#Victory81

🌟 On May 2, 1945, following an intense brutal battle for the Reichstag, won by the Soviet forces, and other major pockets of resistance in Berlin eliminated, including the Nazis defending the citadels of Spandau and Zoo-Bunker, the Red Army took control over the capital of the then nearly defunct Nazi Germany.

The Battle of Berlin was concluded in a triumphant victory of the Soviet people over the ultimate evil of Nazism.

The Third Reich was no more.

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By day's end of May 1 it was almost over for the Nazis — the #VictoryBanner soared over the Reichstag, the Red Army liberated Brandenburg, the districts of Charlottenburg, Schoeneberg and about a hundred more neighbourhoods in Berlin from the SS and Wehrmacht. The last remaining Nazi troops were concentrated in the government quarters of Berlin, near the Reich Chancellery.

What little remained of the Berlin garrison started seeking ways to surrender to the Red Army, having realised that further resistance was futile.

In the early hours of May 2, the Berlin defence headquarters sent the following radio message in the Russian and German languages:

📢 We will send parliamentarians to the Bismarckstrasse Bridge.

We request a ceasefire.

At 6:30 am, the Commander of the Berlin garrison, General of the Artillery Helmuth Weidling surrendered and ordered the remnants of the garrison to stop resisting.

The centre of Berlin was completely cleared of the enemy by the evening. Soviet forces received 134'000 Nazi soldiers as POWs as they laid down weapons with only a few units fighting a lost battle to the bitter end.

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The Berlin Offensive lasted over a week, from April 24 through May 2.

The last large concentration of Nazi troops, its best divisions and most heinous Nazi adepts engaged in fierce resistance. To no avail, as the Red Army, having already crushed and dismantled most of the once undefeated German war machine, was the best military force on the planet at the time.

Following the fall of Berlin, only a few major Nazi units remained, prolonging their agony in Czechoslovakia and Austria.

The #RedBanner reigning over the Reichstag had already become a part of history as an eternal symbol of the Soviet people’s greatest triumph in the fight against the Nazi evil.

📕 From the diaries of Soviet war correspondent and writer Konstantin Simonov (“Different Days of the War. A Writer’s Diary,” 1982):

May 3. A dusty, sunny day.

Several of our armies, having captured Berlin, are now moving through the city in different directions.

Tanks, self-propelled guns, 'Katyushas', thousands of lorries, heavy and light artillery, anti-tank guns bouncing over the debris, infantry marching... <...>

Even I have the feeling that it is not just divisions and corps entering Berlin, but that the whole of Russia is now passing through Berlin.

📄 From the TASS Frontline Bulletin of May 3, 1945, as reported by war correspondent Konstantin Sukhin:

The Victory Banner is soaring over the German Reichstag. <...>

The Brandenburg Gate can be seen from afar. It is barricaded with wooden bars, filled with broken bricks and chained with iron. The Germans wanted to stop our advancing units here.

Now our tanks stand on both sides of the gate.

The joy of victory can be seen on the faces of the Soviet soldiers — they have captured Berlin, the capital of Germany.

What the heroes of the battles of Moscow, in besieged Leningrad, on the banks of the Volga, and in the ruined streets of Stalingrad dreamed of and strived for became a reality.

In terms of military strategy, Nazi Germany lost control over all its vital areas and lost even the slightest possibility to continue resistance.

After the fall of Berlin, just a few major Nazi army groups were still resisting in Czechoslovakia and Austria, standing between the world and Victory.

The final collapse of Nazism in Europe and the revenge on the Reich were imminent.

#OurVictory #WeRemember

#Victory81

🌟 On May 4, 1945, just two days after the Red Army took Berlin over control in the final days of #WWII, the first #VictoryParade of the Soviet was held at the very heart of the defeated Reich’s capital.

Our soldiers, who heroically defeated the Nazi troops in Berlin, marched past the Reichstag with triumph and the Brandenburg Gate, which symbolised the end of Nazi Germany and the restoration of peace in Europe.

More than two thousand Red Army soldiers and officers — those who had distinguished themselves in the final battles for the Nazi capital — participated in the parade. The parade was commanded by Nikolay Berzarin, Hero of the Soviet Union and the first commandant of Berlin.

The soldiers and their commanders, who had crushed the resistance of the Nazi troops, marched in triumph through the very streets where the Nazis had once displayed its military power.

Our soldiers and officers wore their field uniforms — the very same battle-worn coats soaked with sweat and blood from the still-healing wounds of the decisive battle of the entire #WW2.

🎖 #VictoryParade held in the heart of defeated Germany became a powerful symbol of the greatest military triumph of the Soviet people, the culmination of the Red Army’s liberation mission, which saved the world from Nazism.

On that victorious day — May 4, 1945 — the glory of the Soviet Soldier-Liberator was recognised by the entire world.

#WeRemember #OurVictory