History in Pics

Socialist Fraternal Kiss


“The Friendship kiss” – Russian and US soldier – Germany 1945.

The socialist fraternal kiss or socialist fraternal embrace is a special form of greeting between the statesmen of Communist countries. This act demonstrates the special connection that exists between Socialist states. The socialist fraternal kiss consisted of an embrace, combined with a series of three kisses on alternate cheeks. In rare cases, when the two leaders considered themselves exceptionally close, the kisses were given in the mouth rather than on the cheeks.


Soldier with Kitten


Red Army soldier with a kitten during WWII.

Most images from war are exclusively of soldiers fighting, or dead bodies, or all other awful things. But for the most part, they seem to exist in some sort of a bubble.

Just like the rest of us, this guy would rather be playing with a cute little kitten. The cat in this picture is a reminder that soldiers in war are real people with real experiences. WWII didn’t occur in some alternate universe, it was fought in the same universe that has kittens, puppies, flowers and all the good stuff. It’s a sobering reminder.


Elvis Presley


Earliest known photo of Elvis Presley, with parents Gladys and Vernon in 1938.

There is no date or location for this photo, but you can see a concrete wall behind them. Vernon was arrested after he forged a $4 check in November of 1937 and spent 6 months in the Lee County Jail awaiting trial. This photo was likely taken after he was sentenced to 3 years in prison in May of 1938 when Elvis was 3 years old.

Elvis had a twin, Jesse Garon Presley, who died in childbirth. Elvis legally changed his middle name from Aaron to Aron so that it would be closer to his twin’s name.


German Veteran


German World War 1 veteran begs on the streets of Berlin, Germany 1923.

The Weimar Republic wanted to distance itself so radically from traditional authorities and the monarchy that, while paying disability benefits to Veterans, it largely refused to acknowledge their service and their sacrifices publicly. In Germany, the creation of a central memorial to WW1 veterans was not possible while just a few years after the war one would have been hard-pressed to find a village without one in France.


Jeremy Corbyn


Jeremy Corbyn at an anti-Apartheid protest in London, 1984.

The Conservatives in power at the time banned protests in front of the South African embassy. Corbyn and many others did it anyway, even when he was a member of parliament back then still. Jeremy Corbyn was arrested for protesting against apartheid.

In the 80’s pretty much everyone in the UK was protesting against it. There were lots of concerts in England, designed to spread the cause of ending apartheid. There was even a sort of cultural boycott of South Africa, just so the South African government wouldn’t profit from music sales in any way (Paul Simon broke this agreement with his album Graceland).

The UK was very reluctant to condemn Apartheid in the 60’s but by the 80’s, it was a foregone conclusion that South Africa would be forced to end it because of how isolated they had become. By 1984 even the UN itself had condemned it.

David Cameron went on a trip to South Africa in the late 1980s (after Mandela had been imprisoned) with other young Conservatives. It was put on by a PR firm who was trying to stop the sanctions and to prop up Apartheid. This was around the time that his party’s leader (Margaret Thatcher) was still calling Mandela a terrorist.

South Africa was banned from a lot of sports and other countries faced sanctions from international bodies if they played versus South Africa. It really brought apartheid to the forefront of public consciousness. International social movements against apartheid put pressure on governments like the UK who were happy to continue working with the awful regime as long as people were ignorant about it. By bringing the horrors to the forefront of public consciousness, Western governments which were nominally committed to ideas of democracy and equality had to put pressure/stop dealing with the regime which severely weakened the apartheid state.

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18 COMMENTS

  1. I find it amusing how people talk about the Nazi’s like the christians haven’t done the same thing during the Inquisition and the crusades. Nazi’s are still reviled, yet christians are popular? Make a choice, hypocrites, or shut the he!! up.

    1
    • You clearly know nothing about the Crusades or the Inquisition.

      The Spanish Inquisition, though draconian by our standards, was actually more lenient, and ended in more not guilty verdicts, than the civil courts run by the King and his government. Most of the Inquisition’s horrors were played up by English Protestants as propaganda, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I when a Spanish invasion seemed imminent.

      And the Crusades were a response to several centuries of Islamic incursions into Christian lands. The First Crusade began because Seljuq Turks conquered half the Byzantine Empire and began slaughtering Christian pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. Infamous battles, like the Massacre of Jerusalem, were indeed brutal, but were, in fact, entirely common in the warfare of the Middle Ages. Everyone acted the same way. Not two hundred years later, Muslim armies would commit atrocities in Georgia and Turkey that were far greater than the deaths at the hands of Crusaders, and razed the city of Jerusalem to the ground so no one would want it.

      Also, look at you, edgelord. You can say Hell, your mom’s not going to find out.

      11
      • Thank you for this information! I wish people would research thing for themselves and there would be a lot fewer problems in this world. People still believe in propaganda still today. Just turn on the TV, it is everywhere. And also, Christianity has been under constant attack since it’s inception, so it’s no surprise that evil will show it’s face in this thread:(

        986
      • Muslim armies still commit atrocities against Christians still to this day. And I’m not saying all Muslims are bad people, because they are not. There are radicals in most every religion and always will be sadly.

        887
    • Really, how far back you want to go? It is true that crimes of this nature have been committed since the dawn of time. However, this does not justify the crimes committed by the Nazis and their allies. Those criminals earned their fate. And, those who support their ideals will also get their appropriate Justice.
      BTW, the Spanish Inquisition executed 39 person at the pyre, 2 of them in effigy. Lord Calvin executed 6,000, including the Jesuit priest that discovered our circulatory system.

      788
    • The ability for humans to inflilct suffering on others is born out of weakness and lack of insight in the individual, and fostered by the flaw in all of us as a group, in our inability to create a society which is a product of the finest of our knowledge, in justice, equity, compassion, creative will, and love for each other. Our tragedy is that we are lost in a sea of competing ideologies, political contests, hidden schemes to control wealth, religious traditions, and power struggles, while the simple truth blunders on waiting for catastrophe to shape us, while the gift of choice is ignored.

      4
    • The thing is, Nazis were Christians and German Christian Democratic party with the help of a Vatican and the German Pope of the time helped elect Hitler to power.

      781
      • Yes, The whole world mostly approved of hitler until they didn’t. Big difference. He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And then he pounced!:( The ultimate deceiver and devil incarnate!

        797
    • The Christian’s held inquisitions a 1000+ years ago and the Germans 80 years ago. There is no moral equivalence. Who do be blame for the 100,000 + fentanyl deaths every year in America? The human race is very flawed but no as flawed as our Government!👎🆘🤯

      0
  2. Having just looked up the total deaths during the inquisition, it seems to vary from 30,000 up to the millions. Though we cannot arrive at accuracy, we do know that 50,000,000 people died in the world wars recently, and no one was a victor! German fascism rose out of a frustrated Germany burdened with debt after the first world war. We are now burdened with debt once again, and the arms makers are itching for excuses to use them, so lets be careful eh? As to Arabs and terrorism, the school kids recently blowing off their immaturity are catching up to terrorist executions of innocents as we speak, but few are seeing the real ill behind all this. Since our churches are proving to be little more than international pedophilia rings, where are the moral arbiters of the modern age? You certainly cannot look to the governments, muslims, christians or fascists for that can you??

    2
    • Hitler’s ideology is very much still alive. There are direct ties with Margaret Sanger Associates having direct ties to Nazi figures who served directly under Hitler and where involved in the creation of Planned Parenthood . So, technically, Hitler is still very much so still murdering innocent human beings. If you don’t believe me it is documented and confirmed.

      818
  3. Easier said than done folks.
    From a ‘Black-Op’s point of view…while attached to a 12 man Force Recon team, we were attracted by a slight buzzing noise that as we got closer, it, of course, got louder.
    Being attracted by the sound of over a billion flies surrounding the strung up corpses of over 300 people that were tied to cross-post in an ‘X’ fashion and skinned alive from the neck to their crotch with the skin hanging down past their calves…pretty much says it all.

    843
  4. People don’t understand how horrifying it can be up front and personal. I respect everything about what your job is and was if that’s the case. I wish more people knew what it takes to keep us all free and from being slaughtered by our enemies.

    1047

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