1945 Soviet soldiers hoisted the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag in Berlin
June 24, 1945 in Moscow on Red Square, the first parade of troops of the active army, the Navy and the Moscow garrison was held in commemoration of the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War.
It was decided to bring from Berlin the Red Flag, which was hoisted over the Reichstag on April 30, 1945, by the scouts of the 150th Infantry Division, Yegorov and Kantaria. Punctured with bullets, blood-stained, the red banner became a sacred relic.
In the Moscow newspaper Pravda on May 3, 1945, photographs of the burning Reichstag with the banner of the Victory over its dome were published. But in Berlin there were still battles, in the Reichstag itself were seized and fired by separate groups of fascists, and the pictures have already become historical.
The idea to hoist a red banner over the capital of defeated Germany was voiced by Stalin at a solemn meeting on November 6, 1944. This idea was also supported by the Military Council of the Army. According to the general opinion, the flag above the Reichstag symbolized the final collapse of Nazism. At the same time, on the model of the state flag of the USSR, nine banners were urgently manufactured - there were as many divisions as were part of the 3rd Shock Army.
Flag number 5, which became the Banner of Victory, was carried by a group of three fighters, led by Senior Sergeant Ivanov. Ivanov was mortally wounded by a breakthrough to the upper floors of the building. But sergeant Yegorov and junior sergeant Kantaria, who were covered by their brother-soldiers, were able to hoist the banner. In the late evening of April 30, 1945, a red flag fluttered over the roof of the Reichstag, and after that two more were raised.