Aleksey Kovalev

{{Infobox military person

| name = Aleksei Kovalev

| image = Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration.jpg

| caption = Raising a Flag over the Reichstag, by Yevgeny Khaldei, 1945

| native_name =

| birth_name = Aleksei Leontievich Kovalev

| birth_date = 10 May 1926

| birth_place = Burlin, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union

| death_date = {{death date and age|1997|09|07|1925|05|10|df=y}}

| death_place = Kyiv, Ukraine

| allegiance = {{flag|Soviet Union}}

| branch = Red Army

| awards = Order of Glory

}}

Aleksei Leontievich Kovalev ({{langx|ru|Алексей Леонтьевич Ковалёв}}; born 10 May 1925 – died 7 September 1997) was a Red Army soldier who allegedly assisted in the taking of the photograph Raising a Flag over the Reichstag.

Biography

Aleksei Kovalev was born in the village of Burlin, Kazakh SSR,{{cite web|title=Aleksei Leontievich Kovalev|url=http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=8232|website=warheroes.ru|accessdate=8 December 2018|language=ru}} son of the farmer of Russian nationality. After high school, he worked in the kolkhoz. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1942.

=Reichstag photograph=

When Yevgeny Khaldei reached the Reichstag after its pacification, Khaldei found that a number of Soviet flags had already been planted there. Allegedly, when he asked who had first raised the Soviet flag over the building, the soldiers present singled out Kovalev, Abdulkhakim Ismailov, and Leonid Gorychev. Khaldei produced a flag of his own and asked the men to help him to the roof. Kovalev attached the flag used in Raising a Flag over the Reichstag.{{cite web|title=Aleksei Leontievich Kovalev|url=http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=8232|website=warheroes.ru|accessdate=8 December 2018|language=ru}}

Kovalev was demobilized in 1950 and joined the Kiev Fire Department the next year. In 1958, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Kovalev retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1988 and died on 7 September 1997 in Kyiv. He is buried in the city at the Baikove Cemetery.