I hadn't heard this story before- How iconic photo of Russians raising flag over burning Berlin was airbrushed to save soldier from Stalin's rage | the Daily Mail
The famous Qaldeĭ photo The photo shows a young soldier hoisting a red flag on top of the Reichstag and two officers looking at him, and behind, on the street some tanks and a car, and a tram. On the photo the flag is plain red with the star and hammer and sickle, but without any text. The photograph was later used in the film Battle for Berlin, and is fairly well known and published in many places. Željko Heimer, 31 July 1997 The absence of inscriptions on the photo explained by the fact that the flag had a plain reverse. António Martins, 10 May 2000 Yevgeni Khaldei, the Ukranian photographer who has died aged 80, created one of the most celebrated images of the Second World War, that of a soldier raising the Soviet flag above the ruins of the Reichstag on May 2, 1945. Khaldei’s lot, as a war journalist, was to produce propaganda, a task eminently suited to his heroic style of photography. As the Soviet troops approached Berlin he was anxious to acquire a red flag that might act as a suitable backdrop. Since there were none at the front, he flew back to Moscow and persuaded the storekeeper at his employers, the news agency Tass, to lend him three red tablecloths normally used for conferences. Khaldei then sat up all night with his uncle, a tailor, sewing on stars, sickles and hammers. Early on the morning of May 2 he began to pick his way across the smoking rubble that had been the centre of Berlin. He heard the news of Hitler’s death, then climbed to the top of the Brandenburg gate, where he draped a flag around a statue. Spurred on by a desire to avenge the death of his Jewish sisters in the war, Khaldei then turned his sights on the Reichstag. There was still fighting in the basement when he rounded up a group of Soviet soldiers who were celebrating their victory with vodka. The flag party carefully made its way up the broken staircase to the roof, loosing off bursts at each landing to keep German heads down. The roof itself was dangerously slick with blood. The flag was held aloft by a Russian soldier, Alexei Kovalyov, aided by a sergeant from Dagestan. David Cohen, 21 Oct 1997, quoting The Weekly Telegraph A Norwegian newspaper, Dagbladet, carried an interview with the Russian photographer Yevgeny Khaldei some weeks ago. Khaldei is depicted holding a large copy of the Red flag on the Reichstag photo. Khladei is credited with taking the picture. Here are the main points concerning the flag: Khaldei told the newspaper the flag was made by his uncle, who stitched the hammer, sickle and star on to a red table cloth taken from the TASS office in Moscow. Khaldei was then on a short stay in Moscow, but soon returned to the front. On 2 May 1945 Khaldei ordered the three soldiers in his company up to the roof of the Reichstag. Various arrangements were tried before the final famous picture was made. The day after the picture arrived in Moscow. However, a month later Khaldei was ordered to fix the picture because the soldier supporting the one holding the flag had two watches on his arm! Jan Oskar Engene, 01 August 1996 Apparently there is more to the story. Like the Iwo Jima one, the famous scene was not the original but a staged reenactment. (OK, Iwo Jima wasn’t a fake, just a second flag raising.) Apparently the soldier with the flag was wearing several wristwatches, and Soviet authorities ruled that it wouldn’t do to show the Red Army looting Europe, so they had Khaldei go back and shoot the scene again. (You’d think they could have just touched up the photo, so this might be an urban legend.) Great photo all the same. T. F. Mills, 20 Oct 1997 An obituary with more details and two photographs (one was the Reichstag picture) was published in the The Electronic Telegraph for 11 October 1997 (“Yevgeny Khaldei — Ukrainian war photographer who captured the moment of Soviet triumph on the ruins of the Reichstag”). There it is told that «Khaldei always denied allegations that the moment had been restaged for his Leica», but that «The truth, however, certainly succumbed under the hands of the Kremlin’s picture editors. Aware of the potential power of the photograph, they made sure to touch out one of the two watches being worn by each soldier, to prevent accusations of looting. In deference to Stalin, it was also given out that the flag-raiser was a fellow Georgian, Mikhail Kantaria, and that he had been helped by a Russian.» Jan Oskar Engene, 21 Oct 1997 Stepan Andreyevich Neustroyev was the commander of the battalion that stormed the Reichstag in 1945 and the man who hoisted the flag over the building… one of the most famous images of World War Two and only last year did it become known that it had been doctored… Khaldei had made the flag in the photograph himself from red tablecloths from Tass, which were emblazoned with the hammer and sickle like the Soviet flag. In Erich Kuby’s book entitled The Russians And Berlin, on page 60 he says: It seems strange that the Russians should have looked upon the Reichstag, deserted since the [Nazi started] fire of February 1933, and now an empty piece of masonry, its windows and doors bricked up, as the symbol of Germany… …Mednikov describes this historic action in great detail. About noon on April 28, one of our battalions advanced on the Spree. At the same time the commander of the regiment, Col. F.M. Zinchenko, took charge of a red banner…expressly set aside for planting on the dome. It was Red Banner No.5 of the [150th Rifle Division] 3rd Shock Army…[it was] twenty-three-year-old Capt. Stefan Andreyevich Noystroev…men [who eventually] battled their way into the building, fighting for every room and corridor…Noystroev ordered a shock detachment commanded by Lt. Berest to escort the two [Zinchenko appointed regimental] standard-bearers…[who] took nearly half a day to reach the dome. At 10:50 P.M. on April 30, the banner of victory was unfurled over the Reichstag. From this account it becomes clear that the famous photograph [by Khaldei] of [standard-bearers] Egorov and Kantariya planting the Red Flag on the roof of the Reichstag could not have been taken at that historic moment. For a start, it was dark at 10:50 p.m., while the picture was obviously taken in broad daylight. Moreover, the soldiers in the street appear to be moving about quite fearleesly and openly, which they would not have done had fighting still been going on all around them-as it was at the time the banner was first held aloft. If we look more closely, we see that there is no trace of anything on the vulgar pinnacle of the Reichstag to which a flag pole could have been attached. The soldier is simply holding up the flag in a dramatic pose. In other words, the world-famous photograph must have been taken a day or two after the storming of the Reichstag.Ben Weed, 28 Feb 1998 Banner of Victory (Soviet Army in Berlin, 1945)
Amazing to read that a proper flag was not available on the front. I would have thought there were thousands. The story of the two watches is well known. I doesn't mean all Russians were like that , but Khaldei apparently took two drunk soldiers (one with two watches) Stalin realised the west would use this point for their propaganda. JCFalkenberg: I think you clicked twice and posted the same story twice, so I took the liberty of deleting one copy for a better reading.
One for local hour, the other for his place of origin, Rzhev, Bielgorod or whatever. So what's your problem, it's a big country anyway covering a lot of timezones
