Chuck In Oregon

At a May 9 celebration in Tbilisi.

Painting of Robert E. Lee by Don Prechtel. Taken at the artist's studio/gallery.

No explanation needed.

This is a Russian hospital tent on the Turkish Front. Dr. Ivan Kalamkarov is seated on the far left.

Grapevine Cross in Georgia.

2014 Survivors Walk

The joy of a mother-daughter selfie!

This is Tako Elle. We first met at the Telavi Children's Home in Telavi, Georgia, in 2004. We are still friends and we visited her at her home in Rustavi, Georgia, last March. She has grown to be a lovely young woman and I'm proud that we are friends.

It's the desert of Kazakhstan and it's October 19, 1911. You're a rich young girl and your family is taking you to meet and marry your husband. Your mother rides on the lead camel, you ride on the second camel. Your world changes tomorrow.

The only thing I know about this photo is the inscription on the back which says, in Russian, "Our father and mother."

Victory Day holiday in Tbilisi, May 9, 1945. If I'm not mistaken, the banner says "Where Stalin Is, Victory Is!" Sure, could be a staged PR photo. Probably is, but the happiness is real. Sons, husbands and fathers are coming home.

This is a gray-haired lieutenant of the Red Army Air Force Technical Troops working on aviation instruments in 1944. On the left is a pressure chamber used for calibrating them at different pressures/altitudes. I'll take a guess and say that he's working on an altimeter. He has all the usual tools of his trade: wrench, pliers, screwdriver, oil can ... dewat .50 cal. machine gun round. He's wearing a hat and a greatcoat over a buttoned tunic over a uniform blouse indoors. Must be chilly. The ratty desk, the paint scheme on the wall and the junk piled against the wall suggest a makeshift lab, maybe in an abandoned schoolhouse somewhere behind the front, but not too far behind.

NKVD commo troop in 1937. A Happy New Year message on the reverse.

How can you not love this photo? It's like a Chekist recruiting picture. You've got the babe, the gun (Nagant?), good smokes (Papiros), the manly man wearing a brand new high-end leather jacket and both with new uniforms, time to read the paper together and on and on. It's a Chekist fantasy. From my collection.

Red Army horse-drawn canteen/PX, 1936. There is a lot to see here if you look closely.

NVA General Vo Nguyen Giap in Tbilisi, Georgia, circa 1959. Building on his successes against the French, Giap meets with very senior Soviet officials to plan a war against the US. An original Georgian PR photo from my collection.

This is another seldom encountered DR Georgia Air Fleet badge. It and the other are two of my rarest and most interesting badges, at least to me. The intricate design amazes me. The badge is not much bigger than a US half dollar. Silver and gold. From my collection.

WW II Soviet postal art. This one and a number of others were mounted and displayed for the public. I particularly like this page because it shows both a warrior and a care-giver, and we know that sometimes their roles were reversed. I have quite a few unused and used examples of postal war art in my collection.

The USSR issued a set of commemorative stamps on the 25th anniversary of their victory in the Great Patriotic War. This is one page of a set of corresponding first day covers. Then the covers were mounted on pages dedicated, two each, to individual winners of the order Hero of the Soviet Union. The purpose was patriotic displays in public places. I don't know how many pages were created but I have 15 of them. I prefer these B&W pictures to the 1975 set because they depict the act for which they were awarded their HSU. Marina Raskova, for instance, was the founder of and a pilot in the Night Witches, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. She is shown destroying a German gun emplacement. They often turned their biplane engines off and glided to the target for maximum surprise, hoping for a re-start before they crashed. From my collection.

The USSR issued a set of commemorative stamps on the 30th anniversary of their victory in the Great Patriotic War. This is one page of a set of corresponding first day covers. These covers were mounted on pages dedicated, two each, to individual winners of the order Hero of the Soviet Union. The purpose was patriotic displays in public places. I don't know how many pages were created but I have 40 of them. From my collection.

Voroshilov Shooters practicing near the city of Khaheti, Georgia, March 3, 1939. With admirers.