'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.' (from Wikipedia).
About the Soviet National flag
The Soviet national flag, as most soviet flags, used a medium, bright shade of red. Soviet flag laws clearly distinguish between this shade of red, or scarlet (alyĭ алый ), and a darker shade (krapovyĭ краповый or purpurnyĭ пурпурный ) used only on a few flags.
António Martins, 28 Jan 2001
History and symbology
The hammer and sickle itself, originate from the unique Russian unity of the peasants (the sickle) with the workers (the hammer) who together formed the Soviet Russian state. The Red field is symbolism of the blood that has been spilt by workers the world over in the fight for their emancipation, and was directly inherited from the red banner flown at the Paris Commune; the original and hitherto “base” symbol of a worker’s government flag. The single yellow star is both the representation of the life and immense energy of the sun, empty because within is the blood or production of workers struggle; and also the five points of the star symbolize the single unity and international representation of the government — each of the five points is representative of the five (up to then known/recognized) continents.
Brian Basgen (Marxists Internet Archive Director), 07 Jul 2000
Soviet flag with hammer, sickle and star was not created in 1918! It was adopted in 1923. The star on the flag was red with yellow border (not plain red). Only the coat of arms and some military colours were with hammer and sickle in 1918. Hammer and sickle existed in soviet symbolism since 1917.
Victor Lomantsov, 08 Jul 2000 and 09 Jul 2000
Pre-communist red symbolism in Russia
Traditionally, red has always had very positive connotations in Russian language and culture. The word "red" ("красный") is etimologically related with the words "прекрасный" ("very good", "the best") and "красивий" ("beautiful"). A Russian proverb says that «красивий — самы красный» («the more red, the better»).
Thus Moscow’s Red Square has a double meaning, referring not just to its colour but also meaning "Beautiful Square". Furthermore, the most important Russian Orthodox festivity is the so-called Red Easter, when the priests wear red vestments.
All this can help to understand why the red flag became the most popular symbol from the first moments of the 1917 revolution, being widely used even by non-Communist elements. People often ripped the white and blue stripes from the tri-colour Russian flags to make very narrow, unravelled red flags that were shown everywhere.
José Manuel Erbez, 12 Jun 2001
