Meliton Kantaria is one of the mostfamous heroes of the Great Patriotic War. In his honor, many streets and avenues are named. Monuments to the soldier of the Red Army are in many cities of various post-Soviet countries.
Meliton was born on October 5, 1920. He lived in Jvari with his family: his mother, three brothers and two sisters. Meliton spent 4 years in elementary school. Then he worked on a collective farm in the same village. The Cantary family belonged to the Mingrel people, who were part of the Georgian nationality, but with some differences. The Meliton brothers died in the late 1990s. One of the sisters lives in Greece.
Father Varlam participated in the so-called rear front. He was engaged in the supply of Soviet troops and worked in the enterprises. For his labor merits, he received a medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" and others.
With the outbreak of the war, Meliton Kantaria was drafted into the Red Army to fight the fascist invaders. Already in 1941 he became a scout of the 3rd Shock Army.
In 1944 the first Belorussianfront. It included the 150th Infantry Division, which carried the service of Meliton Kantaria. The troops of this front liberated the occupied cities of the Soviet Union in Byelorussia, after which the offensive began in Poland. During the fighting, the Polish partisans, members of the Ludovaya Army and Krajowa joined the Red Army. The legendary Marshal Rokossovsky commanded the front. The 3rd Shock Army forced the Vistula.
After the start of the Berlin Offensive Operationit was the troops of the First Byelorussian Front who were commissioned to take Berlin and finally to defeat Nazi Germany. In total, 2 and a half million people of the Red Army and about 160,000 Polish soldiers, 6,000 tanks and a huge number of artillery participated in this operation. In the end, the operation was completed successfully, which led to the end of the Great Patriotic War.
The banner that Melithon Kantaria with Egorovand Berestom raised above the Reichstag, was made a few days before. On Stalin's personal order, the victory over Germany was to end with the raising of the Banner of Victory over Berlin. The leader mentioned this in his famous speech in October 1944. When Soviet troops surrounded Berlin, the command of some divisions began to make special banners.
The political department of the 150th Infantry Division gave an ordermake 9 special flags that can be used as banners. Stalin personally pointed out the object that symbolized Nazi Germany as much as possible - the Reichstag. Meliton Kantaria was in intelligence, so he was constantly involved in the fighting in the front line. According to the memoirs of one of the participants in the making of the Banner, the flag was made in the basement at night. After the order of the command, female servicemen sewed a flag from the cloth taken in Berlin. One of the front-line artists - Vasily Buntov - manually displayed a sickle and a hammer. During the making, many cried, because for the first time they realized that the most terrible war in the history of mankind is coming to an end. As a pole, cornices and sawn boards were used.
In the last days of April, the mostfierce fighting for Berlin. Soviet troops were in the heart of the capital. The enemy was so close that hand grenades and bayonet spades were used. Literally on every meter there were bloody battles. In the evening of April 30, the units of the 150th Infantry Division approached the Reichstag. In the building itself, battles began, the fire covered several floors. Kantaria Meliton Varlamovich was among the group, who was awarded the assault flag.
On May 30, the Red Army broke into the building andseized several floors. On the morning of May 1, Alexei Berest, Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria raised the Victory Banner above the Reichstag dome. A snapshot of this moment is recognized all over the world. For shown courage and participation in the historical moment of Kantariya was awarded a medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the war, he lived in Sukhumi. Kantaria Meliton Varlamovich died in 1993.
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