Soviet ‘Victorious Traffic Controller’ Pictured in Iconic 1945 Brandenburg Gate Photo Dies at 100 – Meduza

Maria Limańska, a World War II veteran captured in the iconic May 1945 photo showing the command of Soviet troops at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, died on Tuesday in the southern district of Saratov in Russia, reported Governor Roman Busargin. She was 100 years old.

Limańska, known in Russia as the “victorious traffic controller” and the “Brandenburg Madonna”, first went to the front line as an 18-year-old in 1942. Initially, she sewed uniforms for the army, but later she trained to become a traffic controller. She participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Crimean Offensive, and battles in Belarus and Poland, and ultimately served in Berlin in the final weeks of the war.

The famous photo of Lińska directing troop movements was taken by Soviet war correspondent Yevgeny Khaldei a week before Germany signed the instrument of surrender in May 1945.

After the war, Limanska worked as a nurse and later as a school librarian in the Volgograd Oblast of Russia. From 1994 until her death, she lived in the village of Zvonarevka in the Saratov Oblast.