Victory Banner

The Soviet/Russian Victory Banner (Russian: Знамя Победы, "Znamya Pobedy") is the banner that was raised by Red Army soldiers on the Reichstag in Berlin, in 1945. The Cyrillic inscription reads: "150th Rifle, Order of Kutuzov 2nd class, 'Idritskaya' Division, 79th Rifle Corps, 3rd Shock Army, 1st Byelorussian Front." This flag is not the first to be hoisted on the Reichstag, but is the first (and the only surviving) of the 'official' flags, explicitly prepared for that purpose, to be raised there.

Yeltsin's Victory Banner

There was a variation of the Soviet flag, without the hammer and sickle, to which president Boris Yeltsin gave a status similar to that of the national flag, on April 5, 1996. President Vladimir Putin also adopted the Victory Banner as the official flag of the Russian Army. This flag was named after the flag raised on the Reichstag, but it is also called Victory Flag.

Today this variation isn't an official symbol. The Russian Ground Forces flag was once again changed to a flag without the soviet-era star [ [http://www.mil.ru/photogalery/11748/index.shtml# Флаги] ] [ [http://www.rusflag.ru/docm/zarmbpr3.htm#flagimg1 Федеральный закон Российской Федерации «О знамени Вооруженных Сил Российской Федерации, знамени Военно-Морского Флота, знаменах иных видов Вооруженных Сил Российской Федерации и знаменах других войск»] ] . The flags that are to used for celebrations of the soviet Victory Day were defined by a federal law, [ [http://www.rg.ru/2007/05/08/znamya.html Федеральный закон Российской Федерации от 7 мая 2007 г. N 68-ФЗ "О Знамени Победы"] ] on May 7, 2007, as "copy" of the flag raised on Reichtag (with the hammer and sickle, and the inscription).

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