The villagers of Krymskaya welcoming Red Army troops, 1943 (b/w photo)

The villagers of Krymskaya welcoming Red Army troops, 1943. Photograph, World War Two, Eastern Front (1941-1945), 1943. Soviet civilians from Krymskaya in the Kuban region greet their liberators following the Red Army’s successful advances during the summer of 1943. They survived the brutal German occupation, but millions of their compatriots were not so fortunate. Often their ordeal did not end after liberation. The Soviet security apparatus would soon arrive and begin the search for collaborators and those suspected of disloyalty to the Stalinist regime.