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Meliton Kantaria

Soviet Georgian sergeant (1920–1993)

Summary

Soviet Georgian sergeant (1920–1993)

Field	Value
name	Meliton Kantaria
native_name	მელიტონ ვარლამის ძე ქანთარია
birth_date	5 October 1920
death_date
image	Meliton Kantaria.jpeg
birth_place	Jvari, Zugdidi uezd, Kutaisi Governorate, Georgia
death_place	Moscow, Russia
allegiance
branch	Red Army flag.svg Red Army
serviceyears	1940–1946
rank	Junior sergeant
unit	150th Rifle Division
battles	World War II
awards	Hero of the Soviet Union

Meliton Varlamis dze Kantaria or Kantariya (მელიტონ ქანთარია; ; 5 October 1920 – 27 December 1993) was a sergeant of the Soviet Army credited with having hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag on 1 May 1945, together with Mikhail Yegorov and Alexei Berest.

Biography

Born to a peasant family in a small Georgian town of Jvari, he worked in a kolkhoz until being mobilized in the Red Army in 1940. During World War II, he served in the 756th Rifle Regiment, 150th Rifle Division, of the 3rd Shock Army at the 1st Belorussian Front. He is credited for having mounted a red banner, together with Sergeant Mikhail Yegorov, over the Reichstag on 2 May 1945.

Post-war

A statue of Kantaria at the school with his namesake in 2013.

Demobilized in 1946, he lived thereafter in Sukhumi working as a governmental shop manager. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1947. He lived in the city of Ochamchire, and later became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR. In 1965, together with Yegorov and Konstantin Samsonov, he carried the Victory Banner at the Moscow Victory Day Parade on Red Square. In the same formation, they carried the banner at the International Workers' Day demonstration in 1970. A year after the secessionist war in Abkhazia started, during which Kantaria's house in Ochamchire was destroyed, he moved with his family to Moscow, where he later died two months later in December 1993 in a Moscow hospital. In early January 1994, Kantaria was reburied in his native town Jvari, on the grounds of School #3.

Legacy

In 2010 on Poklonnaya Hill, a memorial was opened dedicated to Yegorov and Kantaria. Modern day Georgia holds Kantaria in high historical regard, being one of few whose Soviet era legacy was rehabilitated. Since 2011, the school where he has been buried has been named after Kantaria. It was renamed by President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili during that year's Victory Day celebrations, during which he noted that Kantaria "is probably the most classic example of the tragic fate of our people, since he ended his life as a refugee". A bust of Kantaria was unveiled installed in Tbilisi's Kikvidze Park at the initiative of the veteran organization "Heirs of Victory" in 2016.[[File:Kantaria House in Ochamchire.jpg|thumb|Kantaria's home in [[Ochamchire]], which was destroyed during the fighting.|alt=|left]]

Honours and awards

Hero of the Soviet Union (1946)
Order of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class
campaign and jubilee medals He was an Honorary Citizen of Berlin from 8 May 1965 to 29 September 1992.

References

"Кантария Мелитон Варламович".
[http://www.rg.ru/2007/05/08/znamya.html Федеральный закон РФ от 7 мая 2007 г. N 68]
[visualrian.ru/search/25/29600.html РИА Новости. Фотоархив. 9 May 1965]
[[Izvestia]], [http://www.izvestia.ru/pobeda/article3103920/ Сын Героя Советского Союза Мелитона Кантарии Шота: "Отец для прочности древко своим ремнем закрепил"] {{webarchive. link. (25 May 2012 , 8 May 2007 {{in lang). ru
[Газета «Коммерсантъ» № 237 от 22 December 2010, стр. 5 На веки увековечные. На Поклонной открыли памятник борьбе русских и грузин с немецкими фашистами https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1562045]
"Президент Грузии почтил память Мелитона Кантария".
"Саакашвили: Кантария — символ трагической судьбы Грузии".
rus.DELFI.lv. (10 May 2011). "Саакашвили: Кантария — символ трагической судьбы Грузии".
СОВА. (8 May 2016). "В Тбилиси установят бюст Мелитона Кантария".
"В Тбилиси не решили, когда праздновать День Победы".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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