The faces of WWII Heroes

Podtikhov Fedot Vasilyevich 03.03.1910 history: Rank: Red Army soldier. Military branch: artillery. My grandfather went to war in 1941, leaving his wife and five children in Stalingrad. Fedot Vasilyevich Podtikhov was the commander of the artillery crew. With his loud voice, he gave the command "Fire!". He fought from the first days of the war on the first Ukrainian front. During the retreat on the territory of Ukraine, he was seriously wounded. Unconscious, bloodied, he was picked up by a Ukrainian family. That's how my grandfather ended up in the occupied territory. His life was saved by the Malyukovs Ivan Ivanovich and Maria Abramovna. Risking themselves and their children, they hid a Soviet soldier from the Nazis in a specially built room at home. If anyone had found out about this, the entire Malyukov family would have been shot. It was in the Donetsk region, in the village of Balgan. A low bow to the Malyukov family, who saved our family Fedot Vasilyevich, the father of five children, grandfather 11 times. Now he is no longer with us, but great-grandchildren are born, continuing the grandfather's family. After the liberation of Ukraine, my grandfather fought, was wounded twice more, and in 1944 he was discharged. He came home with a bullet in his leg. This wound has been making itself felt for many years. And in the 70s, the leg had to be taken away. But my grandfather has always remained a strong and handsome man in my memory. After the war, he worked first as a baker on the Don, and then as a worker at a Volgograd factory. We often gathered with his whole family and enjoyed listening to his stories about the war. And the Malyukov family has become our family. They used to visit us. But at the end of the last century, the connection with them was cut off. I dream of seeing their descendants and thanking them once again for saving my grandfather!

Full name: Pavlov Nikolay Petrovich last NAME: Pavlov FIRST name: Nikolay PATRONYMIC: Petrovich CITY: Nyurba settlement of Leninsky district of the Yakut ASSR date of BIRTH: 10.06.1926 DATE of DEATH: - HISTORY: Pavlov Nikolay Petrovich was born on June 10, 1926 in Odeysky nasleg of Nyurba district. After graduating from the seven-year-old 1st Kangalas school in 1941, he went to work as a Secretary of the Odean national Council. In 1944, my great-grandfather was drafted into the Soviet Army, he was 18 years old. He began his military service as the 3rd number of the mortar company of the motorized rifle regiment of the tank division. One day, when the soldiers were practicing shooting with machine guns and rifles in the valley of the Kerulen river, a soldier's messenger came running and shouted: "Victory! Victory! The fascists have capitulated!" It was may 9, 1945. The Great Patriotic war with Nazi Germany ended, but there was still Japan armed to the teeth, which occupied China, Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Although there had been a peace Treaty between the Soviet Union and Japan since 1941, the Japanese developed the Kantokuen plan to conquer Transbaikalia and the Far East. Since 1941, our us allies have waged war with Japan in the Pacific, but they have not achieved any noticeable results. In addition, the British government estimated that to defeat Japan, you need to have 7 million army and 18 months. The Soviet Union pledged to enter the war with Japan within 3 months after the end of the war with Germany. In early August 1945, my great-grandfather's regiment was alerted and started a Hiking trip. In addition to the mortar carriage, it was necessary to carry a rifle, gas mask, ammunition, grenades, a pot, etc. It was a 40-degree heat wave, and my throat was dry. Although there was 1 liter of water in the flask, you can't drink without permission. So they went for several days, and one evening they were overtaken by cars. After loading their equipment into their vehicles, they now traveled light, day and night. On the fifth day, a car arrived with water. When they had drunk enough water, they gave them a few hours ' sleep. This day he remembered as one of the happiest days. On August 9, 1945, when the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, they crossed the border of the Mongolian people's Republic and Manchuria. The famous crossing of the Soviet troops through Bolshoy Khingan, where there was never any equipment, began. The Japanese fired at them from ambushes. There were concrete-reinforced emplacements in the mountains. From them, the Japanese fired at our troops. Once, the infantry and tanks went forward, leaving only one mortar company. Suddenly they saw people running out shouting "Banzai". They were Japanese. Jumping out of the cars, our people started firing mortars. Although they were shooting very fast, the Japanese were approaching rapidly. Many of our people were wounded and killed. When the Japanese were just a little bit left, they heard the noise of cars and shouts of "Hurrah!"from behind. An infantry regiment arrived in time and saved them. When they reached the city of Panamao, announced the surrender of the Kwantung army. Having lost the main military force, Japan capitulated. This was September 2, 1945. So in 23 days, Japan was defeated. For overcoming the Great Khingan, the great-grandfather was thanked by the Supreme Commander and awarded the medal "for the victory over Japan". After demobilization in 1950, he worked as Director of the House of culture in Nyurba, then head of the Department of culture of the Suntar district Council. In 1957, he was elected Chairman of the workers ' Committee of the newly created state farm "Elgyaysky", and in 1960, the Manager of the Kyundyay branch. Nikolay Pavlov was awarded the order of the Patriotic war II degree, was an honored worker of the national economy of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), an excellent nature conservationist, a member of the Union of journalists of Russia, a personal pensioner of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Everyone loved and respected him.

Name: Parvitsky Vera Ivanovna_x000D_ last NAME: Parnicka NAME: Faith middle name: Ivanovna CITY: Kovrov DATE of BIRTH: 07.07.1914 DATE of DEATH: 28.10.1995 HISTORY: Rank: major. Branch of the armed forces: military medical staff. Vera Ivanovna was born on July 07, 1914 in Kovrov, Vladimir region. She was the youngest daughter of the Kovrov priest John Fyodorovich Parvitsky and Ekaterina Ivanovna Moiseeva (Parvitskaya). After finishing school, despite excellent grades, she was not accepted to Medical school for a long time, because she was a "priest's daughter". But she doesn't give up and keeps trying to get in. Finally, it is accepted. She is doing very well and is graduating from the Institute. Vera Ivanovna really learned what war is back in December 1939, when she was drafted into the army as a graduate of the Ivanovo medical Institute and started working in the Toropetsky hospital. On the Karelian isthmus there were fierce battles with the Finnish army. It was a short-lived war, but fierce and bloody. Hundreds of wounded and frostbitten Soviet soldiers came to the hands of doctors, waiting for help, rescue. V. I. Parvitskaya already plunged into the difficult, on the verge of life and death, front-line everyday life, received her first military experience. Then there was a short and bright year of peace, joy and favorite work. And again-war. On June 22, 1941, the military echelon left Kovrov, taking away from home for five long years a young doctor Vera Ivanovna - already a senior Lieutenant (captain ?) medical services. As part of the 4th Shock Army, operating both in hospitals and in the field, it goes through the entire war. I've been in environments where I've been out fighting. Surgeon of a mobile field hospital. Only those who have been in the war really know what this service is, how incredibly difficult and dangerous it was. Not without reason, many years later, the legendary Marshal G. K. Zhukov in his famous book of memoirs noted that in winning the Victory, the merit of front-line doctors is no less significant than the merits of military leaders, soldiers and officers. She is repeatedly awarded. In January 1944, on the Baltic front, captain of the medical service Vera Ivanovna Parvitskaya, working as a resident in the surgical military field mobile hospital (HPPG 4189 4 UD. A), receives the medal "for military merit". In July 1944 - the most important award - the order of the red Star. In 1985, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the victory - the order of the Patriotic War II degree. Vera Ivanovna ends the war already in Konigsberg (present-day Kaliningrad) as a major in the medical service. Here is how V. I. Parvitskaya recalled the years of the great Patriotic war: "a Tent, an old dugout or a surviving barn in a burned village. The dim light of the "smoker", made from a shell casing, which the orderly kept at the operating table. Hastily put together bunks in two floors and the roar of explosions (after all, the front line is very close). This was our usual "working environment". And operations had to be done very different, sometimes very complex, to process hundreds of wounded. And then again and again to change the location, quickly, in a few hours to deploy to a new location and again operate, operate. As about happiness, we dreamed of a few hours of sleep and rest, just about silence." But on may 9, 1945, the war did not end for Vera Ivanovna Parvitskaya. And in the same year, 1945, it was immediately transferred to the far East, to Mongolia, where the Russian-Japanese war was still ongoing. She had a lot to see and experience in the war with the Japanese militarists, to help the Mongolian people in the fight against epidemics. There were awards, grateful eyes of the wounded returning from hospitals to the system. There Vera Ivanovna receives a personal certificate, signed by Stalin himself, for crossing the waterless Gobi desert. In the post-war peace time, Vera continued working as a surgeon and obstetrician, In the 70-ies of the last century, in charge of 2nd maternity ward 1st Kovrov city hospital and the reward for it was happy tears of mothers, the first time took at the hands of their kids loudly announcing the birth, that is born on earth one little person. Hundreds of Kovrov residents could call her their "godmother", and many medical professionals their mentor in the profession and life. However, due to numerous complex operations performed by Vera Ivanovna, in the most difficult conditions, at the end of her life, She completely lost her sight.

Pajusov Pavel Dmitrievich, Sergeant (portrait), 1945, Germany.

Rank: Sergeant _x000D_ Branch of troops: Artillery_x000D_ My father, Stepan Lvovich Ponomarev, was a participant of the Great Patriotic War. And on the eve of the anniversary year from the Victory Day, I would like to tell about him to those who did not know him, and those who knew him, to remember him with a kind word. He was born into a wealthy family in 1923. Subsequently, during the years of collectivization, the family was dispossessed and sent to live in Omsk. June 12, 1941 he turned 18 years old. He was drafted into the army for military service, but on June 22, the war broke out. After several months of military training, he went to the front. _x000D_ He fought in 352 anti-tank fighter Regiment. He participated in hostilities from February 1942 to January 1945. He was shell-shocked while in the hospital the war ended. He had a combat medal, but was very sorry that he had lost it during a shell shock. During the war, his mother and sister moved to the village of Korolevo. After the war he returned home in 1948, he got married. The family had 7 children. _x000D_ He retired at 65. Military hardships affected the health of the soldier. He died early - at the age of 67 after a short illness. Even if my father did not have the title of hero, orders of high rank, but he was a participant in those terrible events. We, his children and grandchildren, are proud of him and will forever preserve the bright and kind memory of our father and grandfather.

Title: Sergeant _x000D_ Branch of troops: Artillery. _x000D_ Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Semenovich Polin was born on June 15, 1917 in the village of Bakhmacheevo into a Russian peasant family. He had an incomplete secondary education. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1938 by the Ryazan District Military Commissariat. During the Great Patriotic War he had been in the army since October 1942. He participated in the combat of Stalingrad on the Don and Southwestern Fronts, defensive combats on the Don River line west of the city of Serafimovich, the November counteroffensive at Stalingrad and the formation of the outer ring of the encirclement of 6th German Army of Paulus, the Middle Don offensive operation "Little Saturn". Western (from August 9 - Steppe) Front participated in defensive combats on the banks of the Seversky Donets River in the Volchansk - Chuguev sector (Kharkov region), the Belgorod-Kharkov offensive operation, the liberation of the Left Bank Ukraine during the offensive on the Krasnograd-Upper Dnieper direction, including the liberation the city of Krasnograd, Kharkov region, crossing the Dnieper and combats on the captured foothold. _x000D_ Especially he was distinguished during the crossing of the Dnieper and in the combats to hold and expand the captured foothold. At the end of September 1943, he was one of the first in the regiment to cross to the right bank of the Dnieper near the city of Verkhnedneprovsk (Dnipropetrovsk region). In combats for a foothold, while repelling enemy counterattacks, he knocked out 2 tanks. Left alone at the gun, direct fire fired at the enemy until he was seriously wounded and lost consciousness. _x000D_ After recovery in the hospital, A.S. Polin returned to the front and was sent for further service in the anti-aircraft Battalion. He fought near the city of Velikiye Luki, Pskov region, liberated Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. He ended the war on the territory of Poland. After the war he was demobilized. He lived in the city of Ryazan. He worked as a firefighter at the Krasnoye Znamya plant, as a department Commander in the Fire Department of the Tsentrolit plant. He died on November 20, 1974.

Rank: Major _x000D_ Division: 283rd Rifle Gomel Red Banner Order of Suvorov Division_x000D_ _x000D_ In 1939, Lev Politov was called up for active military service and served in the army for 7 years, went through the entire war. In 1946 he was demobilized and decided to go back to school. After demobilization, he got a job in Tsaritsyno-Lenino in a construction technical school, a teacher of Russian language and literature, and was deputy director for military conscription training. He studied regulations, structure, explained to students the results of the Great Patriotic War, talked about military service. _x000D_ Since 1950 he had worked as the director of the Bitsevskaya seven-year school. In 1973 he organized the Council of Veterans and began to invite front-line soldiers to talk with schoolchildren. He was talking about the combats of Stalingrad and Moscow, about the combat of the Kursk Bulge. He told his own soldier stories as well: how he blew up a Nazi tank, how he took a German prisoner. _x000D_ Since 1973, Lev Viktorovich joined the work of the Council of Veterans of 283rd Infantry Division. Together with activists, he created the Museum of Military Glory of this Division at school No. 647. _x000D_ He activly was visiting meetings of veterans at the places of hostilities in Gomel, Novosil and Mtsensk of the Oryol region, Efremov of the Tula region, Grodno, these are the cities that he liberated together with his fellow soldiers. There he visited mass graves, organized meetings of front-line soldiers. _x000D_ Lev Viktorovich lived a long life. He died at 102, being in a fighting mood. He recited poetry by heart until his last days. Though he was blind for the last 5 years of his life, he gave practical advice, tried to help in everything. We are very proud, love and will always remember our grandfather!

Andrei Gavrilovich Patsura was born in 1900. He was a participant in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. _x000D_ Rank: Red Army soldiers _x000D_ Division: 195th Infantry Division (1st Formation). _x000D_ The order for the Rifle Regiment N035 from 18.07.1944 says: _x000D_ "I am awarding the medal "For Courage "to the shooter of 7th Rifle company of the Red Army Regiment Andrei Gavrilovich Patsura, who had been an active participant in the combats with the German invaders since May 1943. He received 2 wounds. In the combat for the city of Balaklava on April 23, 1944, commanding a 45 mm cannon, he was wounded, but did not leave the combat field until the end of the combat operation». _x000D_ The award list for the order to the units of 195th Rifle Division N115 dated 07.11.1944 says: _x000D_ «Patsurra Andrei Gavrilovich, the shooter of 7th Rifle company of 604th Rifle Regiment, was awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd degree. On August 24-25, 1944, he repelled continuous attacks of the Germans, destroyed 13 German soldiers. In addition, it took out 15 rubles from the combatfield. anonymous Commanders and soldiers. Wounded during the combat, he did not leave the field, but continued to fight the enemy and only after a secondary wound left to the hospital”.

My grandfather Postnikov Stepan Ivanovich, starshina of 1st article. After military service, in 1939 he served on the minesweeper T-504 "Rabotnik", which was engaged in the protection of the water area of the Main Base of the Black Sea Fleet. Since 17.07.1941, the minesweeper under the hull number "34" had been part of 3rd minesweeper Division of the Black Sea Fleet. He delivered military supplies to Odessa, Sevastopol, Skadovsk. On 11/02/1941 the ship was torpedoed and sunk by enemy aircraft during the transition from Balaklava to Tuapse with a load of spare parts, GAM-34 aircraft engines, a test bench and a lorry workshop of the Main Base Area Guard and 80 members of the command staff's families, at 4 pm 24 minutes at a distance of 6 miles bearing 168 degrees from the Ai-Todor lighthouse. _x000D_ The cargo was lost at sea, some of the people were saved. The depth at the site of the T-504 minesweeper is about 150 meters. After the war, on July 15, 2015, a search expedition of the Russian Defense Ministry discovered a Soviet minesweeper in the Black Sea, sunk during the war. In the near future, as planned by the members of the expedition, a memorial plaque with the names of the victims will be installed on the hull of the ship, the place of death of which is precisely determined. _x000D_ In accordance with international and Russian legislation, the sunken ship has been declared a military burial. The area of sinking will be prohibited to carry out marine work, and ships and vessels of the Russian Navy, passing over them, will fly flags. _x000D_ The name of the grandfather is engraved on the memorial plaque of the Glory Monument in honor of the dead OVR members in Sevastopol (Streletskaya Bay, military unit). The information was published with permission and at the request of Andrei Mikhailovich Zabrodsky's grandson. _x000D_ E-mail: andry.z@mail.rutel

Title: Lieutenant_x000D_ Branch of troops: Armored and mechanized troops_x000D_ _x000D_ Anatoly Fedorovich Purikov was born in Nizhneudinsk, Irkutsk region in 1916 into a family of employees. Received a complete secondary education, in 1934 he graduated from the communications school in Irkutsk. He began independent work in December 1934 on the construction of a radio station in the village Kamenka, Chunayar village, Boguchansky district, Krasnoyarsk Territory. Until 1937 he worked as the head of the radio station in the village of Klimeno. In 1937 he was called up for military service at the call of the Kansk Regional Military Commissariat, Krasnoyarsk Territory. From 1937-1938 cadet of the Regimental school of Junior Commanders in the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory. From 1938-1941 he was a cadet of the Stalingrad Military School of Communications at a full course "radio communications". _x000D_ In 1941, Commander of the command platoon of 20th mechanized corps of 38th Tank Division, 75th Tank Regiment, 4 Tank Divisions, the North-Western Front. In September 1941, attempting to crossthe Desna in the area of the Roslavl-Bryansk railway bridge, he was seriously wounded in the leg and was taken prisoner together with the Division Commander S.I. Kapustin. _x000D_ In the fall of 1941, he escaped from a war camp, hiding in the Chortovsky forest of the Smolensk region until May 1942. _x000D_ In June 1942, while trying to cross the front line, he was again captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in the Shumyachenskaya prison near the city of Roslavl, Smolensk region. After a month of torture, he was again transferred to the Krichevsky POW camp._x000D_ In 1942, for organizing a mass escape in the Krichevsky camp, as well as for refusing to go to various jobs, he was subjected to severe corporal punishment for a month, then he was transferred to war camp in Pukhovichi. After the POW camp in Pukhovichi, he was transferred to the POW camp in Czestochowa. _x000D_ On the way to Czestochowa, he escaped for the third time. After liberation in 1945-1946 he was passing a special security check in the town of Alkino, Ufa region in 32nd Reserve Rifle Division. Based on the results of the check and the testimony of comrades, he was reinstated in rank and presented for awards. He was married and had three children in the city of Nizhneudinsk.

Sometimes whole families went to the front during the Great Patriotic War. I’d like to tell you about the Pashayev family from the village of Akhty. Three brothers Seyfedin, Suleiman and Bunyam in the very first days of the war were enlisted in the active units of the Red Army. Leaving for the front (the family lived in Baku at that time), the brothers ordered the sisters to work in the rear and look after their old mother Shiriban. In the summer and autumn of the first year of the war, the sisters worked at the enterprises of Baku. _x000D_ Radio and newspapers reported disappointing news from the front. The brutal war brought grief to every family. And the Pashayevs also received death notifications. Seyfedin, (graduated from the Moscow Economic Institute, worked as a chief engineer at a confectionery factory in Baku) was killed in the military actions near Kerch. Suleiman, a graduate of the Kiev Artillery School of Commanders-artillerymen, later graduated from the Baku Medical Institute with honors (1940), died in besieged Leningrad in 1943. _x000D_ The elder sister decided to go to the front to avenge the dead brothers. The Baku military registration and enlistment office sent a young Komsomol member to military training. Nabisat perfectly mastered military weapons and became a machine gunner. Sergeant Pashayeva Nabisat Palchaevna became the Commander of the machine gun section. _x000D_ The younger sister Taibat at that time was already in Akhty with her mother. Her desire was great to avenge her dead brothers. Taibat completed medical courses and served as a medical instructor in 871st Infantry Regiment. At the front, she provided first aid. On her fragile shoulders, she carried hundreds of wounded soldiers. More than once she had to shoot at the Nazis, inserted fuses into grenades, and obtained valuable information about the location of enemy fire points. In August 1943, while bandaging a wounded soldier, Taibat was seriously wounded, but managed to help him, and only when it got dark, both of them were picked up by the nurses. After the hospital, she ended up in 161st Infantry Division and reached Berlin. Taibat Palchaevna was awarded the Order of the Red Star and several medals. _x000D_ Both Nabisat and Bunyam have state awards, (before the war Bunyam graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Baku State University with honors), who also went through a hard combat path. After going through the whole war, Pashayev Bunyam Palchaevich returned to Baku, began to teach at ASU. Some time later he was invited to lead the physics department of the DSU in Makhachkala. He retired with the title of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. _x000D_ The Pashayev family is a model of patriotism, and at the moment when the Motherland needed them, they paid tribute to their country. Thanks to people like them, it was possible to defeat the worst enemy - fascist Germany and win the Great Victory, the price of which cannot be understood by those who were not in the war and did not experience its bitterness of losses. Eternal glory! NABISAT PASHAEVA IS MY MOTHER! I AM VERY Proud of My Mom!

DATE OF BIRTH: 01/10/1925 _x000D_ DATE OF DEATH: 03/11/1944 _x000D_ Title: Junior Sergeant _x000D_ SubDivision: 119th Infantry Division (1st formation ) _x000D_ Popov Alexander Grigorievich went to the front in 1943. He was drafted by the Tobolsk Military Comissariat of the Omsk region. First, he was at a training center in the city of Kuibyshev, and at the end of 1943 he went to the Baltic Front. He received the rank of a Sergeant. _x000D_ He was killed 03/11/1944 in combat during the assault on height 173.1. in the village of Gora, Sebezhsky district, Pskov region at the age of 19. _x000D_ We had taken this height twice. There are still many remains of our soldiers on the plowed field. And on the hill itself, where the Germans were sitting, there is an underground passage dug by the Germans to send reinforcements to the height during the assault. _x000D_ During the combat, when our forces knocked the Germans out of their positions, German reinforcements had secretly arrived at the height along this underground passage and dropped our shock groups from there. The remains of this passage, coming from a nearby height, can be seen today. The walls of this passage, fortified with boards, have been preserved. Its length is about 300 meters. Alexander Grigorievich was nominated for the II degree Order of the Patriotic War (posthumously). Here is an excerpt from the award list: “... Junior Sergeant Popov Alexander Grigorievich in the combat near the village of Gora for the height of 173.1 showed fearlessness and courage. While repelling the enemy's counterattack under heavy artillery mortar fire, regardless of the danger to life, with accurate heavy machine gun fire, they cut off the enemy infantry from the tanks and shot the brutalized Nazis point-blank, thanks to which the counterattack was repulsed with large losses for the enemy. _x000D_ In this unequalcombat, Junior Sergeant Popov A.G. was mortally wounded and died on the combatfield behind his heavy machine gun." Signed by the Commander of 421st Infantry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Mozakovsky. Popov A.G. was buried in the Pskov region, Sebezhsky district, in the center of the village of Chaika.

Before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he lived in Donetsk, Ukrainian SSR, worked in a mine. At the beginning of the war he received a reservation. Rescuing children from the occupation, he moved to the Kirovograd region of the Ukrainian SSR, but ended up in the occupied territory. In 1944 he was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. He fought in 267th Guards Rifle Regiment as a machine gunner. When forcing the river. The spree suppressed the firing points of the fascists, which helped our units to cross the river, grandfather was the first to break into the mint and destroyed up to 25 fascists, which gave our units the opportunity to seize the mint building. _x000D_ He was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Other awards "For Capture of Berlin", "For Victory over Germany". _x000D_ As the man who went through the war, my grandfather did not like to talk about the war. Only once did he tell me about the reconnaissance in force by their recon unit. They were given the combat mission to cross a small river in order to clarify the enemy's firing positions. 98 people entered the combat with the Nazis, and only two survived, including my grandfather. _x000D_ My granddad said: "The Nazis opened such fire on us that only rags remained of our clothes." A very small fragment from many days of that terrible war, but it says a lot. Grandfather graduated from the war with the rank of Sergeant.

Title: Colonel _x000D_ _x000D_ Gavriil Pozdnyakov was born on March 26, 1900 in the village of Lavrovo, Orlov District, Oryol Region, into a family of peasants. He had 5 classes of a rural school. He had been a Communist party member since 1918. From the age of 18 he was a Red Army soldier at the railway Regiment in Oryol. During 1919 -1920 he was at cadet machine gun infantry courses. In 1920-1924 he was platoon Commander in a Rifle Regiment. From 1924 to 1926, he graduated the course of commanders of the military-political courses in Moscow. From 1936 to 1928 platoon Commander of the 10th separate infantry Battalion in Rybinsk. _x000D_ From 1928 to 1932 he was an audience listener to military-political courses and courses "Shot". From 1932 to 1937 he was a Battalion Commander of 16th Rifle Regiment in Oryol. From 1937 to 1939 he was Senior Adjutant in the commandant's office in Moscow. From 1939 to 1940 he was Regiment Commander of 747th Regiment of 172nd Separate Rifle Division of the Moscow Military District. _x000D_ In 1941 to 1942 he was Regiment Commander of 1101 Rifle Regiment of 326 Rifle Division Western Front. After being wounded, he was treated in a hospital in Krasnodar. After being discharged from the hospital, by order of the military council of the South Ural Military District, he formed a unit. _x000D_ From 1942 to 1944 he was Commander of 52nd Western Rifle Regiment. _x000D_ From 1944 to 1945 he was Deputy Regiment Commander 101 Reserve Infantry Regiment of 16 Reserve Rifle Division ORVO. _x000D_ In 1946 he was the Commander of a Rifle Regiment. In 1946 he was transferred to the reserve due to illness. _x000D_ Awards: Medal of the XX years of the RKK (decree of 02.22.38); Order of the Patriotic War II degree; Order of the Red Banner; The order of Lenin; medal For Defense of Moscow; medal For Victory over Germany in WWII 1941-1945. _x000D_ He worked in the city Council of Veterans, corresponded with fellow soldiers, had an active life position until the last days of his life. He died in 1977.

Rank: Senior Lieutenant _x000D_ Branch of troops: Armored and mechanized troops_x000D_ _x000D_ Vasily Ivanovich Dust was born on August 11, 1920 in the village of Striguny, Borisov district, Kursk region. In 1940 he was called up for military service. He began his service as an anti-aircraft gunner. He met the war in Latvia, near Libava. He fought surrounded on Lake Ilmen, then as part of the troops of the Bryansk Front. In 1943 he received an officer's rank and transferred to the armored forces. _x000D_ He participated in Operation Bagration as part of 2nd Belorussian Front. In 1945 he took part in the storming of Königsberg, in a historic link-up with the Allies on the Elbe. He ended the war with the rank of Senior Lieutenant. _x000D_ During the hostilities, he received four wounds, in the shoulder, in the eye, twice in the leg. He was awarded the military orders of Alexander Nevsky, the First Class of the Patriotic War, medals "For Courage", "For Military Merit", "For Capture of Konigsberg", the Polish medal "Victory and Freedom". During the war with Vasily Ivanovich, there were many remarkable episodes. _x000D_ He had to fight as a sniper, fight off a German with a porridge bowler after getting out of a wrecked tank, fall into the tank under the ice during a crossing, shake off German soldiers trying to capture a stalled tank from the armor. But the most notable episode in the life of Vasily Ivanovich was in January 1945 in Poland. At that moment, Vasily Ivanovich commanded a SU-85 battery or a company of T-34 tanks (the memories of the front-line soldier himself and the data indicated in the award documents differ). _x000D_ At 7 o'clock in the morning, the offensive of the front troops was scheduled, the Commanders of the armored units were ordered to move to their starting positions and disguise the equipment. However, half an hour before the appointed time, German aircraft made a massive raid on the positions of the Soviet troops. The troops suffered losses, communications were disrupted. The vehicles of Senior Lieutenant Dust were not damaged, as they were well camouflaged. _x000D_ By the appointed hour of the offensive, Vasily Ivanovich still did not have communication with the headquarters, but made an independent decision to launch the attack. Seeing that one of the units began to attack, other units followed, and the offensive began. _x000D_ The front Commander, Marshal Rokossovsky, who was at that moment at the observation post of the Regiment, had not yet made a decision on whether to start or postpone the start of the offensive, but saw that after one of the tank subunits, the troops moved forward. The offensive was successful, the enemy was driven back. _x000D_ After thecombat, Marshal Rokossovsky summoned Senior Lieutenant Dust to the front headquarters. When the officer announced his arrival, the marshal replied: “What dust you are! You are hero!". With these words, he personally awarded Vasily Ivanovich the Order of Alexander Nevsky. _x000D_ After the war, Vasily Ivanovich continued his service in the Red Army, served in Germany as a Soviet military adviser, then on the territory of the USSR. He was discharged in 1960 with the rank of Major. After completing military service, he moved to Belgorod. He passed away in 2004.