Meliton Varlamis dze Kantaria or Kantariya (Georgian: მელიტონ ქანთარია; Russian: Мелитон Варламович Кантария, romanized: Meliton Varlamovich Kantariya; 5 October 1920 – 27 December 1993) was a sergeant of the Soviet Army credited with having hoisted a Soviet flag over the Reichstag on 1 May 1945, together with Mikhail Yegorov and Alexei Berest.

[1] 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.

[5] Modern day Georgia holds Kantaria in high historical regard, being one of few whose Soviet era legacy was rehabilitated.

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".

[6][7][8] A bust of Kantaria was unveiled installed in Tbilisi's Kikvidze Park at the initiative of the veteran organization "Heirs of Victory" in 2016.