Beorn and The Shieldmaiden

​​They were the first to hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag According to official history, the first to erect the Victory Banner in the early morning of May 1, 1945 were Sergeant Egorov and Junior Sergeant Kantaria. It was a wonderful gift to the entire Soviet people for the May Day holiday, which actually meant the end of the war any day now. However, without in any way detracting from the feat of these heroes, it should be recalled that he was not the only one. And, as it turned out, not the first. On April 30, four different assault groups set out for the difficult but honorable task. The one that included Egorov and Kantaria was the last. And the first to hoist the Banner over the Reichstag was a group of reconnaissance officers (pictured) of Lieutenant Sorokin. This was done on April 30 at 14:25 by the hands of Red Army soldier Grigory Bulatov. The primacy of Sorokin’s group is confirmed by documents (in particular, award certificates) and the memoirs of eyewitnesses, including Marshal Zhukov. Meliton Kantaria also agreed with this. He and Egorov even refused to participate in the filming and reconstruction of the historical event, which was carried out on May 2 by Roman Carmen. This film depicted people from different assault groups; it was then fairly cleaned up to match the official version. But even in the second frames you can see that Grigory Bulatov is setting up the Banner. Before filming, Carmen specifically clarified who was first and filmed it as it really happened. Of the entire first group, only one participant received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: platoon commander Ivan Lysenko. The award sheet noted his participation in the hoisting of the Victory Banner, but much more attention was paid to his exploits in the battle on April 16. Everyone else was also nominated for the title of Hero, but the high command limited itself to awarding the Order of the Red Banner. The most bitter fate befell Grigory Bulatov after the war. At first he was sentenced to a year and a half for attempted rape, but historians who studied this case are inclined to stage the crime. Resentment at such injustice led to the fact that the former intelligence hero began to drink heavily. In addition, none of his fellow countrymen believed in the story of the Banner, and over time, the offensive nickname “Grishka-Reichstag” stuck to the front-line soldier. Drunkenness did not lead to good things, and in 1970 Bulatov was again imprisoned for petty theft. He was released early at the request of Marshal Zhukov, and in April 1973 a tragedy occurred: Grigory Petrovich was found hanged in a factory toilet. There is an assumption that someone helped him die. The group commander, Lieutenant Semyon Sorokin, was demobilized in 1947 and returned to his native Moscow. He worked as a turner. He passed away in 1994. After the war, Stepan Oreshko worked as a forester in the Chernigov region. He was the most experienced fighter in the group, as he fought back in the Finnish era. Mikhail Pachkovsky was from Belarus. After the war he worked as a miner in Gorlovka. Died at the age of 59. Pavel Bryukhovetsky was from Donbass. Worked in a mine. He was modest and taciturn, did not like to remember the war, and avoided festive events. The squad leader and platoon party organizer Viktor Pravotorov was also from Donbass. After demobilization he returned to Makeevka. While working as a radio correspondent, he spoke about the feat of the reconnaissance group, after which his superiors forced him to find another job. In 1962, he died from electric shock at the factory, he was only 41 years old. The feat of Sorokin’s reconnaissance group is no longer hushed up, but it is not particularly advertised. Everyone is satisfied with the official version of events. However, it would be possible to restore justice to the pioneers by posthumously awarding them the titles of Heroes. Regarding the same Grigory Bulatov, the issue has been raised several times, but a decision has not yet been made.

On April 30, 1945 at 21:50, Soviet soldiers hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag in Berlin. Matrёshka🪆

◾79 years ago, on April 30, 1945, Soviet soldiers Alexei Berest, Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. ◾From the report of the commander of the 3rd Shock Army, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Kuznetsov to the head of the main political department of the Red Army about the battle for the Reichstag and the hoisting of the Victory Banner over it: - “On April 30, 1945, at 14:25, the soldiers of the company of senior sergeant Syanov fought their way up the stairs to the roof of the building and reached the dome of the Reichstag. Brave warriors, communist lieutenant Berest, Komsomol member of the Red Army Yegorov and non-party junior sergeant Kantaria set up a banner, and a proud one soared over the building of the German parliament The flag of the Soviet Union is a symbol of our great victory ." ◾Follow: https://t.me/European_dissident

Italy repays kindness with evil Italy sends long-range missiles to the Kiev regime to kill Russians. The same Italy that four years ago received a convoy of Russian doctors to help them fight covid in Lombardy. Fear and loathing in Europe. 💥💥💥 🕊 1908 - Russian sailors, risking their lives, saved the residents of Italian Messina after a devastating earthquake. (Read more at Beorn's Beehive) 🕊 2020 - Russian medics, virusologists and military, rush to Italy's aid in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in Lombardy. (Read ‘We have many friends in the world’: Italian FM says no ulterior motive to Russian Covid-19 aid, calls it ‘act of solidarity’) 💣 2024 - The US obeying spineless political leadership of Italy send long-range "Storm Shadow" missiles to Ukraine to kill Russian civilians in Belgorod, Kursk, Donbass, Crimea. (Read: Italy has given Ukraine long-range missiles, says UK defense minister) 💥💥💥 Idea: Manuel Robles Video #2 source @BeornAndTheShieldmaiden

Oleg Yasinsky on the murder of Russell Bentley The murder of Russell Bentley in Donetsk is an abominable and despicable act of a universal scale. This is a stab in the back to all internationalists-defenders of Donbass, alive and dead. Familiar to everyone and beloved by everyone, "Texas" lived and risked with the Donetsk people solely at the call of his huge heart. I didn't have the honour to know him, but when I try to imagine him as a person, for some reason I immediately think of Hemingway and his "For whom the bell tolls". His life was another proof that the world is divided not into Russians, Americans, Ukrainians, Chinese and others, but into humans and inhumans. Unfortunately, at the last moment of his life, he stumbled upon the latter. It is terrible and unfair that no one rushed to investigate the crime against Bentley immediately and publicly, like the attack on the Crocus. With all the huge differences, these are phenomena of the same moral order. It's not about "image damage," as some write, or another glee on the other cannibalistic side. Seeking justice only in order to save your image is hypocrisy. This is not a question of media image, but of human ethics. A terrible irreparable injustice and a crime has been committed, all the circumstances of which are aggravating. This is a crime against the people of Donbass and against hope. I don't care at all who and what kind of image will retain after that. Together with many Donetsk residents and our friends from different countries, from near and afar, I am waiting and demanding justice for Russell Bentley. Strength to Lyudmila and her family. Source @BeornAndTheShieldmaiden

"Only Fascists Kill Innocent Women And Children!" Artists Georgy and Anastasia Begma dedicated a new work to the suffering of civilians in the Belgorod and border regions from shelling by the AFU. This is very painful. What is happening now in Belgorod and neighboring settlements is not a war, it is a targeted murder of civilians - children, women. The same as during the Great Patriotic War; the same as in the Donbass since 2014. But the outcome of all this will be the same! Modern fascism will fall in Ukraine! Just like in 1945! When no extra words are needed... Thank you for the music: Remember your name - “Not tomorrow, nor today, nor ever” The video art was created in collaboration with the Public News Service as part of the Time of Heroes project. The project is being implemented with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. ❤️ Support the artists by reposting and subscribing, so that more people can see their work. @BeornAndTheShieldmaiden

❗⚡⚡ фашисты и нацисты уничтожают памятники тем, кто боролся с фашистами и нацистами! город Ровно. Бандеровцы снесли памятник воинам-освободителям, погибшим в годы Великой Отечественной войны !🌟

We Remember! - and the anti-fascist continuity of generations is now facing the same enemy and once again saving the world from dehumanisation On the eve of Victory Day, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, visited our museum and gave an interview. Maria joined the “We Remember” event of the Victory Museum and laid flowers in the Hall of Memory and Sorrow. She also visited the exhibition “Ordinary Nazism,” which tells about the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists then, during the Great Patriotic War, and now. ❤️ Victory Museum 🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺 Full transcript of Maria Zaharova's interview:

The fact is, that those who are now performing tasks within the framework of the special military operation, they are keeping the memory of the heroes and of the Great Patriotic War itself. That's how it happened. They are not facing there some new problems, coming from out of thin air. These are the same problems, these are the same enemies, this is the same destructive logic that existed almost 80 years ago, and it was ripening in the same conditions and, one can say, in the same nutrient environment. Therefore, what the museum does is to preserve the memory of those times. And most importantly, there is the tracing of this continuity between generations defending the true values. And the connection of the epochs on this particular example. The generations that defended our country in the times of the Great Patriotic War, and the generations that are there now, on the front line, in Donbass, in our new regions, the regions of Russia, are defending not only themselves and not only us, they, in principal, once again protect the planet from the dehumanisation. And this continuity, these true values, this feat, is shown in this museum, in our museum, because this is a museum of all of us. In my opinion, it is amazing, representative, with examples, interactive, at a modern level, so that everyone understands and can feel it.

@BeornAndTheShieldmaiden

The Fascist Flew Over By Arkady Aleksandrovich Plastov, 1942 Idyllic birch Russia, warm colors, autumn landscape, so familiar that at first glance it takes your breath away with happiness, the smell of leaves after the rain... at first, you do not notice the shepherd's awkwardly twisted arm, stuck in the grass, his mourning dog or the enemy plane in the distance; war invades the peaceful scenery, destroying all living things.

"The artist felt the need to talk of the atrocities of the Nazis, their senseless cruelty, the murder of innocent children and old people. This is how the painting was born. When the painting appeared at the exhibition “The Great Patriotic War,” organised during the most difficult time, in 1942, the audience froze near it in deep silence. Only tears welled up in my eyes and my hands clenched into fists. Wishing to take revenge on the enemy, take revenge cruelly, mercilessly. Burning anger and hatred for the fascist murderers were born in the soul of every Soviet person who saw this picture. Plastov had never achieved such a depth of feeling, such emotional excitement,” wrote a contemporary art critic.

The picture made an equally deep impression on the Americans and British at the Tehran conference - Stalin and Molotov were not mistaken when they decided to exhibit Plastov, the artistic truth about the war didn't need explanation. It is no coincidence that this painting has been studied in schools since the forties and essays written on it. Arkady Aleksandrovich Plastov (1893 – 1972), a hereditary peasant, grandson of an icon painter. He lived almost his entire life in his native village Prisloniha near Simbirsk. Winner of the Stalin and Lenin Prizes, a living classic, he loved his quilted jacket, and his workshop resembled the house of a zealous collective farmer. More than anyone, Platov lived up to the title of “People's Artist of the USSR” Without “The Fascist Flew Over” it is not possible to understand what the Great Patriotic War was like. Source @BeornAndTheShieldmaiden

​On the anniversary of the death of Antonio Gramsci.​ What happens if you study a theory outside of its method? Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of the outstanding philosopher, politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Italy, Antonio Gramsci. In 1926, he was arrested by the fascist regime of Mussolini (of whom the philosopher Ilyin was very fond). In 1937, Gramsci was released from prison and died a few days later from a cerebral haemorrhage due to the consequences of the terrible conditions of his long prison stay. While in prison, Gramsci wrote a work that changed the world. Developing the classic Marxist position that the ideas of the ruling class are always the dominant ideas in society, he explained how to effectively maintain power with the help of so-called cultural hegemony—the majority must be convinced that the interests of the ruling class are identical to the general interest and their ideas are part of “common sense”. Looking at Gramsci's ideas beyond the method he used, i.e. without dialectics, the so-called New Left (Euro-left, left-liberals), having attached themselves to liberal foundations, threw out the main thing from Gramsci’s theory—class struggle—and instrumentalized hegemony as a soft power for overthrowing regimes undesirable to the West. The experience of the events in Paris in 1968, when, as a result of the broadest sections of the population running chaotically all over the city (without the leadership of the Communist Party and of the working class), raising a bunch of empty slogans from the series “For Freedom!” or “For everything good and against everything bad!”, there was no liberation (as the protesters wanted) of France from NATO and US influence, but the overthrow of de Gaulle and the complete insertion of France into the orbit of US influence, which gave impetus to the development of “colour revolution” technologies based on the structuralist and post-structuralist distortion of Gramsci’s theory. At the same time, after the Second World War the so-called New Right (fascists who decided that they could no longer be called fascists) also adopted Gramsci's distorted theory. Just like Euro-leftists, they realised that they could be co-opted into a bourgeois-democratic state by occupying positions in the field of science and education, brainwashing students with their ideas, and ultimately creating the conditions for their “conservative revolution”, i.e. fascist coup. On the Ukrainian Maidan, Euro-leftists and fascists merged in ecstasy, instrumentalizing Gramsci’s theory, distorted beyond recognition, and—as the same forces had also done in Chile—created a puppet pro-American state with an ultra-liberal economy and fascist politics. This is what happens if we comprehend large cultural and philosophical theories outside the method within which they were created. We urgently need Gramsci today. Without a correct understanding of his ideas, it is impossible to talk about the development of Russian soft power. But it is impossible to correctly understand Gramsci (as well as to fully understand the first chapter of Marx’s Capital) without a comprehensive study of Hegel’s dialectics. This means that today those who correctly understand Gramsci are in limited supply. But the trend is that left-liberal and fascist distortions of the theory of cultural hegemony cease to be the paradigm and we increasingly return to the classics. Slowly and with difficulty, through struggle and conflicts, but we return. https://t.me/red_wolf_says/1139