Soviet Union

US and Soviet troops meet for the first time during World War II at the Elbe river near Torgau, a town in Saxony, Eastern Germany. The historic meeting took place on April 25th 1945, a date which came to be known as “Elbe Day”. Book suggestions: ⤵️ 📖 The Last …

German forces photographed while building a bridge over the Dnieper river near Kiev in September 1941. The crossing was set up in just 24 hours and acted as a replacement for the main bridge, which had been destroyed by retreating Soviet troops and can be seen in the top left …

The last Jew in Vinnitsa is a famous photograph taken during the Holocaust in Ukraine near the town of Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia). In the photo we see a man awaiting execution by the Einsatzgruppen beside a mass grave. The photograph is dated sometime between 1941 and 1943. For more information about …

British Matilda II tanks operated by Soviet crewmen (see the recognizable Russian tank hats) advancing through a birch Forest on the Soviet Western Front, sometime in 1942. Exact location is unknown. The Red Army Western Front was created on 22 June 1941. It spread for 470 kilometers, from the Southern …

Katyusha rockets firing on June 22nd 1941, the first day of Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Only 40 such mobile rocket launchers were built and ready to be used by the Soviet Army at the start of Operation Barbarossa. It was the first self-propelled artillery piece to …

German Waffen SS soldier looking at a nervous Red Army POW, somewhere on the Eastern Front during September 1941. At that time, Operation Barbarossa was in full swing, as Germany was quickly gaining ground in the East. Book suggestion ⤵️ 📖 Eastern Inferno: Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the …

Wehrmacht troops enter Kiev on September 21st, 1941, after a fierce two week battle for the city. The First Battle of Kiev was part of the initial successful Blietzkrieg advance during Germany’s Operation Barbarossa, and is considered the largest encirclement in military history in terms of number of troops. More …

Vyacheslav Molotov (left) shaking hands with Joachim von Ribbentrop after the two foreign ministers signed the famous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in Moscow on August 23rd, 1939. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was a non-aggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union, which also defined the spheres of influence in Europe between the two …

Wehrmacht soldiers surrender to Soviet troops in the district of Tula, late 1941. The Soviet soldier is carrying a SVT-40 semi automatic rifle. The SVT-40 was used intensively at the start of the war and was supposed to be the new standard rifle of the Red Army, but the German …

An Austrian woman and a Soviet officer are dancing in the streets of Vienna after the fall of Nazi Germany in May 1945. There were many similar images of celebration in Vienna as the war in Europe came to an end, and people were hopeful for a happier future. Book …