Kerch, Crimea (Grief)

Dmitri Baltermants was a Soviet photojournalist who worked for the communist newspaper Izvestiia and the illustrated magazine Ogonyok. Born in Warsaw, Baltermants moved to Moscow as a child, attending secondary school and university there. His entry into photojournalism came in 1939, when Izvestiia sent him to document the Soviet invasion of Poland. His most famous photos were taken on the battlefield during World War II, dramatizing the horrors of war as much as the valor of Soviet soldiers. Baltermants’s reputation earned him the opportunity to travel abroad, most notably to China, where he documented Khrushchev’s visit, and to Cuba, for Brezhnev’s visit. Baltermants also photographed numerous leaders within the Soviet Union, including Stalin and Gorbachev.