Two photos are currently making the rounds on social media in which you can recognize a man. It is written that these two images show what war does to a man who has experienced the horrors. Many users suspect that this is a fake, but that is not the case.

The photos

These two photos are:

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Not a fake: there are only four years between the pictures

Who is this man?

The two photos are next to each other in the Andrei Posdeev Museum . The museum's caption reads: “ (Left) The artist Eugen Stepanovich Kobytev on the day he went to the front in 1941. (Right) 1945 when he returned ”.

It is the young man's look that holds him captive. In the left picture he is still looking at you. In the picture on the right he is looking through you.

Kobytev was an artist, writer and teacher. When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, he became a private in the 821st Artillery Regiment. Wounded in battle, he was taken as a prisoner of war to the Khorol concentration camp, where 90,000 prisoners of war and civilians, often Jews, were murdered.

In 1936 he began studying at the State Art Institute in Kiev. His passion was painting, especially portraits and panoramas from everyday life. He completed his art studies in 1941 and was just about to begin his artistic life when the Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Germany on June 22nd.

Kobytev volunteered as a soldier and was involved with his regiment in a fierce battle protecting the small town of Pripyat. In September 1941 he was wounded in the leg and became a prisoner of war: in the infamous “Grube Khorol” concentration camp – so named because it was located in a deep clay pit near an abandoned brickworks.

The concentration camp was literally just a pit. Only a few of the inmates fit into the single barracks; most had to stay outside in wind and weather. Kobytev distracted himself with the thing he loved: art.

Kobytev made notes and sketches of what he saw.
When the guards found out what he was doing, they ordered him to draw their portraits. One can assume that these portraits, for which he was “paid” with food, were more flattering than his later drawings:

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Drawings by Eugen Stepanovich Kobytev, source: cultura24

In 1943, Kobytev managed to escape from captivity and rejoined the Red Army. He took part in various military operations in Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and Germany.

After the end of World War II, he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal for his outstanding military achievements during the battles for the liberation of Smila and Korsun in Ukraine. However, the high command refused to award him the medal for the victory over Germany because his military career was “spoiled” by his captivity.

Kobytev became an art teacher after the war. To process his experiences, he drew a lot, published a book about his experiences and exhibited his drawings.

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More drawings by Kobytev, source: domiskusstv24

He exhibited his work, especially in the places where he was once a prisoner, refugee and soldier, and allowed the locals to recognize themselves, but also their tormentors, in his pictures.

Eugene Stepanovich Kobytev died on January 29, 1973 in Krasnoyarsk.

So when we see these two photos, we're not just looking into the eyes of a man before and after the war.
We see a man who, in four years, experienced not only a war, but also the horrors of a concentration camp.

Sources: Rare Historical Photos , Fake History Hunter

Also interesting: NASA did not admit that the moon landing was a fake!


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )