Sovinformburo is 85. The frontline correspondents of Victory

The legendary Soviet Information Bureau, also known as Sovinformburo, was established 85 years ago, on the third day of a brutal war. In June 1941, we turned the word into a weapon and wielded it as if it was a rifle. "From the Soviet Information Bureau" - these words spoken by Yury Levitan in his inimitable voice inspired hope and became one of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War.

This exhibition focuses on those who looked death in its face through the lens of their cameras and reported the truth while facing enemy fire. It is about the Great Patriotic War’s frontline correspondents, those who used their Leica and FED cameras to capture images of the Soviet and European cities lying in ruins and the Nazi atrocities. It is about those who told the story of the heroic deeds accomplished by the army and on the homefront, about the soldiers heading into battle and children working at defense manufacturing plants.

Anatoly Garanin, Georgy Zelma, Roman Karmen, Oleg Knorring, Olga Lander, Mark Redkin, Konstantin Simoniv, Arkady Shaikhet, Ilya Erenburg and many others chronicled the horrible war and became the heralds of the Great Victory.

A successor of the Soviet Information Bureau, Rossiya Segodnya Media Group is proud to hold this exhibition. The photo images it presents come from RIA Novosti’s Media Bank.

Dmitry Kiselev, Director General Rossiya Segodnya Media Group

Print shop staff members at the Defender of the Motherland / Zashchitnik Rodiny newspaper preparing the latest edition.
Southern Front, July 1941
Georgy Zelma/ RIA Novosti

Announcer at the All-Union Radio Yury Levitan during a studio recording.
Sverdlovsk, 1941.
Anatoly Garanin / RIA Novosti

Photo correspondent with Frontline Illustration / Frontovaya Illyustratsiya newspaper Anatoly Garanin.
December 1941.
Anatoly Garanin / RIA Novosti

Frontline correspondent with For Motherland / Za Rodinu newspaper Timofei Melnik during a photo session with fighters of the Northwestern Front.
Near Staraya Russa, 1942.
Pyotr Bernshtein / RIA Novosti

Frontline correspondent with For Motherland / Za Rodinu newspaper Timofei Melnik during a photo session with fighters of the Northwestern Front.
Near Staraya Russa, 1942.
Pyotr Bernshtein / RIA Novosti

Poet Konstantin Simonov, sitting behind the table, first right, speaking in front of the service personnel in between combat assignments, 1943.
Yakov Khalip / RIA Novosti

Frontline correspondent Konstantin Simonov posing on the gun of a trophy German Ferdinand tank destroyer after it was hit on the northern side of the Kursk Salient, 1943.
Yakov Khalip / RIA Novosti

Frontline correspondent K. Gorbunov writing his latest report, 1943.
Pyotr Bernshtein / RIA Novosti

Frontline correspondent with Red Star / Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Ilya Erenburg, left, and special photo correspondent with Red Star / Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Major Sergei Loskutov having a cigarette break on the road by a lend-leased Willys MB truck, 1943.
Sergei Loskutov / RIA Novosti

Frontline photo correspondent Oleg Knorring, left, writer Vasily Grossman, second left, and frontline journalist with Red Star / Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Ivan Khitrov, second right, at the front, 1943.
Dmitry Minsker / RIA Novosti

Frontline correspondents Olga Lander, center, and Mark Redkin, right. Near Razdelnaya station.
3rd Ukrainian Front, 1944.
Olga Lander / RIA Novosti

Soviet writer and frontline correspondent Ilya Erenburg talking with people from a Ukrainian village after its liberation from Nazi invaders. 1944.
Semyon Fridlyand / RIA Novosti

Frontline photo correspondent Mark Redkin, left, talking to civilians on the streets of Odessa after its liberation from the Nazi invaders, 1944.
Olga Lander / RIA Novosti

Soviet frontline camera operator Roman Karmen posing by a car in liberated Budapest, 1945.
RIA Novosti archive

East Prussian Offensive. Battle of Königsberg. Frontline camera operator Roman Karmen on a filming assignment in Königsberg, 1945.
Fyodor Mogilevsky / RIA Novosti

Frontline correspondents Yefim Kopyt, left, and Arkady Shaikhet.
Berlin, May 1945.
Pyotr Bernshtein / RIA Novosti

Photo correspondent with Defender of the Fatherland / Zashchitnik Otechestva newspaper of the 1st Far Eastern Front’s 5th Army Alexander Stanovov.
Manchuria, 1945.
Alexander Stanovov / RIA Novosti

Leonid Korobov, frontline correspondent with Pravda and Komsomolskaya Pravda newspapers.
Austria, 1945.
Olga Lander / RIA Novosti

Group photo of Soviet photo journalists and camera operators near the Reichstag building, May 1945.
Georgy Petrusov / RIA Novosti