Russian prisoners near Kiev, Ukraine, 1941

Photograph, World War Two, Eastern Front (1941-1945), 1941.

During the summer and autumn of 1941 the German armies swept into the heartland of the Soviet Union. In great encirclement battles millions of Red Army troops were taken prisoner. Despite Stalin's ruthless order forbidding any city to surrender, Kiev fell in September 1941 and 600,000 soldiers, 800 tanks and 3,000 artillery pieces were captured. Most of the captured soldiers died in captivity through starvation and ill-treatment.

One of 26 British and Soviet official photographs.