Stalingrad Attack

Georgi Zelma

1942

Image

Photograph of soldiers holding guns as they approach ruins of a bombed city. — Georgi Zelma’s photograph of soldiers charging up Mamayev Hill with their guns at the ready became one of the iconic photographs of Soviet heroism in the battle of Stalingrad. What draws the eye, however, is the total devastation into which they are headed, the smoke-filled ruins of what was once a busy, vibrant city.

Credits

Georgi Zelma / Slava Katamidze Collection / Hulton Archive / Getty Images.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 9.

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Creator Bio

Georgi Zelma

1906–1984

Georgi Zelma was a Soviet photojournalist who worked as a Central Asian correspondent for several photo agencies and publications. Born in Uzbekistan, Zelma moved in 1921 to Moscow for three years before joining the photo agency Russfoto. His knowledge of Russian and Uzbek languages served him well as a translator, and he spent much of his career documenting the effects of Soviet policy on rural life in Central Asia. Zelma’s photographs adhere to the principles of socialist realism. For a series on Soviet Jewish life, he traveled to Birobidzhan in the Jewish Autonomous Region, photographing the region’s Jewish loggers and farmers. During World War II, Zelma was a correspondent for Izvestiia, most famously documenting the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 and 1943.