| During the Battle of Stalingrad, snipers, artillery and aircraft made exposing oneself above ground suicidally dangerous. When the 6th Army surrendered in February 1943, the Soviet Red Army and the remaining Stalingrad civilians found it strange to walk openly in the streets. Georgii Zelmanovitch (1906-1984), known professionally as Georgi Zel’ma, and Yakov Riumkin (1913-1986), had stayed in Stalingrad during the bitter winter of 1942-43, photographing Soviet citizens as they tried to stay alive amidst the fighting. Many of the most famous photographs of the war are attributed to these 2 photographers. Zel’ma worked for Izvestia (“The News”) and Riumkin worked for Pravda (“Truth”). Together they climbed the stairs of a building in the city square, and a soldier unfurled the Red Banner. Both Zel’ma and Riumkin took photos. As part of Stalin’s postwar purge of Jews in the 1950s, Zel’ma and Riumkin were suppressed, along with many other Jewish war photographers. Also, the gruesome nature of their war photographs led Soviet authorities to suppress them during the conflict. It wasn’t until the 1960s that some of their war photographs were published. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2174.jpg |
| Image Size | 449.03 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2034 x 1350 |
| Photographer | Yakov Riumkin |
| Photographer Title | Pravda |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | February 2, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Stalingrad |
| State or Province | Stalingrad |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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