This well-known photograph is traditionally used to illustrate articles about the atrocities of Soviet soldiers in Berlin. This theme rises with amazing constancy from year to year to the Victory Day.
The photograph itself is published, as a rule, with the caption "A Soviet soldier takes a bicycle from a woman in Berlin." There are also signatures from the cycle "Looting flourished in Berlin on 1945", etc.
There are heated debates over the issue of photography itself and what is captured on it. Unfortunately, the arguments of the opponents of the version of “looting and violence” that I have come across online, unfortunately, sound unconvincing. Of these, one can single out, first, calls not to make judgments based on one photograph. Secondly, an indication of the posture of a German woman, a soldier and other persons caught in the frame. In particular, from the calmness of the supporting characters, it follows that this is not about violence, but about an attempt to straighten out some cycling detail.
Finally, doubts are raised that it was a Soviet soldier who was captured in the photograph: a roll over the right shoulder, the roll itself of a very strange shape, an oversized cap on the head, etc. In addition, in the background, right behind the soldier, if you look closely, you can see a soldier in a uniform that is clearly not a Soviet model.
But, let me emphasize again, all these versions do not seem convincing enough to me.
In general, I decided to understand this story. The picture, I reasoned, clearly must have an author, must have the original source, the first publication, and - most likely - the original signature. Which can shed light on what is shown in the photograph.
If we take literature, as far as I remember, I came across this picture in the catalog of the Documentary Exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the German attack on the Soviet Union. The exposition itself was opened in 1991 in Berlin in the Topography of Terror hall, then, as far as I know, it was exhibited in St. Petersburg. Her catalog in Russian "The War of Germany against the Soviet Union 1941-1945" was published in 1994.
I don't have this directory, but my colleague, fortunately, found it. Indeed, the desired photograph is published on page 257. The signature is traditional: "A Soviet soldier takes a bicycle from a resident of Berlin, 1945"
Promotional video:
Apparently, this catalog, published in 1994, became the Russian primary source of the photograph we need. At least on a number of old resources dating back to the early 2000s, I came across this picture with a reference to "Germany's war against the Soviet Union.." and with a familiar signature. It seems that the photograph is from there and roams the network.
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz - Photo Archive of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is indicated in the catalog as the source of the image. The archive has a website, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not find the picture I needed.
But in the process of searching I came across the same picture in the archive of Life magazine. In the Life version, it is called "Bike Fight".
Please note that here the photo is not cropped at the edges, as in the exhibition catalog. New interesting details appear, for example, on the left behind the backs you can see an officer, and, as it were, not a German officer:
But the main thing is the signature!
A Russian soldier involved in a misunderstanding with a German woman in Berlin, over a bicycle he wished to buy from her.
"There was a misunderstanding between a Russian soldier and a German woman in Berlin because of the bicycle he wanted to buy from her."
In general, I will not bore the reader with the nuances of further search for the keywords "misunderstanding", "German woman", "Berlin", "Soviet soldier", "Russian soldier", etc. I found the original photo and the original caption. The picture belongs to the American company Corbis. Here he is:
As it is not difficult to see, here the picture is complete, on the right and left there are details cut off in the "Russian version" and even in the Life version. These details are very important, as they give the picture a completely different mood.
And finally, the original signature:
Dmitry Lyskov
