The Victory Banner is the flag of the 150th Infantry Division (3rd strike army of the 1st Belorussian Front), which was hoisted over the Berlin Reichstag on May 1, 1945 by Meliton Kantaria, Alexei Berest and Mikhail Egorov.
Instruction manual
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Today the Victory Banner is an official symbol of the victory of the Soviet people and the Soviet army over fascism in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The same flag that proudly fluttered over the main German building of that era is stored in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow.
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Many are sure that the Victory Banner is completely identical to the flag of the USSR. In fact this is not true. The banner is made in the field. A red cloth was attached to the pole. Its size was 188 by 82 centimeters. A sickle, a hammer and a five-pointed star of silver color were added to the front side. Also on the Banner there is an inscription in 4 lines: "150 pages of the Order of Kutuzov, II Art. Idritz Div. 79 C.K. 3 W. A. 1 B.F." In historical documents it means that this inscription was not originally. It was applied in June 1945, when the already removed canvas was stored in one of the headquarters.
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The assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division was the fourth banner to be hoisted on the roof of the German parliament. The first three were installed earlier, but they were destroyed by German night artillery shelling, which also completely destroyed the Reichstag’s glass dome.
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What the Victory Banner looks like, many people can see in the famous photograph taken by the photo correspondent of the newspaper Pravda. Around noon on May 1, he took off on a Po-2 airplane and took a historical photograph, which was repeatedly published in newspapers and magazines around the world.
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May 9, 1945 (according to other sources on May 5, 8 and 12) The Victory Banner was removed from the roof of the Reichstag and put another large red banner. The original panel was stored for some time at the headquarters of the 756th infantry regiment, then in the political department of the 150th infantry division. It was planned to carry the Victory Banner during the parade on Red Square in Moscow. To this end, on June 20, 1945, the canvas was sent to the capital. For the parade, the standard-bearer Neustroev and his assistants Berest, Yegorov and Kantaria were specially trained. However, the head of the group had several injuries and walked with difficulty. Other participants in the calculation could not demonstrate a sufficient level of drill training. Replacing them with someone was too late, so Marshal G.K. Zhukov gave the order not to endure the Banner.
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In the summer of 1945, the Victory Banner was transferred to eternal storage at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. In the 60s, they began to fear for the safety of relics, and therefore replaced it with an exact copy, and the original was sent to the fund. Guardian of the Banner A.A. Dementyev decided to pull 9 nails from the shaft, which eventually rusted and began to spoil the fabric.
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May 8, 2011 in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of Russia a special hall "Victory Banner" was opened. It exhibits a genuine banner. The flag is located inside a glass cube mounted on metal structures. The structures themselves look like rails for shells of the BM-13 installation (it’s also the famous Katyusha). The foundation is glass display cases that form a pattern in the form of a destroyed swastika. Inside the cubes at the base are 20, 000 metal crosses, which during the war were intended to reward German soldiers for the capture of Moscow. A copy of the Barbarossa plan, German weapons and documents were placed in glass cases.
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At present, the genuine Victory Banner cannot be taken out of the museum hall. During the parades on Red Square, a copy is used. This rule is spelled out in the Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 68-FZ of May 7, 2007.
note
If before the Victory Banner was 188x82 centimeters in size, now it is 3 centimeters smaller and 73 centimeters long. A long narrow strip was torn off. According to one version, on May 2, 1945, ordinary Kharkov did this, serving in the 2nd Guards Mortar Regiment. On the other hand, women who served in the political department of the 150 rifle division decided to keep souvenirs about the Great Victory. They cut off a strip of cloth and divided it into pieces.
