Veniamin Sibirsky. Painted Canvas of the Diorama “The Storming of Berlin”

This painted canvas is the basis of the diorama “The Storming of Berlin”, which completes the series of six dioramas of the Victory Museum. It was painted in 1995 by People’s Artist of Russia Veniamin Sibirsky (1936–2019), who worked at the Grekov Studio of Military Artists from 1969. The Reichstag stands at the centre of the composition: the action takes place on 29 April 1945 in the north-eastern part of the Tiergarten park.

In a trench the artist depicted Colonel Fyodor Zinchenko, Sergeant Mikhail Yegorov and Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria; one of them holds the Victory Banner. Zinchenko commanded the 756th Rifle Regiment, and Yegorov and Kantaria were soldiers of that regiment who raised over the Reichstag the flag that became the Victory Banner. According to the museum, the banner was hoisted on the evening of 30 April, resistance in Berlin ceased on 2 May, and on 8 May the act of Germany’s unconditional surrender was signed in Karlshorst.

A diorama is a painting curved into a semicircle with a foreground of real objects in front of it, designed for artificial lighting. The canvas of “The Storming of Berlin”, measuring 9.5 × 33.7 metres, is painted in oil. Smoke from fires hangs over the square, and behind it rises the Reichstag with the skeleton of its dome.