http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/dagestan-pays-tribute-to-a-long-forgotten-hero-of-russia/story-e6frg6so-1225831980278
Dagestan pays tribute to a long-forgotten Hero of Russia a.. From: The Australian b.. February 19, 2010 12:00AM A Red Army soldier is shown raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in 1945 after the defeat of Germany. Picture: AFP MOSCOW: A Red Army soldier who appeared in an iconic photograph of a Soviet flag flying from the ruins of Hitler's Reichstag has died, aged 93. Abdulkhakim Ismailov had fought all the way to Berlin after the Battle of Stalingrad three years earlier, where the destruction of the German 6th Army turned the tide against the Nazi regime in World War II. But he was not recognised until half a century later, as one of three soldiers raising the hammer and sickle flag in a picture staged by the Tass photographer Yevgeni Khaldei in May 1945, three days after Berlin fell to the Soviets. Mr Ismailov was decorated as a Hero of Russia in 1996. He died on Tuesday in his native village of Chagar-Otar in the southern Russian region of Dagestan. "His enormous life experience and services to the motherland will remain forever in the memory," the regional government said. Soldiers fired a military salute at the funeral yesterday after his coffin was carried past a school named in his honour. The impact of the Reichstag photograph has been compared to the Associated Press picture of soldiers raising the US flag at Iwo Jima in 1945. Mr Khaldei, who fashioned the flag from three tablecloths, said he had doctored the image because one soldier had been wearing two watches and he did not want to ruin the army's image with evidence of looting. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
