The Cold Stare Of A Russian Soldier Who Survived A Brutal War In Ukraine

Evgeny Stepanovich Kobytev and the Thousand-Yard Stare

The two photographs above are photographs of one man from two different times. The photo on the left showed a healthy face looking at you, the other on the right showed a thinner, tired-looking face plastered with wrinkles, and this face wasn’t just looking at you. It appeared to be looking through you.

The man in the photograph was an artist named Evgeny Stepanovich Kobytev. The two photographs above were displayed in the Andrei Pozdeev museum.

The photograph on the left shows the day before Kobytev left to fight the German forces in 1941, and on the right, showed the day he returned from a four-year War in 1945.

The photograph on the right was The Human Face after witnessing 4-years of a No-rule war on the Eastern front.

Born on the 25th of December 1910, in the village of Altai, in the Southern part of Russia, Evgeny Stepanovich Kobytev graduated from a pedagogical school and then worked as a teacher in the rural areas of Krasnoyarsk. His passion was painting, especially portraits and panoramas from daily life.

In 1936, he began studying at the Kyiv State Art Institute in Ukraine. He graduated with honors from the art institute in 1941 and was ready to go on his artistic journey.

But unfortunately, on the 22nd of June that same year, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. This halted his artistic dreams. He eventually volunteered to become a soldier and enlisted in one of the artillery regiments of the Red Army. The regiment was engaged in a fierce battle to protect the small town of Pripyat, which lies between Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Kobytev was injured in the leg in the month of September 1941. He was eventually captured and became a prisoner of war. Kobytev was taken to a notorious concentration camp operated out of Khorol, which was called the “Khorol pit”. it is said that approximately ninety thousand prisoners of war and civilians died in that camp.

Built on the grounds of what used to be a brick factory, the Khorol camp had only one barrack; it was half-rotten and rested on posts that were leaning to one side. It was the only shelter from the autumn rains and storms. While few of the sixty thousand prisoners brought to the camp managed to cram themselves in there, the rest were left exposed to the harsh weather.

In the barrack, people stood pressed tightly against each other. They were gasping from the stench and the vapors and were drenched with sweat.

Two years later, Kobytev managed to escape from captivity and again rejoined the Red Army. He took part in military operations in Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, and Germany.

After the war ended, he was awarded the Hero of Soviet Union medal for his excellent military service during the battles for the liberation of Smila and Korsun in Ukraine. Due to the fact that his military career was “spoiled” for being a prisoner of war, the High Command refused to award him the victory over Germany medal.

Years later Kobytev was elected as a deputy of his city council and was in charge of the cultural activities of the region.

He later died in 1973.