Flag of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War

The tradition to place a flag on the roof of the conquered settlements appeared in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.

The goal is to seize Berlin

October 6, 1944 Joseph Stalin made a report, in which the main idea was that the Russian land was finally liberated from the fascist invaders. Now the task of the Red Army is the complete defeat of the enemy's army together with the Allied forces. The goal was set to hoist the Victory flag over Berlin.

In 1945, for every army that was to participate in the siege of Berlin, they made a red flag - the banner of Victory, as a result, one of them would probably have got to the top of the Reichstag. A star, a sickle and a hammer were put on the red cloth. The artist V. Buntov applied them with the help of stencils. On the night of April 22, flags were issued to representatives of the divisions.

As you know, the flag of victory, which eventually fell on the dome of the Reichstag, is the banner number 5.

Making the Banner of Victory

G. Golikov, who at that time was the head of the army house of the Red Army, told that it was a great honor to manufacture the future banners of the Victory. True, it was necessary to do without special frills: the simplest kumach was chosen as the material, however, the size and shape were exactly the same as those of the state flag.

The future flag of the Victory of the woman was sewn by her caring hands. Tears poured almost all the time, because everyone already in the subconscious knew that very soon this terrible war should end. The projectionist Gabov made numerous poles, for which the curtains were mainly used.

Initially, it was not known which flag and which building would need to be hoisted. A little later, Stalin himself said that the flag should be hoisted on the Reichstag building.

Sturm of Berlin

April 29, 1945 there are fierce battles near the Reichstag. This, the main thing for the Nazis, the building defended the order of a thousand people. The storming began on April 30. It involved the 150th and 171st rifle divisions under the command of V.M. Shatilov and AI The bad weather. The first attempt of assault was met by the most powerful defense of the Germans. After noon of the same day, the Red Army makes a second attempt.

This afternoon at 13:30 on the union radio on the air a message appeared that the Red Army had already hung the flag of Victory over the Reichstag. Of course, this did not correspond to reality. Correspondents based on the report of one of the commanders of the units. In fact, by that time the Soviet troops had not yet captured the Reichstag completely, only a few groups managed to get inside the building. The command made the mistake of somewhat hastening the events. Most likely, they just wanted to believe that their fighters had already captured the key object.

Successful was the third attempt to capture the Reichstag, but the battles continued almost to the night. The result was that the Soviet troops managed to seize part of the building, in different places the banners of the Red Army were set, and not only those prepared for divisions but also made by soldiers themselves were used. At that moment, it was possible to install the Victory flag on the roof of the Reichstag.

Setting a flag on the roof of the Reichstag

On May 1, early in the morning, the Victory Banner was installed on the roof of the building. By the way, before that, Soviet troops had already installed three flags, but all of them were destroyed when the fascists staged the roofing of the Reichstag. Only the skeleton remained from the dome of the building, but the banner that Yegorov, Berest and Kantaria installed, it did not work out. As a result, the Victory flag was on the roof of the Reichstag, the photo went down in history. First the banner was mounted on a column in front of the entrance to the captured building, but later Kantaria and Egorov moved it to the roof. The climb there became very risky, because the staircase was almost destroyed, and everywhere there were sharp shards of glass. Egorov even broke, but he was saved by a quilted jacket, which for some reason caught. The soldiers of the Cantaria and Egorov, and Berestu were ordered to cover their comrades from the fire, broke the banner of victory.

Transportation of the banner of Victory to their homeland

Under an agreement with the allies, Berlin became an occupied territory of Great Britain, so the Victory banner was removed from the roof of the Reichstag and replaced with a flag of larger sizes. It was necessary to deliver it to Moscow, to hand over to the great leader Stalin.

Prior to sending home, the Victory banner was kept alternately in the headquarters of several divisions, after which an order was given to deliver it to Moscow for the Victory Parade. Seeing the banner of the Victory, accompanied by participants hoisting the flag on the roof of the Reichstag, June 20, 1945 at the airport in Berlin.

It was assumed that the flag of the Victory would be borne by the standard-bearer Neustroyev, while Kantaria, Egorov and Berest would accompany, but the future standard bearer already had five heavy wounds, including legs. Of course, the drill training of soldiers was at a very low level, so Marshal Zhukov decided not to use in the first Victory Parade a sign from the dome of the Reichstag.