Meliton Kantaria

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Meliton Kantaria

Meliton Kantaria ( Georgian მელიტონ ქანთარია ; Russian Мелитон Варламович Кантария / Meliton Warlamowitsch Kantarija ; born October 5, 1920 in Jvari , Georgia ; † December 27, 1993 in Moscow , Russia ) was a Georgian Soviet soldier . According to official Soviet historiography, he was the sergeant (сержант, German sergeant ) shown in the famous photo on the Berlin Reichstag, May 2, 1945 , who hoisted the Soviet victory flag on the Berlin Reichstag building .

Life

Kantaria was born the son of a farmer in the Caucasus and worked on a kolkhoz . In 1940 he joined the Red Army. During the Second World War he served as a reconnaissance officer in the 176th regiment of the 150th Rifle Division in the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belarusian Front , most recently with the rank of sergeant . In 1941 he was seriously wounded in street fighting in Smolensk .

According to Soviet historiography, on the evening of April 30, 1945, together with Sergeant Mikhail Alexejewitsch Jegorow and Konstantin Samsonow, he was commissioned to hoist one of nine victory flags flown in from Moscow on the captured Berlin Reichstag building . Kantaria and Jegorow are said to have climbed the roof directly above the entrance portal. The soldiers initially put the flag in a bullet hole in the belly of a bronze horse. When they were halfway down again, the commander asked that the banner be higher because it was only visible from one side of the building. Kantaria, Jegorow and Samsonov climbed to the top of the shattered dome and fixed the flag there.

In the mid-1990s, photographer Yevgeny Chaldej revealed the names of the three soldiers actually involved in an interview with British journalists. The pictures showed the soldiers Alexei Leontjewitsch Kowaljow , Abdulchakim Issakowitsch Ismailow and Leonid Goritschew . Josef Stalin himself had decided on a group of all soldiers involved in the storming of the Reichstag and chose Kantaria, a Georgian compatriot as flag hoist, the other two were Russians. All other participants, including the photographer and the soldiers actually depicted, were bound to the strictest secrecy.

Independent of these subsequently staged photos, the Russian soldier Mikhail Petrovich Minin had already hoisted a red flag on the night of April 30 on the captured Reichstag. Since these and other flag hoists were not documented by photos, the soldiers involved were not honored or - like Minin - only honored decades later.

In 1946 Kantaria was demobilized, returned to Jvari and worked again in the kolkhoz at home. In 1947 he became a member of the CPSU . He later moved to the capital of Abkhazia , Sukhumi , where he became the director of a state-run shop and a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Abkhaz ASSR. At the beginning of the 1990s he lived in the Abkhazian town of Otschamtschire .

In September 1993 he was expelled from Abkhazia by separatist militants during the Abkhaz civil war because of his Georgian descent. The mayor of Saint Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak granted him political asylum in Russia. He died three months later in the Moscow Kremlin Hospital. President Boris Yeltsin condoled the family, but the Abkhaz government refused to allow them to bury the Cantarias in Ochamtschire. He was therefore buried in his birthplace.

He was married and had two sons.

Awards

In 1946 Kantaria was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union , received the Order of Lenin , the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Great Patriotic War, First Class. He was an honorary citizen of Smolensk and Sukhumi. The honorary citizenship of Berlin , granted in 1965, was revoked again in 1992.

literature

  • Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger: Georgians in Berlin . The Senate's Commissioner for Foreigners, Berlin 1999
  • Stepan Andreevich Neustroev: Put 'k Rejchstagu . Voennoe Izd. Ministerstva obrony Sojuza SSR, Moskva 1961

Web links

Commons : Meliton Kantaria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The last Red Army soldier from the Reichstag is dead at welt.de, accessed on May 13, 2012
  2. ↑ a b "Guys, stand there and hoist the flag" at faz.net, accessed on May 13, 2012
  3. ↑ a b “I hoisted the flag on the Reichstag.” - “No, I!” (Excerpt) from berlinstory-verlag.de, accessed on May 13, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Kantaria, Meliton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kantarija, Meliton Varlamowitsch; მელიტონ ქანთარია (Abkhazian); Кантария, Мелитон Варламович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet soldier
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Jvari , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1993
Place of death Moscow , Russia