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Captivating Colorized Portraits of Russian Fighters In World War 1
FlashBAK ^ | 22FEB19 | By Karen Strike

Posted on 02/26/2019 5:26:12 AM PST by vannrox

"The most thrilling part of the coloring process is when suddenly the person looks back at you as if he’s alive" - Olga Shirnina

“My heart yearned to be there, in the boiling caldron of war, to be baptized in its fire and scorched in its lava” – Maria Bochkareva, commander of the Russian Women’s death battalion in her 1919 autobiography Yashka, My Life as Peasant, Officer and Exile.

 

maria-bochkareva

Maria Bochkareva

Color can bring the past to the present, giving black and white images a spritz of life. We’ve seen color photos of the Russian Empire in Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii’s gorgeous photos. But what would the goofy Romanovs looks like in color? Thanks to Olga Shirnina (aka Klimblim) we get a good idea. She colorizes black and white images of Russians in World War 1.

The lead photo show us Maria Leontievna Bochkareva (1889–1920), a Russian soldier who fought in World War I and formed the Women’s Battalion of Death. She was the first Russian woman to command a military unit. She was executed by a Bolshevik firing squad. “Passing her on the street, you had to look three times to make sure she was not a man,” Bessie Beatty  (January 27, 1886 – April 6, 1947), the American journalist, editor, playwright and radio host, wrote in The Red Heart of Russia. “After the first few days of grumbling protest, her comrades seldom remembered she was a woman.”

“Sometimes a picture can say more than many words,” says Olga, “and I’ll be glad if people learn more about Russia and its people through my colourings, especially about our brave women … The most thrilling part of the coloring process,” she adds, “is when suddenly the person looks back at you as if he’s alive.”

 

russian-scout-alekseev-and-his-sculpture-of-moist-sand-wwi_

Russian scout Alekseev and his sand sculpture

Russia color World War 1 colour

Russia color World War 1 colour

Maria BochkarevaRussia color World War 1 colour

Maria Bochkareva

Ilya Muromets Russia color World War 1 colour

Vasily Karabanov, sub-ensign of the 146th Tsaritsyn Infantry Reg

Vasily Karabanov, sub-ensign of the 146th Tsaritsyn Infantry Reg

Russian Empire : Russian Empire, military exercises: Machine gun position - 1914 - Photographer: Karl Bulla

Russian Empire : Russian Empire, military exercises: Machine gun position – 1914 – Photographer: Karl Bulla

Russia color World War 1 colour Russia color World War 1 colour Russia color World War 1 colour Russia color World War 1 colour Russia color World War 1 colour

Russia color World War 1 colour

1st Russian Women’s Battalion of Death

Russia color World War 1 colour

Burial of a fallen Russian soldier, 1916

 

Russia color World War 1 colour

Kagul (renamed Ochakov, later General Kornilov) was built by Sevastopol dockyard. Laid down 1900, launched October 1902, completed 1905, seized by the White forces in the Russian Civil War and interned in Bizerta in 1920 as part of Wrangel’s fleet, sold for scrap in 1933

Russia color World War 1 colour

Russia color World War 1 colour

Karel Vašátko

Russia color World War 1 colour Karel VašátkoRussia color World War 1 colour

Russia color World War 1 colour

Russian expeditionary force in Paris

Russia color World War 1 colour

Russia color World War 1 colour

Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Romanov in a military hospital

Russia color World War 1 colour

Members of the Women’s Battalion

Russia color World War 1 colour Russia color World War 1 colour

Russia color World War 1 colour

The first Russian military pilot Evgeny Rudnev

Russia color World War 1 colour

Zinaida Malynich

easter-at-the-front-1916

Easter at the front – 1916

See more of Olga Shirnina’s work on her website.


TOPICS: Education; History; Hobbies; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: camera; military; photo; photography; redarmy; russia; ww1
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I strongly recommend this site for anyone interested in the past.
1 posted on 02/26/2019 5:26:12 AM PST by vannrox
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To: SunkenCiv

Heads up.


2 posted on 02/26/2019 5:26:37 AM PST by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: vannrox

Great pictures. I just finished reading “The Guns of August” and it reminded me of how the Russians pretty much bathed themselves in ineptitude in WWI. But they had bigger problems on the horizon than the Germans at that time.


3 posted on 02/26/2019 5:32:27 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: vannrox

Seriously...these photos look like they were taken yesterday with an iPhone 10.


4 posted on 02/26/2019 5:33:44 AM PST by moovova
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To: vannrox

Extraordinary! Thanks for posting.


5 posted on 02/26/2019 5:34:05 AM PST by 4everontheRight (And the story began with..."Once there was a great nation......)
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To: vannrox

Good stuff!


6 posted on 02/26/2019 5:34:35 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: vannrox

Nice pics!


7 posted on 02/26/2019 5:38:45 AM PST by caver
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To: rlmorel
This movie is on Prime. I watched most of it but had to stop when the women started dying...

"Russia, 1917, WWI. This is the story of the 1st Russian Women's Battalion of Death, formed as part of an ill-conceived propaganda ploy by the Russian Provisional Government in late May of 1917."

"The Battalion"

8 posted on 02/26/2019 5:40:30 AM PST by moovova
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To: vannrox

Thanks for posting.

I love early color photos, including ones that have been colorized.

I’m a big fan of autochromes, as well.


9 posted on 02/26/2019 5:50:00 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia (Democrats: The perfect party for the helpless and stupid, and those who would rule over them.)
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To: vannrox

GREAT post. Thanks. BUMP.


10 posted on 02/26/2019 5:50:53 AM PST by PGalt
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To: vannrox

Amazing photos!
I wonder how many of them survived WW1, the civil war, the purges, and WW2?


11 posted on 02/26/2019 5:52:48 AM PST by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: vannrox

Bfl


12 posted on 02/26/2019 6:00:28 AM PST by Fido969 (In!)
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To: vannrox

Wow! Thanks for posting.

These are beautiful and vivid. Some painstaking work went into the colorization.


13 posted on 02/26/2019 6:09:42 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine ( "It's always a party when you're eating the seed corn.")
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To: Travis McGee

I wonder how many of them survived WW1, the civil war, the purges, and WW2?
________________________________________________

“Fiddler on the Roof” makes me feel the same way. Although I’m a gentile, I have many Jewish friend and wonder about the horrors their ancestors must have gone through.


14 posted on 02/26/2019 6:09:57 AM PST by libstripper
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To: vannrox

Interesting to see the Eastern Front colorized. I’m looking forward to seeing Peter Jackson’s restored videos of the Western Front soldiers.


15 posted on 02/26/2019 6:15:16 AM PST by Unam Sanctam
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To: vannrox

I have a Tusla Mosin Nagant made in 1927. One of those guys could have carried it.

L


16 posted on 02/26/2019 6:17:33 AM PST by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending it is.)
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To: Unam Sanctam

Great experience!


17 posted on 02/26/2019 6:28:36 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: vannrox

I thought the 1st photo was Herr Merkel.


18 posted on 02/26/2019 6:42:54 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Travis McGee
I'd say the prospects for all of those people are nil, and that is one scary looking woman kommissar...

And none of it was fiction.

BTW that must be a couple of German officers getting their trenchfoot looked at, with their helmets with the Prussian-looking pointy thingies on top. One would wonder what their next stop is.

19 posted on 02/26/2019 7:02:14 AM PST by OKSooner (Better call Saul!!!)
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To: vannrox
Amazing photos. The 11th photo shows Russian soldiers with Japanese Type 30 Arisaka rifles with bayonets fixed.

The Russian Empire purchased as many as 600,000 of these rifles during and after WWI.

20 posted on 02/26/2019 7:24:22 AM PST by Godebert
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