Every Soviet family was affected by the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. And my family was not spared. My grandfather, he was 14 years old in June, was vacationing in the summer at a dacha in the town of Okulovka, Novgorod region. His mom and dad stayed in Leningrad. Separated from his parents, he worked in the rear and helped the front. In February 1942, my parents died of starvation in besieged Leningrad; a guest of the city stole food cards. He went to the front in 1943, returned to Leningrad to defend the southern border and hold the defense of the city. To chase the fascist invaders, in the city of Schweidnitz (now Swinica), Poland received a shrapnel wound in the neck. The wounded soldiers were lying on the ground, some on spruce branches, some on raincoats along the railway tracks, on which the carriages of a mobile medical unit stood. Morning round of the wounded by the surgeon, some were closed and carried away, some were helped. My grandfather was lying in delirium repeating the Leningrad saying: "How can you believe the empty words of a ballerina?" Only a native Leningrader knows how to decipher these words. Five streets in the city center: Ruzovskaya, Mozhaiskaya, Vereiskaya, Podolskaya, Serpukhovskaya, Bronnitskaya. The surgeon, originally from Leningrad, asked: "Countryman, what street are you from?" In a hoarse voice, the wounded soldier replied: "With Bronnitskaya." The surgeon exclaimed: "And I'm with Vereiskaya, urgently for an operation." Due to a wound in the neck, he could not swallow food, so he mainly drank plain water and fish oil. Such a simple phrase saved the life of a soldier. Every Leningrader knows and remembers it. And she is especially memorable to me, thanks to her, my grandfather survived and returned home in 1949. After the war he helped rebuild Poland. Several fragments remained in his left hand, and the grandfather sometimes allowed them to be touched. “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” is a post-war film that reminded of the war, the grandfather always watched alone so that no one saw his tears in his eyes. We knew this and never interfered with him. Every Leningrad family has two books and a Memory Book postcard: "The Road of Life" by Nison Aleksandrovich Hodza and "Nine Hundred Days of Courage" by Valery Voskoboinikov. Alive, be worthy of the lost!