Maria Egorovna Karlova (worker in the rear) was born on November 28, 1931 in the village of Balakhna in the Zadonsky District of the Lipetsk Region. Parents worked on a collective farm. When the war began, Maria Egorovna was only 10 years old. She and other teenagers were actively involved in work on the collective farm: sowing millet, planting and weeding cucumbers and cabbage. Not far from the village there was a "pickling station" where cabbage was transported. The sauerkraut was sent to the front. “During the war it was very difficult, we studied in unheated rooms and the water froze in the ink from the cold. The house was heated with chicken dung. There were no clothes and shoes, they made blocks of wood, tied them to their feet, and used as boots. During the cold weather, her family was forced to keep a cow with a calf in the house in order to save the life of the cattle, which saved the family in times of hunger with milk ”- Maria Egorovna shares her memories. Her family learned about the end of the war from the chairman, who came to the village and invited everyone to a meeting at the club. Everyone started dancing, many were crying. The post-war years were lean. I had to go to the Don, collect shells, which were then used for food. They also ate orach, linden leaves, burdocks. “Every root of the apple tree was taxed. Therefore, many began to cut down apple trees. My grandfather told my mother not to touch the trees, because apples saved the family from hunger in difficult years ”- says Maria Egorovna.