War comes alive in shots of fearless Soviet photographer

Описание: Intro
Soviet war photographer Yevgeny Khaldey travelled to Berlin with the Soviet army at the end of World War II.

He captured the grief and sorrow of war victims, but also the joy of Soviet soldiers, liberating Berlin in 1945.

Khaldey died in 1997, but his images are on display in museums throughout Russia and abroad, thanks to the efforts of his daughter.

Shotlist
1. Various of Yevgeny Khaldey's portrait [0.00-0.07]
2. Mid: Yevgeny Khaldey's work [0.07-0.14]
3. SOUNDBITE Anna Khaldey, daughter of the photographer, speaking Russian: "He was often asked - did you have a gun? Did you kill Nazis? And he would say - of course, I had a gun and he would take out this - his most ruthless gun."
4. Various of Anna Khaldey showing photo of the siege of the Reichstag [0.28-0.38]
5. Various of Anna Khaldey showing photos [0.38-0.46]
6. Various of Yevgeny Khaldey's work [0.46-1.40]
7. SOUNDBITE Anna Khaldey, daughter of the photographer, speaking Russian: "This is June 21 of 1941. My father was assigned to film a literary club. When he arrived at the scene he saw joyous pioneers, small kids. Around them was beautiful quiet scenery - the lake and the church. But he still had an uneasy feeling that something was about to happen. This is the photo he made. The next morning Stalin announced the news of war".
8. Various of Anna Khaldey at the site where one of the shots was taken [2.18-2.33]

Story
Yevgeny Khaldey was with the Red Army for all 1418 days of the war. He didn't get a single injury, but he would click away his weapon's contents completely, day after day, city after city. He became famous after a series of photos of Stalin and the Nuremberg trials, but most importantly - of the war itself. Anna Khaldey is the daughter of legendary photographer and the only keeper of his priceless photographic legacy.

"He was often asked - did you have a gun?", she says, showing her father's camera. -- "Did you kill Nazis? And he would say - of course, I had a gun and he would take out this - his most ruthless gun."

It was his shot on the second of May 1945, which became an image to go down in history as the symbol of the Soviet victory in WW2.

It shows Soviet soldiers on the roof of the Reichstag with a red Soviet flag. Khaldey was a true romantic. Those days there were no Soviet flags in Berlin. Soldiers used red Nazi flags and replaced swastika with sickle and hammer. But Khaldey wanted no fakes, so he brought the flag all the way from Moscow to Berlin. He wrapped it up around himself to make sure it looked like new. He handed it over to soldiers last minute when he reached Reichstag.

Khaldey was often criticized for staging his shoots. But the photographer argued he captured only real people and their real dramas.

The history of his family was also marked with a color of grief. Lot of Khaldey's relatives were killed by the Nazis - for being Jewish. They lived in Ukraine in the 1930-s, before WW2 began. Anna tells the story of one more photorgapher's symbolic work.
"This is June 21 of 1941. My father was assigned to film a literary club. When he arrived at the scene he saw joyous pioneers, small kids. Around them was beautiful quiet scenery - the lake and the church. But he still had an uneasy feeling that something was about to happen. This is the photo he made. The next morning Stalin announced the news of war".

Khaldey died in Moscow in 1997. On May the 9th, most of the photographer's works are be spread out in museums across the world. Some of the snapshots are so famed and recognizable - that no signature is needed to identify the genius who created them.

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