The last moments of the war, tired and joyful soldiers, because the pain and grief of the war are already behind them. It's all in these victory photos.
Soviet soldiers on a Berlin tram
Maria Timofeevna Shalneva, corporal of the 87th separate road maintenance battalion, regulates the movement of military equipment near the Reichstag in Berlin. May 2, 1945
Soviet soldiers with an accordion on one of the streets of Berlin
Soviet soldier in Goebbels' apartment in Hitler's bunker under the Reich Chancellery
Soviet mortar soldier Sergei Ivanovich Platov leaves his autograph on a Reichstag column
A British soldier leaves his autograph among the autographs of Soviet soldiers inside the Reichstag
Lidia Ruslanova performs “Katyusha” against the backdrop of the destroyed Reichstag. May 1945
Return from the front of the pilot, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Mikhailovich Skomorokhov (1920-1994). He made 605 combat missions, conducted more than 130 air battles, shot down 46 enemy aircraft personally and 8 in a group, 7th place in the list of Soviet fighter aces. Skomorokhov himself was never wounded during the entire war, and was never shot down.
A photograph of a Soviet soldier hoisting a red banner over the Reichstag taken on May 2, 1945, which later became known as the Victory Banner - one of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War, along with the famous “Combat” photograph. This is one of a series of photographs taken by Yevgeny Khaldei on the roof of the Reichstag. Evgeniy Khaldei said: “There were four of us there [on the roof of the Reichstag], but I remember well the Kiev resident Alexei Kovalev, who was tying the flag. I photographed him for a long time. In different poses. I remember that we were all very cold at that time... He and I were helped by the foreman of the reconnaissance company of the Guards Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Zaporozhye Rifle Division Abdulkhakim Ismailov from Dagestan and Minsk resident Leonid Gorychev.” This version was published in official Soviet sources in a retouched form: the contrast of the photo was increased and the watch (according to another version, a compass) was removed from the officer’s right hand, which could give rise to accusations of looting by Soviet soldiers.
Official, retouched version.
Another option
Residents of Leningrad at the fireworks in honor of the Victory
Soviet soldiers drink to Victory - at the general formation of the unit, the Victory over Nazi Germany was announced on May 9, 1945
A Soviet cavalryman talks to a Russian girl who was kidnapped to work in Germany and is now returning home
A German unit on bicycles advances to the place of surrender
The British disarm the capitulating Germans in the city of Soest. May 10, 1945
Meeting of Soviet marshals G.K. Zhukov and K.K. Rokossovsky with British Field Marshal B. Montgomery at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, Infantry General Krebs (left), who arrived on May 1 at the location of Soviet troops with the aim of involving the High Command in the negotiation process. On the same day, the general shot himself.
The soldiers who stormed the Reichstag. Reconnaissance platoon of the 674th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Idritsa Infantry Division. In the foreground is Private Grigory Bulatov. It is believed that he was the first to hoist the red flag on the Reichstag. However, a version has become widespread that the first were the now famous Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria.
Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria go to the roof of the Reichstag on May 1 to hoist the Victory Banner there.
Poet Evgeny Dolmatovsky with a sculpture of Hitler's head in Berlin. May 1945
Evgeny Dolmatovsky reads poetry at the Brandenburg Gate
Soviet soldiers, resting on the steps of the Reich Chancellery, look at German awards that were never awarded. Berlin. May 2, 1945
Red banner on the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate
Fireworks in honor of the Victory on the roof of the Reichstag. Soldiers of the battalion under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union S. Neustroev
The courtyard of the Reich Chancellery shortly after the end of the fighting for Berlin. This photo is interesting because it shows a rare armored car. In 1933, Wilton-Fijenoord manufactured three armored vehicles for the Dutch East Indies.
General photo of the Soviet delegation during the signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of all German Armed Forces. In the center is Marshal Zhukov. May 8, 1945
Echelon "We are from Berlin!", on which Soviet soldiers return from Berlin to Moscow
Rest at the train "We are from Berlin!" with Soviet soldiers
Sniper girls
Meeting of the victorious soldiers at the Belorussky railway station in Moscow
Officers of the 3rd Belorussian Front accept Germans who are surrendering along with their armored vehicles, including those from the 4th Tank Division. Spit Frisch-Nerung, May 9, 1945
Soviet soldiers on a T-34-85 against the backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The tank was covered with mesh screens that protected against hits from “faust cartridges”
German surrender on the Frisch-Nerung Spit, East Prussia. German officers accept the terms of surrender and the procedure for surrender from a Soviet officer
May 9, 1945 on Red Square
Soviet tank crews on the IS-2 and T-34 rejoice at the Victory. Berlin, May 9, 1945
Soviet sailors, heroes of the storming of Berlin, pose for an American war correspondent
A soldier returning from the front kisses his son
Artillerymen of the 144th Rifle Regiment of the 49th Guards Rifle Division in German helmets
Fellow soldiers of the 88th separate heavy tank regiment at the Reichstag
American soldiers who came to Berlin's Tiergarten to exchange wristwatches communicate with German girls. In the background is a group of Soviet military personnel. In the first time after the end of the war, the Tiergarten garden became a place for barter exchange of goods.
American military girls salute a Soviet traffic controller in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate
Polish survivors of the war (residents of the city of Lodz who were brought to forced labor in Germany) huddle along the railway tracks in Berlin, hoping that the British military will pick them up with them.
The regiment's son Volodya Tarnovsky signs an autograph on a Reichstag column
Soviet artillerymen are fighting on the streets of Berlin. April 1945
Soviet assault group moves towards the Reichstag
Soviet soldiers run to a new position in battle in Berlin. In the foreground is a murdered German sergeant from the RAD (Reichs Arbeit Dienst, pre-conscription labor service)
Ivan Aleksandrovich Kichigin at the grave of his friend Grigory Afanasyevich Kozlov in Berlin in early May 1945
A captured German soldier at the Reichstag. A famous photograph, often published in books and on posters in the USSR under the title "Ende" (German: "The End").
German prisoners of war on the streets of Berlin, captured by Soviet troops
Column of prisoners on the streets of Berlin. In the foreground are “the last hope of Germany” boys from the Hitler Youth and Volkssturm
A captured German is crying
Soviet soldiers and the head of the medical service of the Berlin police, Major General of the medical service Karl Emil Wrobel. Captured May 2, 1945
German children playing with abandoned weapons (rifles, submachine guns) on one of the streets of Berlin
Soviet medium tanks T-34 in captured Berlin
Soviet convoy on the street of Berlin
Soldiers distribute food to Berlin residents. April 1945
Aerial view of the Brandenburg Gate in captured Berlin
German police officers of the post-war administration in Berlin
Victory parade. Soviet soldiers with defeated standards of Nazi troops. June 24, 1945
Victory parade. Marshal Zhukov in front of the troops. June 24, 1945
Hero of the Soviet Union Major General A.V. Gladkov and his wife at the end of the Victory Parade. Original title: "The Joy and Pain of Victory"
Victory Parade of the Allied Forces on September 7, 1945 in Berlin. Soviet soldiers on the spectator stand
Victory Parade of the Allied Forces on September 7, 1945. Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov tours the troops
Victory Parade of the Allied Forces on September 7, 1945. Column of Soviet IS-3 tanks
Victory Monument in Berlin. July 1945
Soviet soldiers and an officer drink with the Americans for Victory
Children of war.
