Another historical moment fades away

[gridlore]

Man, who raised Soviet Union’s flag over Berlin in 1945, dies

WWII veteran Mikhail Minin, a Hero of the Soviet Union, the man, who raised the USSR flag, the banner of Victory, over Germany’s Reichstag in May of 1945, died.

Minin will be buried on January 12 in his native city of Pskov where he resided until then, Interfax report.

Mikhail Minin was born in the village of Vanino in 1922. In June of 1941 he volunteered to join the army to fight against Nazi Germany. He took part in battles to liberate Leningrad from blockade and made his way across the fronts from Leningrad to Berlin.

When the Soviet army was storming Reichstag in Berlin on April 30, 1945 Minin broke into the building and became the first man to raise the Red Banner on its tower. In May of 1945 Minin was awarded the title of the Soviet Union Hero for his deed and other services in battle. The famous photo does not show Minin but a Georgian soldier. It was not taken at the actual event.

It's amusing to learn that the iconic photo of the Soviet flag flying over the ruins of Berlin is as staged as the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.

Comments

[pompe.livejournal.com]

I have a hand-written letter somewhere about this man. One of my grandmother's brothers met him. I even wrote about it on LJ a while back.

http://pompe.livejournal.com/30828.html

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

That's really cool. Although that seems to be about the Georgian who posed for the staged shot.

[pompe.livejournal.com]

No, the letter specifically mentions a later staged shot and I'm not sure if the man my old relative talked to was Georgian at all. There apparently are several versions of the story - the description in Beevor's Berlin differs from both Pravda's and the one in my old letter. But there also were several men involved, at least two.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Well, *every* flag raising is staged in that it's done only for appearances.

[dalen-talas.livejournal.com]

Doesn't matter whether the photo was staged or not. The flag was raised, and that's one of the greatest days in Russian history. Guess the Germans didn't learn their lesson in 1242 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ice) (kinda makes you wonder, 700 years before the start of the Great Patriotic).

Thank you, Doug, for sharing this.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Heh, Alexander Nevsky has long been one of my favorite films. But the Teutonic Knights were hardly Germans, most of the ones at the Battle of the Lake would have been Lithuanian.

[dalen-talas.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, the Order was predominantly German. Look at their full name: "Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Ierosolimitanorum", or the "Order of the German House of St. Mary in Jerusalem".

Besides, there wouldn't have been that many Lithuanians in the Brotherhood, considering the long history of Crusades against them (up to 1400's).

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

Minin will be buried on January 12 in his native city of Pskov

Don't they mean "Pleskau"? ;-)

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Hush, you.

Hey, you coming up for Baycon?

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

Hush, you.

Ah, c'mon. What would this thread be without at least one reference to Worldwar? >:-)

Hey, you coming up for Baycon?

Hard to tell at the moment. We have a class starting up just a couple of weeks before BayCon, so I'm not sure yet whether I'll be able to pry myself loose.