defensive line near Lublin. With the commencement of the Vistula–Oder Offensive on January 12, 1945, the 89th Division took part in the general advance into Poland and aided in the liberation of dozens of Polish settlements and towns. By February, it had crossed the Oder River and had taken control of the approach leading to Frankfurt an der Oder and prevented the Germans from breaking through to endanger the Soviet forces now converging onto Berlin. By now, the unit was formally referred, in a mixed Russo-Armenian phrase, to as the "Little Armenian Land" (Haykakan Malaia Zemlia). With these routes secure, the Soviets now prepared for the capture of Berlin. The 89th Division entered Frankfurt an der Oder on April 16 and was then integrated into the command of the 3rd Shock Army, part of Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. Unit veteran Arshavir Hakobian writes that many of the Armenians of the division expressed a particular eagerness to take part in Berlin's capture on account of Imperial Germany's role as an ally of the Ottoman Empire during the 1915 Armenian genocide. The 89th arrived in the German capital on the night of April 29, along with other elements of the 3rd Shock Army, and deployed the 390th, 400th, and 526th regiments to take part in heavy street-to-street battles in the Wedding and Reinickendorf districts. The division's artillery was put to good effect to level buildings where lurking panzerfaust teams were holding up the unit's advance into the central part of the city. On April 30 the division had encountered the twin four-storey structures at Flakturm III at Humboldthain Park. Safarian ordered that they be encircled, and brought his artillery to bear against the flak towers and had his sappers lay a thousand kilograms of explosives at the foundations. Though they caused a great number of casualties, including inflicting concussions against the defenders within, they were unable to penetrate the four meters of iron and concrete walls. But under withering artillery and anti-tank gun fire, on May 2 the commander of the flak towers agreed to surrender. In several days of fighting the division had overrun seven districts. For its role in the capture of Berlin, the 89th was awarded with the Order of Kutuzov 2nd Class and Major General Hmayak G. Babaian was bestowed with the Hero of the Soviet Union. The 89th Rifle Division is recorded to have liberated a