BACKGROUND: Title: Krasnoflotz. Troops: Soviet Navy and Naval Forces Border Troops of the NKVD. My great grandmother, Zhila Irina Nikiforovna (maiden name - Shelkovnikova), was born in 1923 on December 10. When the war began in 1941, she was 17 years old. She, an excellent student of the 48th Borisoglebsk railway school, was among the first girl volunteers. My grandmother could not stay at home during the difficult days for the Homeland. In the training unit of the School of Communication she got a military profession - radio operator and got on one of the ships of the Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt. Thanks to them the Germans could not take Leningrad from the sea. Grandmother Ira guarded the "Road of Life", connecting the city of Kronstadt with Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov). There were many hardships: they had to endure many hours of watch in the cold under bullets and shells, they, for months, got a meagre ration, got under the bombing and lose battle friends. But Ira, as well as her friends, overcame everything, because she was defending her Homeland. 142 Borisoglebovtsa were awarded medals "For the Defense of Leningrad," and among them was my great grandmother. For her valor and bravery in the Great Patriotic War, she was awarded the Order of the Great Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, the medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". In peacetime, for each memorable date - anniversary medals. In total, grandmother had 11 war awards, some of them are kept in our local history museum. After the war, there was Kamchatka, where my great-grandmother went with her husband, a staff officer. And only in 1955 she returned to Borisoglebsk with her family, where her daughter and son were growing up. When the opportunity presented itself, grandmother got a job in the editorial office of a local newspaper as a typist. My grandmother was left with various Honorary Certificates for her conscientious work and active community service, and the Veteran of Labor medal was added to her combat awards. My grandmother passed away in 2004, when I was 4 and she was 80. Just a little she did not live to see the 60th anniversary of Victory. Now my grandmother has two adult grandsons and three growing up great-grandsons. And the memory of our veteran, our grandmother, we will carry through all generations.