Meliton Kantaria
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Meliton Varlamovich Kantaria (Georgian: მელიტონ ქანთარია, Russian: Мелитон Варламович Кантария) (5 October 1920, Jvari, Georgia, – 27 December 1993, Moscow), Hero of the Soviet Union (8 May 1946), was a Georgian sergeant of the Soviet Army credited to have hoisted a Soviet flag Banner of Victory over the Reichstag on April 30, 1945, 21.50. Despite Soviet claims, the iconic picture showing him 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. [1]
Born to a peasant family in a small Georgian town of Jvari, he worked in kolkhoz until being mobilized in the Red Army in 1940. During World War II, he served in the 756th Rifle Regiment, 150th Rifle Division, of the 3rd Army at the 1st Belorussian Front. He, together with Sergeant M.A. Yegorov, mounted a red banner in a famous photo over a defeated Reichstag two days after the Battle of Berlin on the 2 May 1945.
Demobilized in 1946, he lived thereafter in Sukhumi working as a shop manager. A year after the secessionist war in the region had begun he moved with his family to Moscow[2] where he died two months later in December 1993.
See also
- Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
- Mikhail Minin - according to later researches, the first flag raiser over the Reichstag
References
- ^ Absolute War by Chris Bellamy pp500
- ^ Izvestia, Сын Героя Советского Союза Мелитона Кантарии Шота: "Отец для прочности древко своим ремнем закрепил", 8.5.2007 Template:Ru icon
External links
- More details about the Banner of Victory at http://www.crwflags.com
- Meliton Varlamovich Kantaria Template:Ru icon
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