A post is being shared widely on social media with a claim that the photos show 75 years of friendship between two women. It is being claimed that the young women and old women in the photos are the same persons. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photos of two friends taken 75 years apart.
Fact: The women in both photos are not the same. While the women in the first photo are Mityoshina (‘Митюшкина’) and Zalko (‘Залка’), the women in the second photo are Gita and Sheina – Leia. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
There are two photos in the post. Let us check who are the people in the photos by taking each photo separately.
Photo 1:
When the photo was run through Google Reverse Image Search, the black and white version of the same photo was found on the ‘Getty Images’ website. In the description of the photo, it can be read – ‘World war 2, senior sergeants v, mityoshina and n, zalko, former students of the moscow state theatrical institute have been at the front from the first days of the war, they have been awarded the medal ‘for military services’ for bravery and courage.’ The same photo can be found with a similar description on other websites, which can be seen here, here, and here. So, the names of the women in the photo are Mityoshina (‘Митюшкина’) and Zalko (‘Залка’).
Photo 2:
This photo was found to be clicked by a photographer – ‘Boris Ravich’. When we searched with relevant keywords, the same photo was found to be published by a Russian website. On the website, it can be read that the women in the photo are Gita and Sheina-Leia.
The photographer – ‘Boris Ravich’ has also posted (archived) the photo on Odnoklassniki (a social network service used mainly in Russia and former Soviet Republics) in 2015. In the description, he wrote – ‘Grannies, participants in the war. Geeta 95 and Sheina – Leia 97. Israel. Geeta is a pilot. Shane-Leia is a nurse.’ (English translation)
To sum it up, the women in both photos are not the same. So, the post does not show photos of two friends taken 75 years apart.
