Novgorod Kremlin, August 1941 / Novgorod Kremlin, May 2021
German soldiers walking through Prechistenskaya Arch with a wrecked Soviet BA-10 armoured car in the background.
From the reference provided by the State Archive of the Novgorod Province:
"On January 20, 1944 when Novgorod was liberated by Red Army units, the city was completely razed to the ground as the retreating German army set all remaining buildings on fire. As of May 1, 1945 the number of buildings in Novgorod was 166 (stone and brick ones - 42, wooden and wooden/stone buildings 95, others 29), of which 162 were residential houses with 3347 people and 4 barracks with 140 people. [The number of residential buildings in Novgorod before the war was 2346 - Alexander Shmidke] Upon their return to the city families had to live in earthen dugouts, churches and half-ruined buildings.
The Novgorod State Commission on the Investigation of Nazi German crimes established upon the basis of investigation reports, eyewitness and German POW testimonies in March 1945 that the occupiers executed 112 people in Novgorod [out of roughly 3000 who remained in the city by the time of the occupation - Alexander Shmidke], 427 people died of torture, 870 people died of artillery shellings and bombings, 180 people were arrested, brutalised and raped, 2000 people were deported to Germany for slave labour."