Victory Banner is hoisted over the Reichstag in Berlin

During the hard fighting for the capital of Nazi Germany, Berlin, on 30 April 1945, scouts of the 756th Rifle Regiment, Sergeant Mikhail Egorov and Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria, hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.

The battles for taking possession of the Reichstag building, the lower house of the German parliament, were fought from 28 April to 2 May 1945 at the final stage of the Berlin offensive operation. The building was a powerful and important resistance node in the defence system of the German capital. It was turned into a real fortress surrounded by moats: windows and doors were bricked up, the masonry had gaping embrasures for machine-gun fire, and artillery guns were placed in front of the facade of the building at direct aim.

The troops of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front were entrusted to seize the enemy citadel. For nine divisions, which were part of the army, in the field were urgently made red banners, which were to be hoisted on the defeated Reichstag.

The first assault on 29 April was unsuccessful. The fighting resumed on 30 April. What happened on that historic day was reported in detail in a report by Colonel-General Kuznetsov, commander of the troops of the 3rd Shock Army, Hero of the Soviet Union, and Major-General Litvinov, member of the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army, on 2 July 1945: "On 30 April at dawn the general assault on the Reichstag began. The banner was handed over to Colonel Zinchenko's 756 Spp, which was advancing on the Reichstag in the first echelon of the 150 SD, and in the regiment - to Senior Sergeant Syanov's company from Captain Neustroev's battalion. <...> On 30 April 1945 at 14:25 the soldiers of Senior Sergeant Syanov's company fought their way up the stairs to the roof of the building and reached the dome of the Reichstag. The brave soldiers, the Communist lieutenant Berest, the Komsomolets Red Army soldier Egorov and the non-partisan junior sergeant Kantaria erected the banner, the proud flag of the Soviet Union - the symbol of our great victory - soared over the building of the German parliament. This historic moment of hoisting the Victory Banner over Berlin was marked on 30 April 1945 by Order No. 06 of the commander of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Comrade Zhukov. <...> The Banner hoisted over the Reichstag, pierced by bullets and scorched, was flying victoriously over the defeated Berlin <...>".

After the end of the fighting for Berlin, the Victory Banner was removed from the dome of the Reichstag and on 20 June 1945 it was flown from Berlin's Tempelhof airfield to Moscow. It was planned that Kantaria, Egorov and Beresta would carry it across Red Square at the Victory Parade, but due to lack of time for preparation this idea had to be abandoned.

By order of the Chief Political Department of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army on 10 July 1945, the Victory Banner was transferred to the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the USSR in Moscow for eternal storage. On 8 May 2011 a special hall "The Banner of Victory" was opened in the museum, where an exact copy of the Banner hoisted over the Reichstag was exhibited. The original Banner is kept in a special capsule in the Banner Fund of the Museum.

The widely circulated photograph known as "The Victory Banner over the Reichstag", showing Soviet servicemen planting the Soviet flag on the roof of the Reichstag, was taken by the photo correspondent Yevgeny Ananyevich Khaldey on the assignment of TASS on 2 May 1945, when the Reichstag was finally taken. Sergeants Abdulhakim Ismailov, Leonid Gorychev and Alexei Kovalyov were specially posed for the photographer. The moment of the hoisting of the Banner on 30 April by Sergeants Egorov and Kantaria was not captured on photo or newsreel.

Lit.: Егоров М. А., Кантария М. В. Знамя Победы. Бой первый – бой последний / лит. запись Б. Данюшевского. М., 1975; Зинченко Ф. М. Герои штурма рейхстага / Литературная запись Н. М. Ильяша. М.:, 1983; Знамя Победы // Последний штурм. М., 1965; Иванов В. В. Новое о Знамени Победы. // Военно-исторический архив. 2001. № 4 (19). С.163–168.

Based on the materials of Presidential Library:

Berlin operation // Memory of the Great Victory: [digital collection]