On the 9th of May, Russia marked 68 years since the historic victory over the Nazis by the Red army as they marched into Berlin. A picture representing the conquering of the ‘Reich’ became world famous, but only few knew of the changes Stalin had made in the picture.
Long before the days of Photoshop, the dictator had changes made to the picture’s background and small details in order to further glorify his victory.
For example, he had clouds illustrating heavy bombarding added in the background, and one of the two watches that was looted during the war by the solider hanging the USSR’s flag on the parliament’s building, was removed.
The original photo was taken by the Jewish photographer, Yavgenia Choldaye. He kept the original negative at home, which was sold lately by his daughter to a wealthy friend of the FJC of Russia.
The new owner, decided to grant the original negative to the new Jewish Museum and center for tolerance opened recently in Moscow, which presented the original photo in a special news conference held last week and attended by journalists from around the world. [nggallery id=219]
