Alexey Kirillovich Ilyin was born in 1926 in the village of Domanovo, Iznoskovsky district. He met the war in Leningrad as a student of a vocational school. Together with this great city, he survived the blockade and at the beginning of March 42, he returned to his native village, as he was very much exhausted and sick. After a little medical treatment, he worked at the Shcherbakov collective farm, and in December 1943 he was drafted into the army. A.K. Ilyin fought in the infantry troops on the 3rd Baltic Front. On August 9, 1944, near Šiauliai in Lithuania, a scout squad, which included Aleksey Kirillovich, was discovered and fired upon during the mission. 2 powerful shells that exploded over the heads of the soldiers hit everyone: someone was killed, someone was wounded. A.K. Ilyin was wounded in the right leg. “At first it seemed as if a stick had been hit hard on the leg, but I didn’t pay much attention: I was bandaging those who suffered more. And then I saw - blood from the leg, like from a samovar, ”the veteran later said. After the hospital he was sent to the Saransk Artillery School, where he became a calculator-spotter, from there he was sent to a separate mortar regiment. So until the end of the war he served in the artillery, although he was almost always on the front line, along with the infantry. I met the victory in the Austrian Alps. Has two medals "For Courage". The first was received at Siauliai, and the second for participation in an offensive operation in the Alps. He still recalls how 18 soldiers were dragging a cannon uphill in their arms to block the road to the Nazis. On April 26, 1945, the regiment in which Aleksei Kirillovich served was disbanded, and he was sent to retrain in the landing troops. A soldier is always a soldier: wherever he is sent, he is needed there. Sergeant Ilyin made 30 night parachute jumps with full gear already near Ussuriisk. Wherever I've been. And he returned home only in October 1950 ...