In January 1943, the Red Army broke the Siege of Leningrad, which had lasted from 1941, when the big city ended up without any supplies.
Czech hedgehogs strewn around Leningrad during the siege.
A soldier taking in the view of the beautiful Neva River in Leningrad.
February 1943 marked the successful end of the most important pages of the war - the Battle of Stalingrad.
In the summer of 1943, the Battle of Kursk took place, the biggest tank battle in history. It was one of the important turning points in World War II.
Defenders of the Moscow sky on top of a residential building.
Soldiers listening to their commander.
A sanitation worker posing in Crimea.
But, even in the darkest times, people found a moment to have joy. A girl nursing a baby bear in the Moscow Zoo is pictured below.
Female aviation division dancing during a break.
Tankmen celebrating Labor Day near Kursk.
And there was always time for love and friendship.
Even a soccer game was imaginable, like in this makeshift field near the Polar city of Murmansk.
War correspondents and a photographer saluting on the front line.
Happiness of a family reunited.
A concert in a ruined city.
Soldiers of the equestrian unit taking a break.
No less important than soldiers fighting on the front line were rear workers. Two kitchen hands washing and drying dishes in a hospital are pictured below.
A woman preparing tank shells at a Chelyabinsk Defense Plant.
School girls sewing uniforms.
A unit of soldiers fixing a damaged bridge.
Director Grigory Alexandrov and actors Khosrov Melikov and Lyubov Orlova taking a break between scenes on the set of the movie ‘A Family’.
A young steelworker at the Magnitogorsk Stalin Iron and Steel Works working for the needs of the front line.
A partisan peasant being honored with a medal for courage.
A woman returning home from captivity with her kids.
Pioneers marching in Moscow near the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statue.
A farmer’s boy tending to pigs.
Schoolgirls making agitation stands in a school.
Kids playing peacefully outside.
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