I. G. Pershudchev. Bust of Sergeant Mikhail Egorov

This bronze bust portrays Mikhail Egorov, the scout who, together with Meliton Kantaria, raised the Victory Banner over the Reichstag on the night of 1 May 1945. The sculptor Ivan Pershudchev made the model in May 1945: in that single month he produced seven portraits, including companion portraits of both standard-bearers. The bronze was cast from this model, apparently in 1985.

Mikhail Alekseyevich Egorov (1923–1975) was born in the Smolensk region and served in the 756th Rifle Regiment of the 150th Rifle Division. He was made a Hero of the Soviet Union on 8 May 1946. Ivan Gavrilovich Pershudchev (1915–1987) studied at the Dnepropetrovsk Art College and the Repin Institute in Leningrad, volunteered for the front and was wounded near Naro-Fominsk. At the front he created a whole gallery of sculpted portraits of soldiers, working in dugouts, trenches and even on the armour of combat vehicles.

Egorov is shown in a forage cap and a tunic with shoulder boards, his head turned to the side. The bronze bust stands on a granite pedestal and measures 57 × 30 × 26 cm. The museum's staff note the soft modelling and expressive face, as well as a stern truthfulness that links the work to the heroic time of the war.