75 years ago Soviet soldiers raised the Victory Flag over the Reichstag

75 years ago Soviet forces captured the Reichstag and hoisted the Victory Flag over its dome. The fighting was taking place in the streets of Berlin, the SS resisted desperately, but step by step soviet army got closer and closer to the Reichstag. Fierce fighting between Soviet and German forces for the building of the Reichstag (lower house of Parliament)from April 29 to May 2, 2945 were a part of the Battle of Berlin of the Great Patriotic War. The Germans turned the Reichstag into the center of resistance defended by more than a thousand men with artillery and tanks. It was an important object of the Berlin Defense system. The task of taking the Reichstag was entrusted to the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Arm of the 1st Belorussian Front. Before the storming of the building the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army decided that the advanced team should hoist the flag over the Reichstag to symbolize the final defeat of the Nazis. Nine flags modeled after the flag of the USSR, one for each division in the Army, were made immediately. Only the one raised over the Reichstag was to become the Banner of Victory.

The fighting raged for every meter and every room. Only late at night on April 30 Egorov and Kantaria with the help of gunmen under command of Lieutenant Alexei Berest managed to get into the Reichstag building and hoist the now official Banner of Victory on its roof.

Based on materials of news agencies