 metres further up the Alexandrowskaja in this direction, on the far right-hand corner of the junction with the Spaszkaja (Spas'ka). The regimental staff of IR 415 was based on the Spaszkaja, though apparently not at the hotel (which served as a Soldatenheim).

Relations between German soldiers and civilians (mainly women and children) at this apparent street market seem very casual, with no-one visibly armed. For this reason I suspect that this photo was taken early in IR 415's time in the city, in October or November 1918.

The same location as above in Google Streetview

Above: Today (or at least, when last photographed for Google) this location can only still be recognised thanks to the continued survival of the tram substation on the right, built in Art Nouveau style in 1914. Whether it has survived the current conflict is currently unknown to me (image from Google Streetview).

Further up the Alexandrowskaja (Soborna)

Above: Further up the Alexandrowskaja (Soborna), the Admiral Greig memorial is now visible in the distance at the skyline. Since the admiral faces the Ingul, from this angle he has his back to the camera.