Title: Red Army soldier _x000D_ _x000D_ My great-grandfather's name was Alexander Fyodorovich Popushkov, born in 1921. He began his service in the Red Army at the end of 1940. He was drafted from the Vologda region and ended up in a unit that was located in Karelia, in beautiful, but cold and harsh places. He had to work as a driver on an old truck that often broke down. The military specialty of the Red Army soldier Popushkov was an electrician-signalman, but basically he had to transport cargo and ammunition along the front roads. When the Finnish war ended, everyone was already waiting for demobilization and meeting with relatives, but it did not come true. _x000D_ The Great Patriotic War began. Great-grandfather spent all six years of his service until the beginning of 1947 on the Kola Peninsula. All places were familiar, but it was impossible to get used to air raids on the road or shelling. Long, cold winters, the hard work of the driver and the constant danger of being injured or killed by bombing raids are not easy. _x000D_ The experience of the first Finnish war helped him protect himself from shrapnel and bullets, he knew the area very well, noticed in advance the places where it was possible to hide the car and survive the shelling himself, and even repair the truck when damage occurred. _x000D_ For one such case, he received a medal "For Military Merit." _x000D_ Great-grandfather Sasha did not like to remember the days of the war, he lost many of his front-line friends and Commanders. At that difficult time, they did not try to be proud of their merits, did not flaunt it. _x000D_ All his life, great-grandfather, a war veteran, worked as a tractor driver on a state farm, raised six children, and then looked after his sick wife and passed away almost immediately after her, leaving his grandchildren a good memory.