Images shared in viral social media and weblog posts authentically depict the identical Soviet soldier, Evgeny Kobytev, earlier than and after WWII.
In June 2024, numerous X customers participated in a meme that consisted of humorously evaluating the drastic distinction in look of photographs allegedly displaying a soldier earlier than and after World Battle II to how the customers felt earlier than and after going by way of on a regular basis experiences. Among the many struggles talked about within the posts had been checking a crush’s likes, binge-watching a Netflix series, and visiting Wales.
me earlier than and after I examine his likes https://t.co/nFHn8ilM2x
— zlongz (@TheAvatarLang) June 3, 2024
Lots of the joke posts took the type of reposts of a January 2023 X post by historic meme account @historyinmemes, which consisted of side-by-side pictures that purportedly confirmed how World Battle II ravaged one younger soldier’s face. The unique @historyinmemes submit had obtained round 203,000 likes and 33,000 reposts, a lot of which took the type of the meme.
The photographs used within the meme initially went viral — with out the joking commentary — in Might 2020, when, as Know Your Meme explains, they had been posted on the Russian information aggregator website Zen. From there, they rapidly unfold to Reddit, Facebook, and different corners of the web.
Within the English-speaking world, two extensively shared posts have claimed to inform the total story behind the photographs. One is a post by the weblog Uncommon Historic Images, which was most not too long ago up to date on Jan. 9, 2024, however first appeared in much shorter form in July 2020. The second is a thread by X person @fakehistoryhunt, which had been retweeted round 7,900 instances and preferred round 25,000 instances on the time this story first revealed.
I am getting lots of questions on these photographs, so here is what I’ve discovered;
The photographs present Евгений Степанович Кобытев (Evgeny Stepanovich Kobytev) and sure, it is the identical man in each photographs and sure, earlier than and after his experiences throughout WW2.
However there’s extra.
Thread; pic.twitter.com/7wTvW7trii— Pretend Historical past Hunter (@fakehistoryhunt) August 25, 2021
Each the weblog submit and the X thread establish the person within the photographs as Russian artist Evgeny Stepanovich Kobytev (additionally transliterated from Cyrillic as “Kobitev”), a trainer and artist from Altai who graduated from artwork college in Kyiv in 1941 and instantly joined the Pink Military. Just a few months later, in line with the posts, Kobytev was captured and despatched to the “Khorol pit,” a infamous German jail camp in central Ukraine. After escaping from the camp in 1943, the posts declare, Kobytev rejoined the Pink Military at some stage in WWII after which returned to creative life within the Siberian metropolis of Krasnoyarsk. The photographs, the posts declare, subsequently ended up within the assortment of an establishment referred to as the Pozdeev Museum.
Sadly for readers who may need to double examine the accuracy of this info, neither Uncommon Historic Images nor @fakehistoryhunt cited or linked to any sources for the compelling story.
Nevertheless, by turning to Russian-language sources, which we consulted utilizing Google Translate, Snopes was capable of affirm that the small print supplied by Uncommon Historic Images, @fakehistoryhunt, and different posts are right. Because of this, we’ve got rated the declare as “True.”
One informative and authoritative Russian-language supply we consulted is a Might 7, 2019, article revealed by Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. The article contains an interview with Kobytev’s daughter, Vera Polynskaya–Kobyteva, who corroborates the foremost particulars and dates of the story included the X and Uncommon Historic Images posts, together with the timelines of Kobytev’s service within the warfare and his creative profession. The article additionally features a {photograph} displaying weathered prints of the 2 footage of Kobytev earlier than and after the warfare.
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
As for the photographs themselves, they’re certainly a part of the gathering of the Pozdeev Museum (formally, the Faculty Museum of the Artist Andrey Pozdeev) in Krasnoyarsk, because the Uncommon Historic Images submit and a few social media posts declare.
Based on a 2013 post on the museum’s Russian-language web site, which incorporates a picture of the identical two images proven within the Komsomolskaya Pravda article, the museum started working with Kobytev’s daughter to amass the artist’s private archives in 2005. Whereas Snopes was unable to substantiate the precise 12 months the museum took possession of the photographs of Kobytev earlier than and after World Battle II, a page devoted to the museum’s assortment of Kobytev memorabilia clearly explains that the photographs are presently on show on the museum and do depict Kobytev as he appeared first in 1941, the 12 months he joined the Pink Military, after which in 1945, the 12 months he returned to his adopted hometown of Krasnoyarsk.
As a result of the foremost particulars in regards to the images as supplied by common English-language protection of the pictures are corroborated by authoritative Russian sources, we’ve got rated this declare as “True.”
