Kombat (photograph)

Kombat (Russian: Комбат, lit. battalion commander) is a black-and-white photograph by the Soviet photographer Max Alpert. 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. According to the most widely accepted version, the photograph depicts junior politruk Aleksei Yeryomenko, minutes before his death on 12 July 1942, in Luhansk Oblast (then called Voroshilovgrad Oblast), Ukraine.