My great-grandfather, Nikolai Afanasevich Garusov, was born in 1926 in a small Belarusian village. When the war began, he was 14 years old. For the first time, the Nazis occupied the territory of Belarus. The older brothers were taken to Germany. Great-grandfather managed to hide. And, for 3 long years, he lived with his mother and younger sister in a dugout, because the village was burned down by the Nazis. From the stories of my great-grandfather, I know what a terrible time it was: hunger, devastation, shelling, fires. As a boy, my great-grandfather saw terrible pictures of executions, saw how partisans were hanged and tortured. And he himself was on the verge of death several times. In 1944, Soviet troops liberated Belarus. At the age of 18, my great-grandfather was taken into the army. In 1945 he entered the active army. The hostilities took place in Japan. In heavy battles with the Japanese, my great-grandfather was wounded, and was awarded medals for bravery and courage. The Japanese started this war to divert the forces of the Soviet army from the fight against the Nazis. But the courage and valor of the Soviet soldiers did not allow these plans to come true. 71 years separate us from that great victory day in 1945. But even today my great-grandfather remembers that distant time and his deceased comrades with tears in his eyes. Served: 16th separate order of the Red star moto-sapper battalion. The beginning of hostilities in China near the Great Khingan Mountain. The first battle is the Salun station. The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Polishchuk. Before the offensive, the battalion's task was to clear mined areas for the offensive of the main Soviet troops.