The Great Patriotic War

Rank: Corporal. Branch of troops: Artillery. Division: 138th Infantry Division (1st Formation). I want to tell you about a Russian soldier, my beloved grandfather. Studenikin Andrei Ivanovich, went through the whole war, took part in the defense of Moscow, liberated Belarus and the Baltic states, fought as far as East Prussia and Berlin. He was drafted into the army in the spring of 1940, a year remained before the Great Patriotic War. When the war started, he was 21 years old. He served as a signalman in the artillery. In the hardships of war, my grandfather and other communications technicians, showing examples of courage, reliably ensured communication in any situation. As many front-line soldiers, my grandfather did not want to discuss a war period, he didn't watch war movies, he could not. _x000D_ In life he was a very hardworking and responsible person, a leader in production, he worked as a supply manager for construction. He died on September 20, 1989, he was 69 years old. Many people came to his funeral. A tireless worker, a war hero, had passed away. I also thought, remembered what he was ... He was a Russian soldier! The work of a signalman in the war was considered necessary and responsible, and the success of the combat often depended on it. During the Great Patriotic War, the fate of our great Victory largely depended on the well-coordinated work of communications technicians. I remember when I was little and asked my grandfather about the war, he told me that the enemy thought that the Russians knew some secret magic word, “and we knew, kept this word in our hearts, we went up to die, won with it “For the Motherland!". My grandfather received Order of Red Star for the fact that “during the combat in March 1945, under fierce rifle-machine-gun and artillery-mortar shelling of the enemy, he laid a cable communication line, providing communication. During the day of the combat, he went out 13 times to repair communication line and connected more than 45 breakthroughs, which ensured the fulfillment of the combat mission ”(I read it with pride and bated breath on the website http://podvignaroda.ru). _x000D_ A simple guy turned out to be a true hero, a participant in bloody battles. He got a medal “For Courage” for the fact that he, during the period of offensive operations on the right bank of the Dnieper River, continuously maintained contact with the combat formations. _x000D_ On November 21, 1943, near the village of Olshevka, under fierce enemy Artillery and mortar fire, he restored 21 breakthroughs of the telephone line, which ensured the execution of a combat mission by the Battalion command to suppress the enemy battery. He had medals “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For the Liberation of Warsaw”, “For the Capture of Berlin”, “For Victory over Germany”, “Order of the Patriotic War, II Degree”. _x000D_ I'm proud of you, grandpa! For me, grandfather will forever remain the ideal of a Man, Defender, Human. My grandfather is no longer with us, but the memory of him lives in my heart, the memory of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War. He fulfilled his duty to the Fatherland. _x000D_ And we are obliged to fulfill our duty of respect and memory to them, ordinary soldiers.

Rank: Senior Lieutenant. Branch of troops: Artillery. Subdivision: 47th Infantry Nevelskaya Orders of Lenin and Suvorov Division. Panteley Lukyanovich was born on August 10, 1921 in the village of Novy Yegorlyk, Salsky District. After finishing the 7th grade, he worked in a kolkhoz, and in the fall of 1940 he was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet Army in the 546th corps Artillery Regiment. On June 22, 1941, at about 4 am, Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. From the first days of the war, my grandfather with the 546th corps Artillery Regiment held back the German offensive near the town of Zhlobin, where on July 6, 1941 in a fierce combat he was wounded and fell behind his unit. After treatment in hospital, he got to the military depot near the town of New Belitsa and was sent to the 137th Rifle Regiment. _x000D_ During the general offensive of our troops in December 1941, early 1942, Panteley Lukyanovich was on the Western Front. After the liberation of the city of Kozelsk, their military unit of the 47th Guards Division of the 137th Guards Rifle Regiment was transferred to the Southern Front in the areas of Station. Morozovka, Northern Donets, and then to the Mius river. Beginning in February 1943, from the Sea of Azov to the headwaters of the Mius River, the Nazis strengthened a powerful defensive line called “Mius Front”, accumulated manpower and equipment. _x000D_ As my great-grandfather told me, the Tomb of Saur, marked on the front maps as the Height 277.9 was of particular importance. It bound the entire defense of the Germans. On August 18, 1943, the troops of the Southern Front started an assault on the Mius Front. For almost two weeks, the fighting did not subside, and only on August 31 the height fell. _x000D_ On October 14, 1943, the troops began to prepare for the crossing of the Dnieper. The group headed by the Guards Senior Lieutenant Senchenko Panteley was chosen to remove the German Guards of the bridge across the river. The mission was completed. On November 26-29, 1943, our troops crossed the Dnieper River near Zaporozhye. For the successful implementation of this operation, over 40 soldiers were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. My grandfather was awarded the Order of the Red Star (No. 143970). _x000D_ During this operation, my great-grandfather was seriously wounded and was sent to a hospital in the city of Saratov, where he remained until April 25, 1944. After recovery, he returned to his unit, which was transferred to the 1st Belorussian Front. _x000D_ One of the largest operations of the Great Patriotic War was Belarusian Offensive called "Bagration" began on June 23, 1944. The 1st Belorussian Front, where my grandfather fought stormed Hitler's "eastern shaft" in Polesie. During the general offensive in the area of the city of Kovel on July 19, 1944, my great-grandfather, Senchenko Panteley Lukyanovich, Guards Senior Lieutenant of the 47th Guards Rifle Division of the 137th Guards Regiment, was seriously wounded and concussed. Нe had treatment at the hospital №2040 in the city of Kislovodsk. This was the end of the war for him. Senchenko Panteley Lukyanovich was a disabled of the 1st group, had awards: Order of the Red Star, Two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, Medal “For Victory over Germany”, jubilee medals.

Seydametov, Iskander_x000D_ Rank: Starshina Branch: Ground Forces. Subdivision: 125th Krasnoselskaya Red Banner Infantry Division of the Order of Kutuzov _x000D_ “I distinctly remember the first post-war year in Samarkand, where by the will of fate I ended up with my parents and brother. Our yard was a one-story house with six two-room apartments, each with a porch at the entrance and a glazed veranda. Along the courtyard facade of the house there is a common passage for the entire courtyard: an oblong strip of land about 4 meters wide, and behind it, opposite each apartment, a personal garden plot with an area of probably about two acres. A passageway between the porches and garden plots led to two common wooden ”objects" at the end of the courtyard, a large dust bin on the left and a latrine on the right. The Seydametov family, as it later turned out, Crimean Tatars, all female, from children to a very old grandmother, settled in the place of the dust bin and with homeless dogs and cats. _x000D_ We did not have the slightest idea about nationalities in the Soviet Union. We never discussed it, and for many years I did not know about the nationality of my neighbors, just like my classmates, having entered school and studied for ten years. (Having gathered after 30 years of graduation, we looked at each other in surprise, finding in the classroom Russians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Jews, Armenians and five Crimean Tatars. Naturally, in our childhood we never had a slightest idea about nationality, residing at the international Uzbek land.) _x000D_ A new family fiddled around in the corner of the yard, made some kind of adobe housing and a fence, moving the dust bin to the front of the yard, in a nook behind the gate. The new neighbors caused some irritation among the old-timers, but then, thanks to their humble disposition and quiet, imperceptible behavior in the new habitat, everything settled down. _x000D_ Some neighbors, first of all, our mother, have established warm relations with the Seydametovs. It was she who convinced me and the other neighbors to treat these women with Christian tolerance and compassion. _x000D_ And then one day, when used to study on the porch, getting ready for classes on the second shift and relaxing after long standing in line for bread, then a fit man with brilliant orders and medals on his chest followed the kerosene past me with an energetic step and proceeded straight to the corner of the Seydametovs' settlement. This was Iskander, the main character of my story. _x000D_ Further, I only mentioned the impressions of mine, my sister and mother, but mainly from his memories during our meeting many years later. This man made a great impression on me, his fate seemed interesting to me, and for a long time I was going to tell about him … _x000D_ Iskander, like many of his relatives and fellow tribesmen, lived in Yalta before World War II. In 1941, he immediately went to the front as a boy. He fought honestly and fearlessly, but also skillfully, thanks to which, having no education and military training, already in the 1942nd he became a Platoon Commander and was awarded officer's shoulder straps, replacing the killed officers. His natural leadership qualities in the face of harsh circumstances made him an authoritative, recognized and respected Commander by soldiers. He did not hide behind the backs of his soldiers, he took responsibility for himself, was ahead, made decisions quickly. _x000D_ God had mercy: he went through the whole war, ended up as a Captain, returned in orders and medals. Orders, I remember, were both of the Patriotic War of two degrees, and the Red Banner, and probably the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and a few more, and many medals. After all, he put them on the chest only once, when he proudly walked through the yard, where at the end he would meet his family. _x000D_ The joy of returning after four years of military separation was overshadowed by the unexpected news that the family was exiled and found nowhere. _x000D_ Before the war, Iskander married Dilyra, a thin, kind, constantly spinning woman, always in incessant worries and worries about Iskander's family, where she entered and immediately remained alone with his mother, sisters, nieces, well, it seems, only the female were there in this family . Under the most complicated circumstances, while her beloved Iskander was fighting for the Motherland, she supported her family as best she could, with the last bit of strength, until an unexpected misfortune came: the forcible resettlement of the Crimean Tatars to the eastern regions of the empire as punishment for the betrayal of some of their representatives. _x000D_ I think the truth was hiding from the Tatar front-line soldiers, and therefore, when Iskander was demobilized and found out that the family was nowhere, he began to look for them first in Kazakhstan, then in Uzbekistan in different places where the families of the Crimean Tatars were scattered. He was looking for several months, if not more, and finally he found them in the corner of the Samarkand courtyard. This was a moment I saw: a front-line soldier energetically passing by me. I did not have the slightest idea of repression, about the fate of this person and his family, in general about the nationality of the “Crimean Tatars”, not only at that time, but years later, when I was already finishing the High School. _x000D_ The only thing I had witnessed for ten years, together with all the neighbors, and we were surprised at this, is Iskender's indomitable energy and will to live and create. He raised his family out of poverty, built a brick house in this nook behind a clay fence, gave birth to three daughters one after another, whom his pre-war bride, faithful, silent and desperately thin Dilyara, brought him. _x000D_ The girls ran around the yard with my post-war sister, and I regularly photographed them from a German trophy camera that opens like harmonica, bought by my parents cheap at a flea market for my older brother and me. Then I finished school and left my parental home for an independent life in Tashkent, then to Rostov-on-Don, and by this time my parents returned to their native Krasnodar, where they lived 15 years of their happy youth before the war. _x000D_ Years have passed, scattered and erased in memory the faces and destinies of many people, including neighbors in the yard, among whom was the Iskander family ... But life, as you know, sometimes throws up unexpected meetings ... Arriving at the wedding of my beloved younger sister, I, to my considerable surprise, saw Iskander there with his Dilyara, who had come from Samarkand to Krasnodar for a wedding! _x000D_ How could I not be surprised if people, remembering the close relations between neighbors and the friendship of their eldest daughter Zarema with my sister, spent so much time, not to mention travel expenses, to come to see my parents and congratulate my sister. _x000D_ Indeed, at that time, (now it is hard to imagine), it was possible to get to Krasnodar only with a train change in Moscow. But the train from Samarkand went to Moscow for five days, and then from Moscow to Krasnodar another two days. _x000D_ So, in fact, considering time that Iskander spent his entire three-week vacation on this trip alone for the travel and guest visits! And here I come to the main point of the story, meeting and talking with Iskander after almost 20 years of separation. We talked with him in dad's office, breaking away from the bustle of pre-wedding chores that noisily filled the rest of the apartment. Dilyara also took part, but only in fits and starts, although she wanted to listen to more. We were clearly glad to see each other, as people, separated not only by the era, but also by the years of our own growth and formation. _x000D_ I became an engineer who worked at different construction sites and who had already seen a lot, was the father of two sons. Now, having become mature I perceived Iskander differently, learned more about him and felt his personality. _x000D_ At first I told about myself, my life by that time, and the first thing I wanted to tell them two, Iskander and Dilyara together, is that now I am aware the fate of their people and guess about their family fate, that I support the desire of the Crimean Tatars to receive full rehabilitation and be restored in all rights, that I support the struggle of General Grigorenko for the rights of the Crimean Tatars._x000D_ I am outraged at the injustice towards their fellow tribesmen. At that time, the government of the USSR did not decide on its position on the problem of the Crimean Tatars, although actions and laws on rehabilitation were adopted in relation to other people. _x000D_ The trouble was that each of the repressed peoples received rehabilitation in different ways. Iskander and Dilyara were pleased to hear such a confession from me. Then Iskander started talking..._x000D_ Actually, the further part of my story is devoted to retelling his story, which I convey without the slightest changes in the facts and the essence of what I heard, from his words. Actually, the conversation was not about the past, moreover, not at all about politics. He talked about the last years of his ordeals, which concerned the return to his native Yalta. I remind you that this is not the 90s, but the mid-70s. _x000D_ “You see, they actually rehabilitated us, the time had come, they figured out how we fought, there were Heroes of the Soviet Union and twice Heroes among us ... But people ”Crimean Tatars" have not been recognized officially. Authorities began to make a line in the passport as "Crimean" (the line of nationality was in the Soviet passport)._x000D_ And you can go to the Crimea, but not to live permanently. And I so want to buy a house in Yalta, I wanted it all my life how to return. There were and are many opportunities to move to Russia, to any place, but no city can replace Yalta. I have already retired and am in a hurry to buy a house, so I went to Yalta last summer to take a closer look. I think maybe the permit will come out, so I’ll be ready, I need to take my time to look at the options, ask the price more precisely, the area is right ... _x000D_ So I arrived in Yalta, immediately went to the Rental Bureau kiosk, and I said to a woman in the window: “Give me the address of an apartment to rent in the center. Just mind, do not offer bullshit - I know the city like the back of my hand! ”_x000D_ The answer is silence. I was surprised, I wanted to turn around, when suddenly, door opens on the back of the kiosk, I hear a noise, an elderly woman runs out and shouts out loud: “Iskander, son, here, I waited for you!” And crying loudly, and hugs me, and wails. Passing by people halt in surprise. What happened? And she: “So, if I had seen you on the street, I would not recognize you, but your voice has not changed!” _x000D_ “It turned out ...” - this is a phrase added by Iskander from time to time. Like a passionate storyteller he used it to surprise listeners with something exiting. Remembering the important, he, as if turning the plot, unexpectedly inserts this - “It turned out!” _x000D_ And the listener expects something extraordinary. I also expected anything, but not what I heard... _x000D_ During the Leningrad Siege, in 1942, his military unit was thrown to the outskirts of the city, in confrontation against the Germans, who were not far away, but did not advance. The platoon, which was already commanded by a recent soldier Iskander, who had just received the Junior Lieutenant's shoulder straps, had to conduct a passive defense, awaiting an order for an offensive, which was not yet possible. Iskander attributes his appointment as Platoon Commander exclusively to a situation when other officers of the unit were killed one after another, and the unit itself was narrowed to the size of a platoon. However, one can feel leadership qualities even in manner of storytelling, that it was understandable: only he could lead a platoon and lead people. Every morning and evening, Iskander sent soldiers for recon patrol to find out information in surroundings. _x000D_ Once a soldier came running and says: in the dead zone between ours and the Germans, there was a house, standing alone, in the midst of complete destruction around. Previously, there was fog, it was impossible to make out, but there were no signs of life, but then the soldier noticed something and decided to check. And although it was dangerous, the area was periodically fired upon, the soldier established: a woman in a house alone with three children—little is less! The soldier worried out of sympathy … _x000D_ The family was hungry and cold in the hut, the firewood ran out. Sympathizing, the soldier wanted to help, although he knew that the command was set to keep his head down. Iskander immediately ordered to collect possible provisions, chop wood, and with two soldiers went to an abandoned house, where without any hope, hugging each other, wrapped in rags, sat a woman, two girls and a very small boy. _x000D_ Iskander with soldiers put things in order in an abandoned house, fired the stove, warmed up, fed and bathed children. Then, choosing the moments, more often at night, every day Iskander sent a soldier to help the woman who was preparing to die. This lasted for two weeks, after which the fighting began, then the shootout, then the redeployment. _x000D_ In the kaleidoscope of events of the terrible war, unthinkable in severity and tragedy, the episode with the woman was erased in my memory. Well, Commander Iskander acted, as his conscience prompted him at that moment. He helped, however, at great risk. So that's it. It was this woman who cried out in Yalta 25 years later, recognizing her savior by the voice. _x000D_ Everything in her life then happened: God had mercy, although her husband died, and the children are all alive, she raised everyone, retired, exchanged the Leningrad apartment for Yalta, where she lives here with her son and two grandchildren in his family, daughters are fine too, in other cities ... This story made an impression on me, and continuing the conversation, I could not resist and asked: “Iskander, how did you manage to make enough money for living of such a large family and save to buy a house in Yalta? ” I did not know anything about his jobs. _x000D_ And I was not mistaken with the question: he revived again and began to talk, as usual, with burning eyes and passion. How I regretted later that I had not recorded the conversation right away! Later, many details were forgotten, which cannot be restored. It turned out that he worked in supply, at large vegetable bases. An unexpected import of hundreds of tons of potatoes, onions, cucumbers, apples came to Uzbekistan. There were always not enough storage facilities, but here two of the largest bases in the republic collapsed! And all the food is being imported is dumped on the ground. But summer is over, it will soon be rains and cold weather. Catastrophe! What to do? People from the Ministry of Trading of the Republic turned to him: save us! _x000D_ Important commentary: Iskander was not even the head of one storage facility, he was a worker, but he had repeatedly shown the talent of an organizer, an engine in a spontaneous situation. However, this time the organizational talent would not have been enough. Iskander outdid himself. Knowledge of the properties of different fruits and vegetables led to unexpected solutions. Here, I regret not writing it down, I might make mistakes. But the picture remained in the memory: three tiers of using the missing storage volumes. Below are potatoes, folded on planks from disassembled boxes, not in bulk, but in pyramidal cones of a small volume, in order to ventilate from the side windows, slightly ajar, did not allow rotting to take place; at the top, under the overlap, on boards rarely nailed to the lower belts of farms, bags with another vegetable or fruit, I'm afraid to lie which one. And between them, nets with onions and garlic tied to the ceiling on ropes, which contributed to the preservation of both the underlying potatoes and the product spread above on temporarily nailed boards. Thus, not only the storage capacity has increased, but the storage conditions for the product with various properties, the combination of which has led to a manifold reduction in losses from spoilage. It was about thousands of tons of preserved vegetables and fruits in the republic. _x000D_ And the result is as follows: the Minister of Trade of Uzbekistan personally came to him to present him with a prize: a six-month salary and a gift, a passenger car, which Iskander sold, having no interest in technology, and he needed money. I told only about one case, and he described several of them, different and very interesting. And then an incident happened: I unexpectedly got into a mess. Delighted with the story about the many intricacies of the technology and organization of the processes of storing vegetables and fruits, I exclaimed in my hearts: “Iskander, this is a finished dissertation! Why don't you do this? ” _x000D_ Iskander laughed loudly and for a long time, then, choking with laughter, said: Alik, dear, I'm uneducated, I have seven grades of school! I sat down, stunned. Then I thought: when could Iskander get an education? Indeed, he could not. There was no time: first the parents had to be fed and rescued, then the war, then to raise the wife and children. But he gave a higher education to all three girls. This was his dream. He was very happy and proud that it had come true._x000D_ Several more years passed, and the restless Iskander died without fulfilling of another dream, probably the most important and cherished after the well-being and education of daughters—to move to live in city of Yalta in Crimea ... _x000D_ At this point I was going to finish my story about an interesting person with an interesting fate. But life made adjustments again. _x000D_ More than 35 years have passed since the events described above, Iskander's story at my sister's wedding. It has happened when I went to Krasnodar with my sister, and I asked about her Samarkand friend, the eldest daughter of Iskander, Zarema, not hoping that some connections might still be preserved. And what? “It turned out ...”: Zarema, a doctor by training, mother of two sons, now also a grandmother, lives in Yalta! The next day, through the efforts of an advanced daughter-in-law, you can imagine, I spoke with Zarema, whom I had not seen for more than half a century, since I left my parental home to study in Tashkent - via Skype !!! _x000D_ Yes, you can't think of this anymore. Iskander's dream came true. His grandson made up his mind and, overcoming the difficulties and vicissitudes of any events, he moved to Yalta, to his mother Zarema. I do not know the fate of her son, with whom she lives, or, especially grandchildren, that is, Iskander's great-grandchildren. Nothing can be foreseen in this life. I just really want good people to feel good.

Rank: Sergeant. Branch of troops: Communications troops. _x000D_ Ekaterina was born in 1918 on October 28 in the village of Elkhovka, Totsky District, Orenburg Region. At the age of seven she went to School, finished seven classes. After school she entered the Pedagogical Technical School in Buzuluk, she graduated in 1938. For four years she worked as a teacher in the village of Medvedka, then in the village of Pogromny. In April 1942, she and 40 young women were drafted into the ranks of the Soviet army by the Totsky military registration and enlistment office and sent to the training center of the Air Defense Forces in the city of Kamyshin, Stalingrad Region. After training, the girls were sent to Stalingrad to defend the airspace over Stalingrad. _x000D_ Ekaterina Vasilievna served in the 103rd Separate Battalion. She went through the cities of Oryol, Bryansk and ended the war in Frankfurt on the Oder in August 1945. She recalls her combat path: _x000D_ “Near Stalingrad, while on duty at the post, I was under carpet bombing at the Rudnya station. I was scared to death, I had my first gray hair at that day. Near Bryansk, on the orders of the Commander, she followed the telephone cable, miraculously did not get captured as prisoner. Three soldiers helped. After redeployment in the Frolov town, together with her fellow soldier Polina, she received an order to deliver the package to the unit. They walked at night, without a compass, got lost and went the other way, ended up in a village. An old man sheltered them and cured their frostbitten legs. Nevertheless, the package was delivered to the unit. For this I was awarded the rank of “Senior Sergeant” and was appointed the Commander of the post of Air Defense Forces." At the end of August 1945 she returned to the Pogromnoye station of the Totsk Region. Then she worked at the elevator for 10 years. In 1955 she moved to the village of Platovka, Novosergievsky District, Orenburg Region, and until 1963 had been working as a telephone operator. In 1963, together with her son Gena, she moved to the Karakuduk settlement of the Akbulak Region and until retirement worked at a switchboard. _x000D_ For her work she was repeatedly awarded with certificates and valuable gifts. For her military services, Ekaterina Vasilievna was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree, the medal “For Victory over Germany”, the "Zhukov" medal and jubilee medals.

HISTORY: Vasily Fedorovich Perminov was born on February 2, 1923 in the village of Kurai, Shabalinsky District. Vasily Fedorovich was drafted into active military service on December 3, 1941, and soon took the oath at the 509th Separate Guards Mortar Division. Since June 9, 1942 V.F. Perminov had been in the formation of the 7th Mortar Brigade of M-30 installations. In July - August, the Brigade supported the troops with powerful fire during the Mginsky offensive operation. At the end of 1943, it was withdrawn to the reserve, in the spring of 1944 it was transferred to Karelia, where it took part in the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation and then in the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation. On June 21, 1944, when breaking through the enemy's defenses and crossing the Svir River in the Lodeynoye Pole area, the 7th the guards Mortar Brigade supported units of the 37th Rifle corps with fire. Together with the combined M-30 Brigade, two ammunition depots were blown up, the enemy battery was destroyed, multiple firing points and Engineering obstacles were blown up. _x000D_ All this made it possible for the 37th Rifle Corps to cross the Svir River with low losses and occupy the enemy's leading edge. The assistant chauffeur of the 2nd Battery of the Guards Corporal V.F. Perminov, worked on the delivery of ammunition during the breakthrough of the enemy's defense on the Svir River in the Lodeynoye Pole area. _x000D_ Witnessing a shortage of electricians-demolitionists, he rushed to the installations and began to release single mines himself, thereby ensuring their full flight. When reloading, Perminov organized a group of fighters to transfer the installation to the newly assigned positions and helped the battery prepare for fire. V.F. Perminov was awarded the medal "For Courage" for this combat. After the completion of the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation, the 7th Guards Rocket Mortar Brigade was transferred to the Arctic, where it supported the troops during the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation. For their participation in this operation, all the Brigade's fighters were awarded the medal "For the Defense of the Soviet Arctic." _x000D_ Then the Brigade was transferred to Poland, where it became part of the 4th Guards Mortar Division. From late 1944 to July 1946 V.F. Perminov served in the 172nd army Reserve Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment, where he studied to be a radiotelegraph operator. After the end of the war, Vasily continued his service until March 1947 as Senior Radiotelegraph Pperator of the 20th Mortar Regiment. After demobilization he worked at the station Svcha in Paramilitary Security Service (VOKHR). He passed away on January 1, 1992.

Rank: Red Army Soldier. Branch: Ground Forces Division: 9th Mixed Aviation Division He was born in the village of Smolenskaya on October 1, 1923 into a peasant family. Father died when Ivan was 3 years old. In 1938, Ivan's mother married a second time and moved to the village of Novotitorovskaya, a sister was born, and the next year. Having received a passport, he went to work in Krasnodar. He worked at the Krasnodar Cannery, then on the river. On March 9, 1942, Ivan was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army and sent to Ordzhonikidze Airborne School. _x000D_ In August, German troops captured Krasnodar and went to Stavropol. From the cadets of the School, a Division of the 9th army of the 11th corps of the 10th Rifle Brigade was formed, and they were sent to the front line, near Malgobek. The Wehrmacht troops were rushing to Grozny, where there were oil rigs. They, by all means, tried to force the Terek. The newly arrived Red Army men took up defenses on the right bank of the river, near the village of Stoderevskaya. But the enemy forced them to retreat to Mount Malgobek. After our troops nevertheless defeated the prepared German crossing, the Nazis climbed up the river, where there were two strategic bridges: a railway and a highway. Ivan was transferred in the area of the Karzhin farm. They took up defensive positions, rolled out their guns. About a dozen German tanks managed to cross the river, and then aviation was ordered to destroy the bridge over the Terek. Artillery hit tanks, aircrafts, and bombed bridges. _x000D_ The combat had lasted until the evening. The tanks that crossed the bridge were destroyed. In that combat, Ivan was in charge of communications. He stretched a telephone cable a coil and transmitted coordinates and targets for striking the enemy. A shell from a German six-barreled mortar tore off the sole of his boot, so it seemed that his leg was torn off, his helmet was knocked off his head, his entire overcoat was beaten with shrapnel. So on November 6, Private Ivan received his first wound. _x000D_ On January 20, fighter Ivan was discharged from the hospital and he went on foot to his unit. He passed Stavropol, half of the Krasnodar Territory, until finally he had reached his unit. In February, Soviet troops went on the offensive. On 02/12/1943 Krasnodar was liberated. After the liberation of the city, the Soviet people learned about the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the city. _x000D_ Until now, some people did not know that the Germans used the so-called gas chambers vehicles in Krasnodar. The purpose of this vehicle was initially kept in the strictest confidence. The unit in which Ivan Vasilyevich served was moved to Ust-Labinskaya and Tikhoretsk. Residents greeted their liberators with bread and salt. _x000D_ On February 20, the offensive was carried out in the Krasnoarmeisk Region. The army went ashore and took up defensive positions. The soldiers were getting wet from head to toe in February, but wood fires were not allowed due to security. What to do? They took off their shoes and somehow wrung out their clothes, put them on again. And only one thought was coming up: " Let it be the combat, we get warm. That's when it got hot, so hot." At last, communications flares soared into the air. And the Red Army men went on the attack, although they could not bend their frozen hands. Artillery and aviation cleared the way for the infantry. In this fierce combat, Ivan was again wounded, and while he lay wet, waiting for medical assistance, he also had second-degree frostbite on his legs and arms. He went back to the hospital. In April he was discharged and sent to the village of Novotitarovskaya. Then Ivan’s military unit approached the village of Krymskaya and took part in battles on the Blue Line. Then he took part in a major air battle in the sky of the Kuban, over the “Hill of Heroes”. Ivan was in a unit that climbed Height 121.4. The hill was taken with great losses. In the long fierce battles for the Crimean Region, 24 thousand Soviet soldiers died. On June 15, 1943, Ivan was wounded, this time very seriously. Private Ivan had 14 wounds on his body. At first the surgeon made a disappointing prognosis about the possible amputation of hands, and later found some hope. Ivan was treated and transported by plane to Krasnodar. _x000D_ Only on February 10, 1944, Ivan was discharged. A tall young man weighted 52 kg. He was no longer fit for combat service. Ivan Vasilievich returned home. In March 1945 he moved to the village of Georgie-Afipskaya, where relatives lived. He got married in 1949. With Evdokia Grigorievna they lived together for 67 years. All my life, despite his disability, he worked a lot and honestly. They brought up three children. _x000D_ , He lived with his wife in a house that they built in 1953 on the banks of the Afips River. An atmosphere of comfort and hospitality reigned in the house. On June 1, 2017, Ivan Vasilyevich passed away.

Title: Red Army Soldier. Svinar Ivan Nikolaevich, my great-grandfather, born in 1902, the father of my grandmother. He went to the front in 1942, leaving his wife, Lugovets Tatyana Fedotovna, and five children at home in the village of Semyonovka, Fedorovsky District: four daughters and a son, the youngest of them was two years old. Great-grandfather did not have to fight for long. Soon the news came “Missing in action”. _x000D_ The hardest part is uncertainty and hope, they waited for the wounded to return, waited for the return from captivity, hoped that the letters simply did not reach, they waited forever. _x000D_ My great-grandmother was left orphan at 10, and always had to provide for life. She was hired as a nanny in rich families with children. She got married to a handsome, tall, curly-haired guy without asking her consent at the age of 14. The family lived poorly and an extra mouth was always a hindrance, never thought about love, just lived in a family: cooked, washed the father-in-law, mother-in-law, gave birth to children. There are 9 of them, but four died in infancy, and five remained. Great-grandfather Ivan never offended her, and she really understood how dear he was to her when he was escorted to the front. In his short letters, most of all he worried about his little, only heir, his son Nikolai, and asked his wife to be patient._x000D_ My great-grandmother endured. She worked in a felting workshop, manually felting felt boots for soldiers at the front, it was very hard work, not everyone was able to do it. Great-grandmother was a small, puny woman. It was hard for my great-grandmother with young children, there was nothing to eat, they had to change their place of residence, they looked for where there was work, and ended up in the Eruslansky sovkhoz, but she was always worried that Ivan would return from the front and would not find a family, but he did not return. _x000D_ “No one will open the gate with a knock. And I am deaf from this silence. What a beautiful couple we would be, My dear, if there was no war! ..” For many years after the war, she hoped that he was alive, because she was never got an official death notice. She instilled this hope in my children. For a long time she was standing at the gate and peered at one end of the street, then at the other. No matter how hard it was for her, she saved her family, raised children, waited for grandchildren and continued to wait for Ivan. The great-grandmother did not even have the status of a widow, since they were not officially registered. Only in the 80s, her grandson Sergei, while working in Moscow, sent an official request to the archives of the Ministry of Defense, from where a short answer came to the name of his great-grandmother: _x000D_ "Seminar Ivan Nikolaevich, was born in 1902, in the village of Semyonovka. Drafted into the army in 1942. He died from his wounds on November 23, 1943. He was buried in the village of Lesnyaki, Kiev Region ". _x000D_ The family received the death notice almost 40 years after the war. Great-grandmother did not show anyone that her hope had been killed, she only noticeably bent to the ground under the weight of her burden and became very small and quiet. In her entire life, she has not acquired any fortune, all her wealth were her children. She lived in turn with each of them, but most of all she lived in the family of her son. She had no awards and titles, her whole life fit into one word, a widow. _x000D_ Great-grandmother Tanya died at 89 years old on January 25, 1993 on Tatiana's day. 70 years after the death of Ivan Nikolayevich's great-grandfather Svinar, in 2013, search teams found a mass grave in the village of Lesnyaki, Kiev-Svyatoshinsky District, Kiev Region, in which a capsule with the data of Ivan Nikolayevich Svinar was found. In November 2013, a reburial was carried out in Yagodinsk, Kiev Region, and a memorial complex was installed. A granddaughter was present at the burial. Only seventy years later the family have a place where they can bow to their grandfather and pay honors.

Rank: Corporal. Branch of the service: Ground Forces. Subdivision: 145th Rifle Vitebsk Red Banner Division. Before the war he lived on the territory of the Kirov Region, presumably his family was dispossessed and sent to the Urals. Around the 1930s, they returned to the Kirov Region, the birthplace of their eldest daughter (1929), my great-grandmother, is the village of Isupovshchina (Isupovskaya) in the Prosnitsky District of the Kirov Region. Father: Starodumov Konstantin Ivanovich. Brothers: Alexander, Nikolai (born in 1897), Gregory (1910-1942, missing). Wife: Starodumova (Dudina) Claudia Mikhailovna (1906) Children: Starodumova (Meteleva) Tamara Vasilievna (1929-2006), Starodumova (Kreknina) Larisa Vasilievna (1930 ...), Starodumova (Kreknina) Faina Vasilievna (1934 gr), Starodumov Modest Vasilievich (1936), Starodumova (Tselischeva) Lilia Vasilievna (1939). Vasily Konstantinovich found the war at the age of 42, was drafted into the Red Army in October 1941, in the Great Patriotic War from March 1942. The entire combat path passed as part of the 403 Rifle Regiment of the 145th Rifle Vitebsk Division (2nd formation), liberated the territory of the Latvian SSR as part of the Baltic Front. _x000D_ On December 21, 1944, he died from many wounds received during the breakthrough of the enemy's defenses in the area of the village of Pusari. A death notice was sent to the family. He was awarded four times, no awards have been presented. _x000D_ Several times, starting from about 1975, the children and grandchildren of Vasily Konstantinovich visited the mass grave No. 617 on the Sharideshi farm of the Latvian SSR, where my great-great-grandfather was buried together with other defenders, met with the a medic and his colleagues who were with him in the last days of his life. At present, there is no information on the preservation of mass graves on this farm.

Rank: Corporal. Branch of the Army: Ground Forces. Subdivision: 382nd Novgorod Infantry Division. _x000D_ My great-uncle, Nikolai Pavlovich Sladkov (8.10.1926 - 08.29.1994), a native of Lower Alopovo, Peremyshl District, Kaluga Region, was called up to the front in 1944 from the 9th grade. He studied as a machine gunner in Kaluga, got to fight near Leningrad as part of the 382nd Novgorod Infantry Division. In the battles near Vyborg, when crossing the Vusksi River, he was wounded and contused by a mine fragment, ended up in hospital 1014 in Leningrad, where he was from 17.07.1944 to 16.09.1944._x000D_ After recovery he was sent on 09/21/1944 to PRB 36 WHSD. He was awarded the medal “For Military Merit”. _x000D_ “Comrade N.P. Sladkov participated in battles against the Nazi invaders on the Leningrad Front as part of the 382nd Novgorod Infantry Division. In 1944 he showed stamina and courage. At the front he participated in battles as a Commander of a Rifle squad and a light machine gunner. On July 17, 1944, being wounded and shell-shocked, Comrade Sladkov did not leave the battlefield, but remained to fight steadfastly in the ranks of the advancing troops, combat and political training, perfectly mastered his specialty. He copes with his duties perfectly. Morally stable, disciplined. He is devoted to the parties of Lenin, Stalin and the Socialist Motherland. _x000D_ Conclusion: He was distinguished with the state award "For Courage" on July 7, 1947. He had reached Berlin. Then he served in Poland at the Headquarters as a cartographer for 5 years. He entered the Construction institute in Moscow. He worked as a civil engineer in Moscow. He is buried at the Shcherbinskoye cemetery.

Rank: Sergeant. Branch of troops: Artillery. Sinev Mikhail Evstafievich was born in the Gorky Region, Bolshemurashkinsky District, village Guzhovo, 1925. He graduated from the Military School in 1940 (41). He was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Medal For Courage. Quote from the award list: “In the combat of February 13, 1945 at Ariswald (Germany), under fierce enemy mortar and machine-gun fire, he was the first to lead his platoon to the offensive. Thanks to the skillful balance of forces and personal courage, he led his subordinates to storm the house. Two fire emplacements were destroyed. points and several soldiers and officers of the enemy. The mission was accomplished thanks to the personal courage and courage of Mikhail Sinev. ”_x000D_ At the end of February, he was surrounded. He was presumed dead. _x000D_ From a letter: “Mom, now I have become a Sergeant again. After that unpleasant incident that happened to me in February. My documents disappeared and ended up in another unit. But thanks to this, I stayed alive here.” Unfortunately, after losing his documents, he was unable to restore the rank of Junior Lieutenant. In April, when breaking through the enemy defenses on the Oder River, he successfully disabled military equipment with a group of sappers. Then he took part in the storming of Berlin. Several letters have survived from him, especially from May 10, 1945: _x000D_ “Hello, dear parents, mother and brothers. I am sending you my warm, fiery greetings and congratulations on the end of the war! Mom, I hasten to inform you about that I am alive and well. I know that you thought of me that I was not alive. I haven’t been writing for 5 months. But now I have a chance to send a letter. Mom, I’ll write you where I have been all this time. From Warsaw I walked to Berlin. And then I advanced 120 km west from Berlin and on the Elbe River we linked up with the Allied troops. Mom, I still can't believe that this nightmare is over. But there, in the rear, everyone is probably happy, that it was all over.” _x000D_ He wrote home very tender letters, they contain so much hope of returning home safe. The last letter came on August 9,1945 after the Victory. It had a photo of forever handsome and young son for his mother. He was killed in action in August 1945.

Title: Red Army Soldier. Branch of troops: Artillery. _x000D_ The Great Patriotic War left its record in our family. I want to tell you about my great-grandfather, on the line of my mother, Nikolai Yakovlevich Sukhorukov. He was born in 1913 in the village of Dmitrovka, Voronezh Region. His parents, Yakov Nikolaevich Sukhorukov and Ekaterina Dmitrievna, raised five children. In 1939, my great-grandfather married Antonina Dmitrievna Sukhorukova (Myazina). In 1940 my grandfather Viktor Nikolaevich Sukhorukov was born. This is what my grandfather told my mother, my mother told me. _x000D_ “When the war started, I was 1 year old. By that time, my grandfather and his parents moved to the village of Makeevka near Donbas. Great-grandfather often traveled to the city and brought various gifts to his grandfather. Life ran smoothly, no one then thought that one day the peace would come to an end. My grandfather told me that this war burst into our lives like a storm, destroying everything, crippling millions of destinies. Many of our fellow villagers were called to the front. And in the very first year, our father was drafted into the army. The only memory left about my great-grandfather is his portrait ”. Mom showed me a portrait the size of an album sheet with my great-grandfather on it. I knew the life story of my great-grandfather for a long time, but I saw his portrait for the first time. From the portrait, the eyes of a man looked at me, whose whole life was continuous grief. He started a family, built a house, was a caring husband and father. It seemed to him that life was getting better, but the outbreak of war destroyed his plans and life.. _x000D_ My great-grandfather volunteered for the front. In 1941 he took part in the Crimean operation as part of the 64th Artillery Regiment, and then in the 112th Artillery Regiment. His military unit was located in Labinsk, Krasnodar Territory. On November 10, 1941, he was found in entrapment. In the area of the city of Stary Crimea, Nikolai Yakovlevich and another soldier were sent to reconnaissance. His comrade was killed, and Sukhorukov was taken prisoner. There he experienced all the hardships and torments of the concentration camp. The captured soldiers, hungry, exhausted by overwork, died every day. For any soldier, war is hard work associated with the risk of losing his life every second. The only thing that helps him maintain a healthy psyche and endure hardships is a weapon in the hands and shoulder of a friend. _x000D_ But what happens to a soldier when the enemy captures him? To physical suffering and imprisonment are added severe psychological pressure from the enemy, a conflict between a sense of duty and an elementary human desire to survive. _x000D_ The beginning of captivity was in a concentration camp in the city of Dzhankoy in the Crimea, then Bobruisk in Belarus from November 11, 1941 to February 16, 1942. On February 16, 1942, he was taken to Germany to the city of Hamburg as a prisoner of war. _x000D_ He was released by American forces. On 05/10/1945 he was sent by a group train to Grodno. From 1945 to 1946 he served in the city of Grodno in the commandant's office. In 1946, my great-grandfather returned home to the Krasnodar Territory. In 1947, the family moved to the Ilyinskaya stanitsa of the Grozny Region in Checheno-Ingushetia. And on December 28, 1960, Sukhorukov N.Ya. died of a malignant stomach tumor. Ekaterina Lyashova

Branch of troops: Engineering troops. Subdivision: 26th Guards Rifle East Siberian Gorodok Red Banner Order of Suvorov Division. He was born on May 23, 1924 in the village of Bolshaya Otrada, Khvorostyansky District, Voronezh Region. He graduated from the 4th grade of School and worked as a carpenter in the kolkhoz. He was drafted into military service on August 12, 1942 and immediately sent to the 369th Reserve Rifle Regiment as a cadet. The Regiment was stationed near the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, and was part of the Transcaucasian Front. From November 1942 to July 1944 he served as squad Commander of the 79th Guards Motorized Rifle Red Banner Regiment of the 26th Guards Rifle Division. In July 1944, he was transferred to serve in the newly created new troops Assault Engineer-Sapper Brigades. Sergeant Prokhorov becomes the squad leader of the 42nd Special Engineer and Sapper Battalion of the 9th Assault Engineer and Sapper Novgorod-Khingan Red Banner Order of Kutuzov of the Reserve Brigade of the High Command. In March 1945 he was awarded the medal "For Courage". _x000D_ After the end of World War II, four battalions were transferred to the Far East, where they participated in the assault on the Japanese fortified areas of the Kwantung Army: 9, 5, 20 and 21. He returned home in November 1945. In addition to the medal “For Courage”, he was awarded medals “For Victory over Germany”, "For Victory over Japan" and the Order of the Great Patriotic War, II degree. He was wounded three times, the first time on the day of his draft into the army on August 12, 1942. On February 3, 1943, he was wounded and even had an impaired hearing all his life, and on November 10, 1943 he was seriously wounded in the leg. This shard remained in his leg forever. Returning from the front, he met with Alexandrina Alexandra Pavlovna and on February 11, 1946, they got married. All their lives they honestly worked at the Otrada sovkhoz (Dobrinsky District of the Lipetsk Region), gave birth to eight children, three of whom, unfortunately, did not survive. Two of them died in one year: Alexandra Pavlovna in May, and Boris Nikolaevich in August, 1993.

HISTORY: Title: Sergeant Branch of troops: Artillery Subdivision: 70th Infantry Upper Dnieper Order of Suvorov Division Born in Ukraine, from the peasants. In 1909. parents moved to Karaganda Region (Kazakhstan). He got married in 1920 on Lozyana Ekaterina Maksimovna. They had 10 children, only five survived to adulthood. He had served in active military service since 1925. to 1928 After service, he worked in different years as a procurer of agricultural products, a communications officer (feldegel) of the Karaganda Operational Sector of the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, from 08/05/1939. He worked in the Karaganda Region, in the office of the State Bank as a collector. He was drafted into the Red Army on 06/20/1942. to the combat unit of the 60th Reserve Rifle Regiment as a private. Soon after his father, his eldest son Afanasy, born in 1924 volunteered for the front. In the family, eight letters from the front have been preserved from his father. In the first two letters dated 01.28.1943. and 02.24.1943. Parkhomenko P. L. writes that he was wounded and is in a hospital in Penza. After recovery, he was again sent to the front. The last letter sent on 09/13/1944 is of interest. One month before his death, in which it is written that he sent the family some little money, 1000 rubles, received for knocked out German tanks. He was sorry that the amount is small, since he receives only 23 rubles a month and gives awat 10 rubles for bonds. He also reports that he received from the government the Order of the Red Star. _x000D_ Red Army Soldier Parkhomenko Porfiry Lavrentievich was killed by a fragment of a German mine in the combat for the Lithuanian city of Klaipeda and was buried in a mass grave of 30 soldiers near the village of Misaiken. After the war, the remains of those buried in a mass grave were transferred to the military cemetery in Dovilay. Unfortunately, on the memorial plates of the cemetery in Deauvilai. The surname P.L. Parkhomenko is absent, which is explained by insufficient attention to this issue on the part of the Russian consulate who decided to reconstruct the memorial plates at the military cemetery in Deauville.

Rank: Corporal _x000D_ Branch of Troops: Artillery_x000D_ Sokolov Nikolay Ivanovich is a defender of the Brest Fortress ( 25.04.1917-25.06.1985). He was born in the village of Milyatino, Vshodsky District, Smolensk Region. In 1939, he lived in Bolkhov, Oryol Region. After the war, he lived in Yaroslavl. He was part of the 6th Oryol Rifle Division of the Red Banner. 98th Anti-tank Artillery Division._x000D_ Sokolov Nikolay was born on April 25, 1917 in the village of Milyatino in the Vshodsky District of the Smolensk Region in the family of a clergyman. His father, Ivan Sokolov, had no children for a very long time. He was well into his forties when his first son was born. There were only three of them: Nikolai, Mikhail and Konstantin. After graduating from the 7th grade, Nikolai worked on the railway as a greaser of cars, since 1933 he had been an accountant, then became an electrician-radio operator at the paper factory club, and at the radio station in the village of Milyatino. In 1939, he was sent to the course of projectionists in the city of Bolkhov, Oryol Region, but did not have time to finish them, and in fact, the specialty of cinema radio mechanics mastered independently. _x000D_ On February 15, 1940 Nicholas was drafted into the Red Army by the Vshod Military Commissariat of Smolensk and sent to serve in the Brest fortress in the 98th Separate Fighter-Antitank Artillery Division. Given Nikolai Sokolov's civilian specialty, he was appointed projectionist of the division. On February 23, 1941, he was awarded the military rank of “Corporal”. _x000D_ As Nikolai later recalled, on the last prewar day, June 21, unexpectedly, all the servicemen were given their first salary ahead of schedule, which the garrison expected to receive only on Monday, the 23rd. This had never happened before. It was also surprising that on that day, for the first time, all the military trading shops were open late, so that a lot of tipsy soldiers were walking around the fortress. _x000D_ At least this, although indirectly, can still explain why in the first minutes of the war so many people died without even having time to wake up. This important detail is not mentioned by any of the sources I know about the defense of the Brest fortress. On that last peaceful evening, several films were shown simultaneously for the first time in the fortress. On the territory of the fortress, under the open sky, on improvised movie screens (stretched on the walls with white sheets), movies: “Military oath", "Circus", "Enemies", "Ruslan and Lyudmila", "Chapaev", "Valery Chkalov", "Fighters"were shown. One of the projectionist was the Corporal of the 98th art Division, Nikolai Sokolov. After the demonstration of the evening film session, he, like many of his colleagues, went to the barracks and fell asleep. There was no sign of impending war. _x000D_ As for everyone, the greatest tragedy of the 20th century for him started with the roar of exploding shells and bombs, the groans of the wounded. Here is a fragment from S. S. Smirnov's Book “Brest fortress” (The Chapter “The Fortress is fighting”), in which there is a mention of Nikolai Sokolov: _x000D_ «...On that first day, battery-operated radios were still working in some of the units. One of these receivers was located in the club of the 98th Anti-Tank Division. The Artillery club was set up in an underground concrete room of some former warehouse, and here Nesterchuk, who headed the defense, ordered the wives and children of the commanders to be placed. Here, in a dark underground hall, where the stern, motionless figure of Red Army Soldier Sokolov, guarding the divisional combat banner, stood next to a radio receiver. Women and children lying side by side on the floor heard a distant voice from Moscow above the roar of exploding shells about noon. The Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR addressed his message from the Soviet government to the people on the radio. _x000D_ And as soon as the broadcast was finished, the content of it, retold by word of mouth, soon became known to all the gunners, who were at that time engaged in a continuous combat with machine gunners on the ramparts...» _x000D_ Nikolai fought under the leadership of the Division's Deputy Commander, Senior Political Officer Nesterchuk, and the Division's Chief of Staff, Lieutenant Akimochkin. Many defenders of the fortress wrote about his courage in their memoirs. For more than two weeks, Mykola participated in the defense of the Eastern part of the main shaft of the Kobrin fortification and repeatedly participated in hand-to-hand combats with the enemy, and in the first days of July, he was shell-shocked and captured. _x000D_ “In the first days of July, a group of Hitlerites,” recalled N. I. Sokolov, " broke into the barracks. A final melee ensued. The Germans cornered us, surrounded us, and led us out into the square. Soon the Nazis pushed out Akimochkin and shot him in front of us." _x000D_ Below are the recollections of Nikolai Ivanovich Sokolov about the combat for the Brest fortress (this is the text of the Chapter "Ordeal" from the book "Heroic defense", published in Minsk in 1966). Printed without changes. _x000D_ "...Before the Artillery cannonade had stopped, Lieutenant Ivan Akimochkin, the Chief of Staff, ran into the unit, covered in dust and soot, with a cap and belt in his hands, leaving his wife and two young children at home. Vassily Volokitin came running after him. Lieutenant Akimochkin found out that there were no commanders among us, ordered a soldier on duty to distribute cartridges, and then began to give various missions. I hurried back to Headquarters. The Headquarters was located in the left wing of a squat room that stretched for more than 100 meters. _x000D_ Women and children were gathered there. Many of them were half-dressed, only in their underwear. Here, giving orders, were Senior political Comissar Nikolai Nesterchuk, Second Lieutenant Haver, petty officer Zastello (Head of regimental clothing and equipment supplies of the 98th Separate Anti-Tank Artillery Division) and wounded soldiers. The Germans launched several attacks. Many were killed and wounded, and the survivors were barely able to stand on their feet from the immense physical strain. In between the attacks we all were amazed at cold-headiness of our wounded platoon Commander Junior Lieutenant Sharaka. _x000D_ The first Hitlerite shells landed in the house where his family lived. His son, sleeping soundly in his crib, and his wife had been killed in front of him. Leaving them in a dilapidated apartment, with tears in his eyes Sharaka rushed to the earth rampart. Women and children were in a shock. The latter were crying and begging for water. To satisfy their desire, the Senior Political Officer ordered the floor to be hacked and a hole dug. After 2-3 meters, the ground became wet. He took a handful of earth and held it out in my left hand, slowly squeezing the water out of it. But when he tasted the first drops, he spat: the water was bitter. Saddened by this setback, everyone went back to their corners. Nearby, just a few meters away, was an artificial bypass canal, but there were already German soldiers in charge... _x000D_ In the second half of the day of June 22, 1941 there were heard thuds from the dining room. Gradually, the thuds grew louder, and it became clear that someone was sneaking into our Headquarters. We waited with bated breath for the last brick to fall through the gap. Blow, another blow, another... Through the gap we saw our Soviet military shirt. Immediately, as if on cue, everyone shouted in unison: “Our people!” and together rushed to break down the remaining bricks. It was Akimochkin, who sent one of the soldiers. _x000D_ Most of the tractors, cannons, and motor vehicles had already been destroyed and damaged by the first bombs and shells. Less than an hour later, there were sharp, high-pitched whistles in the air, followed by flashes of fire and muffled explosions. Fragments of exploding bombs, balls of soil, and debris from smashed cars rained down on the defenders. The air wave hurled a shell-shocked soldier Pitko to the side. It killed Kolesnikov and wounded Novikov. Combat Kaganovich had been in a pool of blood. He moaned and begged to be shot not to be a burden to the defenders. Looking at the agonized Commander, who was being bandaged with undershirts on his stomach, which had been torn open by a splinter, my heart involuntarily sank. Having collected a few surviving tractors and hitched up the guns, Chief of Staff Akimochkin ordered to unload ammunition from the depot. _x000D_ Approaching the warehouse was very challenging, as the enemy held this area under fierce mortar fire. Golovin and Pavel Mochalov took to break the lock of a warehouse of ammunition. Quickly loading the shells into the cars, 6 tractors passed the Kobrin gate and, gaining speed, went to Moskovskaya street. Large columns of enemy troops were moving along the road. German Artillery opened fire on our tractors. In an unequal combat, the drivers of the first tractors Kirkov and Rodin were killed. 4 tractor units were forced to turn back to the fortress. _x000D_ After hiding the vehicles in the bushes, Akimochkin and his soldiers made their way to the shop, where there were wounded, women and children... Akimochkin ordered one of the soldiers to run to the park to the driver Zaitsev, so that he immediately delivered the gun to the 2nd battery. A few minutes passed, and we had the gun. Gunner Vasily Volokitin examined the gun and pointed it at the enemy. Vasily wanted to load the cannon, but there were no shells. Soon the tractor truck came around the corner again. Skidding to a halt, the driver of the tractor Komsomolets Alexander Zaitsev shouted: “Take the shells.” So he ran back and forth from the park and to us and back again. For a long time, the Hitlerites failed to knock out this tractor, which deftly scurried among exploding shells and mines. Another attack started. The Hitlerites were not satisfied. They bombarded the bastions with direct fire. A tank appeared. Akimochkin ordered Zaitsev to roll out the 45mm gun. Volokitin's gun crew opened fire. During this unequal duel, which lasted several minutes, the best gunner of the division, my childhood friend Vasily Volokitin, was killed. Apparently, having used up all the shells, the tank turned back, and at this time a new column of Hitler's sub-machine guns was already moving. When the sun sank below the horizon, Senior Political Officer Nesterchuk decided to join other participants who were defending the fortress. Dawn found us in the machine shop. The people were thirsty... _x000D_ With the sun rising (23rd of June, 1941), the enemy infantry again began their invasion. They marched in a broad front on both sides of the road. The gun commander, Kosenkov, waited for the enemy to converge, then gave the order. Thick black smoke billowed high into the sky. The shell landed in the middle of the attackers. The Hitlerites took to their heels, but then our machine guns and rifles began to work in pursuit of the enemy. And from behind the rampart, on the North side, another column of enemy machine-gunners was already running in small leaps from bush to bush. _x000D_ The gunners, who were at the gun, got carried away and did not immediately notice the enemy. The Germans opened fire. The gunner fell dead. Kosenkov was severely wounded, but ignoring this, he quickly turned the gun around and sent a shell into the Hitlerites... _x000D_ The second severe day June 23rd, 1941 was coming to an end. There was a lull. When I returned to the compartment, I found a group of fighters there. Nesterchuk was also there. Soon Akimochkin appeared along with a group of his fighters. Moving a little to the side, Akimochkin and Nesterchuk discussed something among themselves, and Nesterchuk said in a hoarse voice: _x000D_ “Now we will split into two groups: one will go with me, the other will go with Lieutenant Akimochkin. We will leave the fortress. The place of meeting I appoint the outskirts of the city near the slaughterhouse, the route of the вivision in the area of concentration on combat alert”. Embracing, Nesterchuk and Akimochkin left the shop compartment. The fighters began to disperse in different directions. I fell in with Akimochkin's group, which also included Mosin, Kubasov, Ahmed Aliev, Kornev, Shiryaev, Sergeant-Major Vorobyov of the 3rd Battery, and tractor driver Morozov. _x000D_ We headed North along the earth rampart, and Nesterchuk's group followed the road ditches to the bridge. Spread out in a sparse line, we moved slowly from bush to bush, from crater to crater. After crossing 150 meters, we came across a tree felled by shells, which fortunately ran over the water moat from one bank to the other. Akimochkin paused and waited for the approaching fighters. Parting the thick branches of the bushes on either side, the Lieutenant reached the bank and hid in the thicket. Shiryaev was the next to cross the log, followed by me. Reaching almost to the bank, Shiryaev suddenly slipped and fell down into the water, immediately, an enemy sub machine gun rattled a few meters away, German soldiers ran around, and searchlights jumped in the air. Shiryaev and Akimochkin were besieged by fascists from three sides. We all froze. But Akimochkin was not at a loss. Firing back, he retreated step by step. _x000D_ We did not hesitate to open fire. Soldier Aliev fell down and groaned. Soldier Shiryaev, who had already crossed over to us, ran up to him and, lifting him on his back, dragged him to the shelter of the corner of the rampart. It was time to leave, especially since it was getting close to dawn. After a while, the wounded Nesterchuk returned with a group. The soldiers could barely move with fatigue. From Nesterchuk's group, only he and 4 more wounded soldiers returned. _x000D_ The children who had woken up from the noise began to cry and together with the wounded asked for water. Something had to be done. For the third time, Laden with canteens and kettles, I returned to the wounded, who had long been languishing from excessive thirst. At the entrance, Senior Political Officer Nesterchuk stopped me. He took a couple of kettles from me for the seriously injured, and told me to take the rest of the water to the right compartment and distribute it to the defenders there. _x000D_ On the roof of the barracks of ammunition was found Chishikhin. He was wounded several times, but did not leave his post. Suddenly his machine gun jammed. The Hitlerites took advantage of this and threw grenades at the soldier. Chishikhin was mortally wounded. 4 Hitlerites approached him, fired, and then, poking him with their feet and making sure that the machine gunner was dead, went to the right compartment and began to throw grenades at him. Some soldiers rushed out of the compartment, but the Germans opened fire. _x000D_ Some of the Red Army soldiers turned back. They had not crawled back a dozen paces when German machine-gunners appeared behind them. Morozov, Zaitsev and other comrades were captured. Some of the soldiers, following Akimochkin, ran to the left compartment of the gate. I followed them and reported to Nesterchuk what I had seen. Having learned that the Hitlerites had managed to break into our position, Nesterchuk made a decision: to go to the rampart and dislodge the enemy from the positions they occupied. _x000D_ Picking up the wounded, we noticed that behind the ammunition depot on the Northern rampart, the fascists forced the prisoners of war to dig in a post, bring wires to it, and, having installed a loudspeaker, began to broadcast the Soviet songs "Katyusha", "On the hills of Manchuria" and others. For several hours at a time they played the familiar music, obviously hoping to demoralize our fighters, but the fighters struck the enemy even more fiercely . _x000D_ It was the 5th day of fighting, June 26, 1941. None of the soldiers sent to the Division Headquarters returned. Repeated attempts to go outside the fortress also did not bring the desired result. The radio's batteries run out, we were cut off from the outside world. We tried to talk less. We saved our strength. The short summer night was ending. And at dawn, a firestorm raged for more than two hours. With ammunition, we managed to survive somehow. When the sun rose high, the Hitlerites again issued an ultimatum. _x000D_ Mikhail Dubinin, taking advantage of the lull, brought from somewhere about a dozen smoked bream and began to distribute them. Nesterchuk asked everyone to refrain from eating. We were well aware that salted fish would make us very thirsty, and there was no way to get water. But the temptation was too great: for several days people did not have a crumb in their mouths. We did eat this fish, although we were really thirsty afterwards. The time for the ultimatum was running out. German vultures circled the fortress, dropping bombs. They flew low, and the soldiers, taking cover in the ruins of the barracks, opened fire on them. Soon a large column of fire broke out in the sky, and the Junkers, which had caught fire, went limping down like a stone. _x000D_ Inspired fighters increased their rifle fire. Before the bombardment stopped, and people were fleeing from the houses of the Communist staff, located in the center of the North island, looking for shelter. Having lost her mother and brother Klim, 14-year-old Lida Nesterchuk came running to us. Her father was in the compartment at the time. When Nesterchuk saw his daughter, he froze in surprise, and Lida threw her arms around his neck, hugged him tightly with her little arms, and began to kiss his stubbly face, crying.The soldiers stood silent. The comparatively quiet summer night did not last long. When dawn came, it all began again. _x000D_ In the compartments near the Eastern gate, many wounded people, women, and children were gathered . When the situation became threatening, Nesterchuk suggested that the women surrender to save their children. In one of the days of the second week, the Hitlerites continued to besiege the gunners who were holed up in the barracks of the 2nd battery. _x000D_ There were still a few rounds left in Loreshin's tractor and he met the enemy with a well-aimed machine-gun fire, letting them come to a close range. Several dozen enemy infantrymen were destroyed. German grenades were thrown at Loreshin’s. _x000D_ His machine gun went silent. Then the hatch opened a crack, and a hand hurled a grenade. A few more fascists found their graves. "We must have ammunition," shouted Loreshin, and began to climb out. At this time, the tractor was hit by a shell. A black cloud of smoke enveloped him. _x000D_ For the death of comrade fellow Loreshin soldiers of the group of Charak and Khaver opened fire on the enemy. The situation was challenging: there was a strong lack of ammunition, there was no water or food. The smell of rotting corpses and burning was fierce over the fortress grounds. The Nazis tried to shoot down our little red flag several times. _x000D_ However, there were daredevils who crawled up to it and re-installed it in its old place. In the fierce unequal battles, we lost count of the hours and days. One afternoon, the Hitlerites launched an offensive in our sector. They managed to break through almost to the building in which we were holed up. Now they could throw grenades at us, shoot us at point-blank range with machine guns. Only the thick walls saved us. Nesterchuk ordered one of the soldiers to collect the remaining documents. He was the first to take the party card out of his pocket and hand it over. Following his example, soldiers began to collect their papers. _x000D_ The documents were wrapped in a soldier's tunic, placed in a bucket and buried in a hole in the middle of one of the compartments near the Eastern gate. The Hitlerites_x000D_ came almost close. Mosin, Kubasov and Bondarev have already been injured. Then those who remained behind shouted "hurrah" after Nesterchuk and Akimochkin rushed at the enemy hand-to-hand. With a groan, the wounded Vorobyov fell to the ground. A violent explosion deafened me. _x000D_ My rifle had the last 4 rounds left in it. Lying on the ground, I took aim at one fascist, then another, and just started to aim at the third, when I felt a strong blow on my back. The rifle fell from my hands. An unexploded grenade was spinning on the ground near me. I still did not have time to realize what was happening, as it was quickly seized by Akimochkin, who was lying next to me, and threw it at the approaching fascists. I fired the last two shots. Akimochkin forcefully pulled the trigger of the pistol, but the gun did not fire, the cartridges ran out. It was clear that it would not be possible to drive the Hitlerites back with our forces. Akimochkin ordered to withdraw. To my left, Nesterchuk lay dead. _x000D_ Overcoming the pain, I somehow reached the building with the help of Akimochkin. We found an empty space in the corner of the casemate and, scraping our hands on the stones and glass, dug a hole and put a gas mask bag with a rolled-up banner of our division in it. At this time, a group of Hitlerites had already burst into the room. A final melee ensued. The Germans have cornered us step by step. A tank petty officer from the Central island screamed: “Goodbye, mother! Avenge me! ” and, opening his mouth wide, he fired. Several more people who managed to shoot themselves. _x000D_ In a hand-to-hand combat, Deputy Political Comissar Shiryaev was killed by the Nazis. They surrounded us and began to beat us savagely with their rifle butts. Then, pushing with bayonets, they led them out into the square, where several dozen disarmed prisoners were already standing. Together with me were Akimochkin, Lieutenant Gerasimov, Kubasov and my other comrades. Dirty, ragged, with bloodshot eyes and sunken, overgrown cheeks, we stood in silence, overwhelmed by what had happened. Soon the Nazis took Akimochkin out of the crowd of prisoners of war and, taking him aside, shot him in front of our eyes. A party card was found on him. When the Germans showed him the card, Akimochkin proudly raised his head and, looking the German officer directly in the eyes, said: _x000D_ "Yes, this is my party card." My heart bled when we went to the places where we had recently studied and rested. Now they were disfigured beyond recognition by the war. But the fortress was alive: here and there a gunfight could be heard. The garrison had borne its ordeal with honor.” _x000D_ In captivity. It is known that he was in camp No. 307 near Biala Podlaski. Then, after a failed attempt to escape, he was taken to Holland. Subsequently, a cruel military fate threw him into prison camps in Germany. If I remember correctly from my childhood, my grandfather told me about his terrible life in the camps of Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen. I can still remember his story about how a prisoner of war sat down on the stones at work in the quarries of one of the camps, exhausted, in order to catch his breath. And then the German overseer ran up to him, swung, and backhanded the soldier with a steel spitzruten across the face, depriving the unfortunate prisoner of both eyes. Nikolai also had to work at the Krupp factories in the city of Essen. At the risk of his life, he conducted anti-fascist agitation among prisoners of war. _x000D_ He was released from the camp only in April 1945. _x000D_ After the war. From August 1945 to June 1946, Nikolai Sokolov served as a projectionist in the 340th Rifle Regiment, after which he was discharged from the Red Army. Since September 1946, he worked as a projectionist in the Yaroslavl cinema "ARS". Six months later, he became a technical Manager. _x000D_ In April 1958, he was transferred to the cinema Letny, where he worked for almost 7 years. During this time, he completed his education, graduated from ten classes of Night School. From January 24, 1956 until his retirement in November 1983 Nikolay Ivanovich worked in Yaroslavl as a locksmith for control and measuring devices in the production management of enterprises of the all-Russian society of the blind. _x000D_ Since 1956, he maintained contact with the Museum of the Brest fortress, and in early April 1957, the writer Sergey Smirnov came to Yaroslavl and met with him. The only award for the defender of the Brest Fortress, Corporal Sokolov, was the medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945”. _x000D_ I saw my heroic grandfather only twice: on May 9, 1981, and a little later in the same year. I was 9 years old at that time, and he was 64 years old. It was from those very meetings that the terrible tragedy of the Brest defense forever settled in my heart. Nikolai Ivanovich Sokolov died after a serious and long illness on June 25, 1985. He was buried at Ignatov cemetery in the Zavolzhsky District of Yaroslavl.

Tyushnyakova (Sibiryakova), Nadezhda Timofeevna_x000D_ Rank: Senior Sergeant._x000D_ Branch of the service: Ground Forces._x000D_ Division: 367th Red Banner Infantry Division. _x000D_ There are no people in the world that are not interesting. Their destinies are like the history of the planets, each has everything special, its own. And there are no similar planets. _x000D_ If you used to think about the meaning of the word “woman” in the 19th Century, then the following phrases come to mind: “weaker sex”, “fragile female shoulders.” However, в uring the war time huge burden of labor fell to the shoulders of women, and they proved that they can be as strong as their men who went to the front. _x000D_ We were talking in a spacious kitchen with a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Nadezhda Timofeevna Tyushnyakova (Sibiryakova), who is taken care by her daughter, a therapist, Honored Doctor of Russia, Irina Leonidovna Medvedchikova. _x000D_ The house is located on the outskirts of the Regional Center Mokrousovo. Nadezhda knows about the war firsthand. _x000D_ «In recent years, my health had been failing, - she showed her scars on her arm, - a shrapnel wound does not allow sleep at night, everything hurts, she began to forget the people she knew (grandmother is 93 years old). But I can't forget the war years ...»_x000D_ Before the start of the war, she received an honorary title and a badge of Voroshilov Sharpshooter, which played an important role in her further destiny. Nadya Tyushnyakova entered the Shadrinsk Pedagogical Institute. _x000D_ She was very bright at her twenty. Besides the teacher’s Institute, she simultaneously attended Courses for Reserve Medical Instructors in 1941. Medical practice consisted of unloading trains with wounded coming from the front-line. In the hospital, wounds were treated, bandaged, and soldiers were prepared for surgery. _x000D_ She was not scared of blood compared to many other young girls who were not able to get used to it. When they saw blood, they left the room or closed their eyes. In 1942 Nadezhda was sent to Dmitrievskaya, then to the Staropershinskaya School of the Mokrousovsky District as a Teacher. A medical diploma and a teacher's certificate were about her. _x000D_ There was a famine in the village, a tax in kind, which depleted the last supplies of the villagers. It was cold, people heated stoves with "driftwood" and dry deadwood, taken out by women with children late in the evening or at night from the forest. _x000D_ Her soul was eager to go to the front line, but numerous requests for active duty were not satisfied. _x000D_ “However, in 1943, apparently due to a shortage of medical instructors, I was granted my requests and drafted into the army as a volunteer,” the heroine of my story quietly recalls ... _x000D_ Young Nadia Tyushnyakova was in the midst of the fighting. She happened to be a cook, a sniper, and a typist to print documents. But most importantly, she remained a soldier. “On the front line, she did not disdain any work: she dug trenches, dug trenches, hunted down and killed the Germans with a sniper; carried the dead from the battlefield and helped to bandage the wounded, cooked and delivered food to the soldiers, taught the recruits to sniper,” this is how Ira's granddaughter wrote about her grandmother in one of her School essays. _x000D_ Baptism of fire happened near Vitebsk, on the very first mission she violated the Commander's order, she shot at the Nazi who brazenly crawled out of hiding without an order, for which she was subsequently punished. In war, discipline comes first. Self-righteousness is unacceptable. _x000D_ A young sniper Nadia Tyushnyakova officially killed 12 Germans on the West Belarusian Front. In the early autumn of 194I he was wounded by shell fragments in the combat in Lithuania, in the town of Grossenvasee. _x000D_ And her endless ordeals started: first she was sent to the Kaunas hospital, where she underwent surgery. And on October 18, her birthday, Captain Malenkov, a Senior Sniper Instructor, and her comrades came to visit Nadia. As a gift, the soldiers brought a bottle of cologne and a bar of laundry soap, which was considered a rarity at that time. _x000D_ _x000D_ N.T. Sibiryakova recalled: _x000D_ “The Captain was my friend, mentor, teacher, second father, a true man. His visit touched me so much that, being in serious condition, I asked in the evening to light a seven-line lamp, and, overcoming the pain, wrote a sincere poem dedicated to the guest: _x000D_ There is no more wonderful day than today, _x000D_ There is no happier person in the world than me, _x000D_ Though she is wounded, but as expected, the front-line family came to visit.”_x000D_ The whitened gray-haired woman talks about her fellow soldiers, remembering almost everyone by name. It is interesting that she does not remember the events that happened a week or a month ago, but what happened many years ago is still alive in her memory. Nadia made friends with many people at war. Most of the comrades did not return home, while the other somehow got lost by itself in the post-war period in the space of our vast country, disappeared without a trace. But they did not vanish from Nadia's memory. Probably, front-line friendship arises subconsciously between all soldiers, regardless of whether they know each other, what nationality and faith they are. _x000D_ Brothers and sisters in thoughts, in feelings, in desires and fate. Zhenya Mosyagina became such a front-line sister for Nadezhda. Later, she was wounded, and her trace was lost in hospitals, and they never see each other again. _x000D_ Another tragic episode of that terrible war is the death of the most dear person to Nadya in her hands. If there was no war, it is likely that they would have got married, but ... The pain of the loss is so great that after 72 years, Nadezhda Timofeevna, with tears in her eyes and trembling voice, tells about the past. Yes, such deep wounds do not heal, do not leave scars and scars in human memory, but they bleed for the rest of their lives. _x000D_ “The Generation of War 1941-1945 survived, suffered a hundred times more than it could have. And all this so that the generations to come would have another, a better life. They dreamed about it in damp trenches under whistles of bullets…”_x000D_ Until 1946, due to injury, Nadezhda Timofeevna worked as a typist in the political department. Together with the troops, she moved along the front closer to the border. She took part in the battles for the liberation of Konigsberg, received a shell shock in one of the combats ... _x000D_ She was awarded the Orders of the Patriotic War of I and II degrees, medals "For Courage" and "For Capture of Konigsberg." _x000D_ The most precious thing taken away by the war was her health. Nadezhda Timofeevna became a disabled person of the 2nd group. For a whole year, while working as a Teacher of Russian Language and Literature, was instructing lessons in a whisper in the classroom, and did not hear well. But the post-war children respected and appreciated her, they never played pranks in class, did not laugh at her. To this day, they remember their teacher, a front-line soldier, who laid the foundations of the best in them: kindness, duty, justice and honor. _x000D_ “Much of what my mother and my uncle Dima achieved in their life has been achieved thanks to our grandmother. Behind her shoulders is a long, a hard, heroic life, and at the same time very rich fate: study, war, huge work experience, a broken family, raising her children, and later, us, grandchildren.”(from the composition of the granddaughter of N.T. Sibiryakova Irina Putintseva). _x000D_ If not for the war ... But history cannot be changed. The generations that took part in the battles, stood at the machines and worked in the fields and farms in those years are already passing away. _x000D_ On the fingers you can count women who "never dreamed of paradise, but were baptized with iron and fire. All my life I was at the forefront, and I would like to die on it." Yulia Drunina. These lines from a poem by another front-line soldier became the motto for N.T. Sibiryakova.