Sophia Fyodorovna Zhukova was born on October 17, 1924 in Voskresenka village, Klyavlensky district, Samara region, in a family of peasants. Her father - Fyodor Fyodorovich Zhukov, who fought with Chapaev, was an irreconcilable peasant - an individual. With a family of 6 children he ran away from the collective farms to Chelyabinsk to build a tractor factory, then to some place else, far away from the collective farms... In Buguruslan, Orenburg region, she graduated from a medical school, having received a specialty as an obstetrician. For some time she worked at a health center at a mine in the Tula region, from where in March 1943 she, a 18-year-old, was called up to the front. She took part in the battles near Leningrad, Warsaw, on the Elbe. My grandmother remembered these days in the following way: "Me and the nurses-girls, in the breaks between the marches on the cold endless mud, dreamed that the war was about to end, we will wash off the camping mud in a bath, put oil or sour cream on our feet and put them, the poor, on white feather pillows ... To rest. It was so hard for them ...". The war ended for her in November 1946, in Berlin,with demobilization in the rank of lieutenant of medical service and with awards - the Order of the Red Star, medals "For Military Merit", "For the Liberation of Warsaw," "For the capture of Berlin," etc.. In one of her letters to her front-line comrade - Peter Aleksandrovich Korotkikh - Chairman of the Veterans Council of the 311th Dvinsky Order of Suvorov Rifle Division, my mother wrote: "I am not a hero, there are no feats on my account, I did not throw myself under enemy tanks with a bunch of grenades. I was 18 years old at that time. And I think that for my age it was enough, WHAT I saw and experienced. Thousands of wounded were bandaged by my hands. I have seen so much death, so much crying over the killed....” In the award sheet to the Order of the Red Star on January 14, 1945 it is said that "During the battle of January 14-15, 1945 at the time of the Vistula River crossing, working as a paramedic at the regimental medical station to provide medical assistance to the wounded soldiers and commanders, in difficult conditions under enemy fire, Comrade Zhukova for 2 days of battle provided 67 soldiers and officers with medical assistance. At the same time, she helped the doctor in providing medical assistance to the seriously wounded. Front skill, the ability to act quickly, in an immediate environment to make the only right decision remained with her until the end of her life. Especially nice and beautiful grandmother's bandages were: postoperative or just for us, kids, who scratched their knees or elbows during the games. It was grandmother's hands - warm, careful, skilful - that were chosen by patients for intravenous "pricks" in the treatment rooms of the medical unit № 17, the regional TB dispensary in Kemerovo, where she worked. Grandmother confidently treated cough and other colds in our childhood with jars. Though through these jars we know her first front "defeat". The military doctor - Repina Alexandra Vasilyevna, with whom grandmother was friends and corresponded until the last days - once wrote: "Sonechka, dear, I remember you always. We were the closest . ...I remember how you once put jars on a soldier's back. And you left. Youth! I come to the tent in an hour, and he was still with jars! Do you remember? In general, I had to remove the jars with the skin, and he was glad to stay with us for a bit longer ...". But it was her only professional mistake. At the front she also met her only love, my grandfather - Grankin Matvey Semenovich - an operative of the Counterintelligence Department "SMERSH" 1069 of the Rifle Regiment of the 311th Rifle Division.