Iconic photos of Max Alpert about the history of the USSR

The people and events captured on film become part of history, telling us the truthful facts about how "it all really happened." In addition to the optical device, the photographer himself participates in the creation of the image with his perception of the world, thanks to which a reliable event appears to the viewer from a new side. A talented master captures the appearance of what is happening, while simultaneously revealing the essence. Those photographers who succeed in this, rightfully become the property of national culture.

One of the largest Soviet photo masters of the last century was Max Vladimirovich Alpert.

Source of photos in the article: TASS website

The return of A.M. Gorky from Italy, 1928

Even before the revolution, Max Vladimirovich studied photography in Odessa. In 1919, he joined the Red Army, and after the end of the Civil War, he moved to Moscow, where he began working as a photojournalist for the Rabochaya Gazeta.

Stalin, 1936

The master worked a lot in the genre of portrait photography, took pictures of major Soviet and foreign political figures, famous military leaders, writers.…

Builders of the Great Ferghana Canal, 1939

The most important series of the photographer, and there are about fifty of them in his archive, were made at the "Great Stalinist construction Sites". His large-scale canvases are distinguished by the depth of perspective, the contrasting juxtaposition of large figures in the foreground and grandiose man-made structures or natural landscapes in the background.

Construction of the canal, 1939

Battalion Commander, 1942

Max Alpert's professional skills and talent were fully manifested during the Great Patriotic War. As a correspondent for TASS and Sovinformburo, he worked both in the rear and in a combat situation. His best wartime works are full of emotional intensity.

"As a military correspondent, an employee of the Red Star, I had to be in a lot of different circumstances on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War next to the TASS military photojournalist Max Alpert. His war pictures are countless and well-known. But it gives me joy to witness once again that many of these pictures were taken in a difficult and dangerous situation, and in order not to retreat, to fulfill his duty there, at the front, this man invariably showed his characteristic calm and silent courage," Konstantin Simonov wrote about the photographer.

Soldiers conduct reconnaissance in the Kuban floodplains on inflatable rubber chambers, 1943

Photo: RIA Novosti

At the front

The battle for the settlement, 1944

In moments of rest

Refugees, Orel region, 1943

Victory Day Parade on June 24 , 1945

Victory celebration in Moscow, 1945

Max Alpert (right) with the Soviet military in Prague

Workers read the newspaper Pravda, 1963. Photo: Max Alpert / RIA Novosti

Yuri Gagarin and German Titov, 1961

From the series "Thought and Heart", which tells about the famous cardiologist-surgeon academician Nikolai Amosov. onethousandninehundredseventyfive