Rank: Red Army_x000D_ Branch of troops: Ground Forces, Air Force (except for naval aviation), coastal service, NKVD troops, border troops. _x000D_ Subdivision: 7th Guards Cavalry Zhitomir Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky Division. _x000D_ He was born in 1901 in the village of Presnogorkovskaya of the Siberian Cossack Host (1st military Department) in a Cossack family as his third son. In 1918 he was drafted into the Kolchak army, but together with a hundred went over to the side of the Red Army. He served in the cavalry Squadron of the Regiment commanded by V.I. Chuikov. He fought with whites in Siberia, the Urals and Transbaikalia. He joined the ranks of the Communist Party. After the Civil War, he organized an agricultural cartel in his native village, and then a kolkhoz. _x000D_ Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was the head of a dairy plant in a kolkhoz. For participation in the Civil War on the side of Kolchak, he came under investigation, was expelled from the party and removed from office. With the outbreak of the war, he voluntarily went to the front, where, together with his fellow-Cossacks and two brothers, he ended up in the 31st Cavalry Division near Voronezh. _x000D_ The Division took part in the battles For Defense of Moscow, in the counterattack near Moscow. For the liberation of Sukhinichi the Division was awarded the title of the Guards. Fyodor Mikhailovich was awarded the medal "For Courage", became a guardsman, he was reinstated in the party and was appointed party organizer of the Artillery Division of the Cavalry Regiment. He was an anti-tank gunner. The Division fought in the Donbass, took part in the defense of Stalingrad, and from February 1943 moved towards Kharkov. Fascist troops, preparing for the summer campaign near Kursk, transferred new tank divisions to Kharkov. 7th Guards Cavalry Division near Staryy Saltov came under attack from German tanks. The Cavalry Artillery Division was located near the village. Peremoga, where Fyodor Mikhailovich took his last battle ... _x000D_ Here is an excerpt from a letter to his wife Ekaterina Grigorievna to his native Presnogorkovka: _x000D_ “In March heavy fighting began, German tanks broke through from Kharkov. Our Regiment forcibly approached Old Saltov in order to stop the enemy. But the forces were too unequal. We were already well battered in previous battles and it so happened that in the village of Peremoga, right from the march, we got lost with German tanks ... _x000D_ Fyodor Mikhailovich, our communist leader, was a gun driver after being wounded, he was already old, over forty years old. To us, young soldiers, he seemed quite old, but we all respected him both as a comrade in arms and as a participant in the Civil War … The Germans jumped out suddenly, but the gun crew managed to take a position and set the tank on fire with the first shots. Fyodor Mikhailovich himself stood behind the gun's sight. He shot great, but here it was just hot. Another tank was knocked out, but there was no one left near the gun, everyone was killed. And then another fascist pounced on the gun with tracks … So our comrade was killed …”_x000D_ It happened on March 18, 1943. _x000D_ Now in the village of Peremoga near Kharkov there is a mass grave where Fyodor Mikhailovich Stepanov and his comrades are buried. Two sons and a daughter grew up in the Stepanov family,. Sons Alexander and Nikolai, also participants in the Great Patriotic War, became military men, retired colonels. Daughter Tamara became a Teacher. Eternal memory to the hero!