Rodin Vasily Petrovich_x000D_ Rank: Colonel. Type of troops: Armored and mechanized troops. When the Great Patriotic war began, my father, Vasily Petrovich, was 18 years old. He had already graduated from the Orenburg tank school and was at the front with the first shot. What my child's head remembers – he fought on the Leningrad front, then – on the 1st Belorussian. Awarded two orders of the red banner, two orders of Lenin, had a lot of medals and certificates. Three times I burned in a tank, all my life I carried a piece of shrapnel in my lungs, my legs and hands also had shrapnel. He was shell-shocked, but devoted his whole life to the army. He graduated from the war with the rank of Colonel, and later studied at the military Academy. I remember from the stories of this episode: "They sent a replenishment, not tankers, but loaders, and they are 14-15 years old, and weigh forty kilograms, only three can lift a shell. I cry, swear, and pray to God that they are alive, and I fatten them. They are 14-15, and I am 20, who went through this terrible war. And I looked at these starving people as if they were children, but what difference does it make… But I have experience behind me, and therefore I am alive." I went through the whole war, didn't smoke a cigarette, didn't drink 100 grams, and didn't do it all. But the doctors darned him better for his rations…I never spoke about fear in battle, but I think this Communist was not iron-clad, because tanks, like infantry, are always ahead, there is something to be afraid of. I remember that I mentioned the Oder river, so I must have reached Germany. My father was a strong man. And I know how my parents met and how they broke up. Apparently, he loved my mother very much. I was already an adult when he said to her: "at least Take me to die next to you." And to me: "Well, why don't you say something, tell her to come back!" Yes, life is strange for someone else. But I saw my father's love for my mother, and I don't think I saw my mother's love for my father. And who will sort them two out. This strong man, a warrior, probably could not cope with this little obstinate woman. He lost this fight. Recorded from the words of her daughter, Lyudmila Vasilyevna Ryzhikova, born in 1976