Belarusian Film and Photo Archives presents a photo album Vasily Arkashev My War

On 5 May 2015 the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings held a presentation of the photo album “Vasily Arkashev. My War” in the Labyrinth Gallery of the National Library of Belarus. The event was organized as part of the cultural and educational project “We glorify the heroic deeds” to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.

The photo album “My War” is a joint project of the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus, the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Justice Ministry of Belarus and the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings.

As a photo correspondent for the army newspaper “We shall destroy the enemy” and then with the front line newspaper “The Red Army Truth”, Vasily Arkashev fought battles from Minsk to Moscow and then from Moscow to Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad). His war routes passed through Moscow, Smolensk, Belarus, Lithuania, East Prussia and other areas, where he continuously took photographs.

The collection of 508 photographs taken by Vasily Arkashev is held at the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings.
Many photographs in the album “My War” provide interesting and valuable evidence about the Second World War. These depict numerous fighting episodes, the army daily life, attacks, stream crossings, the activity of medical and sanitary battalions, interrogations of prisoners, etc. Of great interest are the photographs depicting the early days of the war, when the 100th Infantry Division resisted the Nazi attack in the area of Ostroshitski Gorodok and along the Logoisk highway. A considerable part of the records highlight the events relating to the Battle of Moscow, the liberation of Gzhatsk, Vyazma, Dorogobuzh, Elnya, Smolensk and other areas.