Liberated Europe

The photographs by war correspondents, presented in the Liberated Europe exhibition project form a photographic chronicle, which allows us, the descendants of the liberators, to envision clearly the events of the final period of WWII, when the Red Army not only led battles outside the borders of the Soviet Union, but also helped solve humanitarian problems of won over territories, repairing infrastructure, organising supply of essential items, providing medical aid, freeing concentration camp prisoners, helping local residents return to normal life. A significant part of the exhibition is comprised of photographs depicting European civilians greeting Soviet soldiers. The project also shows the cooperation of the Red Army and the Allies (the Encounter on the Elbe) and the Nuremberg trials. A separate hall at the exhibition is devoted to the events that occurred on Bornholm island in Denmark.

The exhibition project includes 150 unique photographs, created by famous Soviet photographers, such as Y. Khaldei, E. Yevzerikhin, G. Selma, S. Gourari, M. Trakhman, Y. Kopyt, V. Grebnev, V. Temin, R. Diament, I. Shagin, A. Ditlov, B. Viliyashev, B. Losin, B. Pushkin, L. Dorensky. Also presented are photographs by war photo correspondents whose names are unknown to us. Together with the Red Army, they travelled the roads of Europe, liberating country after country. In their photographs we can witness the boundlessly happy faces of endlessly exhausted people, who carried on their shoulders all the hardships of war, lost their friends and comrades but finally arrived at victory. Soviet war correspondents left us with unforgettable shots of a happy, springtime Europe, liberated from the horrors of Nazism and beginning a new peaceful life. Apart from photographs from ROSPHOTO’s own collection, Liberated Europe includes photographs from the Russian State Film and Photo Archive (Krasnogorsk) and Bornholm Museum (Denmark), as well as photographs and objects from the collection of the Russian Museum of Military Medicine.