Semyon Nezynsky was born in a Ukrainian shtetl near Kyiv but from the time he was a teenager, he had dreams of a military career. By the time he was 21 he was a major in the Soviet Army commanding a Katyusha rocket brigade. In May 1945 his unit fought their way into Berlin and Semyon strode up the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin to write his name on the wall.

Allan Corduner reads Semyon’s story for us, and it is based on an interview conducted by Ella Levitskaya in Kyiv in 2003.