Figure 1.--Here Red Army troops of the 150th Infantry Division strike a pose on the steps of the ruined Reichstag in Berlin. In the foreground is an unidentified 14-year boy adopted as a son of the division's Artemenkov Regiment (May 1945). Sons of the Regiment in the past were boys whose fathers had been unit members and killed. In World war II they were more commonly orphaned biys whose parents had been killed by the Germans and adopted by the soldiers of tge regiments.

It has always been wonderd why Stalin was so obsessed with Berlin and was willining to sacrifice so many Red Army soldiers to get to Berlin before the Americans. It had none of the importnce that Miscow held in 1941. The Allies had bombed Berlin unto impotence before the Red army arrived. It was, however, a potent symbol--the capital of the Reich. And Hitler had decided to make his stand there in a bunket under the Rich Chancellery. The generally accepted answer is that it was primarily for the political value, to demonstrate the role of the Red Army in defeating the NAZIs. We think that this was more than likely the central reason. A British historian argues that there was another important reason. Stalin knew about the the American Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb because of the extent to which Soviet intelligence had penetrated the Manhattan Project. Stalin as a result ordered a top secret Soviet atomic bomb project--Project Boradino. And he put NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria in charge. Located at Berlin was the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute whre Einstein had worked. It became the the center of the German atomic project. While the Germans were far behind the Americans, the Germans were far ahead of the Soviets. The Russians obtained a great deal of valuable information and 3 tons of uranium oxide. [Beevor] another factor that is important to note is that the one desire that was on the mind of virtually every Red Army soldier was to get to Berlin and to dsestroy the NAZI tyranny it its liar. Important or not in reality, it was hugely important in the hearts of Red Army soldiers. And here for some reason the Reichstag was seen as the enter of NAZI power. The iconic image of the battle was aed army soldier planting the Soviet flag on the Reichstag. The building actually was abandined and not restired after the Reichstag Fire (1931). (The center of NAZI power had been the Reich Chancellory.) After the battle fir Berlin was over. Sussian lodiers wanted to be photographed in front of the Reichstag.

Created: 8:20 PM 6/21/2017
Last updated: 8:20 PM 6/21/2017