Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
On April 30, 1945, several banners and flags of various units of the Red Army were installed over the Reichstag building in Berlin. But the Banner of Victory is considered to be a specially made cloth of the 150th Rifle Order of Kutuzov, 2nd degree, Idritskaya Division of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. In accordance with Russian law, this banner is a symbol of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and a state relic.
The Reichstag had also long had a more symbolic meaning in 1945. After the National Socialist German Workers’ Party came to power in Germany in 1933 and the building was set on fire, government meetings were no longer held there, and the plenary hall was not even repaired. In 1941, the windows were walled up, the basements became a bomb shelter, and anti-aircraft guns were installed in the corner towers. Nevertheless, for the Germans, the building remained one of the symbols of statehood. And the Soviet troops needed the final goal of their victorious campaign in the form of a real object. With the approval of Joseph Stalin, the Reichstag building was chosen as such a goal.
Given the circumstances, the Reichstag was defended by elite SS units, not only Germans, but also Swedes, Norwegians, and Latvians. And the building was stormed by the most experienced Red Army guards. Due to the ferocity of the battles and the contradictory reports, it is difficult to reliably determine who was the first to raise the flag over the Reichstag. In addition to the nine flags specially made for this purpose, many went into battle with homemade flags. According to various sources, there were from 20 to 40 of them. Recently, it has been accepted that on the afternoon of April 30, the fighters of the 150th Rifle Division, Lieutenant Rakhimzhan Koshkarbayev and Private Grigory Bulatov, were in the lead. Later, two more flags were raised. Noticing this, the Germans began shelling the building and, having broken the glass dome, managed to destroy all three flags.
Late in the evening of April 30 (already May 1 Moscow time), Junior Lieutenant Meliton Kantaria and Private Mikhail Egorov from the same 150th Rifle Division managed to install the banner on the eastern facade of the building, where it could not be reached by enemy artillery. It was this flag that became the Victory Banner. On May 2, after the capitulation of the Berlin garrison, the same soldiers were ordered to move the banner to the dome of the Reichstag. A few days later, for the sake of safety, the banner was removed, and on June 20 it was transported by plane to Moscow, where it was transferred for permanent storage to the Central Museum of the Armed Forces.
Thus, both the actual and symbolic victory over Germany was achieved at the very beginning of May. All that remained was to confirm it legally.
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Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 04/30/2025
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