Soviet soldier in famed WWII photo dies: officials

"His enormous life experience and services to the Motherland will remain forever in the memory of today's and tomorrow's generations," it said.
Ismailov took part in the pivotal 1942-43 battle of Stalingrad and fought all the way to Berlin, which Soviet forces stormed in April 1945, leading to the surrender of Nazi Germany days later.
He went down in history, however, for being one of the three Soviet soldiers shown in a photograph by TASS photojournalist Yevgeny Khaldei showing the hammer-and-sickle banner being raised over the Reichstag.
The photograph was staged for propaganda purposes and shot after Red Army soldiers had already captured the building, but it nonetheless became an iconic symbol of the Soviet Union's triumphant victory over Nazi Germany.
It has often been compared to the similarly iconic 1945 photograph of US soldiers raising the flag during the battle of Iwo Jima.
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