Stepan Andreevich Neustroev became a Hero of the Soviet Union on May 8, 1946. Together with Mikhail Alekseevich Yegorov, Meliton Varlamovich Kantaria, Vasily Innokentievich Davydov and Konstantin Yakovlevich Samsonov. A year after the storming of the Reichstag, they finally figured out who was hoisting the Victory Banner-the banner of the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army at number 5. Scouts Sergeant Yegorov and Junior Sergeant Kantaria became known to the whole world as the flag bearers of Victory. Captains Davydov, Neustroev and Senior Lieutenant Samsonov were awarded as commanders of the battalions that stormed the Reichstag.

And today, on the eve of the holy day - Victory Day, there is a weighty reason to remember the events that followed the storming of the Reichstag, as the Hero of the Soviet Union, retired Colonel Stepan Andreevich Neustroev, told about them.

The fighting in Berlin ended on May 2. An unusual silence ensued. But Sovinformburo reports: there are fights in the area of Prague, in the Baltic States... And we thought: where will they throw us - to Prague or to the Baltic Sea?

Since May 2, the Reichstag has become a place of pilgrimage, where representatives of all armies and all branches of the armed forces who were in Berlin came. Who left murals on the walls of the Reichstag, who was photographed...

On the night before dawn on May 9, Colonel Zinchenko calls me and says :" Well, now that's it! Now there is peace. Tomorrow, take your battalion to the central stadium. Prepare a nice festive dinner there - we will celebrate the Victory."

I called the supply platoon commander first. However, the regiment commander asked if alcohol was allowed. He replied that it was not only possible , but even necessary. And not a hundred grams, as they gave during the war, and not two hundred-enough!

So I tell the supply platoon commander that it's a good lunch, give me some vodka...

On the morning of May 9, I take the battalion to the stadium-it is one and a half or two kilometers from the Reichstag. The rest of the battalions of our regiment and special forces are also there... Everyone is busy preparing for the celebration. Kitchens smoke... The division commander, General Shatilov, and the corps commander, General Perevertkin, arrived. What a rally! The four-year war waged by the Soviet people ended with the complete defeat of Nazi Germany.

The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Comrade Stalin, announced to the whole world that today the Soviet people celebrate Victory Day! And then there were toasts, greetings, songs, dances...

As soon as it began to get dark, salutes began to thunder and flash: from submachine guns and machine guns. And then the gunners joined in. And this kind of shooting started in Berlin - they were shooting heartily all night.

And on the morning of May 10, the battalion was taken out of the Reichstag and told that the Tiergarten area and the Royal Square were moving to the English zone.

On the 11th, our entire division was withdrawn from Berlin for rest. And where would you think? To Goering's dacha. Well, I will say, this is a dacha!.. The territory is huge: three lakes, country houses, a very large - not a zoo-nature reserve, fenced with a steel mesh height of two or two and a half meters. All sorts of things were there: pheasants, birds of some sort, wild boars, and moose...

In general, we won Victory, peace, and the right to hunt, fish, and swim at Goering's dacha...

On June 20, I, Kantary, Yegorov, and my company commander, Senior Sergeant Vyanov, were called to the division headquarters, and then the division's political department chief took us to the corps headquarters. Kostya Samsonov, a battalion commander from the 171st Division who also participated in the assault on the Reichstag, also arrived there. And they took us to the army headquarters.

There we were told that there was an order from Stalin - today, June 20, five of us with the Victory Banner should be sent to Moscow to participate in the Victory Parade. As they say, there is no limit to joy - the chest bursts with pride. On the same day, a special plane was sent to Moscow.

23rd-dress rehearsal at the central airfield in Moscow. We were taken there. I hold the Banner of Victory in my hands. We had to go ahead of the whole parade.

It's hard to describe my condition at this moment: I didn't do drill training, I didn't go to music - I graduated from an accelerated military school, four years of the front, five wounds - well, what kind of drill is there?.. I walked to the end of the runway. A colonel drives up to me on a side path in a "Willis" and transmits the words of Marshal Zhukov that tomorrow the Victory Banner will not be displayed at the Victory Parade...

I took the banner to the Central Museum of the Armed Forces, handed it over to the chief for permanent storage, and in return received a guest pass to the parade at headquarters.

The Victory banner was not displayed at the parade, although historical memoir literature says that on June 24, 1945, it opened the Victory Parade and was carried by me, Yegorov and Kantaria. This is explained by the fact that the writers used the plan for holding the parade, where our participation was actually stipulated.

The first time the Victory Banner was paraded was in 1965-on the 20th anniversary of the Victory. The banner was carried by Kostya Samsonov - then he was a colonel, Yegorov and Kantaria were assistants. The second one was in 1985. There were five flag bearers - Air Marshal Skomorokhov, Colonel Fomenko, Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov, Pavel Andreevich Litvinenko and myself.

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