Kombat (photograph)

It depicts a Soviet military officer armed with a TT pistol who is raising his unit for an attack during World War II.

This work is regarded as one of the most iconic Soviet World War II photographs, yet neither the date nor the subject is known with certainty.

Over the years, Alpert gave several contradictory versions of the event, with dates ranging from autumn 1941 to 1943.

After the war, Alpert received numerous letters claiming identification of the officer, but only one was confirmed by a joint investigation by Komsomolskaya Pravda and administration of Luhansk Oblast undertaken in the 1970s.

[3][4] The photograph was reused in numerous publications, sculptures, artworks and commercial products, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.