Soviet Union WW2

Today marks the 102nd anniversary of the birth of Soviet sniper Roza Georgiyevna Shanina(Ро́за Гео́ргиевна Ша́нина).

"On the road to war" A photo by Dmitri Nikolayevich Baltermants (Дмитрий Николаевич Бальтерманц), 1941.

"Soldier in the Road, Smolensk Front, 10 Minutes from Moscow" A photo by Dmitri Nikolayevich Baltermants (Дмитрий Николаевич Бальтерманц), 1941.

"Orlik" armored train, formerly "Zaamurets" then later "Lenin" in Bolshevik hands and now in service with the Czechoslovak Legion preparing to leave Irkutsk for Vladivostok on January 11th 1920

A photo of Red Army motorcycle troops at Stalingrad, November 1942. Photo by: Dmitri Nikolayevich Baltermants (Дмитрий Николаевич Бальтерманц). Battle of Stalingrad (23 August, 1942 – 2 February, 1943)

The destroyed T-34/76 tank from a different angle.

A destroyed T-34/76 tank in Komarovskaya Square (now Yakub Kolas Square) Minsk, Belarus. The Germans used the tank as mount for a signpost. The Red Army retook Minsk in July 1944.

Portrait of K. Rokossovsky for the cover of the American magazine "Time". 1943.

A KV-8S heavy flamethrower tank based upon the KV-1S, a lighter variant of the KV-1, Spring 1943. In order to fit the ATO-42 flamethrower in in the turret, the 76mm main gun was replaced with the smaller M1932 45 mm anti-tank gun. The smaller gun was disguised to look like a 76mm gun. Look closely, you can see the end of the 45mm barrel inside a 76mm tube.

An OT-34/76 flamethrower tank. The OT-34 differed from earlier light flamethrower tanks such as the OT-26 and OT-130 in that it retained it's main gun. The bow machine gun of the T-34 was replaced with successively improved flamethrower models (ATO-41, ATO-42, ATO-43) over the course of the war.

A Soviet ISU-152 self propelled gun and a T-34/76 in Breslau (present Wroclaw, Poland), 1945. The original caption of this photo identified the tank as a OT-34/76 flamethrower tank. The flamethrower replaced the machinegun in the bow of the tank. Siege of Breslau (13 February, 1945 to 6 May, 1945)

Street fighting in Breslau (present Wroclaw, Poland), 1945. Siege of Breslau (13 February - 6 May, 1945)

Soviet poster (1965) celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Soviet machinegunners cover the sappers advancing toward the German stronghold in Breslau (present Wroclaw, Poland),1945. Siege of Breslau (13 February, 1945 to 6 May, 1945)

Red Army army sappers drag crates of explosives toward a house in Breslau with enemy soldiers holed up inside. Siege of Breslau (13 February, 1945 to 6 May, 1945)

A Red Army soldier looks out over the city of Breslau (present Wroclaw, Poland). In the background is Johanneskirche (St. John church, now St. Augustus of Hippo church) built in 1909. The church was moderately damaged during the siege, sold by the Protestants in 1948 and consecrated as a Catholic church in 1949. A photo by Dmitri Nikolayevich Baltermants (Дмитрий Николаевич Бальтерманц). Siege of Breslau (13 February, 1945 to 6 May, 1945)

A photo of the same house in yesterday's post with the Red Army soldiers gathered around the piano in a house in Breslau (present Wroclaw, Poland). Photo: Dmitri Nikolayevich Baltermants (Дмитрий Николаевич Бальтерманц). Siege of Breslau (13 February, 1945 to 6 May, 1945)

Soldiers of the Soviet 6th Army take up positions in a destroyed house in Breslau in Lower Silesia (present Wroclaw, Poland), 1945. Siege of Breslau (13 February, 1945 to 6 May, 1945)

Ammunition is transported on donkeys. Crimean ASSR, Sevastopol, 1944. Photo by Evgeny Khaldey

Soldiers of the Soviet 6th Army advance on Gutenberg Strasse during the Siege of Breslau in Lower Silesia (present Wroclaw, Poland), 1945. In the foreground is a Soviet 122mm howitzer M1938 M-30 (122-мм гаубица образца 1938 года М-30). Siege of Breslau (13 February, 1945 to 6 May, 1945)