The Soviet Banner of Victory is the banner

Banner

A banner is a flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Banner-making is an ancient craft.The word derives from late Latin bandum, a cloth out of which a flag is made...

 raised by the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 soldier

Soldier

A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...

s on the Reichstag building in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, on April 30, 1945. It was raised by three Soviet soldiers: Alexei Berest

Alexei Berest

Oleksi Prokopovich Berest was a Soviet political officer and one of the three Red Army soldiers who hoisted the Victory Banner.-Early life:Born to an impoverished...

, Mikhail Yegorov, and Meliton Kantaria

Meliton Kantaria

Meliton Varlamovich Kantaria or Kantariya , Hero of the Soviet Union , was a Georgian sergeant of the Soviet Army credited to have together with M. A...

, from Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, and Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 respectively.

The Victory Banner, made under battle

Battle

Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...

field conditions, is the official symbol of the Victory of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 during the second world war

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

. It is also believed to be one of the national treasure

National treasure

The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of Romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology which supports the nation as the fundamental unit of human social life, which includes shared...

s of Russia and a symbol of the Pridnestrovye region

Transnistria

Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...

. The Cyrillic

Cyrillic alphabet

The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...

 inscription reads:
Although this flag was not the only one to be hoisted on the Reichstag, it was the first and only survivor of all the "official" flags especially prepared to be raised there. On May 9, during Victory Day parade

Parade

A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...

 in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, a copy of Victory Banner #5 is carried immediately behind the Russian flag

Flag of Russia

The flag of Russia is a tricolour flag of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896...

 by members of the 154th Moscow Commandant's Regiment Honor and Colors Guards.

According to the Law of the Russian Federation, the Banner of Victory is to be stored forever in a place which provides its safety and public availability.

How it happened

Report of the commander of the 3rd assault army to the head of political administration of The Red Army about the fight for Reichstag and placing the Victory Banner on it. (quotes) July 2, 1945 . The Commander of the 1st Belarussian Front Marshal of Soviet Union comrade Zhukov ordered the troops of 3rd assault army headily enter Berlin, to secure the downtown and Reichtag and to place the Victory Banner on it. <...> Having defeated the last enemy strongholds the troops of the army entered Berlin at 6:00 AM on the 21st of April 1945. <...> After seizing the downtown the troops of the 3rd assault army penetrated the neighborhood of Reichtag at the end of 29 of April 1945.. On the 30th of April with the sunrise they started the massive assault on Reichtag. <...> On the 30th of April 1945 at 14:25 the fighters of superior corporal Syanov's group fought their way to the rough and reached the dome. The courageous warriors - Communist Lieutenant Berest, Comsomol Member Soldier Egorov and member of no party Junior Corporal Kantaria have set the banner, the symbol of our Great Victory, the Proud Flag of the Soviet Union flew above the German Parliament building! The burned and pierced by bullets Banner was victoriously flying above defeated Berlin <...> The Commander of the troops of the 3rd Assault Army, Soviet Union Hero, Сolonel-General Kuznetsov Member of Military Board of the 3rd Assault Army Major-General Litvinov

Yeltsin's Victory Banner

There was a variation of the Soviet flag

Flag of the Soviet Union

The flag of the Soviet Union consisted of a plain red flag, with a setting or cross-peen hammer crossed with a sickle and a red star in the upper canton...

, without the hammer and sickle

Hammer and sickle

The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...

, to which president Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

 gave a status similar to that of the national flag, on April 5, 1996. President Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 also adopted the Victory Banner as the official flag of the Russian Army

Russian Ground Forces

The Russian Ground Forces are the land forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992. The formation of these forces posed economic challenges after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and required reforms to professionalize the force...

. This flag was named after the flag raised on the Reichstag, but it is also called Victory Flag.

Today this variation is no longer an official symbol. The Russian Ground Forces

Russian Ground Forces

The Russian Ground Forces are the land forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992. The formation of these forces posed economic challenges after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and required reforms to professionalize the force...

 flag was once again changed to a flag without the soviet-era star

Red star

A red star, five-pointed and filled, is an important ideological and religious symbol which has been used for various purposes, such as: state emblems, flags, monuments, ornaments, and logos.- Symbol of communism :...

.

The flags to be used for celebrations of the soviet Victory Day

Victory Day (Eastern Europe)

Victory Day or 9 May marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War...

were defined by a federal law.