Defence minister among 5,000 spectators at Patriot Park for re-enactment of Red Army’s capture of Berlin landmark in 1945

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Nearly 2,000 people have taken part in a re-enactment of the 1945 storming of the Reichstag by the Red Army in a “military Disneyland” on the outskirts of Moscow.

The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, was among 5,000 spectators on Sunday who watched as men dressed as soldiers attacked a mock-up of the Berlin landmark.

How we made the Wrapped Reichstag Read more

Dozens of period tanks and weaponry were used as planes circled overhead. State television showed dramatic footage that included explosions, gunfire and men dressed as Nazi soldiers falling to the ground in flames.

Vladislav Pedenko, deputy director of the Patriot Park, said it was the country’s biggest second world war reconstruction and it had taken more than six months to prepare.



President Vladimir Putin opened the park in the town of Kubinka in 2015 as a place for young Russians to learn about the military and the country’s history. Under Putin, Soviet victory in the war has become the founding idea of modern Russia.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The replica Reichstag appeared to have been modelled on the contemporary building rather than the 1945 version. Photograph: Sergei Bobylev/Tass

The raising of the Soviet flag above the Reichstag in May 1945 came days before the surrender of Nazi Germany, and it remains one of the defining images of the Soviet war effort.

In February, Shoigu announced that a mock-up of the Reichstag was being constructed so cadets could “storm not just any old thing but the actual building”.

Eyebrows were raised on Sunday because the mock-up appeared to have been modelled on the contemporary building, which has a glass dome designed by the British architect Norman Foster and is home to the German federal parliament, the Bundestag.