Quote from Timothy Fitzpatrick on September 12, 2025, 12:21

The red flag waves on the Reichstag

Monday, April 30, 1945

(Editor’s note: The victory of a Jewish soldier over Hitler Soviet Jewish soldier, hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Minin, was the first to blow up the swastika on the roof of the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945, symbolizing the end of Nazi Germany and the triumph of the Red Army. This fact was suppressed by Soviet propaganda during Stalin, as the emphasis on the hero's Jewish origin did not correspond to official policy. Source: https://tinyurl.com/4r7jraa4)

Mikhail Petrovich Minin was a Russian Soviet soldier who was the first to enter the Reichstag building on April 30, 1945 during the Battle of Berlin, and the first soldier to mount the flag on the Reichstag building at 22:40.

The iconic and beautiful image showing a Georgian soldier, Meliton Kantaria, staring at a pole with a hammer and scythe flag blowing in the wind was placed on the roof of the Reichstag two days later, on May 2, 1945. The night the Reichstag was taken by the Minin Platoon there was no photographer available.

Mikhail Minin was born in 1922 in the village of Vanino, in western Russia of Pskov. In June 1941 he volunteered to enlist in the army to fight against Nazi Germany. He took part in the battles to free Leningrad from the blockade and made his way through the fronts from Leningrad to Berlin.

Minin's superiors had told the soldiers that any piece of red cloth attached to the building would symbolize that the battle would be won.

They knew that the building could only be taken on foot and was still strongly defended. So his commanders decided to launch a night attack and Minin was in charge of the platoon

In an interview he stated:

"No one really wanted to die that night because the war was already won," he declared. "Even the promise of our officers that those who had captured the building would get the highest decoration of Hero of the Soviet Union attracted some volunteers. Except my little company.” The four men, G. Zagitov, A. Lisimenko, A. Bobrov and M. Minin, they headed towards the Reichstag and were greeted by a heavy fire.

Minin later reported

In front of him was Giya Zagitov, who had a flashlight with him. That torch helped us get through the damaged stairs. All the corridors connected to the stairs were cleared by grenades and long machine gun bursts.

Just before reaching the attic I tore a half-meter pipe from the wall to act as a flagpole. After reaching the large attic, we faced the problem of reaching the roof. Once again G. Zagitov found a solution: with his flashlight he noticed in the darkness a heavy winch and two chains that went to the top. We climbed the chains and then through a small window we went down to the roof somewhere on the west side of the building. There near a barely perceptible column, Zagitov and I began to create our Red Banner. Suddenly an explosion lit up the roof and Lisimenko found our old landmark: a sculpture of a bronze horse and a tall woman with a crown. It was immediately decided to put up the banner on the sculpture.

The guys lifted me on the back of the horse that was shaking from the explosions, and then I fixed the banner right in the crown of the bronze giantess.

We checked the time. It was 10:40 pm local time.

Minin was recognized for his enterprise, but he was not rewarded as one would expect: although the brigade commanders required that all soldiers in Minin's platoon receive the decoration of Hero of the Soviet Union, they received a lower-ranking decoration, the Order of the Red Banner, since no photos were taken when the flag was placed on the roof at 10 pm.

This story does not detract from the immense value that the official photos and filming that were taken in the following days had. The wave of the red flag with the hammer and sickle will remain forever imprinted in the defeat of Nazism and in the history of all humanity.

Source: https://www.infoaut.org/storia-di-classe/30-aprile-1945-la-bandiera-rossa-sventola-sul-reichstag