Abdulkhakim Ismailov

Ismailov holding the flag-bearer, Aleksey Kovalev, in the Raising a Flag over the Reichstag photograph taken on 2 May 1945. Abdulkhakim Isakovich Ismailov (1 July 1916 – 17 February 2010) was a Soviet soldier who was identified as one of the two men in the 1945 photograph Raising a Flag over the Reichstag, which was taken by Soviet war photographer Yevgeny Khaldei during the Battle in Berlin and which subsequently grew in prominence to symbolize the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, he took part in the Battle of Stalingrad and continued to fight on the Eastern Front until the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945. Despite sustaining severe injuries multiple times during the conflict, he regularly returned to active service and was highly decorated by the Soviet Union and later by the Russian Federation for his achievements.

Early and later life Ismailov was a Kumyk (a Turkic ethnicity) who hailed from present-day Dagestan. According to his own words, he was born in Aksay and not in his officially recorded birthplace of Chagarotar. He died in Chagarotar at the age of 93 on 17 February 2010.

Awards and decorations