ABSTRACT
For the Soviet Union the focus of the Battle of Berlin was the Reichstag. As the Red Army command prepared the assault on Berlin in April 1945, the Central Red Banner Documentary Film Studio brought together a film crew of directors and cameramen around the military units to record the ‘final storm’. Thirteen days after the assault on the Oder River line, the Red Army was before the Reichstag, deep in central Berlin, and only a couple of hundred metres from the bunker from which Hitler was still directing the senseless defence of what remained of the city. The competition for the honour, like the competition among the units of the Red Army to be the first into Berlin, was severe. If a debate over the historical truth were launched, a puerile argument over pride of place, the controversy would certainly tarnish the glory of all the contenders for the honour of being first.
