MOSCOW, April 18 (Itar-Tass) - Vladimir Churov, the head of the Russian Central Electoral Commission, on Thursday received the National Press Award “Iskra” (the Spark) in a special nomination devoted to the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad for creating a photo calendar titled “Artillery is the God of War”.
"These photographs are taken from my personal collection of artillery guns,” Churov said receiving the award. He emphasized that the Battle of Stalingrad was “an event that had saved our Motherland.”
“The Soviet offensive of November 19, 1942 began with massive artillery fire. Each page has depictions of three guns: the Soviet guns are depicted at the top of the page, the guns of Soviet wartime allies are in the middle and the guns of our enemies are at the bottom of the page,” Churov said, explaining the concept of his photo calendar.
Vladimir Churov, a serious military history expert, told Itar-Tass on Thursday that his personal collection contained over 50,000 photographs of military hardware, including about a thousand tanks and over 500 artillery guns.
The Russian Central Electoral Commission and the Krasnaya Zvezda daily of the Russian Defense Ministry had sponsored the project. “Artillery is the God of War” is not Vladimir Churov’s first calendar. Several years ago, he issued a photo calendar devoted to tanks.
The Iskra National Press Award was also awarded in other journalistic genres such as a report, an interview, an analytical article, an essay, a satirical article, a critical review, a journalistic investigation, etc. Itar-Tass special correspondent Natalya Barinova received an award in the “Information: Culture” nomination.
The winners received bronze compositions styled as a newspaper column. Each statuette was decorated with a half-carat diamond provided by the Alrosa Company.
The National Press Award “Iskra” was instituted by MediaSoyuz, an all-Russian organization of media workers, in 2004.
