Type of troops: Ground Forces, Air Force (except naval aviation), coastal service, NKVD troops, border troops Subdivision: 80th Infantry Division of the Order of Lenin named after the proletariat of Donbass In the fall of 1938, my father, Tsarevsky Ivan Trofimovich, was drafted into the army and sent to study in the Gorky military-political school, after which he was appointed political instructor in the 80th rifle division named after the proletariat of Donbass of the 6th army of the Kiev Special Military District. In May 1941 he was enrolled in the Kiev Military Academy, but did not have to study there. Already on June 18, the military unit was transferred to the western border by alarm at night. According to the order, exercises of the 6th Army were planned there. Father's rifle regiment met the beginning of the war on the outskirts of the city of Ternopil. With heavy fighting, the army retreated east towards Kiev. My father recalled that at that moment there was no support from tanks and aircraft, there were no modern weapons. The armament of the rifle regiment consisted of 2 light machine guns, 2 machine guns and rifles of the 1891 model. And with this weapon, retreating, the fighters showed heroism and courage. His father received his military award, the Order of the Red Banner, for the defeat of a Nazi column by a company near Vinnitsa. Our two armies, the 6th and 12th, in the Uman region, already practically without weapons, were surrounded in August 1941. Those who could not get out of the encirclement were captured. But in fierce battles, the enemy's advance was delayed for a long time. A few days before the complete encirclement, the father was seriously wounded and evacuated to the hospital. This is the only reason he survived, but at 24 he became disabled. Father is no longer, but the bitter memory of those 42 days of his terrible war - the medal "For the Defense of Kiev", the Order of the Red Banner and the Patriotic War - are kept in our family.