Mikhail Minin
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Mikhail Petrovich Minin (Russian: Михаил Петрович Минин) (1922 – January 10, 2008) 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 10:40 pm.
The iconic picture showing a Georgian soldier, Meliton Kantaria, fixing a pole with the hammer-and-sickle flag blowing in the wind was posed on the Reichstag roof two days later, on May 2, 1945. It went into the archives, the soldier there seen hoisting the flag coming from Stalin's native Georgia rather than from Russia, Minin's homeland. The night that the Reichstag was taken by Minin's platoon there was no photographer available.
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.
[edit] The Battle of Berlin
Joseph Stalin had urged his troops to mount the flag on the Reichstag building no later than May 1, 1945. Minin's superiors had told the soldiers that any piece of red cloth fixed to the building would symbolize that the battle was won.
Minin recalled in a recent interview in a German documentary, the "War of the Century", that by the time the building needed to be stormed, morale among the victorious Soviet soldiers was low. They knew the building could only be taken on foot and it was still heavily defended. So his commanders decided to launch a night attack and Minin was put in charge of the platoon.
“Nobody really wanted to die that night because the war was already won,” he declared. “Even a promise by our officers that those who captured the building would get the highest decoration of Hero of the Soviet Union called forth few volunteers. Except for my little company.” As they made their way towards the Reichstag they were met by heavy fire. Ducking and weaving their way up to the portals of the building, they found they were bricked up. Minin reported that one of his men remembered seeing a felled tree in the neighborhood so they went back to get it and used it as a battering ram. As they entered there was sporadic fire from German soldiers. They responded with their machine guns and managed to go up the stairs and reach the roof. “But we had no flag with us. Instead we found a pole and a red rag and fixed it into a damaged statue symbolizing Victoria on the top of the building. I was euphoric. I had done my duty as a simple soldier.”
Minin was recognized for his feat, but was not really rewarded. As there were no photos taken when the flag was put on the roof on 10 p.m., other photos were taken on other occasions of which the one above has become most famous.
The details were documented in part 19/19 of a German documentary from 2004 called The War of the Century. The documentary includes Minin revisiting the Reichstag and meeting a German soldier who was hiding inside.
[edit] Recognition
When the Great Patriotic War ended, Minin continued his army service. In 1959 he graduated from the Military Academy and joined special strategic purpose troops. Minin moved to Pskov in 1977 and decided to stay in the city afterwards. Because of political intrigue orchestrated by Joseph Stalin, Minin had to wait five decades for recognition, finally granted to him with an official honour by President Boris Yeltsin on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Mikhail Minin died on January 10, 2008 and was buried in his native city of Pskov January 12, 2008.
