Yevgeny CHALDEJ (1917–1997) 

Galerie David Guiraud, Paris

Acquired from the gallery by the current owner in 2009

Evgeny Khaldei’s most famous photograph shows a Soviet soldier raising the red flag atop the Reichstag in Berlin during the fall of the German capital in May 1945. The image became a symbol of the Nazi defeat and the Red Army’s victory, following four years of immense losses for the Soviet Union.

A month earlier, Khaldei, then aged 28, had come across Joe Rosenthal’s famous photograph showing American Marines planting their flag on Iwo Jima. Keen to create an equivalent image for the USSR, he had large red flags made in Moscow and set off for Berlin as Soviet victory drew near.

The scene immortalised in the photograph was, however, a re-enactment. On the evening of 30 April 1945, a first flag was indeed hoisted on the Reichstag, but the darkness prevented any photographs from being taken. On 2 May, in a sector now secured, Khaldei had three soldiers pose to re-enact the gesture atop the building. Soviet propaganda attributed the feat to selected figures, but the men photographed were in fact other soldiers, who would only be officially recognised much later.

Back in Moscow, Khaldei handed his photograph over to the TASS news agency. It was then that he noticed one of the soldiers was wearing two watches on his wrist — a compromising detail that could suggest looting in Berlin. He had the image retouched to remove one of them. Subsequently, further alterations were made, notably the addition of smoke in the sky, to heighten the dramatic effect of this photograph, which has become an icon of the 20th century.