Photos of Rzhev

Below are some of the photos from Istochnik’s 1942 immersion event, The Rzhev Meatgrinder. Istochnik portrayed the 2nd Battalion, 1255th Guards Rifle Regiment apart of the 379th Rifle Division. A veteran unit of the 1941 winter Moscow counter offensive, it would be transferred to the Rzhev front in 1942 to take place in the next big Soviet offensive. 

After the winter counter offensive one position held, though. A bulge of territory 230km from Moscow was clung to by forces from Army Group Center, who desired it as a base to eventually attack Moscow again. Centered on the city of Rzhev, this salient would be the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war, with historians estimating millions of casualties resting in this small area.

The Red Army in 1942 was clinging onto life, doing everything they can to attempt to push the German forces back after the losses of 1941. Defeat meant annihilation at the hands of the Germans apart of their holocaust across Europe. These early days of 1942 were the darkest days for the Red Army, but hope was beginning to find its place, and spread through the Red Army after the victory at Stalingrad heading into 1943.