Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov took some old photographs from World War II and combined them with new perspective-matching photos. The result are a series of time portals that help us contextualize the war into our current reality.


The technique is very simple, but clever and effective, giving eerie results like the one above. That's the legendary Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov. In 1945, he was commander of the Red Army's 1st Belorussian Front, which took Berlin along with the 1st Ukranian Front (the Soviet equivalents to the Western Army Groups). He is looking at the camera, all serious, standing on the stairs of the Reichstag, surrounded by some of his lieutenants and a bunch of tourists.

Here is a group of Soviet soldiers walking by a damaged Imperial Palace Hofburg, in Vienna, Austria, kicking the rubble in between shiny Audis, Volkswagens, and Volvos:


Watch the gallery for scenes from all over Europe, including Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad):

Click to viewSo simple, yet so clever and effective. [Sergey Larenkov—Thanks Steve!]