Soldier who raised the Red Flag on the Reichstag dies

[Bandito]

A Red Army soldier who appears in a historic photograph helping hoist a hammer-and-sickle flag over the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945 has died, Dagestani officials said. He was 93.
Abdulkhakim Ismailov died of unspecified causes late Tuesday in his native village of Chagar-Otar, the press office of the Dagestani president said Wednesday.
Ismailov was one of the three Soviet soldiers seen in a photograph taken three days after the fall of Berlin in May 1945. He stands beneath the man holding the flagpole.
The photo became an iconic image of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. It has often been compared to the 1945 Associated Press photograph of U.S. soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.
The Soviet photographer, Yevgeny Khaldei, said years later that the image was staged, and the flag was sewn from three tablecloths. He said the original hammer-and-sickle flag flown from the Reichstag was shot down by German snipers.
Ismailov was identified on the photograph only in 1996 and was awarded a Hero of Russia medal.
During World War II, he was part of a motorized infantry battalion and was wounded five times. After the war, he served as a chairman of a collective farm and a Communist Party official.
Ismailov is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.


http://yt-is-playing-at.fps0.com/archives/red-flag-on-Reichstag-may-1.jpg

[The Vegan Marxist]

One of the most beautiful pictures in our history. It disgusts me how they compared it to how the Americans raised their flag over Iwo Jima. That was a war-crime, not a victory.

[Red Commissar]

I suppose when they do that it's really only for the propagandic value it had on the war. Both of them involving raising the flag over their enemies, after a long and brutal battle. Not so much the reason or explanation.

And like Iwo Jima, this picture was staged after the Reichstag battle was over. Some of the right-wing types like to complain about his associate having stolen watches on his wrist too.

Regardless, this man was immortalized, but I didn't know he was even given any credit for it until 1996. I'm not sure when he was born, but he lived through the early years of the Soviet Union, fought in its most decisive war, lived through the Cold War, through the Soviet Union's decline and collapse, and saw a capitalist Russia born from it. Man has seen a lot, it's a shame no one took his perspective on how many pivotal events he lived through.

He died just sort of the 65th anniversary of Nazi defeat as well.

[Crux]

One of the most beautiful pictures in our history. It disgusts me how they compared it to how the Americans raised their flag over Iwo Jima. That was a war-crime, not a victory.Because the Red Army did not commit any war crimes during world war 2.

Anyway this is old news, didn't he die like 3 weeks ago?

[Revy]

One of the most beautiful pictures in our history. It disgusts me how they compared it to how the Americans raised their flag over Iwo Jima. That was a war-crime, not a victory.

I wouldn't call raising a flag a war crime, although the US did commit many war crimes during that war.

[Rusty Shackleford]

that war was full of war-crimes. no one was innocent. but that picture is one of the best "victory flag planting" pictures EVER. the one on iwo jima was definitely a good picture as well but falls in second. but, the iwo jima one has some of the best edits.
http://www.cslacker.com/images/file/mediums/america2.jpg

[MaoTseHelen]

Salud comrade, salud.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I wouldn't call raising a flag a war crime, although the US did commit many war crimes during that war.

I wasn't saying the flag being raised was a war crime, but the reason why they raised their flags. If dropping nukes was the strategy to win the wars, then that is a war crime & deserves no significance towards their symbolic gesture of raising their flag.

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

I wasn't saying the flag being raised was a war crime, but the reason why they raised their flags. If dropping nukes was the strategy to win the wars, then that is a war crime & deserves no significance towards their symbolic gesture of raising their flag.

I really don't see the difference. Both were staged for the press (and history books) after the battles were fought and, though being on totally different scales, both were horrific battles in their own right.

Tens of thousands of civilians were killed when the Red Army took Berlin, at least, and while it was a necessary step to end the war in Europe it seems to be a bit hypocritical to then call the marines who took a barren rock, whose only significance was the proximity to Japan and area for a landing strip, war criminals. The war in the Pacific was a bloody mess one island after another and I have no feelings of contempt for the actions taken by the marines against the Japanese. Politicians who then dropped nuclear weapons are certainly judgable, but the marines were simply soldiers who had a nasty job to do.


Oh, and rest in peace, though he's essentially immortal at this point.

[Revy]

I wasn't saying the flag being raised was a war crime, but the reason why they raised their flags. If dropping nukes was the strategy to win the wars, then that is a war crime & deserves no significance towards their symbolic gesture of raising their flag.

Nukes weren't dropped on Iwo Jima, as nuclear weapons had not even been tested until months after the battle, and even more months before they were used on Japan.

If now you're saying that the atomic bombings were a war crime, I certainly agree. War crime seems like a euphemism when talking about that atrocity. Mass murder fits the bill.

[The Ghost of Revolutions]

Because the Red Army did not commit any war crimes during world war 2.

Anyway this is old news, didn't he die like 3 weeks ago?

I don't know if your being scarastic but the Red Army raped a bunch of german women and plundered poland.

[Chimurenga.]

I don't know if your being scarastic but the Red Army raped a bunch of german women and plundered poland.

Do you have any sources to back this up?

[Communist]

Comrade Ismailov, ¡Presente!

[Jarc]

In ww2, everyone was probably a criminal somehow. War cannot be considered something that can be viewed on in your chair while reading responses on a left-wing forum. It can only be fought, died for, won or lost. You lose best friends, fathers, mothers, whole families. War is a terrible thing, and you shouldn't always hate the soldiers while you idle away. It is something to be fought against, war, and must always end. "A bad peace is just as bad as a war." We must remember wars as they are, not for ideological or propagandic value they pose for us and our posterity. Just remember that we are all equal in death, so you shouldn't always say "he is bad because he fought against me," rather say that he was probably misguided, or he died a hero to his people. War criminals are different, however. They are fat officers who sit behind the lines. They are generals who don't see the men they are putting on the line. The men who are cowards, basically, are war-criminals, in my humble opinion. No offence to anyone who disagrees.

[khad]

They are generals who don't see the men they are putting on the line. The men who are cowards, basically, are war-criminals, in my humble opinion. No offence to anyone who disagrees.
Over a hundred Soviet officers of general rank died in the war, including these rising stars of the Red Army:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Chernyakhovsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Fyodorovich_Vatutin

[Jarc]

I wasn't disagree-ing with that fact. I very much admire the Soviet generals. I merely said that the generals of any army who have all bark, but no bite, deserve to be PFC's again.

[Nosotros]

A Red Army soldier who appears in a historic photograph helping hoist a hammer-and-sickle flag over the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945 has died, Dagestani officials said. He was 93.
Abdulkhakim Ismailov died of unspecified causes late Tuesday in his native village of Chagar-Otar, the press office of the Dagestani president said Wednesday.
Ismailov was one of the three Soviet soldiers seen in a photograph taken three days after the fall of Berlin in May 1945. He stands beneath the man holding the flagpole.
The photo became an iconic image of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. It has often been compared to the 1945 Associated Press photograph of U.S. soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.
The Soviet photographer, Yevgeny Khaldei, said years later that the image was staged, and the flag was sewn from three tablecloths. He said the original hammer-and-sickle flag flown from the Reichstag was shot down by German snipers.
Ismailov was identified on the photograph only in 1996 and was awarded a Hero of Russia medal.
During World War II, he was part of a motorized infantry battalion and was wounded five times. After the war, he served as a chairman of a collective farm and a Communist Party official.
Ismailov is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.


http://yt-is-playing-at.fps0.com/archives/red-flag-on-Reichstag-may-1.jpgSo what, I wonder how many women he raped?

[LeninBalls]

So what, I wonder how many women he raped?

Are you honestly assuming that because he was in the WW2-era Red Army he was a rapist, because like every single serviceman in the Red Army in WW2 was a rapist right

I might as well assume every Anarchist in the Spanish Civil War was a priest killer too :)

[Audeamus]

So what, I wonder how many women he raped?

Considering that rapes were often committed by rear-echelon troops, and that the Soviets usually punished rapists with death or assignment to a penal unit, I'm thinking very few. :rolleyes:

[Nolan]

So what, I wonder how many women he raped?

I dunno, by if so maybe he was a closet anarchist.

[rednordman]

Are you honestly assuming that because he was in the WW2-era Red Army he was a rapist, because like every single serviceman in the Red Army in WW2 was a rapist right

I might as well assume every Anarchist in the Spanish Civil War was a priest killer too :)Word! Why do people talk about Russians as if they are the only people to commit the crime of rape in WW2? I suppose when the Germans did it, than it was always by consent then?:rolleyes:

[Hoggy_RS]

So what, I wonder how many women he raped?
Must you be such a dickhead?

[Robocommie]

So what, I wonder how many women he raped?

What the fuck, man? The Red Army did a lot of horrifying shit in WW2, but that doesn't mean every single Soviet soldier was a rapist.