Red Army Ballerina

Today’s Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, we remember one of the most famous moments from newly liberated Berlin. The video shows Maria Limanskaya, a young Red Army woman, dancing and directing traffic in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Limanskaya was born in Volgograd and joined the war in 1942 in the ranks of the Red Army when she was only 18 years old. She was thrown into the unbelievably difficult task of capturing Berlin. Her performance was captured on film by a cameraman named Anatoly Aronov and immediately went viral around the world. After the war she returned to her native village and worked at a library before becoming a nurse. It was there that she saw her famous photo for the first time, shown by one of her patients in the “Rabotnitsa“ (The Woman Worker) magazine. Maria Limanskaya was awarded the medals: “For the Liberation of Warsaw“, “For the Capture of Berlin“ and “For Victory over Germany“. She is still alive toda