"because once you found a relic you can't stop digging, you know, it is real, it was there in time of a great event and you know that next item can be this special one that worth you efforts..."

November 21, 2004 11:32 AM

The Serpeant's Wall - a new photo essay about the tragic history of Kiev during The War. From the same motorcycle-riding woman whose Chernobyl photos we've discussed before.
posted by kickingtheground (9 comments total)

Fascinating. She has an interesting sense of humour.
posted by 327.ca at 11:54 AM on November 21, 2004

Very cool ! It's a kind of investigative journalism meets blogging and history ..it's like watching the net come back to when it was only useful and beautiful...ok ok maybe I'm a little enthusiastic :)
posted by elpapacito at 12:42 PM on November 21, 2004

It seems amazing to me that there is so much material still around for the general public to access...imagine such an expansive site in the US being open to exploration...
posted by spaghetti at 1:41 PM on November 21, 2004

I like the dangerous machine gunneress picture.
posted by borkingchikapa at 1:45 PM on November 21, 2004

...imagine such an expansive site in the US being open to exploration...
Heck. try this at Gettysburg and you will be arrested inside of five minutes! Fascinating link.
posted by LarryC at 2:22 PM on November 21, 2004

This lady is my heroine.
posted by kavasa at 2:38 PM on November 21, 2004

Interesting to see historical research being conducted in a rather 'alternative' manner. Her slightly off-kilter makes it all the more enjoyable, imho.
posted by rekka at 4:27 PM on November 21, 2004

Civil War relic hunting. Places a metal detector may be used.

The Battle of Kiev. It was every bit as heroic as the most over-the-top socialist realism poster for the Great Patriotic War. It was also a mass slaughter -- by an experienced and confident Wehrmacht at the vanguard of a seemingly effortless Operation Barbarossa, blitzkrieg on an unimaginable scale, of a Red Army weakened by repeated purges of the officer corps, eliminating outright years of experience and respect and cowing the remainder, if they had talent, of using it. The second battle, to liberate the city, went better -- because the army had been allowed to learn. And because the Germans were stopped, like Napoleon, by the Russian winter.
posted by dhartung at 5:38 PM on November 21, 2004

Her Chernobyl pics have been a great favorite since I saw them. This was interesting and good, in a different way. She's cool in a quirky sort of way and she does ride a big heap no fooling around bike.

This was neat and I wanted to get my hands dirty a lot and see what I could find. Anyone else eBay for Death's Head Rings?
posted by fenriq at 12:30 AM on November 22, 2004