Commander of Berlin
During the Battle of Berlin, Berzarin's 5th Shock Army reached the outskirts of Berlin on April 21, 1945, making them the first Soviet Army to do so. On April 24, he was appointed commander of the city by Marshall Zhukov, in an echo of the Tsarist tradition of rewarding the first commander to enter a city with command over it. He worked to re-establish order, creating a city police force and supplying the population with food.
On June 16, 1945, after only 55 days in office, he died in a motorcycle accident in a truck convoy in Berlin, aged 41. There were rumors that the NKVD had assassinated him.
Read more about this topic: Nikolai Berzarin
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