On Victory Day: 35 famous pictures of the Great Patriotic War

It is difficult for us to imagine it now, but 76 years ago, the month of May became one of the happiest in the history of our country, but happy in a special way-with tears and tears. The war ended, and with it the bombing, the fear of not waking up in the morning, the whistle of bullets, the wail of sirens, the bitterness of losing comrades. Only a few people were destined to meet the victory — millions of people both at the front and in the rear never saw this long-awaited May.

To us, who know about the events of that time from history books and stories of grandparents, the voice of war still comes from pictures taken by fearless photojournalists who, risking their lives, captured the unique, and often very terrible faces of war. Each of the photos of the Great Patriotic War is a masterpiece, if only because it was made in unreal conditions. And today we have prepared a selection of 35 famous pictures of the Great Patriotic War, which tell the best story about the victory that we got with such difficulty.

Many words have been said about the courage of our soldiers, hundreds of songs have been sung, and it is simply impossible to overestimate the feat, the selflessness of each and every soldier without exception. We are proud of this victory, and we are infinitely grateful for the gift of spring and freedom!

The Banner of Victory over the Reichstag. The author of the photo: Eugene Khaldei.

Source of photos in the article: TASS website

1. Kombat. Photographer Max Alpert.

"Kombat" is one of the most famous photos of the Great Patriotic War, made by the Soviet photographer Max Alpert. The photo shows the junior political instructor A. G. Eremenko, raising the soldiers to attack, a few seconds before his death.

2. The Banner of Victory over the Reichstag. Photo by Yevgeny Khaldei.

The first flag was placed far from the Reichstag, on the roof of the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army, near the sculpture of an eagle perched on the globe. The second is over the Brandenburg Gate. When the Chaldean reached the Reichstag, there were already a lot of flags set up. When he came across several fighters, he took out his flag and asked them to help him climb to the roof. Finding a convenient point to shoot, he shot two cassettes.

3. On the Kursk Bulge. Tankers and a damaged Tiger tank.

Tank commander Lieutenant B. V. Smelov shows a hole in the turret of the German tank "Tiger", hit by the crew of Smelov, Lieutenant Likhnyakevich. This hole was made by an ordinary armor-piercing shell from a 76-mm tank gun, so the picture was often used for propaganda purposes, showing that the latest and strongest German tanks can be penetrated by our T-34.

4. Lydia Litvyak, a pilot of a fighter aviation regiment, after a combat flight on the wing of her Yak-1B fighter.

On August 1, 1943, Lydia Litvyak made four sorties, during which she shot down two enemy aircraft personally and one in a group, but she did not return from the fourth sortie — her plane was damaged by a burst of German fighter aircraft and went missing.

5. A Soviet soldier with a Czech child in his arms.

6. Girl sniper of the 1st Baltic Front, 1944.

7. Senior Sergeant I. Kireev shoots from a captured German grenade launcher during a night battle in the city of Breslau.

8. Soviet soldiers in between battles.

9. A salvo of Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers on the outskirts of Vyborg.

10. The machine gunner of the Guard, Private Yefim Kostin, awarded the Order of the Red Star.

11. Soviet soldiers in the attack near Leningrad during the beginning of the blockade break.

12. Soviet scouts in battle.

13. "Grief", photo by Dmitry Baltermants.

14. The child of war.

15. Machine gunner Zina Kozlova.

16. A Soviet soldier gives a light to the captured Germans.

17. Awarding a young hero.

18. The murdered boy Vitya Cherevichkin with a pigeon in his hands.

19. An air defense post on the roof of the hotel "Moscow" in the capital of the country.

20. The German air raid on Moscow on July 26, 1941.

21. The pilot collects a machine gun belt.

22. The most famous photo of Mark Markov-Greenberg, taken in 1943 and became a symbol of the courage and heroism of Soviet soldiers.

23. The battery is firing at the defending German troops. Belarus, summer of 1944.

24. Under the tank tracks. Photo by Mark Markov-Greenberg.

25. The fountain "Children's Round dance" on the station square of Stalingrad after the Nazi air raid.

26. The swing of war.

27. Soviet soldiers with a cat in their arms in Stalingrad.

28. The death of a Soviet soldier during the attack.

29. Photo by Mark Markov-Greenberg.

30. June 22, 1941, somewhere in the southwest. Children are hiding from the bombing.

31. Maria Timofeevna Shalneva (Nenakhova), corporal of the 87th separate road maintenance battalion, regulates the movement of military equipment near the Reichstag in Berlin, May 1945.

32. A Soviet pilot feeds pigeons in moments of rest.

33. Soviet soldiers sleep in cars on one of the squares of Prague. Czechoslovakia, 1945.

34.

35. Residents of Prague greet a car with the Soviet military.