Tkachev Ivan Nikolaevich_x000D_ _x000D_ Type of troops: Artillery _x000D_ _x000D_ Unit: 342nd Rifle Division (1st formation)._x000D_ _x000D_ “My dear Uncle Vanya, you are an example for me, you shed your blood for this country, you showed love for this land...”_x000D_ _x000D_ Ivan Tkachev (15.12.1919-31.03.2008). He was born on August 15, 1919 in the village of Vysokoye in the Mtsensk district of the Oryol region. He went to the middle school, then graduated from the Zadonsk technical school with a popular profession of a tractor driver. He worked in the city of Orel at the military airfield. On August 15, 1941, the Draft Commission at the Mtsensk regional military Commissariat of the Orel region found him fit for combat service and sent him to the 342nd Rifle Regiment in the Saratov region as a Rifle Man. On September 16, 1941 he took the military oath of allegiance to his Homeland. On December 27, 1941, 342nd division, located on the right flank of 61st army, approached the Oka River, south of Belev City. It was temporarily commanded by the division's chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel I. F. Ioskevich. _x000D_ The actions on the Oka were the first in the combat history of the 342ndRifle Division. They developed extremely unfavorably. Repeated attempts to break through to the front line of the enemy's defense in the area of villages Fedinskoe and Petrovo were always repulsed by counterattacks of German tanks and motorized infantry. The division suffered heavy losses. On the night of December 28, 1941, the division went on the offensive. Its right-flank 1150th regiment on the opposite bank of the Oka river broke into of Fedinskoe village, but could not gain a foothold there. The battle continued for three whole days (December 28-30). The village passed from hand to hand. Eventually, the division's units were forced to withdraw back to the eastern bank of the Oka river by rapidly maneuvering motorized infantry and enemy tanks. _x000D_ In 1942 and the first half of 1943, he took part in defensive battles of the Bryansk and Western fronts. On January 17, 1943 he participated in the liberation of the city Velikiye Luki, where he received a concussion and a severe wound to the lung and was taken to hospital. But as soon as he recovered, he returned to the front again. _x000D_ In the summer of 1943, as part of the 3rd army of the Bryansk front, the 342nd division participated in a counteroffensive during the battle of Kursk. As a result of persistent fighting on July 20, 1943, it liberated Mtsensk, and on August 5 it reached the Western outskirts of Orel. On September 23, 1943, for its successful actions in the Orel operation and its mass heroism, the 342nd division was transformed into the 121st Guards Rifle Division, which participated in offensive and defensive battles in the Western direction, in the Orel, Bryansk, Gomel-Rechitsa offensive operations, as well as the liberation of right-Bank Ukraine and Poland, in the Berlin and Prague offensive operations. Ivan Tkachev liberated the following cities: Vyshny Volochyok, Tula, Kursk, Velikiye Luki, Smolensk, Bryansk, Belgorod, Mtsensk, and Orel. _x000D_ On February 29, 1944, he was severely wounded in the left arm and left leg, so he was sent to the Balakhnin Evacuation hospital No. 5821. From here, on May 15, 1944, he was discharged from the reserve due to injury and commissoned. _x000D_ During the Great Patriotic war, he was awarded: medal "For Courage" in 1942, also notable are a dress badge of the "Patriotic war" and Order of the «Red Banner of Labour of the USSR of the 2nd variant». _x000D_ After the war, he worked in the Molotov kolkhoz of Zalegoshchensk district of the Orel Region as a tractor driver, restoring the destroyed land in the post-war period. He died on March 31, 2008 in the city of Oryol and was buried in the cemetery of village Suvorovo Zalegoschensk area of the Orel region. We are proud of our grandfather and great-grandfather, he is a Hero!