Presidential Library dedicated to 120th anniversary of Vasily Buntov, author of Victory Banner

This year, on February 22, the 120th anniversary of the birth of Vasily Buntov will be celebrated, who became the author of the famous Victory Banner that was raised on the roof of the Reichstag building after World War II.

Digital copies of his drawings have been added to the collection of the Presidential Library, making them available to readers both in Russia and abroad.

Vasily Buntov was born in 1905 in the village of Ustye in Vologda region. He studied at the Leningrad Art and Industrial College and worked as a drawing and painting teacher in schools and children's homes. He was also a member of the city artists' committee.

When the Great Patriotic War started, Vasily Buntov volunteered to go to the front the second day after it began. He took a pencil and a small sketchbook with him. As a front-line artist, he traveled the roads of war all the way to Berlin. He painted a lot and made sketches in ink and pencil, recording all the horrors of war: human suffering, blood and death.

As head of the 23rd Guards Rifle Division's club, he created posters, slogans and cartoons. Vasily fought as part of troops on the North-Western, Second and Third Baltic, and First Belorussian Fronts.

In the spring of 1945, Vasily Buntov was given an urgent task by the command to produce nine special banners in two days, copies of the State Flag of the USSR. The task was completed on time, and the banners depicted a hammer and sickle with a star in the center, the names of the divisions, and ordinal numbers in the lower right corner, corresponding to the order of the 3rd Shock Army's divisions advancing on Berlin.

One of these banners, which would be used by the fighters to break through the enemy lines and hoist it over the Reichstag ahead of the others, became known as the Banner of Victory.

The banner number 5 was awarded to the 150th Rifle Division of the Idritskaya Order of Kutuzov, 2nd Class. This became the banner of victory, which was hoisted over the Reichstag by scouts Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria on May 2, 1945. This banner participated in the Victory Day parade on Red Square on June 24th, 1945.

After the Great Patriotic War ended, Vasily Buntov returned to Leningrad and continued to work. Military themes were central to his work, and he brought back 60 sketches from the front that depicted his comrades and their heroic deeds. These sketches were exhibited at various exhibitions, but some were lost. Irina Alekseeva, his daughter, donated 47 of his works to the Presidential Library for digital preservation.

"I am very pleased," she said, "that electronic copies of my father's drawings are now part of the collection of the Presidential Library, and that everyone can see them. These drawings are a living reminder of those terrible events that we must never forget. It is especially important for young people to remember the events of those war years."

Some of Vasily Buntov's works are on display in the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering, and Communications Troops. Most of his works are part of the Relics of War. 1941-1945 exhibition in Pushkin.

Vasily Aleksevich Buntov was a participant in the Great Patriotic War and was awarded various military orders and medals, including the Orders of the Red Star and the Patriotic War, as well as medals such as For the Victory over Germany, For the Capture of Berlin, For the Liberation of Warsaw, and jubilee medals commemorating the 50th and 20th anniversaries of the Soviet Armed Forces. He also received badges commemorating the 25th and 30th anniversaries of Victory, as well as the medals In Memory of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad and Veteran of the 3rd Shock Army.

In addition to his military honors, Buntov received the title of Veteran of Labor.