Rank: Red army soldier. Branch of service: Army, Air forces (except naval aviation), Coast Guards, the troops of the NKVD, Border Guards. Division: 44th cavalry division. My grandfather, Kuzma Mikhailovich Kitaev, was born on 13.12.1910. in the village of Ermish, Temnikovsky uyezd, Tambov province (now Ryazan region), in a well-to-do family of a descendant of Odnodvortsev (great-grandfather Mikhail was engaged in flour milling, owned a mill, and a strong farm). Before the war he lived and worked in the city of Namangan, Uzbek SSR. In July 1941, he was called up by the Namangan GRVK to join the red Army and was assigned to the 44th cavalry division, which was formed in the Tashkent region near the city of Chirchik. From August 27 to September 17, 1941, the division, as part of the 4th cavalry corps of the 53rd army, participated in the joint British-Soviet operation to occupy Iran (operation Consent), whose government, at that time, was loyal to Nazi Germany, which posed a real threat to the southern borders of our homeland. Until the end of October 1941 44 cavalry division stationed in the city of Mashhad (Iran), after which he was sent to the Western front near Moscow. As a telephone operator of the 29th separate communications squadron, as part of the division, my grandfather passed the crucible of the Moscow battle. In April 1942, after heavy human losses, the 44th cavalry division was disbanded. My grandfather served in the 1st Guards Cavalry corps. Since May 1943, the senior telephone operator of the battery of the 49th separate guards mortar division (the famous "Katyusha") in the corps, which was renamed the 1st Guards Cavalry Zhytomyr red banner Corps.SNK of the Ukrainian SSR. South-Western front, since October 1943-1 Ukrainian. The liberation of Ukraine (in August 1944, for fighting near Zhulkiv, Western Ukraine, my grandfather was awarded the medal "for bravery"), Poland. Finally, Germany. After the Victory and demobilization, my grandfather married (second marriage, first son-Yuri Kuzmich born in 1936) to my grandmother-Vera Trushkina, who worked at a factory in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) during the War. My father Mikhail Kuzmich was born in 1946, and in 1951. my aunt-Valentina Kuzminichna (the family at that time lived in Gorky). In 1953, my grandfather, on the Komsomol ticket, went to Kazakhstan on virgin Land, and then took his family to a new place. In peacetime, my grandfather worked as an accountant. In the summer of 1978, after a serious illness, he died. He was buried in the cemetery of the village of Kirovskoye in the Leninsky (now Uzunkolsky) district of the Kostanay region. Low bow and eternal memory to my grandfather! In my memory, he remained a kind and cheerful person.