Rank: Red Army Soldier_x000D_ My great-grandfather, Pyotr Alekseevich Potapov was born on June 19, 1918 in the village Konstantinovskoe. On May 25, 1941, he was called up for military service. The war came when he, together with others, was building an airfield near Kharkov in 553rd Construction Battalion. They had to retreat together with their Battalion. In July 1941, the Battalion was defeated. Pyotr Alekseevich, miraculously survived, joined 535th Sumy Construction Battalion and was building a fortification on the outskirts of Stalingrad. _x000D_ In August 1942 he was transferred to Kamyshin. Here he built bridges for crossing the Volga. In February 1943, he was restoring 51st Red Army Military Plant in Stalingrad. Moving to the west following the advancing troops, he took part in the restoration of the “Hammer and Sickle” plant in Kharkov, and restored the city from the ruins. _x000D_ Until the middle of the summer of 1947, he carried out the hard service of a soldier. As my great-grandfather later recalled, it was especially hard near Stalingrad, when I often had to put aside the tool, take up arms and fight off the furiously advancing enemy. For military and labor exploits, Pyotr received many state awards, including medals "For Defense of Stalingrad", "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", "For the development of virgin and fallow lands". In 1957 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Pyotr Alekseevich passed away in 1996.