The museum presented a planar photo installation “A Look Through Time”, devoted to the Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War on May 4, 2023,.
Nazi Germany launched the first massive strikes on the territory of the Soviet Union, violating the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of August 23, 1939. Thus began the Great Patriotic War on June 22, 1941, at 4 am, .
The total number of people mobilized from Kazakhstan amounted to 1,196,164 people. Kazakhstanis fought on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War.
For 1418 long days and nights, the peoples of the USSR marched towards victory. The memory of this time is preserved in the photographs of those years.
Military photography in the Soviet Union performed a variety of tasks. She informed about the state of affairs on the fronts, showed the lethality of the war and recorded the destruction in the country. At the same time, she carried news from the front to those who were waiting to see their loved ones in the rear, and announced the long-awaited victory.
On the battlefields, only professionals working in central newspapers such as Pravda, Izvestia, Krasnaya Zvezda, front-line newspapers and news agencies had the opportunity to take photographs.
War correspondents not only recorded the ongoing events, but also fought the enemy on an equal footing with the soldiers. Developing rooms, editorial offices and printing houses were located in front-line trains, which, like light aircraft in a hurry to deliver the film to the editorial office, were often bombarded.
Often, military photographs were staged and artistic. Their main goal was to inspire the Soviet people. The release of a fresh issue of newspapers in the rear was awaited with impatience, because there was a hope to see their loved ones in the pictures.
Front-line photographs were sent home by fighters as postcards, without envelopes. On the back of the photo, they signed the address part, a short message for relatives. Everything was checked by military censors.
More than 400 military photojournalists were in hot spots, where they recorded footage, thanks to which we can see the exploits of our ancestors.
The funds of our museum contain 176 photographs of the war years. We folded them into the legendary photo "Victory Banner over the Reichstag" (author E. Khaldei). This photo is familiar to everyone, but for Kazakhstanis it is especially significant.
Our countryman Rakhimzhan Koshkarbaev, together with his colleague Grigory Bulatov, accomplished a feat at 14:25. Under heavy fire from the defending Nazis, they covered a distance of 360 meters for 7 hours, moving towards the central part of the Reichstag building and were the first to install a “red banner” on the stairs of the main entrance on April 30, 1945.
Rakhimzhan Koshkarbaev, two months before his 18th birthday, ended up in a rifle regiment in the city of Kokshetau, where military training was carried out for soldiers from Kazakhstan and the republics of Central Asia In August 1942, . An order was issued according to which R. Koshkarbaev, a graduate of the Frunze Military School, was awarded the rank of junior lieutenant on October 27, 1944.
Since January 1945, he was in the army, a month later, on February 15, 1945, he was appointed commander of a rifle platoon of the 674th rifle regiment of the 150th rifle Idritskaya division.
During a military operation on the left bank of the Oder River, despite the enemy's desperate resistance, Rakhimzhan Koshkarbaev managed to capture a machine-gun point and destroy the enemy. For his feats in the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, the Order of the Red Banner, and the medal "For the Capture of Berlin" on April 16, 1945.
Until now, there are disputes about who first established the banner of Victory. It is difficult to establish this for sure, but it is not required. It is important to preserve the memory of all the standard-bearers who stormed the Reichstag. The soldiers of the Soviet army hoisted the "red banner" in different places of the building, putting an end to this bloody war
Behind this symbol of Victory are the deeds and lives of millions of people. Therefore, the installation “A Look Through Time” is made up of photographs of Samarkand residents - participants in the Great Patriotic War. In total, about 230 people went to the front from the village of Samarkand (now the Temirtau city) , and only 84 people returned home. Every year, work is carried out to clarify the number of dead Samarkand residents and preserve the memory of our fellow countrymen.
Three post-war generations grew up in our city: sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of victorious soldiers, but even today, 78 years later, we remember each of them.
The photo installation is located on the facade of the museum and will be available to Temirta city’s residents for 10 days.
