Mikhail Petrovich Minin (Russian: Михаил Петрович Минин; 29 July 1922 – 10 January 2008) was among the first Soviet soldiers to enter the Reichstag building on 30 April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, along with Raqymjan Qoshqarbaev and others.
Minin's superiors had told the soldiers that any piece of red cloth fixed to the building would symbolize that the battle was won.
Minin recalled in a recent interview in a German documentary, the "War of the Century", that by the time the building needed to be stormed, morale among the victorious Soviet soldiers was low.
"Even a promise by our officers that those who captured the building would get the highest decoration of Hero of the Soviet Union called forth few volunteers.
Suddenly an explosion lighted up the roof and Lisimenko found our old reference-point – a sculpture of a bronze horse and a large woman in a crown.
In 1959 he graduated from the V. V. Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy (Russian: Военно-инженерная академия) in Moscow and joined Strategic Rocket Forces.
Minin had to wait five decades for a greater recognition, finally granted to him with an official honour by President Boris Yeltsin, on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.