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The Road of Life (Доро́га жи́зни, doroga zhizni) was the ice road winter transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga, which provided the only access to the besieged city of Leningrad while the perimeter in the siege was maintained by the German Army Group North and the Finnish Defence Forces. The siege lasted for 29 months from 8 September 1941, to 27 January 1944. Over one million citizens of Leningrad died from starvation, stress, exposure and bombardments.
Note trigger discipline.
This is a photograph of an East German soldier helping a little boy cross the newly erected Berlin Wall the day it was built. A boy who’d gotten left behind in the chaos of people fleeing and families caught on different sides of the border. The soldier is young, and his eyes, looking warily over his shoulder, are full of fear. And yet, he persisted.
Despite being given orders by the East German government to let no one pass into East Berlin, the soldier helped the boy sneak through the barbwire. It was reported that the soldier was caught doing this benevolent deed by his superior officer, who removed the soldier from his unit. Hopefully his punishment was minor and he wasn’t imprisoned or shot. Descriptions of this photo come with the caveat that “no one knows what became of him”.
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A photo of a kitty near 2 tanks, which was taken shortly after Pripyat's population evacuated from the city in 1986.
Shortly after the Chernobyl NPP explosion, people from affected areas (not just Pripyat and Chernobyl) weren't allowed to evacuate with their pets and cattle due to the fact that the animals could've had their furs contaminated with radioactive dust and spread radiation in non-affected areas, so the pets and cattle were left behind with food available for the 3-day evacuation. Sadly, a lot of days passed and the animals either died due to starvation, high radiation exposure, or killed by exterminators (A liquidator said they've found animals suffering and in pain due to radiation, so they didn't only kill them quickly to avoid further contamination, but also to put out of their misery). Those that survived became feral or were even adopted by samosely.
EDIT: Fixed a typo.
I think it's unlikely that the soldier lost his life over this, but he might be deemed unfit for service, dishonorably discharged and... well... pretty much bound to never work anywhere ever again.View attachment 623929
East German soldier helps a little boy sneak across the Berlin Wall, August 13, 1961.