Russian soldiers with a lineup of bombs during World War I.
The wreckage of a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 that crashed during the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad.
An American soldier (left) greets a Soviet officer in Seoul in 1945. Five years later the United States and the U.S.S.R. were on opposite sides in the Korean War.
Olga Shirnina works as a Russian-German translator from her home in Moscow. She told RFE/RL she colorizes photos purely "for pleasure." The most thrilling part of the coloring process, says Shirnina, is "when suddenly the person looks back at you as if he’s alive."
Russian author Leo Tolstoy doffs his floppy hat for a portrait in 1903.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in one of the vast wheat fields of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1964.
The burial of a Soviet soldier during World War II. Shirnina says she studies carefully before deciding on her colors. "When I colorize uniforms I have to search for info or ask experts. So I’m not free in choosing colors."
A dead Italian soldier next to a Fiat near Stalingrad. During World War II Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sent materiel and tens of thousands of soldiers to fight alongside the Nazis in Stalingrad as a matter of "Fascist solidarity."
Nazi troops of the doomed 6th Army advance on Stalingrad in 1942.
A tank in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1943 rumbling under a banner reading "Long live the military union of the peoples of the USSR, England and USA!"
Shirnina read a firsthand description of Vladimir Lenin's eye color before working on portraits of the revolutionary leader.
Tsar Nicholas II in full royal finery. Shirnina says it takes her around one full day to colorize a photo, though she'll usually wait another day before publishing in order to see things with "a fresh eye."
Two men (and a cat) aboard the Admiral Kornilov, an armored cruiser of the Russian Navy that was launched in 1902.
Soviet soldiers atop Berlin's Brandenburg Gate in 1945.
Tsar Nicholas II peering through periscope binoculars near a front line during World War I.
Soviet soldiers fighting amid the rubble of Stalingrad.
Communist leaders at the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern, held in Moscow in 1920. From left to right are Italian Giacinto Serrati, Soviet Leon Trotsky, German Paul Levi, and Soviets Grigory Zinoviev, Mikhail Kalinin, and Karl Radek (smiling, with glasses).
Soviet pilots on the steppe near Stalingrad.
Soldiers in camouflage walk through the moonscape of Stalingrad in 1943.
A Russian soldier stands in a hole blasted by a shell during World War I. Shirnina says she loves bringing such moments from Russian history to a wider audience and reminding people that "the world has always been full of color, even in war."
Text by Amos Chapple