Elar digitized more than 14 thousand photographs from the fronts of World War II

2021: Digitizing 14,260 photos

The digitization of 14,260 photographs, grouped by thematic albums, was carried out by experts of the corporation ELAR for Russian the military-historical society, which had previously published photos of the Great Patriotic War from various archives on its portal. Elar announced this on February 25, 2021. Scanning was carried out in a contactless way on a domestic planetary scanner, ElarSkan which made it possible to eliminate the mechanical effect on photographs and guarantee the preservation of historical documents.

As part of the project, employees of the Russian Military Historical Society and TsAMO selected photos for scanning, conditionally identifying three large thematic blocks:

• heroism of Soviet soldiers and officers in hostilities;
• a liberation mission in our territories and in the countries of Europe;
• genocide of the Soviet civilian population.

The photographs show the war most voluminously and comprehensively, "comments Mikhail Yuryevich Myagkov, historian, specialist in the history of the Great Patriotic War, doctor of historical sciences, professor, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society. - Documentary footage captured both work and life in the rear, awards, and military operations of the Red Army - rifle and tank troops, aviation, artillery. Such photographs were taken directly during the battles, under the whistle of bullets and shell explosions. These are real evidence of the heroism of Soviet soldiers and the gravity of the struggle that clarifies the origins of the ultimate victory over Nazism. It is important that the younger generation has the opportunity to study the history of the country from documentary, genuine historical materials, including photographs.

Photos were taken by military correspondents, sometimes just soldiers, officers of various branches of the army, staff members of army newspapers. A large part of the photographs illustrates the brutal picture of the genocide of civilians. Many photographs have hand-written captions and tell who and under what circumstances was captured by a military photographer. So, on the back of the photo with an elderly woman, the pencil says: "Old woman Epifanova Tatyana Alekseevna, 80 years old. Beaten by the Germans for resisting at a time when the Germans were removing the rolls from her. 25.04.42. Smolensk region. "

The shots are often really scary, but this is a story that we must know and remember in order to never allow it to repeat, "said Mikhail Yuryevich Myagkov. - All photos will be published on the site История.рф (project "Images of War").