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[LENINGRAD REGIMENT] 20y zapasniy avto-polk Lenfronta [i.e. 20th reserve auto-regiment of Leningrad front]

Item #2510

Official photo album with 18 large photographs with captions, taken for presentation purposes by the officers of the regiment, showing the everyday life of the regiment, their daily activities from reading clubs to barber shops, as well as visual propaganda (posters, art), the destroyed buildings and other attributes of the wartime. Ca. late 1943. One Quatro cloth album, ca. 23×29 cm. 19 stock leaves, with 18 original gelatin silver photos mounted, all sized 16,2×22 cm. ‘20y zapasniy avto-polk Lenfronta’ in black pen on the front cover. The album is likely hand-made at the regiment, as the stock leaves consisting of carton filling and two pieces of paper glued from each side, paper being taken from school exercise book covers of the time. One stock leaf is lacking a photo. Binding rubbed on extremities, the block is shaky, but holds. Overall in very good condition.

The album was likely done for the presentation purposes by the regiment commissioner to report on the regiment’s everyday life. The regiment was formed in July, 1943 and existed until the end of the war. We date the album based on the dates of the posters, hanging from half-destroyed building, covering the building’s facade, announcing the recent advances of the Red Army in Ukraine – the liberation of Mariupol, Novorossiysk, Chernihiv and Poltava with dates in September, 1943, when it was achieved. The photos in the album include the group photo of Chief of Staff of the regiment together with order bearers of the 1st fighter battalion of the Leningrad Front, three next photos are dedicatee to the canteen: photos of the team of cooks, officer canteen and soldier canteen with the images of the food, prepared for the Red Army men. Four photos are dedicated to the medical activities of the regiment: the group photo of the staff, dentist treating one of the order bearers, the check-up of the new arrivals, the ward. The following photos show work process at the barbershop, the shoemaker, tailor shops and the post office. The auditorium of the regiment theatre shown with the set of decorations. The agitation room (partkabinet) has 1 portraits of Stalin, as well as two bas-relief portraits of him on the walls, and a bust of Lenin.

The reading room shows officers and stage members reading papers and playing checkers, the map of the frontline is handing underneath another portrait of Stalin. The billiard room shows a group of men engaged in a game of pool. The last photos titled ‘Evening examination’ shows the female staff of the regiment lined u in the uniforms in the corridor. Altogether on the photos sixteen different agnation posters are captured (textual and visual), all produced during WWII and purposed for the agitation in the army, as well as 5 oil paintings, that served the same purposes. The regiment was stationed in Leningrad area and consisted of the personnel, that was trained and getting ready to be sent to the frontline. The autoregiments were designed for the transportation of personnel, delivery of ammunition, fuel, food and other material resources necessary for conducting military operations, as well as for the evacuation of the wounded, sick, weapons and military equipment. At the time the regiment was formed, the Siege of Leningrad was not over (as it officially finished in Jan, 1944), but the blockade ring was broken on January 18, 1943. It is possible that the men of this regiment were later applied to the tasks for the besieged city.

Overall an interesting collection – a glimpse into the days of work and leisure at a Soviet regiment during WWII.

Price: $1,200.00