Photos WW2 Soviet Forces

Soviet submachine gunners in battle near Stalingrad. October 1942.

Fighter pilot V.D. Lavrinenkov in front of a Soviet Yak fighter in the Stalingrad region. October 1942.

A camouflaged T-34 in position at Stalingrad. Autumn 1942
Tank ace, tank platoon commander Mikhail Kitia died in battle on October 25, 1942 in the area of the Gornaya Polyana state farm

The combat position of the Soviet 76-mm regimental cannon mod. 1927 in the ruins of Stalingrad. 1942 year.

Author: Emmanuil Noevich Evzerikhin.

The calculation of the Soviet 50-mm company mortar changes position during the battle in the workers' settlement near Stalingrad. August 1942.

Author: Georgy Zelma

Fights in the area of the plant "Red October". October 1942

In the vicinity of Stalingrad. At the Maxim machine gun from left to right: Russian soldier Kolesnikov, Kyrgyz Azhekinbaev and Ukrainian Chepenev. 1942 year.

Anatoly Ivanovich Chekhov was born on May 2, 1923 in the village of Bondyuzhsk, Chelninsky canton, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1936, the Chekhov family moved to Kazan, where since June 1939 Anatoly worked as a locksmith's assistant in the assembly shop of the Kazan Film Factory.

On April 5, 1942, Anatoly was drafted into the army, where he received a referral to the Moscow school for training sniper instructors, after which he was assigned to the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 13th Guards Rifle Order of Lenin Division of General Alexander Rodimtsev, which in September 1942 put the beginning of a radical change in the Battle of Stalingrad. During the street fighting from September 21 to October 10, 1942, the sniper of the 3rd rifle company of the 1st battalion of the 39th regiment, Anatoly Chekhov, destroyed thirty soldiers and one enemy officer, for which he was presented to the Order of the Red Banner, which he received on November 6, 1942 of the year. At this point, he had 55 killed enemy soldiers and officers. The country learned about the exploits of the Stalingrad sniper from the story "Stalingrad Pain" by Vasily Grossman, published on November 16 in the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. For his heroism and high military art, which led to victory in the battle for Stalingrad, Anatoly Chekhov, among the four servicemen of the 62nd Army, was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but the plane with the presentation for the award and ranks was shot down to Moscow did not fly.

After Stalingrad, Anatoly Chekhov took part in the battles for Kursk, Oryol, Belgorod. During the period from October 1942 to January 28, 1943, Chekhov's sniper account had 265 (according to some sources, 256 - the account for the Battle of Stalingrad) killed enemy soldiers and officers. In 1943, in the battles near Kiev, Anatoly received a second wound, an explosion tore off his foot (according to some sources, Chekhov received both legs in a battle near Kursk). In 1944, after treatment, Chekhov was discharged, by the decision of the medical-labor expert commission (VTEK), he received the 3rd disability group and returned to Kazan, where he worked as a gas welder at a local electromechanical plant.

For 22 years, comrades and colleagues of Anatoly considered him dead, only in 1965 it became known that Anatoly Chekhov was alive, documentaries were made about the famous sniper, publications appeared in the press. Anatoly Ivanovich died on June 6, 1967 in Gorky, where he came to visit his brother. Chekhov was buried at the Arsk cemetery in Kazan.

The commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, Major General A.I. Rodimtsev among the soldiers. Stalingrad, 1942.

"In a quiet moment!". October 1942

Photo: G. Zelma.

Killed Soviet soldier near the trench, October 17, 1942

The calculation of the Soviet 82-mm mortar is firing in Stalingrad. October 21, 1942.

Damaged railway cars near the station in Stalingrad. October 22, 1942.

By Kurt Heine.

October 1942. Stalingrad. The command of the 67th Guards Division assigns a combat mission to personnel.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, member of the military council of the Southwestern Front with officers in Stalingrad.

Colonel-General of the Wehrmacht Friedrich Paulus (Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus, 1890-1957) with officers at an observation post near Stalingrad. 1942 year.