Vasily Ivanovich Arkashev

Vasily Ivanovich Arkashev, member of the USSR Union of Journalists, participant in the Second World War, 'Honorary Worker of Culture of Belarus'. In 1933 Arkashev finished courses at the Photo and Press Bureau in Kharkov and for three years he worked as a photo reporter for various newspapers in Ukraine. In 1936 he was drafted into the army and after finishing military service worked as a photo reporter for the newspaper of the Belarusian Military District, Krasnoarmeiskaia Pravda (Red Army Truth). Arkashev stayed on the front line from the first days of the war. As a photo journalist for the newspaper of the Third Belarusian Front, "We shall destroy the enemy", he photographed actual combat during WWII. After the war he continued work in the military press: for the newspapers of the Belarusian Military District and the Group of Soviet Troops in Germany. In the years 1963-1970 he was a photo reporter for the newspaper "Belarusian Agriculture" and from 1971, a photo reporter at the studio "Photo and Life" at the Belarusian Union of Journalists. In 1969 Arkashev's photoalbum entitled "On the Front Roads" was published. He also authored a book of documented stories, "We Met on the Battlefield". Vasily Arkashev was decorated with the 'Red Banner' Order, two medals 'For Combat Distinction', and other government awards. His war photographs won First Prize at an international contest organised by the newspaper Pravda (Truth) in 1975; silver medal and Diploma (2nd Degree) at the Soviet Union Exhibition devoted to the 30th anniversary of Victory. Source Archives of Belarus: http://archives.gov.by/eng/index.php?id=661292