First Western Photographer in Moscow
During World War II Soviet Union was tough on letting foreign, especially Western journalists entering Russian and especially Moscow. They all were meant to be spies and so on.
And then only after the death of Stalin in 1953 first photographers were allowed to come to Moscow and make first shots of the Soviet State. This is from the first of the first, coming from France and letting the world see the people of Moscow for the first time for ten or so years.
Russian Santa Protects Russia
During the World War 2 Russian soldiers had their special Christmas and New Year postcards.
On some of such Santa looked not very peaceful in his solidarity attempt to defeat the “malicious attacker”. So probably those are the only ones where Santa can hold a machine gun or be in some other furious acts.
War at Ceramic Tiles
In Rostov city Russia an epic forty-thirty years old ceramic tiles artwork has been found in the underground passages.
It tells various stories from World War 2 in ultra realistic style.
Probably that’s one of a kind in the whole world, I doubt somewhere else there are places where this material was used to describe the war happenings.
Children of War
From time to time photos of child soldiers in Africa holding AK-47s or some other kind of weapon appear here and there provoking outrage and compassion from the Western public. But just a few decades ago, during World War II, there were often occasions of Russian kids fighting in the regular army against the Nazis.
Generally speaking, children were not allowed to join the combat army—but many exceptions were made. Many kids tried to run away from their homes “to the War” but most such cases were eventually captured by military police and returned back to their homes. While some did succeed in joining the army, it was often the case for these runaways to get lost in the woods or shot along their journey.
Also, from time to time, soldiers found children in the devastated and burnt down villages of the Soviet Union. While there was a directive for them to send such children to established orphanages, still sometimes such boys were simply incorporated into the active combat units. Specially sized uniforms were tailored for them and they were entrusted with guns. Some of those boys joined the army at nine or eleven, and stayed with their regiment through all the war front, from Russia to Germany, until the war ended and they were discharged at fourteen or sixteen, often with medals of honor.
War Chronicles
I always like looking at such photos. Vintage chronicles of world war 2 are especially interesting to watch, how people looked like how things looked like - all that emotions etc.
This is another previously not seen here part of World War 2 photos and some of them are in color.
Story of one Photo
This shot was one of the most famous shots made by Russian photographers during World War 2. It was made in the ruins of Stalingrad city - the place where the most heavy city battles took place. Some historians say that after those battles near Staliningrad the Nazi invasion of Russia broke down.
The monument itself depicts Russian children dancing around a crocodile, looking so unreal with the traces of bullets on the sculptures and the burning ruins on the background.
Later, after the war the monument was rebuilt, even earlier than surrounding buildings.
Get the Coin
Guess what this boy is doing?
Soviet Soldiers at World War 2 in Color
Such photos always fascinate me. I mean the color photos from the past, the older the better. These ones is no exception. We got used to see only black and white photos from the World War 2 - the color photography was very expensive at that times and actually was not widely implemented, and especially usually nobody took the expensive equipment to the battlefront. Still there are some color photos from the times where our grandfathers were young, like 70 years ago.
Leningrad Siege: Now and Then
“The Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade was an unsuccessful military operation by the Axis (Nazi) powers to capture Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) during World War II. The siege lasted from September 9, 1941, to January 27, 1944, when a narrow land corridor to the city was established by the Soviets. The total lifting of the siege occurred on January 27, 1944. The Siege of Leningrad was one of the longest and most destructive sieges of major cities in modern history and it was the second most costly.” - from Wikipedia.
During nine hundred (!) days a few million people city of Leningrad suffered from cold and hunger, being deprived of almost all supplies of food and fuel. Many thousands died, those who survived remember this not very willingly. The situation with food was so heavy, no food was sold/distributed among people except a few grams (not even tens or hundred grams) of bread, and not each day, that people had to eat stuff that they would never eat in normal life, like making soups of leather boots (because leather is of animal origin) or boiling the wallpaper because the glue with which they were attached to walls contained a bit of organic stuff. Of course many occasions of cannibalism occurred.
On those photos you can see some pieces of those old photos made during those black days overlaid to the modern city views, respecting the place and angle of view.
Playing World War 2
Role playing is hobby for some young and not so young men and women in Russia too.
The storylines are different, amongst most popular are World War 2 and the War with France of 1812.
This time the photos from the WW2 simulation. Was taking place in Ekaterinburg city, and that’s not something about shooting the movie - just a pure fun of dedicated people.
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